Rahilly ‘Gender Truth Regime’
Rahilly (2015) adapts Foucalt’s concept of a ‘truth regime’ to explain the ideological prevalence of the gender binary in modern western society. She argues that at an individual, interactional, structural and ideological level, the notion of sex and gender being intertwined has a pervasive effect. Weaving this with West and Zimmerman’s (1987) concept of ‘doing gender,’ she likens parents’ resistance to the gender binary to Bernstein and De la Cruz’s (2009) description of Hapa activists’ challenging of the US monoracial truth regime. Both the monoracial and gender truth regime promote a discourse of erasure of that which defies binaries – mixed race and trans individuals, in this case.
‘Truth regime’ refers to the hegemonic discourse that is accepted by society as true, functioning as an inherent truth. Rahilly (2015) …show more content…
Klein (2012) uses the example of school shooters to show the effects of living in an environment that privileges masculinity and subjugates those failing to live up to societal expectations. Her argument that masculinity and school shootings are linked is evidenced by brief analyses of well-known shootings and their perpetrators. The predominant message Klein sends is that these acts of violence are often presupposed by the perpetrator being a victim of bullying and denigration for failing to be seen as masculine. As masculinity in US society is often directly linked with selfhood and identity, Klein iterates that the shooters often felt that failing to be masculine would make them cease to exist at all. She argues that the cultural narrative that masculinity is intrinsically linked with violence, power, and domination can be attributed to boys resorting to extreme measures (like school shootings) to prove their
Rahilly (2015) adapts Foucalt’s concept of a ‘truth regime’ to explain the ideological prevalence of the gender binary in modern western society. She argues that at an individual, interactional, structural and ideological level, the notion of sex and gender being intertwined has a pervasive effect. Weaving this with West and Zimmerman’s (1987) concept of ‘doing gender,’ she likens parents’ resistance to the gender binary to Bernstein and De la Cruz’s (2009) description of Hapa activists’ challenging of the US monoracial truth regime. Both the monoracial and gender truth regime promote a discourse of erasure of that which defies binaries – mixed race and trans individuals, in this case.
‘Truth regime’ refers to the hegemonic discourse that is accepted by society as true, functioning as an inherent truth. Rahilly (2015) …show more content…
Klein (2012) uses the example of school shooters to show the effects of living in an environment that privileges masculinity and subjugates those failing to live up to societal expectations. Her argument that masculinity and school shootings are linked is evidenced by brief analyses of well-known shootings and their perpetrators. The predominant message Klein sends is that these acts of violence are often presupposed by the perpetrator being a victim of bullying and denigration for failing to be seen as masculine. As masculinity in US society is often directly linked with selfhood and identity, Klein iterates that the shooters often felt that failing to be masculine would make them cease to exist at all. She argues that the cultural narrative that masculinity is intrinsically linked with violence, power, and domination can be attributed to boys resorting to extreme measures (like school shootings) to prove their