Gender and Sexualities: An Inquiry

Introduction— Gender and Sexualities: An Inquiry We created Gender and Sexualities: An Inquiry to accompany UNST 231 Sophomore Inquiry: Gender and Sexualities course at Portland State University. This project is funded through the Provost’s Challenge ReTHINK Portland State University Initiative. As writers, editors, learners and teachers, we are committed to facilitating student access to low-cost, shareable academic work. We created a document that can be appreciated by all students who desire an intellectual inquiry into gender and sexuality studies. Sophomore Inquiry courses at Portland State University encourage students to build communication skills, refine individual and group presentational methods, and hone writing and research techniques. Sophomore Inquiry course also present an opportunity to explore academic topics different from, yet complementary to, a major course of study. The readings and topics herein sample the broad, interdisciplinary field of gender and sexuality studies. This field should not be considered a monolithic or even strictly disciplinary one. We endeavor to contextualize but not isolate these studies into a single disciplinary frame. In selecting these readings and by providing introductory reader notes, key terms, and key questions to consider, we emphasize the diversity of human experience, offer models of critical thinking, and provide a template to consider the various issues of ethical and social responsibility within the field of gender and sexuality studies. Gender and Sexualities: An Inquiry provides an interdisciplinary and intersectional framework for thinking critically about the historical and contemporary applications of knowledge about gender and sexuality. This may be straightforward in some arenas, but we will find navigating gender and sexuality terminologies (e.g., sexual orientation, what constitutes “sex” in particular places and times, sexual identity, gender and gender identity, among many other discussions) to be a rigorous historical, personal, political, philosophical, and anthropological study (to name just a few of the intellectual traditions we encounter). Throughout we encourage readers to interrogate social ideals and other narratives that aim to “naturalize” gender and sexuality. IN other words, we will address gender and sexual identities and practices and meaning as historical, cultural, and political phenomena. We will question whether contemporary categories infer that bodily practices, pleasures, and knowledge are permanently tethered to universal, trans- historical ideals and thought. We will investigate the intersectional contexts where sexualities and genders take shape and provide. Finally, throughout readers and students should begin to understand the rich and deep efforts of gender and sexuality based social movements and thought and appreciate the ethical significances of various claims about gender and sexuality. Chapter 1 explores the foundational feminist concept, the “personal is political” and the way this idea shaped and continues to shape our theoretical understanding of lives affected by public, political, structured realities. This Chapter also explores the ways we allow ourselves to communicate this knowledge. Chapter 2 further interrogates disciplinary and scientific knowledge about the body and its processes. The readings offer a way to both embrace scientific epistemologies while encouraging us to remain vigilant in illuminating the social and cultural assumptions that also construct this knowledge. So, when making intellectual inquiry into gender and sexuality we must