Justice Across Cultures- Week 2

Last week, we talked more abstractly/theoretically about how conceptions of social justice differ across different cultures, persons, times and geographical spaces.  In the next three weeks, we'll look at how these more theoretical debates manifest themselves when the rubber hits the road, so to speak.  This week we are exploring gender and sexuality from a variety of cultural perspectives.  This is an enormous topic, and therefore we will inevitably miss many important perspectives, but we will attempt to hit on some key areas through this week’s readings/viewings:  gender and gender roles, competing notions of feminism, and perspectives on and alternatives to dominant models of sexuality (including monogamy, hetero-normativity, etc.).  As usual, we will read/view some theoretical approaches as well as some current events or debates that highlight these challenges over what constitutes social justice in this arena.  Please focus on this general topic in your Tweets this week (which you are also encouraged to draw from in focusing your discussion board posts). 

Are gender and sexuality social constructions?  How do ideas about gender and sexuality play out in conceptualizing social justice in various contexts, and how do we (as in, people who care about justice on a global level) deal with these varying conceptions of gender justice and sexuality?  How does this fit in with the issue of universal and individual vs. collective rights that we were exploring last week?

One critical note I would like to emphasize is the fact that “cultures” and “religions” are not homogenous- in other words, there are a variety of opinions and perspectives contained within any cultural or religious framework.  Debates within cultures and religions are as important, and sometimes more significant, than debates between them, and so we must take care to remember this when talking about any cultural or religious approach to a question.  That said, different contexts have different tools and ways of approaching issues that people draw from, which is part of what we are examining here.