BEXP 12A15 - Gender, Culture and Law : A Transnational Perspective

How gender, sexuality, culture and international politics have an impact in national and international law application ? In fact, why and how have gender and sexuality become social markers for the insertion of intersectional debates in the process of ‘making international politics’? What is the impact of international social mobilization in the process of changing legal systems across the world? These questions will open the perspective through which the discussions in this course will be proposed. The new multipolar transnational order has privileged civil society organization protagonism and collective mobilization beyond borders as strategies for the achievement of structural social changes regarding the acceptance of the LGBTQ communities worldwide. The legal and political propositions for gender and sexual equality have used categories such as “gender” and “sex” as epistemological and cultural perspectives for the establishment of human rights. This course aims to introduce students to different local contexts where the combination of civil society claim and legal changements have reshaped traditional discourses and practices. The sessions will thus be based on a scientific text (journal articles or book chapters) concerning the legal, political and cultural representation of LGBTQ population in different areas of the globe. Beginning with a general discussion about gender and sexuality from the point of view of international sociology of gender, the students will thereafter be introduced to the role of gender in transnational debates in a multipolar world order, especially in the sharing of values of gender equality and sexual diversity recognition. Along the sessions, the debates invite the students to complete a comparative and transnational reading of the different contexts and their own particularities in order to apprehend the principal challenges that remain unaccomplished for LGBTQ groups. Once the general discussion on the relevance of the gender for international politics, we will dedicate the sessions to case studies with the objective of analysing concrete social contexts internationally. The first case study will consider the Hindu religious specificities and the nationalist Indian politics as key actors to understand the local civil society mobilization through the last decades (until the achievement of the decriminalization of male homosexuality and the recognition of a “third gender”). After India, we will approach Japanese law as a legal structure contributing to challenge masculine local discourses on traditional institutions. Following, we will look over the North American of two-spirit religious tradition as its implication of local public policies. Mexico and Brazil will then be approached from intersectional lenses : these two examples will show how local class stratification may be a marker for the fabrication of traditional transgender identities. The role of prostitution as a practice inherent to its identification will be problematized in the interest of introducing class and informal labor regimes as ways of producing and experiencing a marginal gendered identity. The Middle East will be used as an example of resistance non only to cultural structures, but also to authoritarian regimes. The case of Syria will demonstrate discursive violence and its consequences in the political and cultural conflicts. Subsequently, we will examine the specificities of the African context. Firstly, the Ugandan case will show the mechanisms employed to resist to the anti-homosexuality law. Finally, a general session dedicated to West Africa will consider regional, local and international controversies regarding legal laws and traditional customs. Lastly, we will devote a session to a discussion on international legal and political components for the consolidation on gender and sexual minorities rights: The Principles of Yogyakarta. In sum, gender, sexuality and culture will be apprehended as socio-anthropological concepts embedded in local political and historical regimes contributing to consolidation of contemporary human rights.

At the end of the course, the student is expected to possess both generic skills and module specific skills.

1/ General skills :

• To develop their capacity to critically assess and engage with academic sources on gender and feminist theory.
• To avoid the pitfall of general stereotypes on Global South contexts regarding gender and sexuality isses.
• The capacity to create a coherent and critical reflection on different gender and sexuality cultural and legal systems.
• The capacity to present well-structured arguments supported by the proposed literature.
• The ability to identify and explain how gender and sexuality have become a crucial social marker for public policies.
• To argue towards a comparative perspective on different cultural systems and its implication in different gender and sexuality systems.

2/ Specific module skills :

• To emphasize on the various subtilities of concepts such as gender, sexuality, culture and identity.
• To reaffirm both the pertinence and controverses concerning gender and sexual minorities representation and their struggle for decriminalization in different political systems.
• To deconstruct the idea of gender as a fixed and universal social category.
• To develop a critical approach on different theories of gender and feminist debates when applied to different cultural and legal contexts.

This course will help the students better understand the present social challenges for gender and sexual minorities from a transnational point of view : different national legal systems will be approached in order to exemplify the complexity of the relation between culture, law and sexual minorities.

To validate the course, the student is expected to pass the following assignments :

1°) A group presentation (03 persons) of 30 minutes : 20% of final mark

• All the students are invited to speak individually
• The subject must be included in one of the sessions of the course

2°) A review on of the texts proposed in the mandatory reading for the session : between 1000 to 2000 words : 20% of final mark

3°) A final research paper including : (between 3500 to 4000 words) : 50% of final mark

• A title resuming the topic and the main argument exposed in the paper
• A theoretical introduction followed by a critical problem
• The bibliography used for the text (minimum of 04 references and 02 different authors)

4°) Participation mark (speaking and debating in class, critical references to the reading and attendance) : 10% of final mark