Women’s Studies Terminology

Epistemology: 

The study of how we know or gain knowledge. Feminist epistemology

refers to the way feminists as a whole have constructed alternative forms of knowledge and self-expression.

Essentialism: A belief in the real, true essence of things; an investment in the invariable and fixed properties that define something.

Exoticization: 

The process by which a person or group of people is simultaneously sexualized and made “Other” (e.g., tourist brochures often exoticize Hawaiian women).

Feminization: The process by which something takes on the characteristics of thestereotypically feminine.

Fluid: 

Resisting one fixed and unchangeable form (e.g., fluid sexuality, fluid identity).

“The Gaze”: The symbolic and literal act of looking at, and objectifying, those in a lower position of power than oneself.

Gender identity: The subjective but continuous, persistent sense of oneself as male or female.

Gender presentation: 

The presentation of one’s gender through personality or bodily dress.

Gender roles: 

Behaviors, attitudes, values, or beliefs that a cultural group considers

appropriate for males vs. females on the basis of biological sex (e.g., dolls vs. trucks,pink vs. blue).

Herstory vs. history: 

The conscious effort of feminist historians to revise the largely male

narrative of history to include adequate representation of women and their legacy

(herstory).

Hierarchical binaries: 

The relationship between two opposite entities such that one becomes dominant and highly valued while the other becomes nondominant and

devalued.

Identity politics: 

The examination of marginalized (nondominant) identities with the goal

of challenging dominant categorizations while also asserting greater self-determination.

Sex vs. gender: 

Sex refers to the biological aspects of being male or female; gender refers

to the social aspects of being male or female.

Sexual identity:

 The “objective” characterization of one’s physiological status as male or

female.

Sexual orientation: 

Inclination toward same-sex and/or opposite-sex partners (e.g.,homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual).

Sex role stereotype:

 The socially determined model that contains beliefs about what

certain gender roles should be.

Sex typing: 

Differential treatment of people based on their biological sex.

Sexuality: 

The dimension of human existence involving sexual acts, preferences,

behaviors, and identities.

Social constructionism:

 The dynamic process by which social phenomena (e.g., sexuality,money, marriage) are created, institutionalized, and made into tradition. Such phenomena

often appear natural, inherent, or immutable, but in reality, are politically constituted,socially created, and potentially changeable.

Subject/object: 

A central dichotomy in feminist theory, which posits that dominant groups (male, white, heterosexual) construct the reality of nondominant groups. Those in control of reality (subjects) dictate the worldview of those with no control of reality (objects).

Truth vs. truth: 

Refers to the traditional/phallocentric/modernist idea of one reality (Truth) versus the nontraditional/feminist/postmodernist idea of multiple realities (truth).

Womyn:

 A term used by radical feminists to take the term “man” out of “woman,” with

the goal of raising awareness of language bias and the ways in which language shapes perceptions and ideas of gender and gender roles.