paisleypiper's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- foucault and sex/gender Another day at the spam machine. Another night in class. And in between, I finished Saint Foucault. My favorite professor, who teaches the class, really works to be inclusive of all populations. But I must admit that I noticed how uncomfortable the class was with the text. The looks on their faces of shame and awkwardness. This guilt for being heterosexual, for being uncomfortable with talking about gays, lesbians or other related matter�. People who are liberal enough. Educated enough. Caring enough (at least some of them). And then, after only struggling with the text for 40 minutes, we gave up. After a particularly annoying woman said �is there any other instance in which we can look at Foucault besides homosexuality for this thing with using names and labels?� She had really struggled with the text. In small group, I read a paper that ended with a series of sentences �homosexuals think that�.� But, although I did not out myself, and serve as the source for the scoop on the impact of Foucault on gay rights and mobilization, I did not sit there with my face all red, nervous that someone would find me out. I was just glad that we read the text and rather enjoyed the moment of the grad students, dutifully trying to talk about �and not having the audacity to resist � whether there is such a thing as a person�s sex signifying anything. And then the religious studies doctoral student spoke up. She had been most uncomfortable the length of the discussion, but in the past I have found her to be open minded and intelligent, not afraid to talk about difference. She said that she learned in another class that one of the results of the recent DNA research is that there are really six or so �sexes� -- if one defines sex as the X and Y chromosome. That there is a layer beneath that that makes it possible to ascertain six or so real differences which our culture, in the way it focuses on a few features to define the sex of a person, has reduced to two. I have no idea whether or not this is true, but I really want to find out now. Besides that, I really like it when people do not live up to their stereotypes. Imagine, religious studies Ph.D. student making the point that there could be many radically different ways to think of sex/gender. That this way may be somewhat arbitrary. I cannot pretend to know what went through other people�s heads, I forgot to look at their faces in search of some indication because I was so intrigued. More later�. 11:41 p.m. - 2003-02-03 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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