A Commentary by Jai Krishna Ponnappan

Invest In Nature To Stop The Next Pandemic

A new study from Harvard University and international experts indicates that investments in nature are required to prevent the next pandemic.

As the globe battles to control COVID-19, a group of prominent scientific experts from the United States, Latin America, Africa, and South Asia published a study today laying out the scientific underpinnings for avoiding the next pandemic by limiting pathogen spillover from animals to humans.

The study makes research and action suggestions to avoid future pandemics that have been largely missing from high-level talks about prevention, including an unique proposal to combine conservation efforts with global healthcare system improvement.

The International Scientific Task Force to Prevent Pandemics at the Source argues that investments in outbreak control, such as diagnostic tests, medicines, and vaccinations, are important but insufficient in addressing pandemic risk.

These results come at a time when COVID-19 vaccination coverage in many low- and middle-income countries is still insufficient, and vaccine coverage in richer countries is far from reaching the levels required to control the Delta variation.

"To manage COVID-19, we've already spent more than $6 trillion on what may turn out to be the most expensive band aids ever bought."

~ Dr. Aaron Bernstein, interim director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

We must take steps to prevent pandemics from spreading by preventing disease transmission from animals to people.

We can also aid in the stabilization of the planet's climate and the revitalization of its biosphere, both of which are critical to our health and economic well-being.

Dr. Bernstein and colleagues estimated that avoiding the next pandemic—by decreasing deforestation and controlling the animal trade—could cost as low as $22 billion per year, or 2% of the economic and mortality costs of COVID-19 response.

The task force discovered that livestock operations, wildlife hunting and trade, land use change—particularly the destruction of tropical forests—expansion of agricultural lands, especially near human settlements; and rapid, unplanned urbanization all contribute to the spread of possible pandemic pathogens.

Climate change is also reducing ecosystems and forcing animals on land and water to migrate to new locations, allowing diseases to infect new hosts.

Since 1940, agriculture has been linked to more than half of all zoonotic infectious illnesses that have infected humans.

With the world's population growing and food insecurity on the rise as a result of the pandemic, investments in sustainable agriculture and crop and food waste prevention are critical to reducing biodiversity losses, conserving water resources, and preventing further land use change while promoting food security and economic well-being.

The task force's main proposal is to use investments in healthcare system improvement and One Health to promote conservation, animal and human health, and spillover prevention at the same time.

A successful example of this integrated approach may be seen in Borneo, where a decade of effort resulted in a 70% reduction in deforestation, access to health care for over 28,400 patients, and significant reductions in illnesses such as malaria, TB, and common pediatric disorders.

Additional funding and research suggestions include:

Priorities for investment:

Conserve tropical forests, including those that are reasonably intact and those that have been fragmented.

Improve biosecurity for livestock and farmed wild animals, particularly when animal husbandry takes place near large or quickly growing human populations.

Establish an intergovernmental cooperation with allied agencies such as the FAO, WHO, OIE, UNEP, and Wildlife Enforcement Networks to combat the danger of wild animals spreading disease to livestock and humans.

Leverage investments to improve healthcare systems and One Health platforms in low- and middle-income countries to promote conservation, animal and human health, and spillover prevention.

Prioritize research to determine which measures, such as those focusing on forest protection, wildlife hunting and trade, and agricultural biosecurity, are most successful in preventing spillovers.

Assess the economic, ecological, long-term viability, and social welfare effects of spillover-reduction measures.

In economic studies, include a cost-benefit analysis that includes the entire range of advantages that may result from spillover avoidance.

Improve our knowledge of where pandemics are most likely to occur, including evaluations of pandemic drivers such as government, travel, and population density.

Continue viral discoveries in wildlife to determine the range of possible diseases and enhance genotype-phenotype relationships that may be used to evaluate spillover risk and severity.

Harvard Chan C-CHANGE and the Harvard Global Health Institute convened the task group (HGHI).

The results of their first report will be converted into international policy recommendations in time for the G20 meeting in October and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November.

You may also want to read more analysis about the COVID-19 Pandemic here.

Global Cultural Contexts - A Must In Future Pandemics

Cultural Strategies To Combat Pandemics

According to experts from Simon Fraser University and two American institutions, combating future pandemics would need strategies that are not just scientifically sound but also take into account the cultural background of nations.

Carolyn Egri, a professor at Simon Fraser University's Beedie School of Business, examined COVID-19 case data from 107 countries alongside Ratan Dheer (Eastern Michigan University) and Len Trevio (Florida Atlantic University), concentrating on the first 91 days of the pandemic.

Researchers found that nations that put a higher cultural emphasis on the collective society over the individual, with people more inclined to follow government orders, had lower COVID-19 case growth.

The findings of their research appear in the Journal of International Business Studies.

Countries that prioritize group collaboration and well-being, such as Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore, were able to rapidly adjust their behavior and restrict COVID-19 case development.

Case growth was higher in individualistic nations like Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which emphasize individual freedom and choice.

Because citizens were more inclined to obey government instructions, countries with a high power distance, where people accept hierarchical power connections, had lower case growth.

Despite the lack of full lockdowns, people in Japan and Taiwan practiced mask wearing, physical distance, and self-isolation.

Case growth rates were greater in low power distance countries, which are more equal and have citizens who are more inclined to challenge specialists.

COVID-19 limitations were opposed in Germany and the United States, for example.

The researchers also highlight that nations with strong uncertainty avoidance, such as Portugal and Spain, which value predictability and are usually reluctant to new ideas, challenged COVID-19 limitations and had greater case growth than countries with lower risk aversion, such as Denmark.

The culture of the country and the government's reaction to the epidemic.

Governments tightened containment and closure restrictions during the initial wave of the epidemic, although the efficacy of these efforts was determined by a country's culture.

While relatively modest levels of government involvement decreased case increase in collectivist and high power distance nations (Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan), pandemic spread in individualistic and low power distance countries required greater and more restrictive government actions (Canada, U.S., U.K.).

According to the results, governments in individualistic countries may promote behavioral change early in a pandemic by concentrating on incentives that benefit individuals and decrease individual suffering, such as unemployment benefits and food subsidies.

While authoritative leadership and rules are less likely to foster compliance in low-power countries, governments can provide the right tools for individuals to make decisions, such as factual and scientific information—including knowledge gained from previous pandemics—to help them make informed decisions.

Low-power-distance governments may also enlist the help of the media, local governments, public-service agencies, and non-governmental organizations to promote public compliance.

The authors of the study also recommend that governments should communicate clearly and transparently with citizens in high-uncertainty-avoidance countries, where people may be particularly concerned about changes to their everyday lives and routines meant to reduce COVID-19 case development.

Government officials may utilize this study on the effect of culture on the transmission of infectious illnesses to develop COVID-19 and future pandemic mitigation measures that save lives while reducing economic costs.

Multinational businesses and employee well-being: insights

Despite the fact that the worldwide pandemic has hastened the transition to virtual work, there will certainly be cultural disparities in workers adopting large-scale and long-term job digitalization in the post-pandemic future.

While workers in individualistic nations may appreciate the virtual workplace's greater flexibility and freedom, employees in collectivistic countries may experience increasing social isolation in less relationship-oriented virtual workplaces.

Multinational companies will need to manage employee relations and develop culturally appropriate recruiting, training, and support methods.

Companies' adjustment to post-pandemic workplaces must also take cultural factors into account.

In high-power countries, corporations should strive to establish clear standards and processes, while in low-power countries, employee involvement in planning, more tailored training, and flexibility may be required to secure commitment.

You may also want to read more analysis about the COVID-19 Pandemic here.

Third Wave Of Feminism

Third wave feminism owes a lot to first and second wave feminism; it assumes a lot of the same problems and adds a fresh layer of feminist critique.

Drawing on postmodernism and deconstruction, some third-wave feminists reject ‘theory' as being too totalizing or universalizing.

Theory may be substituted with narratives or new forms of writing, but the goal for these feminists is to shake up some of the metaphysical concepts that theory is based on, such as the term "woman."

Other third-wave feminists are open to new theories and approaches to feminism.

Not everyone who identifies as a third wave feminist agrees on the topics, issues, and methodologies that best advance the feminist cause, just as not everyone who identifies as a second wave feminist agrees on the topics, issues, and methodologies that best advance the feminist cause.

Not every feminist I discuss using this thematic approach to the waves would necessarily embrace any particular ‘wave' designation.

Despite this, there are some common themes. I utilize the theme arrangement to look at third-wave feminist explanations of consciousness and language structures, as well as some new social change tactics.

Third wave feminism, like the first and second waves, makes innovative use of culture to further the feminist cause.

Here are some of the defining aspects of third wave feminism(Click through to learn in more detail):

You may also want to read more about Feminism and Activism here.

Third Wave Of Feminism - Poverty, Women, And Youth Culture

The term "feminist" was enthusiastically used by second-wave feminists, but not all third-wave feminists want to call themselves feminists or even consider themselves to be part of the feminist movement.

Rather, many young women embrace what they refer to as "female culture" or "youth culture."

They recognize the power of being a female, not in terms of sexual attractiveness, but in terms of personal strength and the ability to achieve anything you want.

Some boldly wear pink hair ribbons and knee socks, carry handbags designed for very young girls, and flaunt their own flair.

While it may be tempting to dismiss such acts as infantilizing or even complicit in women's oppression, youth culture feminists view them as a kind of self-determination and confidence in one's own power.

Grrl power praises the strength of adolescent culture while also adopting a moniker that some feminists consider degrading or infantilizing.

Grrl's double r also denotes fury and aggressiveness.

Grrl power is a movement that seeks to assert agency and efficacy in the face of a society that devalues young people's contributions.

By breaking feminism out of the ranks of upper and middle class educated women, third wave feminism aims to attract girls and women into the fold.

Youth, impoverished women, women from rural regions, and a slew of other women and groups formerly excluded from feminist thought and activist ranks all contribute to the third wave of feminism.

Of course, feminist victories have given rise to youth culture and grrl power.

Many young men and women in the United States and Europe now think that women are equal — not only that they are seen to be equal, but also that they are legally equal.

Many third-wave feminists believe that if they start there, they may accept any personal identity – feminine or not – and transform themselves into anything they choose.

However, women are not treated equally everywhere, even in the United States and Europe.

The sexualization of younger and younger girls is a kind of antithesis to youth culture feminism.

On the one hand, this may indicate a societal acceptance of women asserting their sexual enjoyment rights.

On the other side, sexually objectifying extremely young children may be a retaliation for feminist achievements.

Some feminists may view sexually explicit clothes for adolescent girls as empowering and grrl power, while others will decry the sexist fashion industrial complex.

Some feminists, both within and outside of the third wave youth culture, have said that third wave feminism lacks a clear political goal and that third wave feminists are unpolitical.

One of the counter-arguments is that third-wave feminism utilizes cultural production and conscious consumption as a political weapon, as we've previously seen.

Even if young girls from relatively affluent backgrounds believe they are not oppressed and thus feel excluded from other feminist agendas, there are still social justice causes worthy of coalitional politics to bring about social change – many of which are relevant to their own lives as females or sexual beings.

Finally, feminist theory has traditionally been the domain of university-educated women and academic women.

However, even if some of this activity and other acts of resistance are not usually recognized as feminist, that has not been the site of much feminist activism.

Academic feminist theory has been chastised for neglecting to recognize the contributions of women from various socioeconomic backgrounds — not only the young, but also the poor and disadvantaged.

Poor women have always been engaged in action and resistance, but theory has always had a classist tint to it - ‘theorists' are only those who have the time to think and write.

Deconstructing that myth reveals fresh feminist ideas and tactics.

You may also want to read more about Feminism and Activism here.

Third Wave Of Feminism - Feminism And Disability Rights

The confluence of disability studies and feminist philosophy is another key discovery in current third wave feminism.

Disability studies, like feminism, opposes ‘normative' notions of the body: beliefs that assert that there is a normal body.

When societal perceptions of a normal body prevail, departures from that standard are labeled as impairments, and a person is labeled handicapped.

However, new research in the field of disability studies casts doubt on that notion.

Disability, on the other hand, is caused by societal systems that make it more difficult for certain bodies to operate than others.

Consider the difference between vision impairment and motility.

The normative definition of vision is very broad, and society (represented here by signs, insurance companies, societal norms of attractiveness, and so on) allows for defective eyesight.

Unless a visual impairment is severe, a person may operate in the same way as others who do not have a "vision issue." In other words, it is a socially acceptable "disability."

However, not all impairments are so easily accommodated.

A excellent counter-example is mobility.

If a person's capacity to move and get about in society is hampered by a body that differs from the bodies of the majority of people, or at least those in positions of power, that individual may not be able to operate as well as others who do not have this distinct body.

Working on the intersections of disability and feminism, feminists contend that pathologizing the nonnormative body misrepresents disability.

They believe that disability is a social system failing rather than a fault in a specific body.

The social system maintains a hierarchy of bodies that approach the norm, and it often fails to invest in structural improvements that would enable those bodies furthest from the standard to operate effectively and meaningfully contribute to the social total.

Wheelchair users are essentially denied entry when university and government building entrances are only accessible via steps.

When communication or discussion takes place via a phone line, a deaf person is left out of the dialogue, information, or communication.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which went into effect in December 2006 (and was preceded by the Declaration of the Rights of Disabled Persons in 1975), has made significant progress in altering the societal view of disability.

Rather of considering persons with disabilities as objects in need of help, the United Nations Convention stresses their rights and subjectivity.

The Convention emphasizes the social obligation to provide accessible buildings, phone lines equipped with technology for the hearing impaired, and numerous other changes to ensure the full participation of people with disabilities in society by shifting thinking about disability away from an individual with a physical problem to a society with an accommodation problem.

Similarly, the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 26: Integration of Persons with Disabilities) and national laws encourage a change in thinking about disability.

Feminists contribute to this study by applying feminist ethics, epistemology, and other ideas to disability studies, as well as borrowing or discovering new ways to think about feminism from disability studies.

Many feminist theorists utilize feminist ethics of care to explain some of the problems that handicapped people and their carers face on a personal level, in the medical system, and in society at large.

Feminist bioethics, which is often founded on an ethics of care and other feminist ethical frameworks, discusses and examines problems concerning the handicapped in a similar way.

The techniques utilized as well as the substance of the problems are what make these issues feminist.

The approaches rely on nonhierarchical ethical concerns, a relational view of the self, and personal story to elucidate ethical arguments.

Relationships between caregivers and the cared for, sexuality and disability, rights to carry and raise children, and rape and abuse of the handicapped are only a few of the numerous feminist concerns.

Feminist epistemology is helpful in communicating the needs and aspirations of individuals from various backgrounds.

Remember how one feminist epistemological suggestion was to attempt to view the world through the eyes of the other.

When confronted with a handicap in another person, it's natural to envision what it's like to be that person and extrapolate from one's own experience.

If an able-bodied person observes someone who is unable to use her arm, that able-bodied person may recall how it felt to live with a sprained wrist and envision the other's handicap based on that limited experience.

Feminist epistemology, on the other hand, proposes that we conceive her impairment via her experience.

This entails listening to and learning from the individual in order to comprehend the role of disability in her life, as well as the true role of disability in one's own life.

What impact does your perception of her handicap have on her life?
Is she aware of an able-bodied person's pitying gaze?
Is she relegated to her useless arm?

If anything like an appropriate knowledge of disability is conceivable, these and other issues must be addressed.

Of course, feminism isn't alone in its quest to better comprehend others' experiences; comparable discoveries can be found in oppression studies in general, as well as moral philosophy.

The confluence of disability studies and feminism is also useful for considering how transgendered individuals have been treated in the past and what kinds of alternatives might be imagined.

Instead of attempting to ‘fix' the transgendered person by forcing them to adhere to one of just two gender options that also corresponds to a supposed biological sex, we could strive to repair the societal expectations and conventions that assume gender and sex fall along such simple boundaries.

We can think about individuals in terms of various genders and sexes without having to name or categorize them.

Of fact, a person may choose to be different genders at different times in their lives.

This kind of dramatic shift isn't simple to achieve; for starters, we'd have to give up our gendered pronouns.

Language, on the other hand, is extremely flexible and reacts quickly to social changes.

You may also want to read more about Feminism and Activism here.

Third Wave Of Feminism - Ecofeminism And Birth Of Ecofeminists

Fighting racism and sexism in culture necessitates combating racism and sexism in environmental laws and regulations as well.

Environmental racism refers to environmental activities that are more or less overtly discriminatory.

A classic example is the proximity of large hazardous emitters near mainly black or Latino communities.

Environmental racism may be evident in anything from the exporting of trash from the developed world to trade agreements that have resulted in significant outsourcing of manufacturing employment requiring hazardous production techniques to countries without regulatory laws and bodies.

The hundreds of maquiladoras in northern Mexico are one such example that feminists are particularly interested in since it combines racism, sexism, and environmental concerns.

Maquiladoras are primarily export-oriented manufacturing plants.

Because of their desire to remain near to home and because they are considered to be more docile than male workers, women are recruited to work long hours for low compensation.

Workers and the surrounding populations are exposed to hazardous chemicals and inadequately disposed toxic waste, making working conditions unpleasant.

Issues of race, class, gender, and the environment are often interwoven, as this case demonstrates.

Ecofeminism examines the intersection of oppressive systems, with a focus on our relationships with the environment and the non-human world.

Ecofeminism may be generally defined as a fusion of environmental and feminist issues.

However, this straightforward statement conceals a sophisticated corpus of thought that encompasses the nonhuman world as well as whole ecosystems in its notion of oppression.

The ethical, philosophical, and theological aspects of ecofeminism are all present.

Ecofeminist utopias envisage a future in which people see themselves as part of nature rather than apart from it, and in which social interactions are non-hierarchical and non-competitive.

Some ecofeminists search for goddess worship practices or remains of matriarchal civilizations' mythologies.

The awareness that people need to look at the planet differently is one of ecofeminism's contributions to moral theory and practice.

The majority of ecofeminists base their ethics on an ecological movement philosophy.

Some feminists, for example, may use the concept of "deep ecology," which argues that every living thing has inherent worth.

Others may base their ecofeminist ethics on ‘social ecology,' which differentiates between a biological ‘first nature' and a human social ‘second nature.'

Others believe that the whole planet is alive, rejecting mechanical or utilitarian views of humanity's connection with the world in favor of a notion of human connectivity with non-human nature.

Humans are part of an interwoven web of life, not necessarily the center, according to ecofeminists or feminists concerned with the natural world.

Aside from ethics, some ecofeminist ideologies provide non-dualistic metaphysical concepts.

They promote a fresh, new study of human identity, politics, and religion by rejecting the nature/human dichotomy.

Furthermore, the dominance of nature often has a negative impact on women and the impoverished initially.

Ecofeminists push the ecology movement to consider how environmental issues should also include gender, racism, and class.

This is what distinguishes this hypothesis from others in that it draws similarities between human dominance of the planet and masculine dominance of females.

Indeed, a simple examination of how the planet is often portrayed reveals similar connections.

For example, we refer to ‘Mother Earth' and ‘Mother Nature,' and we refer to ‘the rape of nature' when people do significant damage to this ‘Mother.'

The similarity between these two systems of dominance shows that targeting individual instances of dominance, as certain sections of the feminist and environmental movements have done, is inadequate.

Instead, we must broaden our thinking and ethical responsibilities to encompass a confrontation with all systems of dominance and hierarchy.

The aim is to create a life-affirming, long-term existence free of oppressive institutions. Animal rights ecofeminists, for example, may choose to live a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

Vegans do not consume or utilize animal products in any way.

Vegetarians provide moral reasons for their stance, which vary from the animal's right not to be hurt by humans to resource allocation in society.

One pound of beef requires sixteen pounds of grain, and the wealthiest nations consume much more grain and meat than they need. Ecofeminists, on the other hand, adopt a different approach.

Some of these additional reasons for vegetarianism could be included in an ecofeminist rationale for vegetarianism, but it would almost certainly incorporate feminist analysis as well.

Many ecofeminist vegans believe that eating dairy and eggs contributes to the exploitation of women.

After all, milk and eggs are produced by women, and since environmental issues are linked to feminist concerns, it is necessary to pay attention to this reality.

Other feminists and non-feminists have criticized ecofeminism for

(1) drawing what appear to be rather speculative conclusions about matriarchal goddess societies;
(2) lacking credibility in positing the intrinsic value of inanimate objects and the earth; and
(3) combining ecology and feminism in a way that at times appears to assert women's moral superiority or exclude men from ecolog.

While condemning men for the environment's mechanical, instrumental misuse, some ecofeminism seems to reject men's involvement in the revaluation of the planet and its resources.

Despite these critiques, ecofeminism's findings appear especially pertinent in the present era of global climate change, which coincides with the realization that we humans are at least partly responsible.

Ecofeminists have long advocated for the interconnectedness of people and the nonhuman environment.

We are now seeing some of the harmful consequences of our failure to recognize that reality.

You may also want to read more about Feminism and Activism here.

Third Wave Of Feminism - Objectification Of Women's Images And Depiction In Mainstream Media Pop Culture

Feminists all around the world are quietly but deliberately changing representations of women that they believe are oppressive or restricting.

Popular culture is a key vehicle for spreading both negative messages and emancipated or freeing images of women.

For example, in Brazil, campaigners developed a soap opera starring sexually empowered women, which has a large national viewership.

Sociologists have linked the soap's depiction of progressive pictures of women to a reduction in the number of births and a shift in divorce rates, which they attribute to the soap's portrayal of progressive images of women.

From 1977 until 2006, the Madres de Square de Mayo of Argentina wore white head scarves and marched around a public plaza weekly in a far more overt gesture of political protest.

They were protesting their children's "disappearance" in Argentina's Dirty War and elsewhere.

Their demonstration, like most feminist action, was expressly devoted to peace and justice, but they altered social and cultural expectations about women's involvement in politics by protesting.

They also provided a fresh perspective on parenting and posed questions about women's responsibilities throughout the world.

Other women's organizations have followed their lead, and some have even adopted their tactics to raise awareness about the consequences of war, demonstrate for peace, and continue the fight for human rights.

In popular culture, African American and Latino children often encounter problematic role models. Rap and hip hop music are full of dehumanizing, objectifying, violating, and exploiting words.

Musicians who live extravagant, reckless, and violent lives are frequently loved and imitated, while pimping and prostitution, reducing women to body parts, and other demeaning acts are also praised.

One third-wave method to combating sexism is hip hop feminism.

Hip hop feminism seeks for ways to validate one's self-worth and respect African American and Latino cultures within the larger American cultural scene.

In her book Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism, Patricia Hill Collins delves into the sexual stereotypes surrounding African Americans (2005).

She demonstrates how white femininity is constructed on the sacrifice of women of color as jezebels and other discarded representations of women.

Rap and hip hop music that degrades women as sexual objects not only reflects but also perpetuates racism and sexism in the past.

Recognize how a history of racism has led to a culture full of self-loathing and mistrust, which is frequently reflected in rap and hip hop music as part of the process.

Internalized or psychological oppression may be helpful in this situation.

Black or Latino women may internalize the degrading sexualized identities prevalent in hip hop culture, or others may utilize these identities to define and restrict them.

Fighting back requires not just altering the message, but also unlearning ingrained identities.

Hip hop feminism stresses the need of addressing the issue on many fronts.

Whites and blacks must fight the temptation to embrace the repressive images of hip hop culture as definitive, and music consumers must boycott the rich record companies and musicians that benefit from the dehumanization of black and Latina women.

The creation of a new aesthetic is one of the methods proposed by hip hop feminists and other feminists concerned with the intersections of race and gender.

A new aesthetic finds beauty not in comparison to white, European physical and artistic standards, but in accordance with real African American men and women – young and old – who are beautiful and whose artistic accomplishments are admirable, echoing the ‘Black is Beautiful' movement of the 1960s and 1970s as well as the Harlem Renaissance of the early twentieth century.

Positive female portrayals in hip hop culture are becoming increasingly prevalent, and most black women, understandably, reject degrading images in their personal lives.

Writing and publishing poetry and prose - asserting one's identity as an artist – is also part of the new aesthetic within Latina feminism.

Activists can often transform negative images of women and unhealthy messages about personal relationships or political roles into more open, diverse, and accepting portrayals of women and the many ways women act in society by using popular culture instead of (or in addition to) more overt forms of feminist argument.

Hip hop feminism proposes methods for men and women to assist and love one another as "brothers" and "sistas."

You may also want to read more about Feminism and Activism here.

Third Wave Of Feminism - Feminism Theorizing About Queer Human Beings

A movement among academics to reclaim the term "queer" from its negative connotation.

Queer theory advocates for a radical kind of liberation.

Making all those things that are identifications of what is ‘normal' queer - odd, surprising, and unpredictable – is what ‘queering norms' implies.

Everything is susceptible to performativity and parody, from self-identity to conduct to physicality.

Gender and sexuality are also separated by queer theorists.

Both are socially created in different ways and may change over time.

All sex and gender dichotomies, as well as all identity ascriptions, are challenged by queer theory.

The differences between woman and man, as well as female and male, heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual, and gay and lesbian, are all irrelevant.

Because queer theory opposes identity politics, it differs from lesbian ethics and other gay rights groups.

Traditionally, gay rights activists make claims on behalf of a specific community.

However, ‘queering the norm' undermines the group since there is no coherent or consistently held identity to make claims about.

Take the topic of transgender marriage, for example.

In most cultural settings, the dominant political environment is slightly equivocal regarding same-sex marriage.

However, transgender marriage presents an intriguing issue.

Transsexuals do not identify with their biological sex at birth, and they often undergo medical procedures to change their biological sex.

Some people just change a portion of their biological sex.

How can we decide who counts as a man and a woman if marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman?

If genders and bodies are not rigidly determined by biological sex, or if a transsexual chooses to only undergo a partial sex change (for example, a woman who wants to be a man but only has top surgery, keeping her female genitals), determining who is that one man and one woman for the purposes of legal marriage becomes more difficult.

According to queer theory, sex may take many diverse forms and take place in many different places, not simply heterosexual genital intercourse in a private house.

As a result, sex is neither a simple biological binary difference between male and female, nor is it reducible to heterosexual or gay relations.

Intersexual, transsexual, transgendered, old, young, multiracial, wealthy, poor, and each of these in various ways at different times, the sexed body may be intersexual, transsexual, transgendered, old, young, multiracial, rich, poor, and each of these in different ways at different times.

No type of sexuality is favored as "good sex," while others are condemned as "perverse," and people who aren't usually thought of as having sex do have sex (elderly, sick, mentally ill, etc.).

Importantly, queer theorists do not confine themselves to the study of sex, gender, and sexuality.

All sorts of conventions and identities, including race, class, and country, are destabilized by queer theory.

The dominant culture's norms and identity are visible. According to queer theory, liberation implies a complete rejection of such identities.

Unsurprisingly, some feminists see queer theory as a natural extension of feminism, while others believe it is anti-feminist.

When a transgendered individual, for example, embraces conventional notions of femininity, at least some feminists see this as problematic rather than liberating.

Allowing males to be more like women, to put it bluntly, does not seem to be a benefit.

Some feminists believe that feminism's (and vice versa's) use of queer theory is androcentric. As the experiencing subject, it largely depends on the self-determining person.

However, at least one major school of feminism rejects the idea of the self-determining person in favor of relational self-conceptions.

Nonetheless, both queer theory and feminism agree that strict gender standards — and most other kinds of norms – hurt the most vulnerable.

You may also want to read more about Feminism and Activism here.

Third Wave Of Feminism - The Sex Vs. Gender Debate!

Like second wave feminism, third wave feminism questions sex and gender conceptions.

Many third-wave feminists, on the other hand, oppose such structures by embracing them.

This is also a rejection of gender norms in the sense that anybody may accept a variety of apparently conflicting gender conceptions.

As a result, a woman may be both girlish and powerful, or feminine and self-assuredly powerful. Some third-wave feminists support women's use of cosmetics and cosmetic surgery as a form of self-expression (whereas second wave feminists likely see in both a manifestation of oppressive beauty standards).

As you would expect, some feminists, particularly those who identify as second wave feminists, find this troublesome.

Third-wave feminists support the practice as a means to give individual girls and women the freedom to choose what they want to be and who they want to be.

Gender as performance is another facet of third-wave feminism.

Judith Butler argues in Gender Trouble (1990) that gender performativity,

– acting out gender in a continuous sort of process
– actually creates the illusion of stable gender identities,

Despite the fact that some of the themes she discusses fall more naturally under the cluster of topics described as second wave.

Her work on performativity has been picked up and expanded upon by theorists both within and outside of feminism.

Butler dismisses French feminism (such as that of Irigaray and Cixous) as essentialist because it uses a concept of the feminine to articulate feminine writing or the "feminine feminine."

Gender as performance refers to the artificial creation of all gender via social activities that determine what constitutes gender.

Butler uses drag to demonstrate how putting on gender is essentially embracing the societal conventions that determine what gender involves.

Some people take Butler's statement to mean that he rejects the category of sex and replaces it with gender as performance.

However, in a subsequent book, Bodies that Matter (1993), she refutes this view, claiming that sex, as a biological category, is likewise molded by material conditioning.

In other words, just as there are no natural men and women, there are no natural males and females.

The bodies we postulate as existing independently of the discourse that creates them are a product of discourse.

Some third-wave feminists contend, in a similar vein, that desire is also manufactured rather than inherent.

The theory argues that people aren't "naturally heterosexual" or "naturally gay."

Acts and expressions are produced in accordance with societal standards that define a particular spectrum of wants, thus sexual identities are assumed via their performance.

Third-wave feminists open the way for flexible wants and what Butler refers to as "subversive repetition" by deconstructing natural desire.

Despite being constrained by societal norms that define acceptable kinds of want, a person may experiment with new forms of desire and discreetly challenge the rules.

This draws on the French postmodern feminists' ideas of autoeroticism and the diversity of sexual organs or female pleasure sites, as well as the second wave feminism's Our Bodies, Ourselves movement.

The focus is on enabling or empowering women to pursue their own sexual satisfaction in their own way.

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