Description
How and why does the state need to define “what is a women”? This course argues that womanhood (according to the state) is a socio-political construct produced to channel bodies into reproductive, economic, and social functions where they can be regulated. We map this production across three ontological stations of the reproductive axis of control: maiden, mother, and crone. Against this axis stands the feral femme: the figure who refuses domestication.
The course investigates how the state attempted to domesticate the feral femme through cultural reform and legal battles. We shall explore how Victorian (British) modesty was imposed upon post-colonial bodies, replacing indigenous pluralities of vernacular sexualities. Finally, we deconstruct society’s modesty expectations through South Asian tales on fluidities in gender and sexualities, concluding with a parallel drawn between colonial India’s legal battles and social reform movements, with the rise in the world’s anti-gender and anti-pleasure policies.
We begin with an introduction into abjection and the politics of othering, and shall then delve into the legal landscapes sexuality professionals had to navigate in late 19th and early 20th centuries. The purpose of situating colonial India as a case study, provides us with a historical insight into how far-right, religious, authoritarian governments position women’s autonomy, gender pluralities and independent sex workers as central to controlling, regulating, legislating and conforming the body politic.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- By the end of the session, attendees will be able to analyze how womanhood is produced as a state instrument to be regulated through the Reproductive Axis of Control.
- By the end of the session, attendees will be able to articulate the social reform movement’s impact on the curbing femme autonomy.
AASECT Individual CE Provider #26-622-NR – You can review my Grievance Policy Here. This course meets the requirements of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and is approved for 2 CE credit. These CE credits may be applied toward AASECT certification and renewal of certification. Completion of this program does not ensure or guarantee AASECT certification. For further information please contact info@aasect.org.
