Beyond Gender Binaries: An Intersectional Orientation to Communication and Identities

by Cindy L. Griffin

Overview

Beyond Gender Binaries uses a feminist, intersectional, and invitational approach to understanding identities and how they relate to communication. Taking readers outside the familiar binary constructions of gender and identity, Cindy L. Griffin addresses—through a feminist intersectional lens—communication, identity, power and privilege, personhood and citizenship, safety in public and private spaces, and hegemony and colonialism. Twelve chapters focus on critical learning through careful exploration of key terms and concepts. Griffin illustrates these with historical and contemporary examples and provides concrete guides to intersectional approaches to communication. This textbook highlights not just the ways individuals, systems, structures, and institutions use communication to privilege particular identities discursively and materially, but also the myriad ways that communication can be used to disrupt privilege and respectfully acknowledge the nonbinary and intersectional nature of every person’s identity.

Key features include:

• Intersectional approaches to explaining and understanding identities and communication are the foundation of each chapter and inform the presentation of information throughout the book.
• Contemporary and historical examples are included in every chapter, highlighting the intersectional nature of identity and the role of communication in our interactions with other people.
• Complex and challenging ideas are presented in clear, respectful, and accessible ways throughout the book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520297289
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Cindy L. Griffin is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University. She has authored, coauthored, and edited seven books and numerous articles on communication, persuasive and invitational rhetoric, feminism, intersectionality, and civility.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xiii

List of Guides to Communication xi

Part I Conceptual Foundations of Interesectionality

1 Intersectional Definitions of Identity and Communication 3

The Danger of a Single Story 4

What Is intersectionality? 6

The Problems with Essentialist Thinking 8

The Benefits of Intersectional Thinking 10

What Is Communication? 12

Defining Communication Intersectionally 13

Communication and Hierarchies of Value 15

Discourse and Truth Regimes 15

Gender Identity: Communication beyond Binaries 18

Invitational Rhetoric 21

Resources 24

Notes 24

2 Intersectional Explorations of Discourses of Rights 27

Gender Equality Is Your Issue, Too 28

Feminism and Discourses of Rights 28

First Wave Feminism 29

Second Wave Feminism 31

Third Wave Feminism 34

Patriarchy and Discourses of Rights 38

The American Dream and Promises Made 39

Entitlement and the Loss of a Birthright 42

From Entitlement to Outrage 43

Intersectionality and Discourses of Rights 47

Resources 48

Notes 48

3 Intersectional Approaches to Privilege and Its Impact on Communication 51

Asking Intersectional Questions 52

Privilege as a Kaleidoscope of Unmarked Advantages 52

Unearned Privileges 53

Unpacking Your Own Invisible Knapsack and Improving Communication 59

Individual and Collective Guilt 60

Privilege and the Aesthetics of Human Disqualification 62

Disqualification and Phobias 63

Unmasking Phobias 64

The Possibility of Alliances and Coalitions 65

Resources 67

Notes 67

Part II Feminist Intersectional Orientations to Rights

4 Intersectional Approaches to Personhood and Citizenship 71

The Right to Be Considered Fully Human 72

The Right to Personhood: Hierarchies of Humanness 73

Criteria for Personhood: The Discourse of Undesirable Traits 75

"Feebleminded," Poor, and "Promiscuous" Women 76

Immigrants 76

Troublemakers 76

Black and Hispanic Women 77

Native American Women 77

Transgender Individuals 78

Inmates 78

The Right to Citizenship: The Discourse of Belonging 80

Criteria for Incivility: Discourses of Social Polarization 83

Human Rights, Civility, and Universal Moral Respect 87

Resources 90

Notes 90

5 Intersectional Approaches to Safety in Public Spaces 93

The Right to Safety 94

Discourses of Harassment 95

The Many Faces of Street Harassment 96

The Many Faces of Cyber Harassment 98

Hate Speech 102

Discourses of Demonization 103

Policing Masculinity: Violence against Black and Latino Boys and Men 105

Criminalizing Normal Behaviors 105

Crime Myths and Scapegoating 108

Gentrification and Gang Injunctions 109

A Discursive Regime of Danger 111

The Absence of Democracy 112

The Work Our Words Do 113

Resources 116

Notes 116

6 Intersectional Approaches to Safety in Private Spaces 119

In Praise of Insubordination 120

The Right to Safety in Private Spaces 120

Interpersonal and Sexual Violence 121

Defining interpersonal Violence 121

Defining Sexual Violence 121

Targets and Perpetrators of Interpersonal and Sexual Violence 123

Intersecting Systems of Power and Oppression 126

Rape Myths and Rape Scripts 126

The Unrapeable Myth 128

Societal and Historical Traumas 130

Cultural and Social Norms 132

The Lie of Entitlement 134

Rewriting the Scripts 136

Resources 139

Notes 139

7 Intersectional Discourses for Talking about Sexual Violence 143

Discourses of Public Cruelty 144

Communication and the Burden of Performance 144

Communication and the Burden of Credibility 146

Communication and the Burden of Silence 148

Communication and the Burden of Ability 150

Communication about the Perpetrators: Forces beyond Their Control 151

Communication from the Perpetrators: "Legitimate Forms of Humiliation" 154

Stories of Resilience and Resistance 156

On the Streets 156

On College Campuses 157

In Social Settings 158

In Communities 159

In Free Trade Zones 160

The Power of Community 163

Resources 165

Notes 165

8 Intersectional Approaches to Spaces for Learning 169

The Right to Safety in Our Schools 170

Bullying 170

Who Bullies and Who Gets Bullied? 171

Bullying: Real Time and Online Patterns 173

Mass Shootings: Yesterday and Today 174

Violence Is Synonymous with Masculinity 178

Microaggressions 178

Defining Microaggressions 179

Examples of Microaggressions 181

Non-Binary Pronouns 182

The Right to Learn 185

Title IX, Civil Rights Act, and Americans with Disabilities Act: No Exclusions 185

Curriculum Matters 187

Rejecting Discourses of Supremacy 190

Resources 193

Notes 193

9 Intersectional Approaches to Workplace Injustices 197

A Different Story of Poor Communities 198

Fast Fashion: Poverty Wages and Dreadful Working Conditions 198

Inexpensive Clothing: At What Cost? 200

Dangerous Conditions: Profits Not Safety 201

Wage Gaps: The Differences in Identities 202

The Myths of Poverty 205

The Bootstrap Myth 206

The Stigmatization of Poverty 209

Poverty and Epistemic Justice 211

Workplace Harassment: Real Time and Online 212

Defining Workplace Harassment 213

Identities and Workplace Harassment 214

Sexual Harassment 217

Bullying 219

Listening to Subordinates Rather Than Supervisors 221

Resources 223

Notes 223

Part III Intersectionality and Structures of Power

10 Hegemony and Structures of Power 229

Hegemony and the Manufacturing of Consent 230

Defining Hegemony 230

How Ideas Become Hegemonic 232

Hegemony and Institutional Privilege and Bias 234

Understanding Institutional Privilege and Bias 235

Examples of Institutional Privilege and Bias 236

Hegemony and Systems of Privilege and Bias 239

Understanding Systems of Privilege and Bias 239

Systems Are Not Neutral 240

Hegemony and Structural Inequality 241

Intersectionality and Structures of Power 245

Resources 246

Notes 246

11 Discourses of Colonialism and Colonization 249

No One Is Purely One Thing 250

Defining Colonialism and Colonization 251

Examples of Discourses of Colonialism and Colonization 253

Colonial Masculinity 254

Colonizing Indigenous Gender Systems 255

Colonizing the Burqa 258

Colonizing Our Gaze 261

Internalized Colonization 264

Beyond Colonizing Discourses 267

Resources 269

Notes 269

12 Communicating through Feminist and Intersectional Lenses 273

The Revolutionary Power of Diverse Thought 274

Invitational Strategies for Intersectional Communication 275

Listen to Difference 276

Reject Hierarchies of Humanness 279

Engage Discomfort 280

Correct Ourselves 282

Beyond Gender Binaries: Decolonizing Our Bodies and Our Discourse 285

Decolonizing Our Bodies 286

Decolonizing Our Discourse 288

Power and Privilege as Constant Traveling Companions 290

Resources 292

Notes 292

References 293

Index 301