Define, compare, and contrast the concepts of doing gender, undoing gender, and redoing gender. Explain how the participants in Connell’s study exemplified each concept. Do students think that non-transpeople also undo and redo gender? Why or why not?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Students should include some of the following in their definitions of doing, undoing, and redoing. Examples of these will vary as will students’ responses to non-trans undoing and redoing gender examples.
Doing gender: West and Zimmerman’s initial foundational theory that gender is an act we are required to perform within a gender binary and this performance reinforces inequality. Societal norms indicate appropriate parameters of masculinity and feminity and we are required to act within those parameters.
Undoing gender: Disrupting and changing the gender binary. This concept, associated with Risman, indicates that gender is an essentialist notion and that essentialism can be challenged. Risman’s theory implies that the gender structure can be fundamentally changed.
Redoing gender: West and Zimmerman’s response to the concept of “undoing gender.” Gender is an act we are required to perform within a gender binary but the structures that maintain gender might shift to accommodate less oppressive ways of doing gender (West and Zimmerman point out that they will not be eradicated, though).