Integral Voices on Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Description

This volume takes a unique approach to the question of what it is to be a gendered, sexual self in a postmodern world, offering insights informed by the Integral paradigm of theory and practice. With the inquiry into sex, gender, and sexuality having become so broad and diverse within both academia and popular culture, the Integral approach can help sift through and make sense of the cacophony of theories and agendas that seek to stake their ground in this collective conversation. Informed by the work of thinkers such as Sri Aurobindo, Gregory Bateson, Jean Gebser, Ervin Laszlo, and, most directly, Ken Wilber, the Integral approach acknowledges and works with multiple and contradictory experiences, theories, and realities. Dealing with a variety of topics, including feminism, the men's movement, sexual identity, queer history, and spirituality, the work's contributors speak from across the spectrum of personal and political backgrounds, academic and practitioner orientations, and male and female perspectives. The combination of voices aims to bring forward a more complex and integrated understanding of what it means to be woman, man, human.
List of Illustrations

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Developing a Critical Integral Praxis for Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
Vanessa D. Fisher and Sarah E. Nicholson

1. Defining Woman: From First Wave to Integral Feminism
Sarah E. Nicholson

2. (Are) Men Tragically Hopeless(?): A Critical Integralist’s Perspective
R. Michael Fisher

3. A Deep Integral View on the Future of Gender
Elizabeth Debold

4. The Mysterious Fate of Homosexuality
Gilles Herrada

5 An Integral Map of Sexual Identity
Terry H. Hildebrandt

6. Gender Issues without Men: An Oxymoron?
Warren Farrell and Ken Wilber

7. Feminine, Masculine, Female, and Male in the Integral Space
Rebecca A. Bailin

8. Integral Spirituality or Masculine Spirituality?
Joseph Gelfer

9. Led by the Spirit of Art: A Spiritual Feminist Arts-Based Inquiry
Barbara Bickel

10. Evolving Our Approach to Sexual Harassment: A New Role for Women
Vanessa D. Fisher and Diane Musho Hamilton

11. An Integral Approach to Sexuality Education
Michele Eliason and John P. Elia

List of Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Sexualité
• sexualité
• Sexualité
• Gender studies
• System

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 16 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438452203
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Integral Voices on Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
SUNY series in Integral Theory
___________
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, editor
Integral Voices on Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
Critical Inquiries
Edited by
Sarah E. Nicholson and Vanessa D. Fisher
Cover art by Barbara Bickel. Soulfully , mixed media collage on wood, 14 x 14 inches
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production by Eileen Nizer Marketing by Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Integral voices on sex, gender, and sexuality / edited by Sarah E. Nicholson and Vanessa D. Fisher.
pages cm. — (SUNY series in integral theory) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-5219-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4384-5218-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Feminism. 2. Gender identity. 3. Masculinity. 4. Man-woman relationships. I. Sarah E. Nicholson. II. Vanessa D. Fisher.
HQ1121.I58 2014 305.3—dc23 2013029951
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Developing a Critical Integral Praxis for Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
Vanessa D. Fisher and Sarah E. Nicholson
1 Defining Woman: From First Wave to Integral Feminism
Sarah E. Nicholson
2 (Are) Men Tragically Hopeless(?): A Critical Integralist’s Perspective
R. Michael Fisher
3 A Deep Integral View on the Future of Gender
Elizabeth Debold
4 The Mysterious Fate of Homosexuality
Gilles Herrada
5 An Integral Map of Sexual Identity
Terry H. Hildebrandt
6 Gender Issues without Men: An Oxymoron?
Warren Farrell and Ken Wilber
7 Feminine, Masculine, Female, and Male in the Integral Space
Rebecca A. Bailin
8 Integral Spirituality or Masculine Spirituality?
Joseph Gelfer
9. Led by the Spirit of Art: A Spiritual Feminist Arts-Based Inquiry
Barbara Bickel
10. Evolving Our Approach to Sexual Harassment: A New Role for Women
Vanessa D. Fisher and Diane Musho Hamilton
11. An Integral Approach to Sexuality Education
Michele Eliason and John P. Elia
List of Contributors
Index
Illustrations
Figures
Figure 1.1 “Mobius Strip.” Photograph by Benbennick. Wikimedia Commons, 2005.
Figure 2.1 Locating Men-ness: A Critique.
Figure 2.2 Social Identity Line: Critique from the Margins.
Figure 5.1 The Integral Map of Sex and Gender.
Figure 5.2 The Integral Map of Sexual Orientation.
Figure 5.3 Dimensions of Sexual Identity. Copyright 2006 by Kelley Winters, GID Reform Advocates. Adapted with permission.
Figure 9.1 Barbara Bickel, 1992, Unfolding , oil glaze on wood, 36 × 48 .
Figure 9.2 Barbara Bickel, 1992, I’ll miss you too , oil glaze on wood, 60 × 48 .
Figure 9.3 Barbara Bickel cocreated with Lyn Hazelton, 2002, Solely, Soulfully, Fully, triptych, mixed media collage on wood, 14 × 14 each panel.
Figure 9.4 Barbara Bickel cocreated with Lyn Hazelton, 2002, Chrysalis, mixed media collage on wood, 32 × 48 .
Figure 9.5 Barbara Bickel, 2002, She Knows Performance Ritual (AMS Art Gallery, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada).
Table
Table 11.1 A four quadrant model of sexuality education.
Table 11.2 A levels approach to sexuality: A simplified map.
Foreword
How we relate to our own and others gender and sex is both extremely personal and profoundly philosophical. In fact, few domains of inquiry are as equally personal and simultaneously philosophical than sex, gender, and sexuality. This inquiry is personal in that few topics are more intimate to our sense of self-identity, our most immediate desires, and our needs for love, intimacy, and connection. This inquiry is philosophical in that few topics are as complex and multidimensional as this one; holding implications for what it means to be human and how we organize culture, politics, and society. For this reason, I feel that Integral Theory is particularly well-suited to coordinate the many divergent perspectives that need to be attended to and included in a more comprehensive vision of the relationship between our sex and gender, and the resulting expressions of our sexuality in the world.
Integral Theory is committed to including the kernel of truth from all relevant perspectives to any topic. In this vein it is deeply aligned with post-modernism’s celebration of the manifold expression of truth. However, to this celebration it brings distinctions and frameworks to help us consider the types of relationship each of these aspects of truth have with each other. While everyone might be right, they are not all right in the same way or at the same time. Through its inclusive and discriminating approach, Integral Theory provides us with a much-needed coordinating system for navigating through an otherwise relativistic landscape.
This volume provides a great service in bringing together a wide range of scholar-practitioners who are both critical and celebratory of what a more integral approach has to offer the contested and complex domain of sex, gender, and sexuality. Not only does this volume serve gender, feminist, and men’s studies by bringing an integral approach to bear on its multilayered topics, but it also serves Integral Theory by modeling critical inquiry that is generative. So while Integral Theory can offer an integrative framework to a field that is often paralyzed by its own diversity, it can also benefit greatly from this same field by developing a more self-critical and reflective approach to model building and theorizing.
Editors Sarah Nicholson and Vanessa Fisher have been extremely successful in creating a volume that offers a space of critical inquiry to accomplish this double benefit. I am thrilled they have achieved this bidirectional impact, advancing the fields concerned with sex, gender, and sexuality and the field of Integral Theory by creating a provocative volume that resides at the intersection of both types of discourse.
Thus, not only do Sarah and Vanessa give us a book with integral content wherein the various chapters engage integral distinctions and models in a worthwhile way, they have also created an emerging integral discourse through the assemblage of the authors and topics chosen for inclusion in the volume. Each chapter dances in relationship and conflict with the other contributions to perform a kaleidoscope of perspectives that together attests to the unity-in-diversity of what it means to be a sexed and gendered human.
The authors in this volume are diverse in background, perspective, and context. Together they do an amazing job of exploring core issues and new considerations within an integral context. They show what Integral Theory has to bring to the conversation and what is currently missing in integral theorizing. They provide historical context and visionary vistas of what is possible. They take new perspectives while walking across well-traveled paths. They dare to be provocative and conventional. But above all they all are committed to being more inclusive in how we engage the tender and crucial topics connected to a more complete understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality.
Furthermore, Sarah and Vanessa have embodied an integral approach in how they have framed the volume through their thoughtful introduction. As a result, this book provides the reader with a triple experience of integral-in-action: the editors are exemplar integral scholar-practitioners in their own lives who have taken an integral approach to birth a critical integral inquiry.
As Sarah and Vanessa note in their introduction, the inspiration for this volume occurred at the international First Biennial Integral Theory Conference in 2008. As cofounder with Mark Forman of that biennial academic event, our vision has always been to leverage the conference to bring together the leading and emerging figures in the field of Integral Theory to cross-pollinate integrative initiatives and to team up with each other in ways that further the field through projects such as this book. In fact, the SUNY Series in Integral Theory, of which this volume is the newest contribution, was created to showcase the best academic work emerging out of these conferences. So it is with great pleasure to me to see what Sarah and Vanessa have accomplished in the pages of this book and to know that the aims of the conference are being realized in and through this volume.
Just as the conference has served as a seedbed for new explorations of integral theory and application, I sense this volume will likewise nurture and inspire deeper engagements exploring the crossroads of integral theory and our sexed and gendered selves. As you read these chapters allow your own positions to be both confirmed and confronted. But above all let these chapters and this volume as a whole be a clarion call into an engaged critical inquiry that transforms your philosophical maps and touches you personally.
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. Sebastopol, CA February 15, 2014
Acknowledgments