abstracts feministische studien 1/2012

abstracts feministische studien 1/2012
Stefan Wiederkehr
Jenseits der Geschlechtergrenzen. Intersexuelle und transsexuelle Menschen im Spitzensport
In today’s society, it is probably in the field of sport that gender segregation is most fully being implemented. From
1968 to 1998, participants in Olympic women’s events had to undergo a mandatory test („gender verification“) in order
to establish if they are „really“ women. The article addresses the question of how the International Olympic Committee
and International Sport Federations have treated those individuals who do not fit into the concept of a simple malefemale dualism. During the Cold War, these were mainly the intersexed individuals, whereas today transsexuals are
fighting for their right to participate in sport events of the gender they identify with.
Keywords: Sport, gender verification, intersexuality, transsexuality
Gabriele Dietze
Intersektionalität im nationalen Strafraum. Race, Gender und Sexualität und die deutsche Nationalmannschaft
Assuming football as the team-sport representing the German Nation, the article inquires longstanding barriers for
Germans of color and / or with migration background against full membership in the postwar national team. But while
diversity gained slowly acceptance, sexism and especially homophobia persist virtually unchallenged. At the same
time ‘intimate’ hugs and kisses of players on the field are guessed as hetero-„manly“. Under the heading „soccer is
queer game in a straight jacket“, performative self-contradictions like that will be examined via developing a concept
of „strong framing“ (starke Rahmung). In defining football as arena for the construction of heteronormative masculinity
„queer“ practices stay unseen on the one hand, but fulfill the desire towards a „physical“ manly community on the other
hand.
Keywords: Football/Soccer, masculinity, intersectionality, racism, homophobia
Anke Hertling
Angriff auf eine Männerdomäne: Autosportlerinnen in den zwanziger und dreißiger Jahren
This article sets out to investigate the paradigm of the brave and powerful male race driver which in the 1920s led to
female drivers being pushed aside into the nonprofessional sphere of motor sports. Women could only successfully
establish themselves as amateur drivers. The second part of this inquiry shows that female drivers were favored as
media motives in the Weimar Republic. On the one hand they represented the symbol of the „Neue Frau“, on the other
hand traditional perceptions of womanhood were blending in with the image of the „Selbstfahrerin“. Referring to
current feminist research on the „Neue Frau“, the third part of this article explores the argument that the portrayal of
female drivers in the media of the Weimar Republic constitutes a process of negotiating womanhood. The case of the
driver and author Erika Mann will help to exemplify how female motor drivers were challenging established gender
roles.
Keywords: Women, automobile, Weimar Republic, Motor Sports, Erika Mann
Anke Strüver / Claudia Wucherpfennig
Spielerisch-sportliche Raumaneignung. Zur Performativität von Körpern und Räumen in der aktuellen Forschung
This paper addresses playful and sportive activities of children and young people as everyday practices and in relation
to their effects on both spaces and embodied subjects. In a critical reading of academic debates on gendered modes
of the utilisation of space, the interrelations between space- and self-formation processes are outlined. These
interrelations reproduce gendered social and spatial hierarchies on the one hand, but also challenge the gendered
coding of spaces and identities on the other.
Keywords: Spatial socialisation, Performativity, (un-)doing identity, spatial gender codes
Henriette Gunkel
Queer Times Indeed? Südafrikas Reaktionen auf die mediale Inszenierung der 800-Meter-Läuferin Caster
Semenya
This article reflects on the aftermath of Caster Semenya’s sensational gold medal 800 meter run at the world
championship 2009. A victory after which she had to undergo a sex verification test set up by the IAAF, followed by
international media speculations about her supposedly intersexuality, and the complaint by the South African
government at the UN Commission on Human Rights, accusing the IAAF of racism and sexism. While this analysis by
South Africa’s leading party mainly reflects on what has been discussed in the country’s media landscape, this article
contextualizes the accusation and explores whether or not this support has shifted South Africa’s national imaginary
about black „female masculinity“ and how this possible shift affects South Africans whose sex, gender and sexuality
do not conform to social / cultural norms.
Keywords: Sex verification test, Caster Semenya, gender and race, postcoloniality, intersectionality
Megan Burke
Beauvoir’s Phenomenology of Lesbian Existence
This paper reconsiders Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy of lesbian existence in the chapter „The Lesbian“ from The
Second Sex. I read the foundational criticisms of Beauvoir’s „The Lesbian“ offered by American feminist philosophers,
Claudia Card and Ann Ferguson, as a means to open up an alternative interpretation of Beauvoir’s work. I suggest
Card and Ferguson significantly misconstrue Beauvoir’s understanding of lesbian lives in their failure to situate the
notions of choice and lesbian attitudes in the existential-phenomenological tradition. In doing so, their interpretations
do injustice to Beauvoir’s philosophical insights on lesbian existence. But, through a critique of their positions, it
becomes possible to acknowledge Beauvoir’s valuable phenomenology of lesbian existence that is liberatory and
novel for our time.
Keywords: The Second Sex, lesbian existence, Beauvoir, feminist phenomenology
Joan Scott
Eine französische Verführungstheorie
As the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair 2011 unfolded, his supporters rushed to his defense by citing „seduction“ as the
explanation. Seduction was an accepted aspect of French national character they insisted; it was something prudish
Americans just didn’t understand.
The contribution, written before the events of spring 2011, analyzes what I call French seduction theory the way in
which − at least since 1989 − republican ideologues have insisted that seduction is an integral aspect of French
national character. Drawing on long-standing ideas about French sexyness (as compared to American puritanism),
they elaborated a notion of Frenchness said to contrast sharply with Muslim culture. The „uncovered“ customs of
France were offered as the more natural way of conducting gender relations; Islam was depicted as an unnatural
denial of human sexuality.
The contribution analyzes the contradictions of this theory, arguing that it is, in the end, not about gender equality or
women’s emancipation, but rather about justifying the continued subordination of women to men and, by extension, of
differences of race, religion and ethnicity, to hegemonic French culture.
Keywords: Seduction, aristocratic republicanism, sexual and other differences, Frenchness
Jutta Hergenhan
Gegen Sexismus, Gewalt und Geschlechterstereotype: Frankreich wagt Feminismus
2011 was a particularly active and controversial year for French Feminism. Triggered by the rape accusal against
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, gender issues came back to the very centre of public interest in France. Topics such as
sexual violence, prostitution, sexist sales promotion or restriction of abortion facilities led to numerous contentious
debates, demonstrations and calls for governmental action. The results of a vigorous year are: a new law on
prostitution, broad action against sexism in politics, demand for language reform and modernized teaching on sexual
identity issues at school.
Keywords:
France, Women’s Movement, Feminism, Politics