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ebock's picture

gender stereotypes

Submitted by ebock on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 7:18pm.

I was intrigued by one of the group's suggestion that we shouldn't necessarily be thinking about destroying categories but removing the stigmas or value differences between categories. That made me think about the theorist Riki Wilchins that I mentioned earlier. A huge part of her claim in her book "Queer Theory/Gender Theory" is that a lot of gay/lesbian/trans/queer issues are rooted in gender stereotypes. So - like the group in class suggested - categories can still be useful especially without counterproductive stereotypes that create unfair expectations of particular categories. If you think about it, in many cases of discrimination or injustice, a stereotype or misconception is often a key factor in the fear/anger that motivates a hurtful action or behavior.

Thoughts? Is this a good place to start? Not a good place? How do we think gender stereotypes interact with categories?

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