From Binary to Full Spectrum: Black and White to Living Color

From Binary to Full Spectrum:
Black & White to Living Color
Gender Studies with Judith Butler

Gender studies inform education

      In the 1990's, Gender Trouble (1990) by Judith Butler questioned the categories through which we see men and women. By exposing the cultural binary bias of what is categorized as men and women, Butler at once causes us to perceive human beings beyond biology. Instead a continuum of the expression of who a person is, beyond the biology of male and female, reveals an entire spectrum of expression in the human race. Historically, education has similarly locked students into binary categories: the accomplished learner or those who "get it" and the rest of us - the other. However, pedagogy in the last twenty years has developed a spectrum of differentiation initiatives that are learner-centered. This study is an examination of Butler's gender theory and its relevance to excellence in education.

Judith Butler exposes the simple binary

Butler argues that sex as a physical characteristic does not define the expression of a man or a woman. "The multiplications of gender possibilities dispose and disrupt the binary reitifications of gender," (Butler, p. 171). The rigid binary definitions of male and female are culturally constructed and regulated as if the obvious binary biological definition of sex actually becomes gender. Furthermore, both in language and perception, norm is considered male while what is not male is simply the other. 

The binary boxes humanity

                "The binary relation between culture and nature promotes a relationship of hierarchy in which culture freely 'imposes' meaning on nature, and, hence, renders it into an 'Other' to be appropriated to its own limitless uses, safeguarding the ideality of the signifier and the structure of signification on the model of domination," (Butler, p. 50). Butler goes on to elaborate with the arguments of several anthropologists that note how culture bestows agency, reason, and domination upon the male whereas the female is thus categorized as a physical, subordinated, emotional response. This system is established in language, religion, politics, and education. Humanity is boxed into the binary categories of what is male (agency) and what is female (subordination).

Biology embraces the full spectrum

          Apart from culturally established binary black and white categories of human beings, biology exudes a full spectrum in living color of human beings in the human race. The binary says there are two races: black and white. Biologically, in truth, the full spectrum illuminates an array of humanity that has a variation of colors and features that is infinite. The binary is us and them, point and counterpoint, two points of view and that is all. The full spectrum reveals human position and agency that is varied, nuanced, with shades of opinions and points of view that also are infinite. "The further question emerges: What plausibility can be given to an account of the Symbolic that requires a conformity to the Law that proves impossible to perform and that makes no room for the flexibility of the Law itself, its cultural reformulation in more plastic forms?" (Butler, p. 73). 

Tradition teaches to the binary boxes

      Traditional education has also used the binary boxes of the learners and the rest of us, a one-size-fits-all delivery system - which mandated that everyone learn the same thing at the same time, no matter what their individual needs were (Sarason, 1990). Intelligence was viewed as binary: either literacy/language or mathematical/spatial. Today multiple intelligences have replaced the binary with recognition of many more categories of skills: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical-rhythmic, interpersonal, intra-personal, and naturalistic, (Gardner, 1997).  We develop, think, and learn in different ways. Achieving our potential involves the interaction of what we are learning and agency of our particular intelligences.

Transition to the full spectrum of students

With secondary students, state and national standards delineate what students need to know and what they need to be able to do. Differentiated teaching promotes getting students there in the ways that accomodate students' learning styles, cultures, interests, prior knowledge, socialization needs, and comfort zones. Pedagogical options are selected and used according to students' needs for their achievement and advancement. The theory that drives differentiation is constructionism or the belief that learning occurs when the learner - the focus is on the learner - makes meaning out of content. Within constructionism are found a core group of design characteristics. These include: student choice, learning how to learn, reflection and think aloud, tradition and variety, collaboration, communicativeness, open-endedness, multiple learning modes, connections to experiences, and a variety of teaching styles (Benjamin, 2002, p. 8). Focusing on the student instead of the material, the goal is for student productivity and performance to increase. From the content, what they need to know, we build a process, facilitating learning, that results in a product, students demonstrating what they have accomplished. With respect for students' culture, teaching has moved beyond the binary process of dishing out one-size-fits-all content and separating those who get it from those who don't. By focusing on the student, as teachers we have moved to a higher calling. Moreover, we dignify our students by recognizing who they are and where they are coming from.

Differentiation dignifies learners

By focusing on the students instead of the content, differentiation dignifies the variety of learners we have in our classroom. We first assess a student's readiness to learn a concept or a skill. Readiness is the prime factor for beginning the process. If the student is not ready, the steps that lead to readiness must be decided and put into the plan. Secondly, we gage the student's interest or interests. By examining their interests, we are aware of their motivation in learning the particular concept or skill. Interests are used as a motivation factor in teaching the lesson. Lessons can be changed to fit a variety of interests. A book about dinosaurs will tap into a different interest than one about motorcyles. Finally, their style of learning is addressed. For some students, the visual aspect is key while for others the auditory piece is essential. By including both auditory and visual information and stimulation, a teacher has included both learning styles in the lesson. Practical means for assessing readiness, interests, and learning styles, include student inventories or surveys, documenting each student with a profile with classroom notes are them, portfolios with student work, interviewing students, student journals and reflection pieces, student artwork and collages, student speeches and collaborative dramas, student files with standardized test scores and reading/math assessments (Northey, 2005). A teacher's greatest honor is to be an observer of students growing and becoming in their classroom. To be a part of this incredible process, teachers must attend to it.

Differentiation does NOT assume individualization

"As in an orchestra composed of individuals, varied ensemble groups, sections, and soloists, the differentiated classroom is built around individuals, various small groups, and the class as a whole. They all work to 'learn and play the score,' albeit with varied instruments, soloparts, and roles in the whole, (Tomlinson, 1999, p. 13). Differentiation is NOT each student on a separate plan. To the contrary, students work together collaboratively and are reaching for the same or similar learning goals. However, flexibility with a wide range of instructional strategies that all focus on the students' needs, assist a teacher to focus on individuals, small groups, and the class at the same time. Connecting all students with the necessary essential understandings and standardized skills, at the individual appropriate time and in a variety of ways, distinguishes differentiation. The illustration comparing the teacher to the orchestra conductor best illustrates this skill of working with the whole, groups, and individuals in tandem.

Differentiation demonstrates learner-centered instruction

"A coach never achieves greatness for himself or his team by working to make all his players alike. To be great, and to make his players great, he must make each player the best he can be. No weakness in understanding or skill is overlooked. Every player plays from his or her competencies, not from a sense of deficiencies," (Tomlinson, 1999, p. 13). 

Performativity underpins gender & educational theory

          Butler writes: "There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; ... identity is perfomatively constituted by the very 'expressions' that are said to be its results.' (Butler, p. 25). This is to say that gender is a performance or an individual expression. It is agency. It is what one does at a specific time rather than a universal definition or categorization of who one is. The concept of gender performativity is central to Butler's work.

References

Benjamin, A. (2002). Differentiated instruction: A guide for middle and high school teachers. NY: Eye on Eye Education.

Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble. NY: Routledge.

Gardner, H. (1997). Reflections on multiple intelligences: Myths and messages. Phi Delta Kappan, 78 (5), 200-207. 

Northey, S. (2005). Handbook on differentiated instruction for middle and high schools. NY: Eye on Education. 

Sarason, S. (1990). The predictable failure of educational reform: Can we change course before it's too late? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.   

Tomlinson, C.A. (1999). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 

                    

Judith Butler and Gender Trouble

The cultural assumptions of the norm of human sexuality and gender are explored by Judith Butler. Butler traces the question of gender via the writings of 20th century social theorists.

1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire

i. "Women" as the subject of feminism

Butler begins with Foucault's political/social systems of power that regulate with limitation, prohibition, regulation, control, and what is considered for the good of all. The system, with regulatory hegemony, forms, defines, and reproduces its subjects. Butler claims that feminism therefore suffers presumed universality (p. 6) where the subject of "women" should nowhere be presumed (p. 8).

ii. The compulsory order of sex/gender/desire

The binary gender system predisposes women as a reaction or mirror of men: sex resulting in gender definition and thus desire for the opposite sex. The question of how sex and gender were constructed discursively begs the question of should gender then be reformulated sans constructionism and prediscursive (p. 10).

iii. Gender: the circular ruins of contemporary debate

Butler quotes de Beauvoir: "one is not born a woman, but, rather, becomes one" (p. 11, from The Second Sex, Vintage: NY, 1973, p. 301). Therefore, Butler asks, since gender is constructed by the agent, can gender be determined by choice. This would be in contrast to the hegemonious phallogocentric language of masculine dominance - man as It - and woman as Other (p. 13).

iv. Theorizing the binary, the unitary, and beyond

Butler compares Luce Irigaray's masculine philosophy underlying language to de Beauvoir's theories and adds that "feminist critique ought to explore the totalizing claims of a masculinist signifying economy, but also remain self-critical with respect to the totalizing gestures of feminism," (p. 18).

v. Identity, sex, and the metaphysics of substance

The cultural matrix defining gender requires that gender follow from sex and sex follow from desire (of the opposite sex), (p. 24). Monique Wittig writes that there is actually no binary - only general, which is masculine and then other, which is feminist and therefore sex. The answer is a universal subject, which is unfortunately prohibited in language as language requires gender, (p. 27). The linguistic constraints result in gender-specific attributes "produced and compelled in the regulatory practices of gender coherence," (p. 34).

vi. Language, power, and the strategies of displacement

Language defines, subordinates and excludes women. Butler introduces Jacques Lacan's analysis of gender biases and imposed roles, (p. 38), and goes on to critique the forces that police the compulsory frames and social appearance of gender (p. 45).

2. Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix

Butler, along with cultural/anthropologist theorists, speculates on pre-law notions of gender, while assessing the law's historical self-justification of patriarchy and the subjugation of women, (p. 48).

i. Structuralism's critical exchange

Structuralist discourse [including Confucianism, Mao, institutionalized religion] structures human relations; the woman is a gift of exchange, as explained by Claude Levi-Strauss, who applied Ferdinand de Saussure's structural linguistics to anthropology, (p. 53).

ii. Lacan, Rivier, and the strategies of masquerade

Butler returns to Lacan's theory of language structured by paternal law and its mechanisms of differentiation, (p. 59). Men embody the agressor, however, via masquerade a woman can assume the role of the agressor (p. 63). Joan Riviere takes this a step further with feminism as a masquerade, blurring the boundaries of heterosexual and homosexual (p. 68). Lacan attributes the divide of masculine and feminine, or the binary - the divide -, to the law (p. 74). The law is at once prohibitive and generative, guaranteeing a slave morality under the Symbolic or religion.

iii. Freud and the melancholia of gender

The conflict of two heterosexual desires within a single psyche produce a melancholy or suffering, theorizes Freud (p. 82). The ego ideal regulates gender identification cognizant of taboo, prohibition, and the norm. (p. 86). The repressive law dictates cultural discourse distinguishing the speakable from the unspeakable, the legitimate from the illegitimate (p. 89).

iv. Gender complexity and the limits of identification

Lacan, Riviere, and Freud all theorized differently regarding the formation of the gender in the self. Beyond them, Butler declares that "incorporation" or assimilation of a gender identity (p. 93) to go beyond the law and incorporate a variety of attributes.

v. Reformulating prohibition as power

In The Traffic in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex Gayle Rubin writes of the historical cultural social mechanisms by which gender is produced, forcing women into subjugation in the human race, oppression, (p. 100).

3. Subversive Bodily Acts

i. The body politics of Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva suggests multiple sexual identities as opposed to a unified feminist code. However, she interprets the lesbian experience as psychotic (p. 118). She views the law as paternal and the culture into which a child is born. The semiotic experience, however, included the maternal or poetic. The child is engaged in the discourse of the two and thus formulates their own identity (p. 119). Culture, kinship, and family necessitate defining the world for the child even as they engage in a maternal discourse that is more open and free-thinking (p. 115).

ii. Foucault, Herculine and the politics of sexual discontinuity

Foucault writes of a hermaphrodite/intersexed person conflicted in their sexuality. Butler explores the conflicts of the inner and the outer person, as well as societal influences. Her conclusion is that the law produces only those who are subject yet conflicted.

iii. Monique Wittig: bodily disintegration and fictive sex

Wittig understands "sex" to be discursively produced by a system oppressive to women, gays, and lesbians (p. 154). Language powerfully creates what is socially real (p. 157). Women must assume agency and overthrow the system, formidably in the system of language (p. 158).

iv. Bodily inscriptions, performative subversions

Gender formation and transformation are found in the abiding gendered self, not true or false - not original or derived - but rather evoked through agency choice and determination, rendered through expression and performance. However, this is not in relation to law or a masculine general (p. 192).

Conclusion: From Parody to Politics

Language is not an "exterior medium or instrument into which I pour a self and from which I gleam a reflection of that self," (p. 196). By describing possibilities for gender that exist albeit unintelligibly, cultural configurations of gender are able to proliferate within discourse that assures their intelligibility and legitimacy. This serves to confine the binarism of sex and expose its unnaturalness (p. 203).

Michel Foucault: Discipline and Punishment

In the end, Foucault greatly influences Education in the notion of the Discourse and of the relationship between Power and Knowledge. Analysis of this text will lead to this theme.

Part 1: Torture

i. The body of the condemned

In the 1700-1800's, the public spectacle, festival or carnival, of public torture or punishment is abolished. Punishment gradually becomes hidden and individual, (p. 8-10). Secondly, punishment no longer is a process visited upon the body (p. 10-16), but is replaced by a non-corporal penal system. Foucault proposes studying the penal system as a part of Human Science (p. 23). Furthermore, Power and Knowledge relations (p. 27) as a part of the Body Politic (with elements, resources, and forces) and the Technology of Power over both body and soul (p. 30), are intricately involved in understanding both human relations and human science. 

ii. The spectacle of the scaffold

Historically, though the punishment was a human spectacle, the legal process leading up to was concealed in secrecy (p. 35). With interrogation under torture (p. 42-46): the accused self-condemned, in confession, leading to public execution which is public and slow for political purposes (control or political ritual). The right to punishment was the sovereign's right to make war on "his" enemies or "enemies of the people" (aka, Homeland Security or any Communist leadership "of the people" initiative). Punishment was triumph (p. 52) revealing truth and power (p.55). (A counter-power spectacle via literature produced a hero-villain who triumphed in crime against the powers that be, p. 68-9).

Part 2: Punishment

i. Generalized punishment

Since the industrial revolution gave rise to new common wealth and therefore new material crime, judicial/penal reform shifted the object to material and the scale to punishment that matches the crime. The goal was to reach a target that is subtle yet widespread (p. 89). Thus eventuated "the political project of rooting out illegalities, generalizing the punitive function and delimiting the power to punish," (p. 101).

ii. The gentle way in punishment

Reform progresses with appropriate penalties to prevent, punish crime, and thus control the body of society: reduce attractiveness of crime, increase fear of penalty, modulate punishment, and above all make punishment seem natural and in one's own interest, (p. 104-110). Control of behavior results from particular knowledge of individuals, (p. 125). The power to punish still exudes from: 1. super-power (like the monarchies) but extends to 2. society as a whole conforming individuals, and 3. keeping individuals in line (p. 130-131). These three develop into three technologies of power.

Part 3: Discipline

i. Docile bodies:

The birth of the individual is the moment of subjugation for discipline, as a soldier or citizen of the regime. Obedience and usefulness go hand-in-hand, (p. 138).

a. The art of distributions

Disciplined individuals are distributed in time and space, (p. 142). This extends to education where students are arranged and controlled in time and space according to their usefulness to the regime, (p. 147).

b. The control of activity

The time-table or schedule controls activity, (p. 149). Students are assessed, classified and assigned.

c. The organization of geneses

Capitalize on the time of individuals, mechanically adding up and arranging them, in sequential steps for training (p. 159).

d. The composition of forces

A precise system of command is required to control the masses of individuals (p. 166). Four types of individuals emerge: cellular (spatially distributed), organic (activities coded), genetic (timely), combinatory (composition of forces), (p. 167).

ii. The means of correct training

Disciplinary power trains, (p. 170).

a. Hierarchical observation

Architecture is designed to provide hierarchical view of all in subjection constantly (p. 173).

b. Normalizing judgment

Punishment and Reward are both used to control human behavior, all under the auspices of bringing every individual into or under the power of the Norm (p. 184).

c. The examination

School, with successions of examinations, is uninterrupted exercise of power (p. 186-187). Furthermore, the examination is documentation of the individual (p. 189) and creates each individual into a case.

iii. Panopticism

Modern society seems to limit extreme exercise of power however, in reality, universal panopticism exerts a "machinery that is both immense and minute," (p. 223) supporting, reinforcing, producing a hierarchy of Power symbolically suspended by Law. Law represents the regime in power, which in the case of democracy is defined as of the people, by the people, and for the people. The "experts in normality" (p. 228), in administration, function as judge (from the penal system) in industry, education, government, and social organization.

a. Complete and austere institutions

The prison as an institution is always in the process of reform and certain codes prevail throughout: isolation or deprivation of social engagement, (p. 236); deprivation of imagination or reflection, (p. 239); deprivation of self-determination or complete knowledge and control of the "reformation" of the individual, (p. 244).

b. Illegalities and delinquency

A technology or science - penitentiary science - develops from the growth industry of the penal system (p. 257). However, the system cannot help but produce fraternity among offenders and thus profligates delinquency (p. 266). Reform measures, historically, simply repeat the past - mistakes (p.270).

c. The carceral

The penitentiary saint illumines the coercive technologies of behavior embedded in the prison, in education, industry, government, religion (1852 in Mettray, p. 293). The prison is transformed from "punitive procedure to a penitentiary technique, (p. 298). In the system is a new form of law: "a mixture of legality and nature, prescription and constitution, the norm, (p.304).

Foucault ends in concluding that he has laid a historical foundation, a background, to "various studies of the power of normalization and the formation of knowledge in modern society," (p. 308).

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