Sarra Ben Ghorbal

WGSS 2000
Midterm
Prof. Espinoza
Fall 2020

Part one:

1.Intersectionality: How would you apply a framework of intersectionality to

understanding the essay, “Queering Black Female Heterosexuality” by Kimberly Springer?

In your response, be sure to discuss the specific forms of oppression and privilege as well as

the complexities of these ideas in the experiences of Black women. Cite at least one other

course reading.

Intersectionality is a term introduced by Kimberly Crenshaw in 1989. It is a frame work

to depict lens systems of power and oppressions (like class, gender, race) how they intersect,

collide, accumulate and interact. Intersectionality detect the overlooked systems of oppressions

when gender, race and class intersect, for instance in the experience of black and Queer women.

In her essay, “Queering Black Female Heterosexuality” by Kimberly Springer looks at

intersectionality from a queer perspective. She suggests that the queer theory could become more

inclusive by taking into account the multiple layers of oppressions and difference in experiences

among different race, ethnicity, ands class. Intersectionality applied in queer theory applied as an

identity depict privilege and oppression because “those of us with identity privilege would have

a harder time including in our feminism those who are oppressed because“ Privilege conceals

itself from those who have it, and it’s a lot easier to focus on the ways that we are marginalized

or oppressed” (Uwujaren, 2015). She also talks about problems of black female sexuality
representations. Images of Black women have been depicting dangerous serotypes and

transmitting harmful ideas about black women body and sexuality. From Saphire, the angry bad

woman, the oversexualized Jezebel to the asexual “good mammy”, damaged stereotypes coming

from racist, colonist ideologies dating since slavery then Jim Crew periods but are still

transmitted today in Rap culture and in medias. The intersection of gender, class, and sexuality

with colonialism and histories of racism has always been shaping the “sexual agency” and public

representation of women of color in many different ways. Although jezebel myth of the black

women with an extreme sexual appetite was originated from slavery “persistent racial and

economic segregation required the jezebel image Perpetuating the myth of black women as

hypersexual served to set white women on a pedestal and excuse white men's rape of black

women” (Springer, 2008). Jezebel stereotype is an example of a persistence harmful image, still

used to explain the oversexualization and objectification of black women’s body and sexuality.

The author attempts to bring intersectional perspective to queering black female

heterosexuality while considering queerness as identity and not as a political position. She

explains: “queer theory largely ignores questions of race and class when those categories in

particular are the straw men against which marginalization is defined constructed, and

maintained Queer theory isn't just for queers anymore” … “queering black female sexuality

means listening to transformative things that have already been said about black sexuality. Black

lesbians and gay men have something to tell straight black women about sexuality if we care to

listen” (Springer, 2008). The intersection of racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism played a

historical role in shaping black women sexuality, body autonomy, and body image. She adds

“Our butts are in vogue, we're nastier than white women in the bedroom, we're wilder than Asian

women-all stereotypes de rived in a male fantasy land of "jungle" porn and no- strings attached
personal ads. A queer black female heterosexuality isn't about being a freak in the bed room; it's

about being a sexual person whose wants” (Springer, 2008). Black women being slave, then

segregated facing class and racial oppression while at the being subject of gender oppression as

women and queer, were represented in deviant ways, enforced by traumatic experiences of

violence, slavery, criminalization and victimization.

3. Gender & Sexual Diversity: We have completed readings that demonstrate that the

gender binary is not a given in all cultures and that sexualities are fluid. What can we learn

from non-Western cultures about gender and sexual variance? Why do you think Western

society has continued to uphold a set of norms that are oppressive for those outside the

norm? Cite at least two readings in your response.

Gender and sexuality are socially constructed and through times, cultures and populations

gender and sexuality have been varied and fluid in an astonishing way. For instance, gender

binary, a concept seen today in modern western society as defining the “normal” and the

“natural” wasn’t always given through cultures and time. According to Charlie McNabb,

“Nonbinary Gender Identities: History, Culture, Resources, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers”

““Binary gender” refers to the idea that there are only two genders, male and female” (McNabb,

2017).

James Joseph Dean in his book Straight Men and Women, explains how the social

construction of straight identity has known deep radical changes over the last 150 years. Going

back to the Victorian era Dean shows how “heterosexual identity did not exist in the United

States among White middle-class Americans. Rather, the social organization of sex was based on

nations of a true manhood a we woman hood and spiritual love”. For that era, the division was

centered around marriage vs. non marriage sexual relationship. Manhood, womanhood and
sexuality were centered around the concept of marriage and not love, desire or sexuality,

“Basically sex was an instinct aimed at reproduction, not the basis of an identity” (Dean, Straight

Men and Women). Sex, sexuality, and gender have continued to change through history and

society changes the construction of sex and gender has always changed.

Gender and sexuality have been also diverse through cultures and populations. As Charlie

McNabb explains:

“nonbinary gender is not new. Nor is it a Western invention. Many cultures traditionally

recognize three or more genders, In the late nineteenth century, European and American

anthropologists were fascinated by gender variance in First Nations and Native

American communities, and produced a great deal of literature on what they called

the “berdache.”” (McNabb, 2017).

Non binary gender people, called two spirit by native American communities were a normal in

native the native American culture, many of them go through different gender roles in their lives

and express their sexuality in fluid and free manner.

However, through colonization of the land, cultures and with violence, western

cavillation has continued to uphold a set of norms that are oppressive for those outside the norm.

First western colonization to indigenous people and lands was through extreme violence, killing

launching, rape etc. Assimilation to the western-Christian ways of life was forced through

initialized violence like boarding schools, and through social and cultural mean like propaganda

and demonization of the “alien” other. One way to demonize native culture and population was

through dehumanize their sexual behavior and their gender roles, considering it as sinful or

savage. It is because of the dominance position that the western culture has toward native culture
that their gander and sexuality were dehumanized and that reinforced the binary non fluid model

as the normal by contrast to the other “savage’s” sexuality and gender identity.

Part Two: Relationship Identification’s (30 pts, about 2-3 pages of writing) Please list a, b,

and c, for each of the responses. a) Briefly define all six terms listed in the box below. Be

sure that your definitions are rooted in a course reading, PowerPoint, or lecture. Include

the date of the ppt or lecture, or the author and page number of the reading. (12 pts)

1. Sex: Refers to identification of biological & physiological features (Chromosomes, hormones,

Internal sex structures, gonads, and external genitalia) of the body that are then categorized

into male and female (9/14/20).

2. Gender: is the differentiation of human beings into the category’s “man” and “woman”;

increasingly there is a recognition that gender includes non-binary and other designation

beyond the two categories, including agender (9/14/20).

a. “Gender Is a Performance: These supposed masculine and feminine behaviors

include such things as conversational style, clothing choice, emotional and mental

intelligence, skills, desires, and orientation to the world” (McNabb, 2017).

3. Sexuality: Feelings of sexual attraction and desire. It is the physical, psychological, and

affective dimensions. Cisgender men and women often presumed as the norm that defines

heterosexuality while transgender men and women may identify as heterosexual

(9/28/20).

4. Cis gender: a person whose gender identity aligns with their assigned sex (9/14/20).

5. Trans gender: A person with a gender that is different from their assigned sex.

Transgender includes those with gender identities as a man/boy or woman/girl, but also
 may encompass a broader range of differences from assigned sex including non-binary,

gender queer, gender fluid, agender (9/21/20)

6. Non binary: “many people (both cisgender and trans) do identify as binary male or

female, some people identify as a different gender. Because nonbinary people identify as

a different gender than the one, they were as-signed at birth, they are included under the

trans umbrella” (Macnab, 2017).

April Callis, in her article “Beyond By”, defines “ "binary" versus "non-binary," based on

their self-described sexual identities. Individuals that labeled as gay, lesbian, or straight

would be categorized as binary, while everyone else would be non-binary - simple

enough”.

b) Pick five terms in the box that are most closely related, and explain the relationship

between these terms in 1-2 pages. Be specific about how they relate to each other and why

they are key terms in an Intro to WGSS class. (15 pts)

Gender, sex, sexuality, cisgender and transgender are the term I choose to talk about. Gender and

sex are two related term. In fact, most people use them interchangeably which isn’t accurate.

While sex is mainly about identification of biological & physiological features like organs and

hormones, gender is a social construction. Gender isn’t linked to biological feature but it is a more a

social performance such as attitudes, behaviors, manners clothing choice, emotional states, desires,

and orientations. Certain gender roles and performances are associated to certain sex. For

instance, a baby with female sexual biological feature is conventionally associated to become a

woman, to perform her role as a woman according to her society, such as to love red and pink

color, to love to dance, to be soft, cute and to love dolls. In my culture, girls and women are even
supposed to be better in languages and arts, and not good in hard sciences. Females, in many

societies are also supposed to perform their role and responsibility as women by producing off

springs, breastfeeding them, doing the emotional and physical care work. Most of the examples I

sited, are conventional gender roles associated to female, gender performances associated to

males are for example being the breadwinner, being assertive, string, and virile, marked by

strength or force. Gender roles and gender behaviors also implies in their conventional (western)

definition, conventional sexual behavior and attitudes. Obviously in this frame work, men are

supposed to be attracted to women and vis versa. Sexual and physical attraction is what makes

up sexuality. While those with gender identity aligns with their assigned biological sex are called

cisgender, other who their biological sexual features do not match their gender expectations in their

society are called transgender. “Transgender includes those with gender identities as a man/boy or

woman/girl, but also encompass a broader range of differences from assigned sex including non-

binary, gender queer, gender fluid, agender” (9/21/20). Transgender is a broad term, that

constitutes an umbrella that encompasses a range of differences in identities, performances and

sexualities through a wide spectrum.

The terms I chose are strongly related, but it is also crucial to identify their uniqueness and to

distinguish between them because they constitute the person’s gender identity, gender

expression, sex, and sexual orientation. Recognizing their interrelation but also distinguish them

from each other’s doesn’t only help us how the dynamic of sex, gender and sexuality works in

society and through different cultures and historically but also teaches us acceptance,

understanding and compassion not only toward others but towards ourselves.

c) Justify the exclusion of the sixth term. Discuss why this term is different from the other

terms, but how it may be related. (3 pts).

I haven’t included non-binary with the terms, because non binary is a special term that has a

distinguished definition. Non binary is anything outside of the binary division of gender. While

being a straight man, woman, or gay and lesbian engender certain gender performances and

sexual orientations, being non-binary is mainly about fluidity. Non binary is about change and

fluidity not only through cultures and societies but within the life span of the individual.