4.4 Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives
Second and Third-wave feminists were also influenced by French theorists. In 1949, the French existential philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir (she/her) famously argued in The Second Sex that, “one is not born a woman, but becomes a woman.” In other words, our gender identity is not something we are born with, but it is something socially constructed and must be learned in a social context (Chapter Two).
Have you ever heard someone say that someone makes them feel like an object? In language, the subject is the one who does a thing, who has power and agency. The object is the person or thing that something is done to. For example, if a child is petting a cat, the child is the subject who has power, and the cat is the object at the mercy of the child (Figure 4.14). De Beauvoir argued that women have been socially constructed as objectified others in contrast with men, who are “default subjects.” This idea of constructed subjects and objects is another way of understanding power.
Another way of thinking about “othering” is to think about how we respond when our understanding of self is challenged. That feeling is called abjection. The French psychoanalyst Julie Kristeva (she/her) defined abjection as “Our reaction (horror, vomit) to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or between self and other” (Kristiva & Roudiez 2010). For example, when an empowered subject encounters the othered object, which they have classified as “not me,” feelings of horror or abjection can come up.
To understand how this applies to othering, think about hate crimes. Can you see how the abjection response can account for the fact that trans people are four times more likely to be the victims of violent crime (thisisloyal.com, L., 2021)? Even though the impulse behind abjection is natural, in the sense that confronting death can cause a violent physical reaction, an abject response to socially constructed differences is something we learn through socialization. The good news is that it can be unlearned when we learn to see ourselves in others.
These ideas are examples of the philosophical basis for contemporary theories of gender and sexuality that construct each person, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation, as the subject of their own experience, theorizing belonging as an antidote to othering. As you read, think about what it means to feel like you belong in social settings.
Learn More: Othering and Belonging
To learn more about othering and belonging, watch john powell’s keynote: The Mechanisms of Othering [Streaming Video].
Post Structuralism, Gender, Sexuality and Embodiment
Classic sociological theories, like conflict theory and structural functionalism, pay a lot of attention to the impacts of social constructs on individuals. A common critique of structuralism is its de-emphasis on individual power, or agency, to act within social structure. While ther