We've moved on

This weblog is currently only an archive of the contributions some members of the workinggroup (AG) Queer STS have written. We have moved on. You can now find us HERE.

Discussing 'Fairness' with an intersectional approach - the struggles of preparing a school project

It has been a while since our last entry in this blog and although we have been quite busy – our session at the 12thAnnual IAS-STS Conference in Graz was well attended (we are still working on a paper to sum up the discussion) and last week our first joint paper was published in the peer reviewed journal fzg – Freiburger Zeitschrift für GeschlechterStudien – there seems to be little more to be reported here. Most news and recommendations go as short messages on Twitter anyway (thanks to Anita who is a superactive tweep *applauseandhugs*). 

There is a topic, though, that has kept me awake for quite some nights now and I feel like sharing – you are, as always, very welcome to comment and share your thoughts on this! I have started a project with a secondary school where the majority of students are from families with a more or less recent history of immigration. I have learned that most of them are Muslims. The school is located in a less privileged area of the city and it seems that the students, as well, come from families with a lower socio-economic status. In short: I guess this is not exactly a school academic institutions would jump at to work with (maybe to study the kids rather than working WITH them). When asking the headmaster for cooperation we were aware that this might be a new challenge for us but I have been very much looking forward to working with the students. So, I am currently preparing for the first project weeks in September which revolve around the topic FAIRNESS as an umbrella term for social justice/injustice, ahimsa/violence which is a huge field to work in. This is challenge number one. 

The second one is that we want to start off with the 13/14-year-old students’ own experiences with injustice and violence but we also want them to think further, reflect their attitudes in regard to e. g. sexism, homophobia, transphobia (that’s a tough one, right?), elitism/poverty/illiteracy etc. We want to pick them up right where they are, make them aware that all these phenomena are faces of structual and symbolic violence/social injustice. The ultimate goal is not only to make them aware of them in general and maybe, hopefully, create a culture of acceptance of diversity, but also to be capable to identify these instances of injustice in the media – more specifically: in their favourite TV-series. Not exactly an easy objective – and this is challenge number two. 

The third challenge is my own small, prejudiced mind: I have chosen to work with an intersectionality approach because I have not met the students yet and I do not know how the students would define themselves (i. e. I use categorisations when imagining the students and try to answer to as many of these categories but I will probably also miss some). These are bad pre-conditions, I am aware of that. So, I have this idea to give the students portraits of Austrian immigrants with different national/cultural roots, who advocate some of the above mentioned topics, e. g. a gay activist with Turkish roots fighting against homophobia or an intersexual biotech-professor from Iran who founded the Oriental Queer Organisation. But I also choose portraits of inspiring individuals from all over the world – e. g. 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan who advocates the right to education for girls in her home country and for all children in the world. They should serve as role models – especially in regard to the more controversially discussed topics like homosexuality or transidentities. Now, my problem is that I assume that many of these people do not share the same pre-conditions with the students I am working with. I have read somewhere that the cultural or religious background may not have such a huge impact on the biography of a person as the socio-economic status and the educational level of the family they come from (this sounds a bit elitist to me, though). I wonder: Should I rather look for role models who, when growing up, shared EXACTLY the same living conditions of my young fellow researchers or is it ‘enough’ to have a history of immigration and cultural knowledge in common for them to identify to a certain extend with these individuals and their stories. 

My overall concern is that the introduction of controversial topics like non-heterosexualities and transidentities will turn into a disaster because I have made wrong assumptions about the students I will work with. I guess I can only hope for the best, hope for the teachers to give me constructive feedback on my material and hope for openminded teens who will react with couriosity rather than with rejection...

ScienceOnlineTeen - An unconference

Next Saturday (April 13), ScienceOnlineTeen – a conference bringing scientists, students and teachers together to share ideas – will take place in New York. Since some members of Queer STS repeatedly work on research projects with teens (Engineer Your Sound!, Picture.it and currently useITsmartly), we like this idea and would like to share some more information about it in this blog. So we contacted Stacy Baker, the creator and organizer of ScienceOnlineTeen, and had a little Q & A with her.

Q: ScienceOnlineTeen is a conference addressing scientists, students, and teachers and is about how the Web influences the way science is done and communicated. Why this conference, what would you like it to provide the target groups with?

Stacy Baker: Typical conferences involve speakers talking to the audience, not with the audience. They use presentations and not conversations. ScienceOnlineTeen aims to provide more of an informal, conversational, networking experience for teens and teachers. We believe very strongly that the teens and teachers have just as many great ideas to communicate to the scientists as the scientists have to communicate with them. So, what really sets us apart is this idea of equal sharing of ideas and giving power and a voice to teens. Discussions will be centered around how science is communicated via social media and how the Web is changing the way we think about science. Social media has made it easier for people to interact and we hope to get more teens interested in getting involved with online science communities.

Q: Looking at the program, there are many names and topics listed in the sessions. How does the design of the conference work?

S. B.: Yes, there are four session blocks with concurrent sessions running during each block. So, participants choose one topic to attend in each block. There's one exception; the third block is a blitz session and involves more free form discussions and participants floating around to different "idea" rooms. They are more about quick bursts of imagination and idea sharing. This includes an online streaming room where we'll be using Google + Hangouts to interact with the online audience. The final session is a workshop where participants try to put into action some of the ideas they've developed earlier on in the day. Another thing that really sets our conference apart is that we have built into the program many, long break periods to encourage mingling and networking. We want participants to converse one-on-one with each other and not be limited to a group discussion.

Q: There is an amazing variety of people participating in the conference and moderating sessions. How did you win them for contributing in ScienceOnlineTeen? Or put differently: What is their motivation to join ScienceOnlineTeen?

S. B.: ScienceOnlineTeen is the first topical, regional event inspired by the main ScienceOnline event that takes place in North Carolina each year. That event is directed at adults and only a small number of teens attend each year. So, I wanted to create an event just like the one in North Carolina that reaches more teens and teachers. A lot of the people who jumped on board for ScioTeen have met me over the years at ScienceOnline and have even worked with my students in the past. They already know what a great community ScienceOnline is and they are eager to be involved in new projects associated with it. So, it wasn't too hard finding a lot of amazing people to get involved. I think many of the new moderators wanted to join the event because they really appreciate what we're trying to do. Convincing teens and teachers to attend was a little harder at first as most have never attended an "unconference" before and so they weren't quite sure what to make of the event. But, now we're completely full and the teens and teachers who are coming are very excited to attend.
 

Q: ScienceOnlineTeen takes place in New York City but, as the title suggests, the conference is about science and the Internet. How can non-local teens, scientists and teachers get involved in the event?

S. B.: There are multiple ways to interact with participants online. We'll have a Google+ Hangout from 2:00-2:50 EST [that’s 8:00-8:50 p.m. CET] during the conference where participants will chat with the online audience about what they've been discussing at the event. Several of the session moderators will go online for a few minutes each to interact with the online audience. The link to the Hangout will be published on the conference website the morning of the event and it will be streamed on YouTube.
Another way to interact is to use the hashtag #scioteen to join the conversations that take place on Twitter during the event.
And yet another way to interact is to comment to the Learnistboards where we'll be live posting notes from each of the sessions. The online audience can comment to the notes and ask questions. You have to sign up for a free Learnist account in order to leave comments. The link to all of the session Learnist boards will be available on the conferencewebsite.

Q: Are there any plans yet for another ScienceOnlineTeen-event, maybe with a more international audience via Web-based participation?

S. B.: If another ScioTeen event is held in the future I hope to have more of the sessions streamed online. I have to be careful about privacy concerns considering many of our participants are minors, so a 100% online streamed event is unlikely. But, I'd also like to consider doing it in a different city just to broaden the outreach. If anyone is interested in holding a ScioTeen event in Europe or somewhere else international they should definitely get in touch with me!

About Stacy Baker: She is the creator and organizer of ScienceOnlineTeen. She is a science and technology teacher in NYC. She started a class blog with her biology students seven years ago called Extreme Biology which led to her ongoing involvement in the ScienceOnline community. Stacy’s students have appeared on NPR and in online magazines and countless newspapers for their science writing. Contact Stacy Baker:
scioteen@scienceonline.com 

Find a German translation of this Q & A in our EYS-blog

Some thoughts about the left-brain/right-brain-myth

Some myths about how our brain works are very persistent. For instance I came across the good old right-creative-brain vs. left-logic-brain myth when I searched the internet for engineering education. And I found something called "engineers are people too" which made me laugh, but then ... first things first:

As for instance Christian Jarrett (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-myths/201206/why-the-left-brain-right-brain-myth-will-probably-never-die) pointed out this myth is based on actual research. But not only that this respective brain research has been conducted in the 60ies (and believe it or not brain research had some pretty amazing findings the last 50 years), this research back then were so called 'split-brain-studies' ... so if you are not suffering from a very serious head insury you most probably will not have a split brain (no seriously we have no two separately working brain halfs, thanks to our Corpus Callosum).

So when I see that seminars are based on exactly this myth (for instance http://www.engineersarepeopletoo.com/company) I need the urge to write a blog post. 

But there is more to that than just not accurate knowledge presented in adult education. 

Dichotomies like technology vs. nature, creativity vs. logic, etc. often end up in gender-binary and heteronormative stereotypes which are used to explain and legitimate structural inequalities and injustice. 

And now the 'shocking'  truth: we already know for decades about the issue because great scholars like Anne Fausto-Sterling wrote about such myths and their implications on gender relation (see Fausto-Sterling 1992: Myths of Gender: Biological Theories About Women and Men).

So all I'm saying is that I wish that whoever educates others (in schools, adult education, job trainings) would base their philosophies and didactics not on myths and stereotypes. 

New Call for Abstracts: 12th IAS-STS Annual Conference, May 6-7, 2013

The new Call for Abstracts for our annual conference is out! For next year we have two special sessions we would like to point out to: The first is organised by us, the other one is co-organised by two Queer STS-members. Here are the descriptions of said sessions, for the full CfA see the website of IAS-STS.

Special Session: Queer perspectives on STS
The working group 'Queer STS' questions hegemonic values and norms in society, in particular in science and technology research. We are interested in marginalised perpectives and boundary processes that lead to their marginalisation. This implies not only the original meaning of 'queer' related to non-heterosexualities and to a critique of heteronormativity but a broader understanding of the term: We critically review how especially science and technology-related research contribute to the perpetuation of inclusion and exclusion, norms and marginalisations, biologisations of social constructs, etc. For this session we invite researchers and scholars dealing with similar questions and perspectives to contribute and participate in discussion and networking. Contributions can be theoretical considerations, empirical work in progress or finished studies.

Special Session: Social justice and Diversity
For this session the IFZ-working group „Social Justice and Diversity“ is looking for contributions which deal with the technology access and participation in technology development in the context of social justice, and how the issue of diversity plays a crucial part in these processes (e.g. age, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socio-economic status, etc.). Contributions can be (among others) on topics as:

• Access to technological goods and services (medical treatment, education, energy-saving technologies, etc.) and the distribution of resources (e.g. energy poverty)
• Provision of infrastructure and social inclusion
• Environmental or climate justice
• Informal technology-based learning as a means of democratization and participation in political arenas through new media technologies
• Participation in socially fair and environmentally sustainable production and consumption
• Inclusion of the diverse needs of various social groups in technology development
• Representations of social groups in public discourse on aspects of individual lives (choice of profession, personal interests, relationships, etc.) and social structures as such

Proceedings of the 11th IAS-STS Conference

Abstracts, presentation slides and articles to our Queer STS-session of the 11th IAS-STS Conference in Graz on May 8 2012 are available now:

Birgit Hofstätter: Queer STS: An Introduction  - Abstract - Paper - Presentation

Susanne Kink & Magdalena Wicher: Bringing a queer perspective in qualitative research about scientific cultures - Abstract

Julian Anslinger & Lisa Scheer: Queer perspectives on psychological studies on the relationship between sex and intelligence - Abstract - Paper


Full proceedings of the conference

We will be at these two conferences - do we meet?

We are very happy that we have been invited to present our current work at these two upcoming conferences:

1. NeuroCultures - NeuroGenderings II: 13 - 15 September 2012, University ofVienna (http://neurocultures2012.univie.ac.at)

In co-operation with the network NeuroGenderings, the Gender Research Office at the University of Vienna, will launch a three-day international, interdisciplinary conference entitled "NeuroCultures – NeuroGenderings II" 13 - 15 September 2012 at the University of Vienna.
The aim of the conference "NeuroCultures – NeuroGenderings II" is to improve reflective scientific approaches concerned with sex/gender and the brain, and to gain particular insight into the transformation or persistence of gendered norms and values that accompany the mutual entanglements between brain research, various disciplines and public discourse.

2. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Science and Technology: October 17-20, 2012, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark(http://4sonline.org/meeting)

“Design and displacement – social studies of science and technology”

For the Joint 4S/EASST conference 2012 papers are invited that address the dynamics and interrelationships between science, technology and society. Papers which address the meeting’s theme ‘Design and Displacement’ are especially relevant, but papers on any topic in STS are welcome.

The conference encourages analytic, critical and practical engagement with design and displacement in several ways. First, it points to the need for investigating the relation between design intentions and their displacements, for example as catalysts for change and conflict. It also highlights the importance of investigating design controversies. It locates design practices in broader political contexts, and focuses attention on how design facilitates or hinders social inclusion, locally and globally. The theme ‘Design and Displacement’ invites careful analyses of the way design practices take part in shaping worlds. However, ‘Design and Displacement’ also raises questions around STS as design work and practice-based interventions. In this sense design becomes simultaneously topic and outcome, a situation that raises new questions concerning the role of STS research.

Maybe you will be at one or at both of these conferences too?

Announcement: To Be Published

The next session of the presentation series "To Be Published" (hosted by the Coordination Centre for Women's Studies, Gender Research and Affirmative Action for Women of the University of Graz, the research unit of Gender Studies at the Department of Sociology, and IFZ) is organized in collaboration with the Department of American Studies and the Department of Educational Sciences and will be held on

June 4, 2012

4 pm at SR 35.K4, Merangasse 18, 8010 Graz

I was invited to present my study on Stephenie Meyer's The Twilight Saga, in which I analyzed the representations of gender relations and sexuality with a special focus on the film adaptions.

Here an abstract of what the study is about:

The international success of “The Twilight Saga”, a series of novels by the American author Stephenie Meyer which were made into films, was the motive for taking a closer look at the franchise and its attraction for a mainly female target group. This thesis in particular is a discussion of the gender relations represented in the films. What do teenagers potentially learn about gender and sexuality? This research question is the starting point for the analysis of the social relationships among the characters and the social structure in regard to heteronormativity. The results are evaluated from a perspective of a pedagogy of diversity. The methodological setup of this interdisciplinary study consists of a mixture of approaches from cultural and social studies.

The story of a 17-year-old girl falling in love with a vampire boy reflects a heterosexual norm which structures binary and hierarchical gender relations. This norm is binding to almost all characters of the saga; non-heterosexual relationships are marginalized and associated with the antagonists to the lovers. Furthermore, the gender binary as well as heterosexuality are depicted as biologically determined. The results also show the construction of a biological association of masculinity with violence and that the saga seems to propagate voluntary subordination of women to men. In the face of the tremendous success of the franchise among teenagers, these results are to be seen as especially critical, for there is a high potential of fans to identify with the protagonists and thus with problematic role models.

Looking forward to seeing you at presentation!

In 12 days ...

... we can meet in Graz!

The working group "Queer STS" is hosting a session at the annual IAS STS conference (7-8 May 2012) in Graz. The topic will be "Queerness in STS" and four presentation will dicuss queer perspectives in and on science and technology studies which challenge heteronormative and hegemonic point of views.

If you did not register yet, please do so:

http://www.ifz.tugraz.at/ias/IAS-STS/Upcoming-Activities/11th-Annual-IAS-STS-Conference

Students do not have to pay conference fees but should contactThomas Berger berger@ifz.tugraz.at

Unruly matters - the queer side of things (call for abstracts)

From colleagues (University of Copenhagen) we got this call:

"Call for papers for open panel for the 2012 joint 4S and EASST meeting

Unruly matters - the queer side of things

Chaired by Marie-Louise Holm (Linköping) and Sebastian Mohr (Copenhagen)

The unruly side of materialities has been the focus of much of feminist science and technology studies as well as queer theory. From the cyborg woman (Haraway 1991) and bodies that matter (Butler 1993) to queering the non/human (Giffney & Hird 2008) and queer phenomenology (Ahmed 2006) the queer side of things provided a pathway into materialities and their meanings for life worlds. This open panel wants to pose the question of unruly matters anew and seeks to explore contemporary intersections of queer theoretical perspectives and STS approaches to research on science, society, and technologies. How do materialities open up a possibility for queering the normalized? What normative frameworks are set up in order to regulate the inherently queer nature of things? What are the queer dimensions of technologies? How are technologies appropriated in queer settings? How can and do technologies queer research? Do materialities put restraints on a queer research agenda and if so, in which ways? How do technologies enable interventions in heteronormative scripts of gender and sexuality? And what could queer STS mean? This open panel invites scholars working empirically as well as theoretically at the crossroads of STS and queer theory to discuss and engage with these and other related questions, thereby exploring what a queer approach might contribute to STS. Furthermore, the panel wishes to stimulate the formation of a network of scholars working within these fields, thereby providing an opportunity to share work in progress and to exchange ideas.

Paper abstracts should be up to 250 words. They should include the main arguments, methodology, and their contribution to the STS literature. The title of papers should be up to 10 words. Please send your abstract for a paper to semo@sund.ku.dk and marie-louise.holm@liu.se.

There will be maximum three sessions within this panel of 1½-hour time slots with fifteen minutes per presentation. A session will consist of maximum five papers, one chairperson, and a fifteen-minute open discussion slot.

All presenters must have a user account with the submission system of the 4S/EASST meeting (see http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/ssss/4s12/). Submitters can create accounts on behalf of their co-authors and session participants, if necessary. Anyone who has participated in a 4S meeting in the last four years should already have a user account.

Deadline for submissions is 11th March 2012. Acception notifications will be given 1st May 2012.

For more information about the 4S/EASST meeting 2012 and other open panels, see www.easst.net/conferences/easst2012.shtml.

Please forward this call to anyone to whom it might be relevant."

"GLSEN Releases Groundbreaking Study of Bias, Bullying and Homophobia in Grades K-6"

Sounds interesting:
"The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) today released a new report on school climate, biased remarks and bullying, Playgrounds and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States. The report, based on national surveys of 1,065 elementary school students in 3rd to 6th grade and 1,099 elementary school teachers of K-6th grade, examines students' and teachers' experiences with biased remarks and bullying, and their attitudes about gender expression and family diversity. The surveys were conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of GLSEN during November and December 2010." (Source: http://bit.ly/yp4iFL)


http://www.glsen.org/binary-data/GLSEN_ATTACHMENTS/file/000/002/2027-1.pdf

X:enius on intersexuality

Just watched an episode of the TV program "X:enius" (channel: "arte") on intersexuality with very interesting contributions - e.g. by an M.D. who in the past was pro 'corrective' surgery with babies but who changed his mind and now demands to either eliminate the categorization of 'sex' in birth certificates or to create a third option for intersexual persons to indicate that intersexuality has an equal status to 'female' and 'male'. This is basically also the conclusion of the episode.

In the attempt to explore the 'mystery' gender/sex, not only researchers and doctors with opposing viewpoints - i.e. supporting the gender-binary as a norm vs. considering gender as open category - intersexuals and parents of intersexuals are interviewed. It seems obvious that surgery causes more damage than it prevents: Many intersexuals feel that they were physically and psychologically forced into one of two genders and accuse the doctors to have caused them suffering. It also seems that surgery predominantly serves the parents to feel less awkward because their child does not optically fit one of the two genders - because that is what the surgery is for: an optical adaption. If you understand German you may want to watch the episode online, I do not want to repeat here the description of the procedure for preventing the cosmetic vagina from adhering. The argument that intersexuals would otherwise experience bullying at school ("Kids can be cruel") proves to be not valid as long as educational measures are taken and tolerance is an integral part of a society. Children only reflect what adults offer them as models...

My personal conclusion on this episode: very interesting and very useful for educational purpose - especially for its nice message at the end.

Upcoming Conferences / Call for Papers

1. NeuroCultures - NeuroGenderings II: 13 - 15 September 2012, University of Vienna (http://neurocultures2012.univie.ac.at)

In co-operation with the network NeuroGenderings, the Gender Research Office at the University of Vienna, will launch a three-day international, interdisciplinary conference entitled "NeuroCultures – NeuroGenderings II" 13 - 15 September 2012 at the University of Vienna.

The aim of the conference "NeuroCultures – NeuroGenderings II" is to improve reflective scientific approaches concerned with sex/gender and the brain, and to gain particular insight into the transformation or persistence of gendered norms and values that accompany the mutual entanglements between brain research, various disciplines and public discourse.

End-date for submitting papers to the conference is 25 March 2012.

2. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Science and Technology: October 17-20, 2012, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark (http://4sonline.org/meeting)

“Design and displacement – social studies of science and technology”

For the Joint 4S/EASST conference 2012 we broadly invite papers that address the dynamics and interrelationships between science, technology and society. Papers which address the meeting’s theme ‘Design and Displacement’ are especially relevant, but papers on any topic in STS are welcome.

The conference encourages analytic, critical and practical engagement with design and displacement in several ways. First, it points to the need for investigating the relation between design intentions and their displacements, for example as catalysts for change and conflict. It also highlights the importance of investigating design controversies. It locates design practices in broader political contexts, and focuses attention on how design facilitates or hinders social inclusion, locally and globally. The theme ‘Design and Displacement’ invites careful analyses of the way design practices take part in shaping worlds. However, ‘Design and Displacement’ also raises questions around STS as design work and practice-based interventions. In this sense design becomes simultaneously topic and outcome, a situation that raises new questions concerning the role of STS research.

Deadline for submissions of individual papers and session proposals: March 11, 2012.

IAS-STS Conference 2012 - Call for Papers

Each year, the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society (IAS-STS) - hosted by the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ) - holds a conference which in 2012 will be on May 7-8.

The call for papers will be open until January 30.

For this conference, the Working Group Queer STS will organize a special session: 

Queerness in science and technology studies
This session is interested in queer perspectives in and on science and technology studies which challenge heteronormative and hegemonic point of views in these fields of research. First of all, this calls for papers dealing with the basic theoretical question: If a ‘queer’ point of view stands for opposing the hegemonic views – how useful, then, is the concept of ‘queerness’ for science and technology studies? Secondly, we are interested in papers analysing STS on a meta-level: How do hegemonic views become established? What structural role does heteronormativity play in STS?

Furthermore, we invite scholars who discuss queer STS based on empirical research, asking for instance: Who are ‘the others’ in discourses about ‘average users’ of technology? How much deviation from the norm is implied or tolerated when standard procedures in science and technology are defined? What are methodological consequences when critique on heteronormativity in research is taken into account? How does this perspective influence the role of the researcher? [text taken form the call]

Upcoming event in Graz

Check out queerograd 2011 - FORUM STADTPARK GRAZ, 2./3.12.2011

News

I am happy to announce that from now on this blog will be associated with the working group QUEER STS (Science and Technology Studies) hosted by a group of researchers and friends of IFZ - Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture.

The working group is interested in queer perspectives in and on science and technology studies which challenge heteronormative and hegemonic points of view in these fields of research. In our discussions and research we consider different angles, for instance:

• If a ‘queer’ point of view stands for opposing the hegemonic views – how useful, then, is the concept of ‘queerness’ for science and technology studies?
• How do hegemonic views become established? What structural role does heteronormativity play in STS?
• Who are ‘the others’ in discourses about ‘average users’ of technology?
• How much deviation from the norm is implied or tolerated when standard procedures in science and technology are defined?
• What are methodological consequences when critique on heteronormativity in research is taken into account?
• How does a queer perspective influence the role of the researcher?

Born this way?

Some days ago, a friend forwarded a video to me which fits perfectly with our topic here: It was made by Travis Nuckolls and Chris Baker from street interviews they conducted in Colorado Springs (information taken from the video description). They were asking people when they decided to be straight in order to challenge the opinion that homosexuality was a choice. "Cool," I thought when I saw it first. But on second thought: If gender and sexuality are interdependent and both are social constructions, what do this question and the answers actually suggest? That sexual preferences are something we are born with? Imagine a similar experiment: What would people answer when asked when they decided to be a woman/man? That they were born this way?
Yes, it is a good thing to make people aware of the fact that homosexuality is not a choice. Neither is heterosexuality. We are not born women or men, nor are we born hetero- or homosexual... These are products of a heteronormative society.

Genderless?

Back from summer break, I would like to share a story with you I came across in August. Heteronormativity is also about defining gender as a binary, and people seem to have an urge to know whether someone is one or the other. This story is on parents who keep the gender of their third child a secret. They consider their baby's genitals as "private business". And they are - I guess, everybody would agree on that when it comes to their own genitals. It is fascinating how strongly the media and people react to the parents' decision not to talk publicly about something that would expose a human being to stereotypes. Note: The parents do not consider their child as genderless, they just do not talk about gender.
Now: There is the Austrian article which triggered my interest, and an article the mother wrote herself which I chose because I am suspicious of the authenticity of information in newspaper articles. But I guess there is much more to find on the story on the WWW if you are interested.

The questions that came to my mind while reading the articles were: Why would people think that raising a 'genderless' child would be possible in this gendered society? And if it was possible: why would it be a problem?

Your comments on this post are, as always, very welcome.

Paper online

The paper related to the workshop we had at the IAS-STS Conference is now online available. Comments are very welcome.
FYI the full citation: Hofstätter, Birgit & Wöllmann, Torsten (2011). The Concept of ‘Heteronormativity’ and its Methodological Implications. In: Hofstätter, Birgit & Getzinger, Günter (Eds.). Proceedings of the 10th Annual IAS-STS Conference on Critical Issues in Science and Technology Studies, 2nd -3rd May 2011 (CD-ROM). Graz: IFZ Eigenverlag. ISBN 978-3-9502678-4-6 [Online: http://www.ifz.tugraz.at/ias/Media/Dateien/Downloads-IFZ/IAS-STS/10th-Annual-IAS-STS-Conference/Proceedings/Hofstaetter_Woellmann_Ext-Abstract]

Green Porno / Seduce me

As promised in the workshop, I here post the link to the adorable series of Isabella Rossellini "Seduce me" and "Green Porno": http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno/
You can watch many - if not all - episodes online.
The video we showed in our introduction is called "Noah's Ark" - questioning the idea that heterosexuality and gender as binary category are 'naturally given'. Enjoy!