Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Miriam Gutekunst
(Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich)
Alexandra Rau (LMU Munich)
Begonya Enguix Grau (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, UOC)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Intersectionalities
- Location:
- B2.33
- Sessions:
- Friday 9 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Prague
Short Abstract:
Gender as a social category has become increasingly uncertain. This gender uncertainty is the result of and produces different affects. In this panel we aim to explore how different social movements negotiate these entanglements of gender and affects and how they shape their political action.
Long Abstract:
Gender as a classificatory social category has become increasingly uncertain during the last years. At the same time gender is a key category in almost all social movements; for Ahmed (2021) it is the map of the moment. However, it is stuck to different political and affective strategies.
Presumed certainties - like the gender binary, fixed ideas about masculinity and femininity, traditional gender roles and gendered labour and reproductive division - are challenged and contested, on a normative level as well as on the level of lived experience. This gender uncertainty is the result of and produces different affects: anger, anxiety, shame, guilt, inferiority but also joy and confidence are some of the affects mobilized. The entanglement of gender and affects leads to very different partly contradictory politics or even hinders the formation of a political subject. While for some political actors - like the far right - this uncertainty calls for a return to old gender concepts, values and orders, for others - like queer, feminist and LGBTIQ+ movements - this uncertainty stands for progress, empowerment and justice.
We welcome contributions related to the following questions:
How does uncertainty shape the different configurations of gender in current social movements from the far right to the radical left?
Which affects appear related to gender uncertainty, how do they affect mobilization for political action or even lead to silence?
What kind of connections and alliances, but also conflicts and frictions between social movements do we find along such gendered affects?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 9 June, 2023, -Henrike Kraul (Freie Universität Berlin)
Paper short abstract:
This contribution is based on an ethnographic study on the transphobic activism of a women’s collective. It shows how trans-exclusionary politics is driven both by the struggle for certainty about the meaning of womanhood and by affective responses to times of uncertainty.
Paper long abstract:
Whilst the challenging of fixed ideas of gender is supported and facilitated by most feminist movements, the gender-critical movement, a self-proclaimed strand of radical feminism, advocates for the necessity to understand gender as biological, binary and determined at birth.
In this contribution, I will show how the gender-critical movement and its trans-exclusionary activism is both mobilising and mobilised through the affective constitution of gender certainties in times of uncertainty. Based on ethnographic research in a trans-exclusionary women’s collective in Manchester, UK, I will discuss how affective experiences underlie the conceptualisation of womanhood as existing only for cisgender women’s bodies. I will show how this definition of womanhood is created by a pursuit of certainty in light of changing understandings of gender, and how it creates affective boundaries around both the female subject and the feminist subject. Shared affective experiences of vulnerability, fear and anger, further feelings of belonging amongst members of the collective whilst propelling their trans-exclusionary activism and fostering the formation of political alliances with transphobic groups of the far right.
Ultimately, I will argue that the current surge of trans-exclusionary politics is driven by the struggle for certainty about the definition and meaning of womanhood, and that it is the affective response to times of uncertainty that make exclusionary politics so pervasive.
Konstanze N'Guessan (Mainz University)
Paper short abstract:
Building on ethnographic fieldwork among far right internet activists in Germany, my paper will look at different facets of the memefication of uncertainty in the debate about trans rights. I will specifically focus on post-digital modes of memetic communication and on humor in community making.
Paper long abstract:
In 2022 Matt Walsh's documentary "What is a woman?" was discussed vividly among far right internet activists in Germany. The question "what is a woman?" quickly turned into a meme expressing how far a supposedly "LGBTQ+ agenda" had pushed the boundaries of certainty. A little later, Bijan Tavassoli - member of the German party "Die Linke" - carried the question to the extremes when he posted his candidature as bearded woman and "transmuslima" in an attempt to troll trans rights activists with their own weapons. Building on ethnographic fieldwork among far right internet activists in Germany, my paper will look at different facets of the memefication of uncertainty in the debate about trans rights. I will specifically focus on post-digital modes of memetic communication and on humor in order to forge communities and deal with what was pereceived as the threatening uncertainty of contemporary gender debates.
Alexandre Pichel-Vázquez (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Paper short abstract:
Gender has become a visible category for both the right and the left: it is an affective category politically contested. Based on fieldwork in feminist and far-right (counter)demonstrations in Barcelona, this paper aims to explore the affective productions of gender in the political clash.
Paper long abstract:
Over the past few years, far-right parties have increased their influence in Europe. Within this political growth, gender (politics/discourse/ideology) has been a fundamental element. Whether in their manifestos, populist construction of society, or political activation and mobilization, gender is always present. This growth has made far-right research a hot topic in most fields of social science. However, this “new” academic interest in the far right has not led yet to a significant growth of in-depth research with extensive fieldwork.
Simultaneously, feminist mobilization has experienced unparalleled growth. Gender has become a visible category for both the right and the left. The “recovery” of affect in social analysis has helped to comprehend the relevance of gender in current politics. In this way, gender is an affective category contested from different ideological stands.
Based on fieldwork in feminist and far-right (counter)demonstrations in Barcelona, this paper aims to explore the affective productions of gender in the political clash. The analysis of gender and its affective productions in political clashes from within (both in the feminist and far-right sectors) shows us how in the face of similar situations of confrontation (street encounters with political rivals) and common affective bases (displays of courage and solidarity), the resulting affective mobilizations are completely mediated by gender politics: on the one hand, the expression of national “heroism” for the far right and, on the other hand, of “mutual aid” for feminism.
Yuliia Andriichuk (Adam Mickiewicz University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper discusses how Polish contemporary rural women's movements compromise between their own values and the approach to tradition and gender framework set by the official authorities that finance their activities
Paper long abstract:
In the majority of rural areas in Poland, cultural animation and grassroots social support spheres are managed by Rural Housewives' Clubs, a form of women's association characteristic of non-urban areas. The ideological and pragmatic foundations of Clubs, strongly associated with the idea of restructuring and modernization of villages, were modified along with changes in the political and economic landscape. In the early 2000s, most of the Clubs operated as an informal social movement, covering the organizational costs from membership fees without significant external incomes, and decided to register the legal entity only after the new law introduced the possibility of applying for state funding. Most dedicated competitions organized by state institutions focus on cooking and folk, cultivating a broadly understood tradition that perpetuates stereotypes about women and gender in general. Despite the fact that portfolios of the most engaged circles had long exceeded the limits set by the Clubs' formula - including the limitation regarding the gender of the people involved, Clubs are still considered the cradle of traditionally performed femininity and labour division. The goal of this paper is to highlight how previously grassroots-like Clubs are forced to maneuver between the gender-imposed development trajectory suggested by state agencies & local authorities and the implementation of their own plan for social and cultural activities. The key feature of this process is negotiating within conditioned by tradition and supported by the government image of moderately passive femininity and involved position within almost-NGO association.
Agnieszka Balcerzak (LMU Munich)
Paper short abstract:
The paper investigates the entanglements of female political aesthetics, reproductive rights and the political by exploring the 2022 exhibition “Who Will Write the History of Tears. Artists on Women’s Rights” at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
Paper long abstract:
Tabooed, stigmatized or prohibited: For decades a debate has raged over abortion. Especially today, in times of rising populism, anti-genderism and religious fundamentalism, the battle for reproductive rights is being waged all over the world and the contested approach to abortion serves as a seismograph for transformations underway in contemporary societies. In 2022, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw hosted "Who Will Write the History of Tears", an exhibition articulating new and transformative relationships between female aesthetics, reproductive rights and repressive laws. The architecture of the exhibition and the presented works underlined the arduous process of women’s pursuit of their rights, especially from Argentina, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United States, countries that have become the site of mass protests and heated public debate. The exclusively female artists refer to real stories and affects such as anger, and include in their aesthetic expressions a broad spectrum of visual and poetic references, images and symbols, conveying the complexity of experiencing pregnancy and abortion. Drawing on theoretical approaches to politics of aesthetics, movement framing, and affects as practice, the paper explores the relationship between art (exhibition), reproduction and the political within the framework of a transnational feminist pro-choice movement. The paper situates the artistic contributions within the (trans)forming feminist legal discourse on reproduction by analyzing the female works as (1) articulations of new subjectivities within the prevailing legal orders and their authors as potential idea generators of new dissensual legal orders, (2) tools of affective woman-centred productive power, and (3) expressions of gendered solidarity for reproductive justice and their implications for feminist mobilizations in times of uncertainty and risk.
Binh Trinh (Independent Scholar)
Paper short abstract:
The idea of ethical citizenship is not only associated with the logic of self-government but also derived from the feminised labour and identity embedded in Vietnam’s socialist and patriarchal culture. The paper discusses the symbolic values of women’s sacrifice when working in the NGO sector.
Paper long abstract:
The form of ethical citizenship presented by this paper is associated with the governmental techniques used by the socialist state in Vietnam as it promotes market liberalisation for the maximisation of welfare. The morality of self-government and optimization is cast as ethical and correct conduct from which people extract a sense of self-worth and a role in society. For Vietnamese women who traditionally rely on the socialist state for the assurance of rights and empowerment, morality is also derived from the idea of femininity and reproductive labour that is continually promoted by the socialist state as it reduces state welfare programmes. Thus, the idea of ethical citizenship, while it is associated with the logic of self-government, is also derived from the feminised labour and identity that are embedded in the socialist and Vietnamese collectivist culture. Drawing from my research into the life history of Vietnamese women working in non-governmental organisations (NGOs), this paper looks at women’s choices to work in the NGO sector, consumption and wealth sacrifice to reveal the symbolic and moral values of women’s sacrifice and giving for the collective welfare. It shows that morality, while accentuating the women’s prestige, also reproduces their inferiority as per the cultural and gender norms approved by the state coupled with the pressures of competition produced by the process of marketisation and privatization in Vietnam. This paper presents one of the main themes of my PhD research on personhood and civil society and is drawn from an analysis of women’s narratives and life histories regarding working in the NGO sector, taken from fieldwork I conducted in Hanoi in 2016 and 2017