QGE discussion document, Oct. 24, 2003

Intersectionalities:
Historically oppressed Queer, Gender, and/or Ethnic Identities and Communities.

(abbreviated as QGE requirement)

Student General Education Proposal DRAFT
Oct. 24, 2003

Miguel Lopez and Brandon Marich, AS representatives

Extensive revisions performed in consultation with Denise Segura, Chair of Undergraduate Council

A course within this requirement takes as a method of study a comprehensive examination of the lives, experiences, and representations of historically oppressed queer, gender, and/or ethnic identities and communities; their families, their cultures and sub-cultures, their histories, institutions, languages, and literature; their economics and politics, and their complex relations to the cultures and experiences of a heterosexual majority. The intent of this requirement is to analyze queer identities within the context of their relation to oppressed social classes, race-ethnicities, and genders.

Race-Ethnic: The term race-ethnic refers to groups that have been historically labeled or viewed as races in the U.S. and whose identities have been fomed, defined, and given meaning by a variety of social forces in the wider society, most notably distinctive forms of legal discrimination and labor exploitation. Each group is also bound together by ethnicity, that is, common ancestry and cultural characteristics that are often used for group affirmation and resistance to racial oppression. The concept race-ethnic underscores the social construction of race and ethnicity for people of color in the United States in particular, African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans.
Source: Maxine Baca Zinn, "Family Feminism and Race in America," Gender and Society (March 1990):68-81.
Why queer is used: The word queer is an umbrella term for the LBGTQI (lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer, and intersex) community. In addition to an umbrella term, queer can also be an identity, especially for people who do not identify as exclusively heterosexual nor identify with any of the traditional categories.
Why gender is used: There is a difference between biological sex and gender identity. Biological sex is the anatomy a person is born with (male, female, intersex).

"Gender refers to a system of socially constructed meanings typically assigned to biological characteristics that distinguish males and females. Gender does not mean simply the cultural appropriation of biological sexual differences, however, inasmuch as sexual difference is itself a fundamental--and scientifically contested--construction. As part of a stratification system, gender ranks men above women of the same race and class. Both 'sex' and 'gender' are woven of multiple, asymmetrical strands of difference, charged with multifaceted dramatic narratives of domination and struggle."
Source: Donna Haraway in Judith Lorber, 1997, "'Night to his Day': The Social Construction of Gender," in Feminist Frontiers IV, edited by Laural Richardson, Verta Taylor and Nancy Whittier. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Women’s studies alone leaves out a significant group that falls within traditionally oppressed gender identities, mainly transgender and androgynous identities.

see also the following discussions: 1/31/03 notes, 4/11/03 attempt to fold into INT, 4/18/03 ditto, 5/2/03 discussion of FTE available and history of requirement,

document discussed at the 10/24/03 UCSB GE workgroup meeting, prepared for web by H. Marcuse, Nov. 1, 2003, links added 11/16/03, 11/18
back to top; GE workgroup homepage; Oct. 30, 2003 discussion document