1. CULTURAL STUDIES
INTRODUCTION TO GENDER STUDIES
Presented by
Prof. Alisha Oli Mohammed,
Assistant Professor of English,
The American College,
Madurai.

2. “ONE IS NOT BORN A WOMAN, ONE BECOMES ONE.”
- SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, THE SECOND SEX

3. WOMEN’S, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY STUDIES
• It is the interdisciplinary study of sex, gender, and sexuality. Women’s, Gender, and
Sexuality Studies examines women’s lives locally and globally, focusing on how gender
intersects with other forms of difference, including race, disability, ethnicity, class, age,
and sexual orientation.
• Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies addresses such issues as:
• Political participation
• Media representation
• Ethics and responsibility
• Health, disability, and well-being
• Sexual orientation
• Against “identity politics”

4. DIF. B/W SEX AND GENDER
SEX
• referring to the biological aspects of an
individual as determined by their
anatomy, which is produced by their
chromosomes, hormones and their
interactions
• generally male or female
• something that is assigned at birth
GENDER
• a social construction relating to
behaviours and attributes based on
labels of masculinity and femininity;
• gender identity is a personal, internal
perception of oneself and so the gender
category someone identifies with may
not match the sex they were assigned at
birth
• where an individual may see themselves
as a man, a woman, as having no gender,
or as having a non-binary gender –
where people identify as somewhere on a
spectrum between man and woman

5. SEXUAL IDENTITY
• Heterosexual. People who are heterosexual are
romantically and physically attracted to members of the
opposite sex: Heterosexual males are attracted to
females, and heterosexual females are attracted to males.
Heterosexuals are sometimes called "straight."
• Homosexual. People who are homosexual are
romantically and physically attracted to people of the
same sex: Females who are attracted to other females are
lesbian; males who are attracted to other males are often
known as gay. (The term gay is sometimes used to
describe homosexual individuals of either sex.)
• Bisexual. People who are bisexual are romantically and
physically attracted to members of both sexes.
• Asexual. People who are asexual may not be interested in
sex, but they still feel emotionally close to other people.
GENDER IDENTITY
• Gender identity is how a person feels and who they
know them self to be when it comes to their gender.
There are more than two genders, even though in our
society the genders that are most recognized are male
and female (called the gender binary) and usually is
based on someone’s anatomy (the genitals they were
born with). This is gender assignment and it is based on
an assumption that someone’s genitals match their
gender. However, gender isn’t about someone’s anatomy,
it is about who they know them self to be.
• There are many different gender identities,
including male, female, transgender, gender neutral,
non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-
spirit, third gender, hermaphrodite, intersex, cross-
dressers and all, none or a combination of these. (nearly
52 genders)

6. GENDER STUDIES
• Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender
identity and gendered representation. It includes women's
studies (concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics), men's studies and queer studies.
• Its rise to prominence, especially in Western universities after 1990, has been noted as a
success of deconstructionism. Sometimes, gender studies is offered together with study
of sexuality.
• These disciplines study gender and sexuality in the fields of literature,
language, geography, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, cinema, media
studies, human development, law, public health and medicine.
• It also analyzes how race, ethnicity, location, class, nationality, and disability intersect with
the categories of gender and sexuality

7. SEXUALITY STUDIES
• Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary field that explores artistic, cultural, economic,
geographic, historical, literary, political, psychological and social aspects of sexuality. Our
program examines sexuality in transnational contexts and investigates intersections of
sexuality with ability, age, class, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, health, nationality, race
and religion.
• You will learn alternative ways of organizing sexualities and alternatives to sexuality, in
the past, present and future, as well as explore and gain a comprehensive understanding of
sexual:
• desires
• acts
• identities
• communities
• movements

8. ACADEMIC STUDIES
• Gender Studies
• Masculinity Studies
• Feminism
• Sexuality Studies (LGBTQ+)
• Lesbian Studies
• Gay Studies
• Transgender Studies
• Queer Studies

9. QUEER THEORY
• In Modern Period, Queer theory is considered to be a branch of Post-structuralism theory
that emerged in the early 1990 which includes both queer reading of the texts and the
theorization of ‘queerness’ itself.
• Queer theory is a multi layered and rather complex field of study. Queer is a slang for
homosexual and worse, used for homophobic abuse. Recently, this term has been used as an
umbrella term for a coalition of sexual identities that are culturally marginalised and at
other times, to create discourses surrounding the budding theoretical model that primarily
arouse through more traditional queer studies included ‘LGBT’.
In Annamarie Jagose's Queer Theory: An Introduction: “Queer theory focuses on the “mismatches” between
sex, gender and desire which prominently associates with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT).
Unknown to many, Queer is in association with more than ‘LGBT’ like Cross-dressing, Inter-sex,
Hermaphrodites, gender ambiguity and gender-corrective surgery”. (Page No.45)

10. • Annamarie Jagose - Heteronormative - anything for progeny (for offsprings)
• Judith Butler – Gender as Performative act
• Queerness has been associated most prominently with bisexual, lesbian and gay
subjects, but its analytic framework also includes such topics as cross-dressing,
intersex bodies and identities, gender ambiguity and gender-confirmation surgery.
• Queer theory holds that individual sexuality is a fluid, fragmented, and dynamic
collectivity of possible sexualities and it may vary at different points during one's
life.