17 February 2009 ANTH 324 Culture, Sexuality, and the Body. READ: Brettell and Sargent pp ; Mascia-Lees and Black chapter 8 “The Reflexive Approach

Question: How are bodily experiences (sexuality, menstruation, body shape) linked to gender? Do any of the readings particularly stand out for making an argument that bodily experience is strongly linked to gender identity?

Theory: how it works, why it is important e.g. if you wanted to study gendered clothing fashion, what key question would each major theory type we have looked at probably (or at least possibly) ask?

- evolution - (specific e.g. sociobiology): How do men’s fashion choices allow them to signal their suitability as sexual partners in order to attract the most women? How do women’s fashion choices signal their suitability as potentially successful bearers of offspring?

-psychological orientation - How are children reared to learn to express their gendered personalities through their clothing choices? How is clothing used to signal gendered behaviour?

- materialist orientation - How are gendered fashions produced? Who produces them? Who benefits from the profits? How are people induced to pay to support a fashion clothing industry? Are there differences in cost between similar clothing items for men and women?

- structuralist approaches - How are conceptual binaries reflected in gendered fashions? What are these binaries? (Such as, perhaps, male/female; modest/immodest; rich/poor; etc.) What can we infer about gender roles and relations from the binaries?

- discourse analysis - What do style columnists or fashion sellers say about the fashions? What can we infer about gender roles and relations from this discourse?

The reflexive approach - an attempt to destabilize the privileged position of Western knowledge - involves, therefore, a critique of the anthropologist’s own position in carrying out research - rejects possibility of objectivity, although may accept that there are more politically appropriate ways of interpreting the world. - Mascia-Lees and Black tend to see representation and discourse as important, although this actually varies with the theory of the feminist anthropologist - they conclude that while we may wish to critique the assumptions that anthropological (including feminist) inquiry has used, there may still be advantages in using adapted concepts

Abu-Lughod - symbolic analysis: -possible question to ask to critique this approach: do symbols represent reality? - she argues that the evidence about women’s role in weddings in the past reflects equality between men and women. Do you agree? Is her evidence convincing? - note her insistence on the wide range of Muslim sexualities

Gottlieb - symbolic analysis - insistence on the range of ways in which menstruation may be understood cross- culturally - what are your culture’s notions of menstruation? Why do these ideas exist? Could menstruation be a source of power in your society? How or under what conditions?

Reddy and Nanda - a behaviourist approach (personality, deriving from psychological approaches) - possible question to ask to critique this approach: is how a category of people behaves reflective of the important roles and relations in a society? - how do sexuality and gender relate? Does a non- heterosexual sexuality necessarily imply a different gender role? How do biological sex and sexuality relate?

Urla and Swedlund - a cultural studies approach (i.e. “reads” the symbols in Barbie; links this to the organization of material life (capitalism) - possible question to ask to critique this approach: do the messages intended in the construction of the doll, or readable in her form necessarily the ones people receive? - how does your society view Barbie (and Ken)? -do these dolls affect how people view and try to shape their own bodies? -Next; course websiteNextcourse website