Agency - Ahearn provides a useful definition, stating that, “Agency refers to the socioculturally mediated capacity to act” (112). This term is often used in feminist discourse to speak about the ability for that someone has to act, or to resist.
Discourse - Like discussion or talk. According to Scott, discourse, “as developed in the work of Michel Foucault. A discourse is not a language or a text but a historically, socially, and institutionally specific structre of statements, terms, categories, and beliefs” (379).
False generic - (Linguistics) This refers to the use of male pronouns to refer to both men and women; Manking, all men created equal, etc. It is applicable to race or culture as well in the assumptions that "man" refers to a white man.
Feminism - Feminism is a difficult thing to define. At its core, feminism stems from the belief that men and women should be treated equally and equitably. The difficulty in its definition comes from differences in feminist theory and the belief of what constitutes feminism. The theory of feminism that R!OTgamer is built on extends beyond women’s struggles to incorporate the struggles of other disadvantaged or disenfranchised groups such as people of color and GLBT. For a more in depth definition of feminism as it relates to this site, read: this article.
Gender - Simply put, gender refers to one’s identification with masculine and feminine traits. It is the social division between woman-ness and man-ness. Gender differs from sex in that sex refers to the physical and biological attributes of a person while gender refers to the social aspects although often the terms are used interchangeably. To quote Simone de Beauvoir (267), “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
Lorber states that, “as a social institution, gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” (114). As a process, gender is the creation of the categories of woman and man which happen through socialization (girls get dolls, boys get action figures; baby girls wear pink, baby boys wear blue, etc). “As part of a stratification system, gender ranks men above women of the same race and class […] and as a structure, gender divides work in the home and in economic production, legitimates those in authority, and organizes sexuality and emotional life” (116).
GLBT - This is the abbreviation of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender. Often, it also includes “Questioning” (GLBTQ) in order to accommodate those who are, well, questioning their sexuality and finding their own definition of self. Q is also sometimes added to refer to 'Queer'
Global North/Global South - In the most basic sense, this generally refers to a geographical division between the north and south. In feminist discourse it goes a bit deeper than this. Mohanty offers up an awesome definition (and exploration) of this concept:
"'North/South' is used to distinguish between affluent, privileged nations and communities, and economically and politically marginalized nations and communities, as is 'Western/non-Western.' While these terms are meant to loosely distinguish the northern and southern hemispheres, affluent and marginal nations and communities obviously do not line up neatly within this geographical frame…. An example of this is Arif Dirlik’s formulation of North/South as metaphorical rather than geographical distinction, where 'North' refers to the pathways of transnational capital and 'South' to the marginalized poor of the world regardless of geographical distinction" (226-227).
Hegemony - Hegemony is used a lot in feminist theory. A basic definition is "Leadership/predominance"(Dictionary.com). In feminist theory it is used to discuss dominant ideology, both in patriarchal, racist, and/or heterosexist societies or institutions. This is also used often in referring to "Western" or "Northern" feminist theory as there has been a tendency of "Western" feminism to leave out women of color, lesbians, etc. in their theory.
Heteronormative - This refers to the complete normalization of heterosexuality. It manifests in the absurdly obvious lack of mention of any non-straight sexuality in schools, the assumption of heterosexuality that pervades in the majority of social institutionsinstitutions. This is such a part of these institutions that any display of non-heterosexuality leads to people saying things like GLBT are "flaunting" their sexuality...at the very least...up to verbal and/or physical assault at the other end. Additionally, the complete normalization of heterosexuality in schools (in my opinion) likely leads to the high depression and suicide rates in GLBTQ youth.
Heterosexism (vs. homophobia - Heterosexism is the term used to describe anti-GLBT sentiments. I put this in opposition to homophobia because the two terms have very different connotations. Personally, I strongly dislike the term homophobia as I feel that in referring to a fear of homosexuals, it implies a blamelessness. This would be saying that gay-bashing happens because the attacker was simply so afraid of the victim that they couldn't help but beat them to death...near-death...etc. Whereas heterosexist calls this out for what it is - a hate-filled prejudice. To illustrate, think if someone said "blackphobia" or womanphobia or some such instead of racist or sexist. Completely different meanings.
Institution - Social institutions maintain social order and function. In a patriarchical society, these structures tend to favor men/masculine over women/feminine. Racially, institutions tend to favor what is white and sexually what is "straight". Examples of institutions: Marriage, schools, family, religion.
Intersectional - Here used to describe the intersecting nature of privilege and oppression. Basically, it's a comment on the fact that privilege, oppression, marginalization and the like do not exist independently of each other. The experience of a black lesbian, for example, has several layers. Her experience with oppression etc would involve being a woman, being black, and being a lesbian. By acknowledging the intersectional nature of things we prevent viewing these experiences as existing on different planes and are unrelated.
Marginalized - Wikipedia actually gives a good definition of this: is the social process of becoming or being made marginal (to relegate or confine to a lower social standing or outer limit or edge, as of social standing); "the marginalization of the underclass"; "marginalization of literature" and many other are some examples. Marginalization involves people being denied degrees of power. Marginalization has the potential to result in severe material deprivation, and in its most extreme form can exterminate groups. (Mullaly, 2007). Material deprivation is the most common result of marginalization when looking at how unfairly material resources (such as food and shelter) are dispersed in society. Along with material deprivation, marginalized individuals are also excluded from services, programs, and policies (Young, 2000). Marginalization can be understood within three levels:
individual, community, and global-structural / policies. Although examples are listed within these three specific levels, one must recognize the intersecting nature of marginalization and its capacity to overlap within each.
Modern Racism - A more subtle form of racism. Racism that occurs in the subtle actions that people take against another. Instead of outwardly violent (or verbally violent) acts, modern racism occurs in ways that aren't so obvious (from avoiding eye contact to biased hiring decisions).
Oppression - The flipside of privilege
Patriarchy - I can think of no better definition of patriarchy than that given by Allan Johnson. He stresses the importance of understanding that patriarchy can't be broken down to the individuals within a patriarchical society. He defines it as, "a kind of society organized around certain kinds of social relationships and ideas" (1997, 100). Johnson goes on to say that,
"at its core, patriarchy is a set of symbols and ideas that make up a culture embodied by everything from the content of everyday conversation to literature and film [and I would add, here, for sure, video games]. Patriarchal culture includes ideas about the nature of things, including men, women, and humanity, with manhood and masculinity most closely associated with being human and womanhood and femininity relegated to the marginal position of 'other'" (101).
"To live in patriarchy," he says, "is to breathe in misogynist images of women as objectified sexual property valued primarily for their usefulness to men" (103).
Privilege (unearned) - white privilege, heterosexual privilege, male privilege, class privilege, etc, are all common strains of privilege. Privilege is the more silent or less obvious manifestation of patriarchal or ethnocentric cultures. Privilege is something that you have without necessarily realizing that you have it or knowing that you're benefitting from it. Johnson states that,
"Regardless of which group we're talking about, privilege generally allows people to assume a certain level of acceptance, inclusion, and respect in the world, to operate within a relatively wide comfort zone. Privilege increases the odds of having things your own way...grants cultural authority to make judgments about others and to have those judgments stick. It allows people to define reality and to have prevailing definitions of reality from their experience...and it grants an assumption of superiority..." (2001, 33-34).
And also states that, "Individuals are the ones who experience privilege or the lack of it, but individuals aren't what is actually privileged. Instead, privilege is defined in relation to a group or social category" (34). It is the other side of oppression.
Profeminist - This is a word often used to refer to male feminists. Some feminists and some men do not feel comfortable with male identification as "feminist" and so opt instead to refer to males in the movement as profeminists.
Transgender - Transgender refers to several differentiations of gender, rather than simple divisions between feminine and masculine. Literally, transgender means to transcend gender binaries (two categories). We recommend reading this T-Vox article for a more thorough understanding of all the subtleties and nuances of transgender.
Transnational -
Western/non-Western - Used in feminist theory to make not only the geographical distinction between the “west” and the “east” but also to add political value to these terms. Western is used more to refer to “developed nations” and non-Western to “developing”. The divide is similar to that of the the Global North/South. Both have importance in feminist discourse in that they are also a point of contention as "Western" feminism has been (often rightfully) accused of holding to their own hegemonic ideals and of trying to force these ideals on "non-Western" women.
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