The Politics of Gender

In recent years, opposition to “gender ideology” has become a rallying cry for the Right.  Politicians throughout the world have invoked the dangers of “gender” to restrict access to abortion, revoke LGBTQ rights, police education, and defend national sovereignty.  And yet at the same time, the term “gender” has become standard in everyday speech—a box to check on a passport application or on a form at the doctor’s office.  When did the word “gender” become a political controversy?  When did the idea of a “gender ideology” first emerge?  The goal of this seminar is to explore different scholarly and political articulations of gender in order to understand why this concept appears so threatening today.  We will read some of the “classic” accounts of gender (Lévi-Strauss, Rubin, Wittig, Butler, Foucault, Scott…) before turning to recent critical works across various disciplines (history, anthropology, literature, political theory, history of science, and psychoanalysis).  Preference will be given to graduate students but advanced undergraduates working on these questions can also apply.