Coloniality of gender

Short description: Decolonial theory

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March against femicide at UNAM in 2017. The coloniality of gender has been used to explain how modern femicide is tied to the European colonization of the Americas.[1]

Coloniality of gender is a concept which was created by philosopher Maria Lugones in order to explain the role which European colonialism played in the imposition of European colonial gender structures onto the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.[2] The concept challenges the idea that gender can be separated from colonialism.[3][4] It builds off of Anibal Quijano's foundational concept of the coloniality of power.[5] This concept has also been applied to colonized societies in Asia and Africa.[6] It is used in the scholarly fields of decolonial feminism and decoloniality more broadly.[7]

## Contents

* 1 Gender effects
* 1.1 Women
* 1.2 Men
* 2 Gender variance
* 3 References

## Gender effects

The coloniality of gender addresses the effects of colonialism on both women and men.[2] In a joint essay, María Lugones, Yuderkys Espinosa-Miñoso, and Nelson Maldonado-Torres argue that the coloniality of gender was about destroying Indigenous people's relation to one another and the land, stating that the basic idea of European colonialism was "that the earth should be raped for the benefit of man."[8] Rosalba Icaza states that "Lugones helps us to understand the historical moment in which this specific system (sex/gender) became a form of subjugation [for colonized peoples]."[3]

### Women

For Indigenous women, European gender impositions may have normalized the idea that women's subordination was an essential part of being civilized like Europeans.[2] Egla Salazar argues that this may have had the result of normalizing femicide against Indigenous women, such as in the Mayan genocide.[2] According to Lugones, white feminists often ignore or deny the subordination of non-white women in colonial societies.[9]

Tlostanova argues that this normalized the hyper-sexualization of non-white women and the sexual violence directed toward them.[10] Non-white women were regarded as sexually available, seductive, and willing to be raped, threatening white women's happiness and well-being.[11] Chavez Jr. argues that the idea of "woman" was not extended to African and Indigenous women in the same way that it was too white women, because non-white women were judged as excessively sexual, sinful and promiscuous, as opposed to the sexual chastity of European colonial women. This lack of feminine morality dehumanized African and Indigenous women, leading them to be sexually codified as female but lacking feminine character.[12]

According to Wardhani, Asian women in colonized societies were viewed as more passive, family-oriented and demure than white women.[13]

Chiara Bottici states that "several Native American tribes adopted matrilineal inheritance and matrilocal culture as their norm rather than the exception," but that the point is not to romanticize the past, but reflect on how the modern/colonial gender system is not universal.[4] Other societies had a "low-intensity patriarchy" that was intensified significantly by European colonialism.[14]

Shannon Frediani argues that "many Indigenous cultures before colonialism had forms of governance recognizing women's participation, their knowledge, and centrality in some spiritual orientations" that ended with the coloniality of gender.[6]

### Men

For non-Western men, the imposition of European gender norms may have shifted the ideal of manliness into being a white European landowner.[2] Egla Salazar argues that the residual effects of this history may still be felt in communities today with men conforming to European ideas of what it means to be a man.[2] DiPietro et al. suggest that men of colonized societies were often feminized, particularly in Oriental contexts, due to their lack of power.[15] On the other hand, colonized males could be viewed as a threat at the slightest hint of agency, particularly in African and some Amerindian contexts. Under such circumstances, colonized men would be presented as aggressive animals, threats to the purity of both white women and colonized women, who would be viewed as needing rescuing from their males.[16]

## Gender variance

The concept has also been used to understand the erasure and violence against people who came to be referred to as third gender by Western anthropologists in the Americas through European colonialism.[17]

Alexander I. Stingl states that the concept challenges the lens of LGBTQ identities, and argues that people should look to variance more broadly: "[we should speak to the] variability in subjectivities of gender, sexuality, and sexual practices [rather than to specific identities]."[18]

## References

1. ↑ DiPietro, Pedro J. (1 June 2019) (in en). Speaking Face to Face: The Visionary Philosophy of María Lugones. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-7453-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=qrKZDwAAQBAJ.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Martínez Salazar, Egla (2012). Global coloniality of power in Guatemala: racism, genocide, citizenship. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books. pp. 101–102; 128–129. ISBN 978-0-7391-4124-3. OCLC 809536891.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Handbook on Governance and Development. [S.l.]: Edward Elgar Publishing. 2022. pp. 57. ISBN 978-1-78990-875-6. OCLC 1355566945.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bottici, Chiara (2021). Anarchafeminism. London, England. pp. 201. ISBN 978-1-350-09589-2. OCLC 1281198089.
5. ↑ Juanita Elias, ed (2018). Handbook on the international political economy of gender. Cheltenham, UK. pp. 57. ISBN 978-1-78347-884-2. OCLC 1015245222.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Frediani, Shannon (2022). Decolonizing interreligious education: developing theologies of accountability. Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-7936-3860-1. OCLC 1342784447.
7. ↑ DiPietro 2019.
8. ↑ Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, ed (2021). Decolonial feminism in Abya Yala: Caribbean, Meso, and South American contributions and challenges. Lanham. pp. xv. ISBN 978-1-5381-5311-6. OCLC 1328003487.
9. ↑ DiPietro 2019, p.13.
10. ↑ DiPietro 2019, p. 133.
11. ↑ DiPietro 2019, p. 133 "The non-White woman is regarded as sexually available, voracious, and willing to be raped, a seductress of the White man and a threat to the happiness and well-being of the decent White lady".
12. ↑ DiPietro 2019, p. 184.
13. ↑ Wardhani, Baiq; Largis, Era; Dugis, Vinsensio (2018-03-01). "Colorism, Mimicry, and Beauty Construction in Modern India" (in en). Jurnal Hubungan Internasional 6 (2): 242–244. doi:10.18196/hi.62118. ISSN 2503-3883. https://journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/jhi/article/view/4714. ""It can be analyzed through Orientalist thesis where the world becomes Western and Orientals, where in the feminist perspective, Asian women are passive, unable to express their voice (Hasan, 2009, p. 30). Western women are the opposite of non-western women or orientals women who are considered ignorant, submissive to patriarchal dominance, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, domestic, family-oriented, and victimized"".
14. ↑ Sachseder, Julia Carolin (2022). "Coloniality of Gender". Violence Against Women in and Beyond Conflict The Coloniality of Violence.. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-000-64906-2. OCLC 1337072782.
15. ↑ DiPietro 2019, p. 133 "Due to the coloniality of gender enmeshed in contradictory impulses, the colonial man in the colonies of the Western empires can be easily feminized (particularly in Orientalist versions) as he lacks any real authority or power..
16. ↑ DiPietro 2019, p. 133 "And yet, any hint of his possible will or agency is immediately interpreted as a threat to White society, which presents the colonized male as an essential rapist and an aggressive animal, threatening the chaste White lady (especially in African and some Amerindian stereotypes) and his women, seen by the Western society as needing rescuing from their males.".
17. ↑ Barbara J. Risman, ed (2018). Handbook of the sociology of gender (Second ed.). Cham. pp. 63. ISBN 978-3-319-76333-0. OCLC 1039888036.
18. ↑ Stingl, Alexander I. (2016). The digital coloniality of power: epistemic disobedience in the social sciences and the legitimacy of the digital age. Lanham. pp. 53. ISBN 978-1-4985-0193-4. OCLC 933611463.

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