36 RüdigerKunow
structural as well as structuring presence of biological traits as a site on
which oppression, exclusion and marginalization can be mapped is of
coursenotrestrictedtorace,itsurfacesalsoindebatesaboutgender.
Gender, as a systematic culturalization of biology, names a relation
of difference grounded in seemingly natural specificities. Persons
inhabiting a gendered regime are expected to experience this difference
as unquestioningly "natural," grounded in unambiguous biological
structures and characteristics (Halberstam 118). Anatomical variation
betweenmenandwomentogetherwithappealstobiological"nature"or
"essence" have historically determined the (self-)understanding of both
genders and their positions in the public sphere. In addition, they have
been used to relegate women to the inferior social and cultural status I
have summarized above by the term bio-intersectionality. Since the
1950s, the concept of gender has become subject to de-naturalizing
tendencies similar to those that have affected the understanding of race.
Insideasmuchasoutsidetheacademy,inadvocacyworkandintheory,
perceptions and conceptualizations of gender have been fundamentally
revised to deconstruct the always-already biologically grounded notions
oftheindividualorcollectiveidentityofwomen.
In retrospect it is abundantly clear that biology has been a crucial
building block of the regulatory regime directed against women: "The
Women'sLiberationMovementhaswithgoodreasonreactedstronglyto
the use of biological arguments in the definition of the female; these
have all too often been merely a confirmation of the patriarchalstatus
quo" (Janson Smith qtd. in Ahmed, "Open Forum" 28-29). Feminist
reaction against biology-based arguments has energized much gender-
related theory-building. Such an anti-biological impetus can be seen
already at work in the founding texts of second-wave feminism such as
Our Bodies, Ourselves (first published in 1973) and has continued
unabateduntiltoday,frequentlyfocusingontheoftenagonizingwaysin
which women's bodies are interpellated for multiple and overlapping
marginalizations.
One of the centerpieces of feminist critique against "anti-feminist
uses of biology" (Ahmed, "Open Forum" 29) has been the operative
distinction between "sex" (the corporeal facts of our existence) and
"gender" (the social conventions that determine the differences between
masculinity and femininity). The sex-gender debate is not in and by
itself central to the interests of this study except for the fact that the