Troubling Gender. Anthropological Perspectives on Gender Politics in/of Europe (original) (raw)
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Queer and Feminist Studies in Eastern Europe Proceedings
Feminist Critique, 2021
A Note from the Guest Editors With this special issue, we are preparing the path, and looking into topics such as: nationalisms and masculinities in the recent history of Georgia analyzed in Aia Beraia’s article; how “Western” cultural hegemony functions with regards to feminism and the various ways to critically interact with it (Vanya Solovey’s contribution); the relation between “intersectionality” and racism in Greek LGBTQ+ activists’ discourses explored by Anna Carastathis; Myrto Tsilimpounidi’s research on the possibilities of queering (post-socialist) spaces, an analysis centered on Bratislava; the legislative and social obstacles that Hungarian LGBTQ families face within the heteronormative framework of the state (Rita Béres-Deák). The conference and the proceedings have brought forth several relevant topics which form the fundamental basis of queer CEE and SEE research, or research-fused activism. Thus, the “West” is acknowledged as an epistemological and political category still relevant 30-plus years after the symbolical fall of the Berlin Wall, and one with particular relevance to queer research inthe “East”. While much of the understanding of gender and sexuality topics in the “East” has been constructed on the basis of “Western” understanding of those similar words and ideas, there is a polyphony of contexts and experiences within various nation-states or regions in the CEE and SEE which demand critical questioning of this “Western”-based buildup of notions. There are ever more intricate relationships between nationalism, national and ethnical identities, religion and history in the “East”, with intersections of imperialisms that need their own tools of understanding and their own methodology – and this was and continues to be one of the aims and purposes of QueerFemSEE. When Aia Beraia writes about “Hegemony in Post-Soviet Georgia: Types of Nationalisms and Masculinities”, post-imperialist relationships with Russia and a relationship with the Western gaze surface. We do recognize types of masculinities and political affirmations of gender that are quite specific and regional, and can be extended even as far as Central Europe when we now try to understand the formation of anti-“Western”, pro-tradition, neo-nationalist governments in countries as different as Poland, Hungary or Slovenia, or the perpetuity of such governments under different political parties in Romania, for instance. Vanya Solovey’s article, “Whose Feminism? Feminist Movements in Russia and “Western” Cultural Hegemony”, critiques the perceived servitude of Russian feminism to “Western” feminism. In order to take a first step in the unlearning of “Western” feminism, Solovey’s article is published in Russian. This does limit our access to the knowledge in the article, but, at the same time, nuances an important idea: there are many local-specific meanings and histories that may function as an alternative foundation to different, non-western- centric feminisms, which deny western access. We are thus left to question the cliché that, similarly, other CEE and SEE feminist practices are but a shadow or copy of a Western model. Anna Carastathis’s article, “Racism” versus “Intersectionality”? Significations of Interwoven Oppressions in Greek LGBTQ+ Discourses” delves into the analysis of how the term “racism” is used in queer Greek discourses to also mean “homophobia”, so as an almost umbrella term for struggles based on considerations of race, ethnicity, citizenship as well as on considerations of gender identity and sexuality. Carastathis’s text offers us an example of how local-specificity meets intersectional discourses, and how certain vocabularies of the oppressed are built and exist outside specific Western terminologies. From a Romanian activism and language standpoint, the vocabulary of oppressions is quite specific and does not overlap meaning, for instance, while both racism and homophobia intersect in the activism and literature of queer Roma persons. Myrto Tsilimpounidi’s contribution, “Queering Bratislava: On Borders, Otherness and Public Space”, describes the author’s arrival and effort to understand a city they had never visited before: a post-socialist capital city, located in the center of Europe, yet somehow invisible. The author encountered Bratislava in the “refugee summer” of 2015, when the city was still recovering from the (older) financial crisis of 2008. How does queer thought engage a city made of fragments and references – to its post-communist past, to present day alienations – while equally referencing queer visibility in this type of public space? Such questions, and Tsilimpounidi’s non-linear attempt at researching them, are applicable to any post-communist large city in the CEE and SEE, with its different and parallel sets of positionalities. Finally, Rita Béres-Deák writes about “Same-sex Parenting Practices in Hungary as an Assertion of Intimate Citizenship”. The author clarifies from the beginning that, while the sexual/intimate citizenship of LGBTQ persons is often discussed in North-American scholarship, not much focus is set on parenthood. Béres-Deák’s six years study on same-sex couples raising children in Hungary represents a much needed contribution to the literature on parenting and intimate citizenship from a Central European point of view. The lack of parental rights recognition as a social parent, the struggles and activism in Hungary make us think about the nuances that intimate citizenship and parenthood have in countries without positive same-sex legislation, thus reframing ideas of family and kinship.
The text analyzes some aspects of the recent "war on gender" in Poland. I propose to interpret this trend as a transnational rather than local phenomenon. Moreover, while the notion of "gender" has gained momentum in the Polish context, and in some other countries, only recently, the moral panic around sexual education in schools, LGBT rights and paedophilia has a long history, so the current trend should be interpreted as yet another phase in a long-term process rather than as something entirely new. Consequently, I critically assess the notion of “backlash” as an explanatory framework and conclude with some preliminary remarks regarding the consequences that the war on gender may have for women's empowerment and feminist strategising in the region and beyond.
Queering Europe: Anthropological Perspectives in Conversation. A Text Collage
Berliner Blätter, 2023
Starting from a fishbowl discussion, which has taken place at the conference, this paper discusses what can be gained from thinking across genderqueer theories and anthropological Europeanization research. It argues that thinking queerly includes a skepticism toward identitarian and normative understandings of Europe, as well as an ethnographic attention being paid to that which emerges in the gaps and cracks of Europeanization. The ways in which institutions working in the name of Europe generate heterogeneous experiences resulting in unequal and differentially distributed, multiple Europes are also key. »Queering Europe« oscillates between an emphasis on the central role of the sexual and the gendered in imaginations of Europe and destabilizing notions of Europe in a more general sense; as such, it is closely related to post-/decolonial approaches. This analytical move has three dimensions to it: First, queering Europe aims at deconstructing hegemonic imaginaries of the continent. Second, it makes visible the pluralistic and fragmented nature of Europe(s) and the ambivalent and sometimes unforeseen consequences that processes of Europeanization are accompanied by. Third, queering Europe can be envisioned as a way of imagining and thinking about Europe through a »critical utopianism« (Mbembe 2019) that puts solidarity center stage. Ethnography informed by decolonial critiques as well as by proposals for queering methodologies constitutes our chosen epistemological tool regarding investigating queering Europe as a mode of knowledge production and political vision.
EURR 4202/5202 HIST 5212 History and Politics of Gender in Modern Eastern Europe
Throughout the course, students will critically examine sources and literature for some of the crucial issues that marked the gender history of Eastern Europe in the 20 th century. We will observe gender history from a transnational perspective, bringing together different regions and exploring the topics such as the interwar feminist movements, the Second World War and its impacts, the communist revolutions and gender policies, queer cultures, the collapse of socialism and post-socialist gender policies. The focus will be on the movement of ideas and people, asking questions about how gender informed broader policies and social interventions, but also how understandings about gender and sexuality were changing during the 20 th Century. By investigating these far-reaching questions, we will try to uncover the lives of ordinary people discussing their agency and the shared gendered experiences across the region.
Can We Fight Together? Contentions of Gender-Queer Scholarship and Activism in Southeast Europe
Berliner Blätter, 2023
with Čarna Brković, Linda Gusia, Nita Luci, Diana Manesi and Jovan Džoli Ulićević This is a polyvocal paper exploring some of the debates which have shaped gender-queer scholarship and activism in Southeast Europe (SEE). Discussing four key themes-authors' backgrounds, situatedness in theory, understandings of Europe and notions of belonging (›we-ness‹)-the authors paint a picture of gender-queer scholarship and activism in SEE as a fragmented intellectual landscape fraught with multiple struggles and points of contention. The paper offers an overview of two key axes of contention. One has been the differential and racialized distribution of claims to progress, civilization or Europeanness within the SEE region. Another point of contention is the question of whether it is possible to articulate a joint struggle for social justice which would bring together the concern for the problems caused by unjust economic redistribution with those induced by unjust patterns of cultural recognition. With its theoretically nuanced reflections regionally situated within SEE, the paper also raises the question of what gender-queer scholars and activists in SEE are revealing about progressive politics beyond the Area Studies framework.
Anti-gender actors in East-Central Europe (ECE) too claim that gender is an ideological colonization. In this article, in contrasting these accusations with actually existing power relations of the global and European gender architecture, I discuss whether they are – at least to some extent – based on social realities. Neither anti-gender campaigns nor the rise of illiberal forces are ECE phenomena per se and should not be treated as such. However, the relevance of the geopolitical embeddedness of gender equality policies, of gender studies and of feminist and LGBT politics needs to be analysed thoroughly in order to better understand the right-wing discourse. This paper offers a theoretical explanation, based on existing empirical studies and critical theoretical literature. Focussing on the four Visegrád countries, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, it attempts to demonstrate the specific drivers of the anti-gender mobilization in this region and argues that anti-gender discourse is a right-wing language of resistance against existing material and symbolic East-West inequalities in Europe.
De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives
2011
"De-Centring Western Sexualities critically assesses the current state of knowledge about sexualities outside the framings of 'The West', by focusing on gender and sexuality within the context of Central and Eastern Europe. Providing rich case studies drawn from a range of "post-communist" countries, this interdisciplinary volume brings together the latest research on the formation of sexualities in Central and Eastern Europe, alongside analyses of the sexual and national identity politics of the region. Engaged with current debates within queer studies surrounding temporality and knowledge production, and inspired by post-colonial critique, the book problematises the western hegemony that often characterises sexuality studies, and presents local theoretical insights better attuned to their geo-temporal realities. As such, it offers a cultural and social re-evaluation of everyday life experiences, and will be of interest to sociologists, queer studies scholars, geographers and anthropologists. ----------------- Contents: Introduction: why study sexualities in Central and Eastern Europe; Contemporary peripheries': queer studies, circulation of knowledge, and East/West divide, Joanna Mizielinska and Robert Kulpa; Between walls. Provincialisms, human rights, sexualities and Serbian public discourses on EU integration, Jelisaveta Blagojevic; Nations and sexualities – 'West' and 'East', Robert Kulpa; A short history of the queer time of 'post-socialist' Romania, or, are we there yet? Let's ask Madonna, Shannon Woodcock; Travelling ideas, travelling times. On the temporalities of LGBT and queer politics in Poland and in the 'West', Joanna Mizielinska; Researching transnational activism around LGBTQ politics in Central and Eastern Europe: activist solidarities and spatial imaginings, Jon Binnie and Christian Klesse; Rendering gender in lesbian families: a Czech case, Katerina Nedbálková; The heteronormative panopticon and the transparent closet of the public space in Slovenia, Roman Kuhar; Heteronormativity, intimate citizenship and the regulation of same-sex sexualities in Bulgaria, Sasha Roseneil and Maryia Stoilova; Situating intimate citizenship in Macedonia – emotional navigation and everyday queer/KVAR grounded moralities, Alexander Lambevski; Index. ------------------- Reviews: 'De-Centring Western Sexualities advances critical studies of sexualities and sexual politics in significant and inspiring ways. The authors provocatively question the "Western" focus of sexuality studies and highlight the consequences of Central and Eastern Europe's absence from recent queer critiques. This valuable collection offers essential new perspectives on the marketization of (homo)sexuality and the functioning of heteronormativity in these countries.' Gavin Brown, University of Leicester, UK, co-editor of Geographies of Sexualities 'De-Centring Western Sexualities is a landmark volume in the study of gender and sexuality. Kulpa and Mizielinska have gathered here and framed some of the very best essays on discourses of sexuality in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. Not content to simply mark distinctions between East and West, the US and the rest, local and global, the editors' introduction and many of the essays here actually retheorize concepts of temporality, spatiality and sociality in the process of asking after the meaning of sexuality outside of its framing in "the West". Ranging in topic from heteronormativity to lesbian families, from transnational activism to queer temporalities and combining social science methodologies with theoretical inquiries, this collection is as broad as it is deep and it creates many new contexts for rethinking sexuality and de-centering the West.' Judith Halberstam, University of Southern California, USA, author of In a Queer Time and Place 'There are few publications of which one could say one had waited for them to appear for ten years. This is even less the case with regard to academic publications. This moment of enthusiasm results from the fusion of geo-political, temporal and activist criticism in the book 'De-centring Western sexualities', edited by Robert Kulpa and Joanna Mizielinska. The book explores the question of the relationship of Western European and so-called post-communist countries to sexual politics. While there may have been continuous, emancipatory developments in LGBTIQ politics in west Europe, all activist strategies and all theoretical developments seem to have coincidentally impacted on the diverse communities of the East since the fall of the wall. Robert Kulpa and Joanna Mizielinska literally talk of a 'knot' of geo-temporal coincidences which spilled over the wall: homophile movements, identity-political gay and lesbian organisations which are primarily interested in legal equality and inclusion into a (hetero) normality, as much as queer approaches and groups, which are less interested in assimilation than for the destabilisation of societal walls. (...) This is a necessary book which achieves to document the complex nature of hegemonic structures in a way that allows to unsettle the representation of 'inside and outside'. Marty Huber (2011), 'Shaking (Stone-) Wall. An (East) enlarged, decentralising book review'. Kulturisse. Zeitschrift für radikaldemokratische Kulturepolitik. No. 1 2001, (IG Kultur Österreich), pp. 20-21. 'The dual timelines of development between the Queer movements in Western and Central/Eastern Europe's mean that polarized nationalism(s), the desire(s) for cultural independence(s), differing political loyalties, and differences in language, culture, and legislation further complicate the idea of complete homogeneity in European Queer activist movements. This socio-political soup seems to ensure that the lived experiences of Queer citizens in neighboring countries can be almost completely oppositional. Coupled with huge differences in the rights for men and women, and considering how this interacts with the positioning of rights in regards to intimate citizenship, 'De-centering Western Sexualities' is a necessary academic ear trumpet for us to learn to listen in, for particular ideas present in cacophony of 'Western' Queer voices that are shouting out for their rights. (...) 'De-centering Western Sexualities' gives an excellent insight and attempts a historical overview which asks academics to consider dual timelines of development, for which without an understanding of, the current conflicts within specific European Queer cultures and movements appear overly confusing and incongruent.' Stefanie Petrik (2011), 'Go West: Queer in Europe and De-Centring Western Sexualities'. Media and Culture Reviews (online). 'The editors make a good effort to shatter and rebuild reader's assumptions about the CEE region, which has experienced a "tectonic restructuring" since 1989. They do that in particular by complicating the ideas about European time and space. How come, for example, that we don't think of Germany as a post-communist European country? While doing that they are also able to give some (indispensable) remediation about the geo-spatial and geo-political context the individual texts explore in more details. (...) All in all the collection De-Centring Western Sexualities managed to provide a host of unpredictable angles and new information. While doing that it was also able to inspire some thrilling ideas to be incorporated in novel research projects – something most of the Western queer anthologies that evoke only the "been there, done that" sentiment fail to do. Hence I would suggest that you not just read the volume when you have time, but actually make time to read what Central and Eastern European perspectives could offer you in terms of revitalizing queer theory.' Tuula Juvonen (2011), 'Where Stonewall Never Happened': Theorizing Queer in Central and Eastern Europe'. SQS Journal of Queer Studies in Finland, No 2. De-Centering Western Sexualities is a valuable and overdue collection of ten essays which address non-normative sexualities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual/transgender and queer (LGBTQ) activisms and politics in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) context. The book’s relevance is two-fold. On the one hand, it provides theoretical and analytical tools to critically assess the hegemony and influence of “Western” knowledge production in relation to (homo)sexual identities, communities and practices in CEE. On the other hand, by presenting intrinsic examples and local case studies of sexual politics, the volume marks a significant step in the theory production of queer and sexuality studies. (...) Amir Hodžic (2011), 'Review of De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Südosteuropa. Zeitschrift für Politik und Gesellschaft, Issue 59. OTHER REVIEWS: Richard C.M. Mole (2012), 'Review: De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Slavonic and East European Review, Vol 90, No 3, pp. 590-592. Emma Spruce (2012), 'review of de-centring western sexualities: Central and Eastern European perspectives'. Feminist Review', Vol 101, No 1, pp. e3-e4. Subhadra Mitra Channa (2012), 'Review: De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives'. Anthropological Notebooks, Vol XVIII, Issue 1, pp. 109-110. ------------- FOR SAMPLE CHAPTERS PLS VISIT: http://robertkulpa.com/index.php?/published-articles/books/ CONTENTS: http://robertkulpa.com/images/stories/docs/De\_Centring\_Western\_Sexualities\_TOC.pdf INTRODUCTION: http://robertkulpa.com/images/stories/docs/De\_Centring\_Western\_Sexualities\_Intro.pdf INDEX: http://robertkulpa.com/images/stories/docs/De\_Centring\_Western\_Sexualities\_Index.pdf""
"The West Is (Not) the Best" -Anti-Gender Narratives and Queer-Feminist Struggles in Greece
Feminist Critique,, 2024
The anti-gender narratives and policies that attack women's and LGBTQ+ rights (gender, sexual and reproductive freedoms) come largely from right-wing parties, conservative think tanks, far-right political organizations and alt-right networks, authoritarian governments, and representatives of the Catholic and the Orthodox Church. The paper highlights current anti-gender politics, including reactionary discourses, strategies, and multiple (institutional) actors that seek to undermine societal and legal progress for intersectional feminism and the LGBTQ+ movement. In this vein, it draws attention to the anti-gender arguments and the imports of the white (male) supremacy ideology in the Greek context. More thoroughly, the paper outlines, on the one hand, the anti-gender movement and the ways in which nature, nation, and normality construct its main narrative as it sheds light on the alt-right discourse, ethnopatriarchy, and the heteronormative standards within Greek society. On the other, the paper traces local queer-feminist struggles and activist practices that seek to resist the continuum of gender-based violence, homophobic/transphobic violence, systemic racism, and discrimination. Queer-feminist struggles gained strength and new perspectives in the aftermath of Zak Kostopoulos/Zackie Oh’s murder and the eruption of the #metoo movement, whereas new collective struggles for defending women's and LGBTQ+ rights take place against rising fascisms and the neoliberal control of reproduction. Keywords: anti-gender narratives, gender-based violence, queer-feminist struggles, vulnerability, dissident voices Feminist Critique, Issue October 2024 This publication is part of an upcoming special issue following the second edition of "Queer and Feminist Studies in Southeastern Europe" international conference (April 2023, FAC Athens). Guest editors: Anna Carastathis, Ramona Dima, Simona Dumitriu, and Myrto Tsilimpounidi.
" Worse than communism and nazism put together " : War on Gender in Poland
This paper examines the mobilization against “gender” which has spread across Poland since 2012, pointing to both local specificities and links to the transnational context. As we will show in the present analysis, while Polish anti-genderism is part of a boarder transnational trend (a fact long invisible to most of Poland’s liberal defenders of gender), some aspects of this phenomenon are indeed locally embedded. The campaign has consisted of many initiatives undertaken by the Catholic Church and conservative groups to fight gender equality education and legislation, sexual and reproductive rights, as well as the very use of the term “gender” in policy documents and public discourse. Polish anti-gender campaigners claim that their aim is to protect the Polish family (especially children) against feminists and the “homosexual lobby”; to defend authentic Polish cultural values (which are equated with Catholic values) against the foreign influence of the corrupt West and liberal European Union. Targets include sexual education, ratification of the Istanbul Convention and gender equality policies more broadly. In our view, the current wave of anti-gender mobilization in Poland is not business as usual or another wave of conservative backlash, but a new ideological and political configuration, which successfully combines the local and the transnational, making possible a politically effective mass movement. We argue that the success of anti-gender mobilization can be explained by its leaders’ skillful references to ordinary people’s dignity and their identity as an oppressed majority. Anti-genderism consistently presents itself as an effort to defend authentic indigenous values against foreign forces and corrupt elites – a discourse which we interpret as a variant of right-wing appropriation of the anti-colonial frame. What may be construed as an Eastern European peculiarity is that in the region gender tends to be discredited as totalitarian ideology as exemplified by the following statement made in 2013 by Polish Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek: “Gender ideology is worse than communism and Nazism put together”. While the contested policies are coming from the West and are presented as Western impositions, genderism itself is seen as a vast project of social engineering rooted in Marxism and comparable to Stalinism. This tension or ambivalence persists in many of the documents and statements examined here: genderism is demonized as a cultural imposition a foreign body that is Western and Eastern at the same time.