Conversation with Dean Dea

 This morning I had the great pleasure of speaking with Shannon Dea, the author of the course textbook that we have been reading for Philosophy and Gender (Beyond the Binary: Thinking about Sex and Gender), and Professor and Dean of Arts at University of Regina. Our conversation took us from talking about possibilities afforded by viewing gender as socially constructed, how Dea's pragmatist thinking shows up in thinking about gender, the so-called "TERF wars", the potential for coalition and solidarity among survivors of gender-based violence, a new edition of the textbook that Dea is working on, and 21st century Indigenous gender identities. You can find the recording of our conversation here.

Check out Dean Dea's Welcome to the Dean of Arts Office letter that we mention in connection with Treaty 4 in the video.

Thank you so much, Dean Dea, for the wonderful conversation!

Some questions suggested by my Philosophy and Gender students that we did not get to in this 30 min conversation were:

  • How would you answer the question you posed at the end of Chapter 5 that asks “Which is more liberating - regarding sexual orientation as something one is born with or something that develops over time? Why?”
  • Is there a link between gender identity and androgyny?
Please feel free to discuss those questions in the comments section!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

100 Skills

Image
I am fascinated by the list of 100 Skills Every Man Should Know from the Art of Manliness. The list, we are told, is for "modern man" who "must be both a warrior and a diplomat, a woodsman and a scholar". Some of the skills on the list include: survive a bear attack, fix a leaky faucet, recite a poem from memory, sew a button, change a flat tire, change a diaper, grow your own food, open a bottle without an opener, speak a foreign language, write in cursive, pick a lock, give a good massage, and my favorite, number 84: make a logical argument. Great skills, right? My initial reaction is, why aren't these skills that every modern human should know? Most of them sound useful and/or fun. I like backpacking in the wilderness and want to survive bear attacks! The authors don't tell us that non-men should not know these skills, or that these skills are only for men. I have a lot of these skills and would like to learn many of the others that I don't current...
Read more

Transforming Siena College

Image
  The results of a 2016-2017 Siena Student Climate Survey reported that 100% of Siena transgender students expressed that they had personally experienced bias/harassment/discrimination at our college.  Knowing this, I feel terrible. How can we turn this around so that not only are our transgender students not harassed, but embraced? There are infrastructure and policy issues that we can and should change. These changes go far beyond changing the signs on our restrooms (although I think we should do that too). For instance, as far as I know Siena is not among the colleges that cover transition-related medical expenses under student health insurance, nor among the colleges that have gender inclusive housing in which students can have a roommate of any gender (cf. Siena's Transgender Student Housing Policy ). Of course, I would be happy to be corrected on that if others know otherwise!  There are aspects of classroom norms, curriculum, and campus climate that can be more tr...
Read more

Subversive Gender Acts

Image
  The gown that Billy Porter wore to the Oscars in 2019 is stunning. Describing why he commissioned and wore this piece in an interview with Vogue , Porter explains that he always wanted to wear a ball gown, and wanted this look to "play between the masculine and the feminine". He's intentionally not dressing drag, and he is intentionally wearing a dress. When he first put on the gown, Porter's reaction was: I felt alive. I felt free . And open, and radiant. And beautiful!  Especially in pandemic times, when I can barely be bothered to put on actual pants instead of sweatpants, I find this sentiment impressive. You've got a dang good outfit when you not only feel at home in it, but free and beautiful.  Porter knew that his gown would get some reactions, and not all of them great. In the Vogue interview he recalls how people treated him when he wore a pink cape to the Golden Globes: "What is masculinity? What does that mean? Women show up every day in pants, b...
Read more