Other: Please Specify
Within the university of Calgary, there is a significant disconnect between how the institution perceives gender and how students experience (or do) gender. I, as a nonbinary student, experience the day-to-day of being on campus in a way that is fundamentally different than that of those in positions of power. I, as a low-income student, experience campus in a way that is fundamentally different than those in positions of power. Even as an organizer on campus, or as a member of advocacy organizations, there was a fundamental disconnect between the experiences of myself and my peers, an overwhelming number of whom were queer and low-income, and the university administration, who are overwhelmingly cis and heterosexual. The University administration governs the experience of queer, poor, students while being extremely disconnected from the experiences of those students. The President of the University of Calgary, for example, received $492,274.62 for his role as President in 2022, the most recent data available (University of Calgary 2023). It is worth seeking answers to the question of why the wealthiest, whitest, cis, heterosexual, men are participating in dictating policy regarding nonbinary, poor students. These policies include institutional identifiers, like the ability to change names and pronouns, but also access to gender-neutral infrastructure, like bathrooms and changing rooms.
Gender is a lot more than just access to physical infrastructure, or updating documentation in institutional records. On the day-to-day, these policies impact me, the changes to infrastructure impact me, but my gender is not determined by these things. Gender is complicated, and not truly possible to define in one place. Gender shouldn’t be understood as a singular identity category determined by biology and institutions, but rather as processes that are undertaken (Butler 2007). The construction of gender as a definitional category stemming from sex assigned at birth by the university represents a contribution to a wider discourse that inflicts power upon subjects in an effort to legitimize the categories of “Male” and “Female” (Butler 2007) while delegitimizing those considered “Other”. The category of “Other: Please Specify” is a discursive tactic that, by definition, constructs nonbinary peoples, gender nonconforming peoples, as well as genders beyond Western ontologies as a normative other. Despite the funding for feminist projects, and the creation of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity committees, by continuing this othering of genders not “Male” or Female”, the university still continues to uphold a form of feminism that relies on Western ontologies. Further, this othering constitutes an upholding of colonial conceptions stemming from Western European domination of the discussion of gender (Abdo 1996). Institutionally, the university is headed primarily by affluent, white, cis, heterosexual, men, which leads to the reinforcement of these hegemonic ideas.
The recent cuts to the university have been used as a shield from criticism for the behaviour of executives, however the widespread issues on campus make it obvious that there is a clear profit motive for many of these behaviours. While the reduction in gender-neutral bathrooms on campus points to a conservative ideology regarding gender, the partnerships with extractive corporations show a dedication to capitalism, a dedication that requires upholding hierarchies of race, gender, and many more (Davis 2016). The partnerships with oil and gas corporations in particular directly creates a direct relationship between the University of Calgary and the Community-Industry Relations Group of the RCMP, which is currently inflicting violence on Indigenous people, primarily Indigenous Women (Amnesty International 2022; McKenna 2023; Na’Moks 2024). Further, through corporate partnerships in career fairs, the University of Calgary dedicates considerable resources to directing students towards careers in corporations like DOW Chemical (University of Calgary 2024), the corporation responsible for, among other disasters, the Bhopal disaster (Ellis-Petersen 2019). These issues intersect, and are more than the sum of their parts (Collins 2019).
As with identities, institutional forces can intersect in transformative, and destructive ways. Collins (2019) notes that “Intersectionality’s reach is not confined to the United States. In a global context, grassroots and human rights advocates find that intersectionality’s focus on the interconnectedness of categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, age, and ability sheds new light on how local social inequalities articulate with global social phenomenon” (22). This is important when considering the intersection between the classist hierarchy of the University of Calgary, a president making nearly half a million dollars (University of Calgary 2023) while many students are food insecure (Mazloum 2022); the whiteness of the University of Calgary executive; the policing of gender on campus; and the relationship with corporations who engage in neo-imperialism. This intersection is indicative of the same behaviour of Florida Atlantic University described by Davis (2016), where the university was sponsored by G4S and as a result, the football stadium was going to bear the name of G4S. Much like Thyssenkrupp, much like DOW Chemical, much like Shell, G4S makes their money engaging in capitalist neo-imperial and neo-colonial violence, upholding domination of the global north in economic sectors, at the expense of the lives of people in the global south (Davis 2016; Mohanty 2016). The university engages in this violence directly through these partnerships, providing students as labourers to facilitate this violence.
This is further problematized by the homogeneity of classroom structure, and what is and is not considered legitimate knowledge in the academy. The University of Calgary is quick to remind students that it is in the top 15 research universities in Canada, and is happy to celebrate the existence of Equity Diversity Inclusivity committees and departments, however these fail to adequately address the fact that Gender, as a conceptual framework, is still presented through the lens of Euroamerican dominated thought. Gender cannot be, as Banerjee and Connell (2018) point out, constructed in the global north and inflicted upon people in or from the global south. Further, the construction or theorizing of gender cannot be an act done solely by those in positions of privilege from the global north (Abdo 1996). The act of doing feminist research or feminist writing should not be a sterile process undertaken because one wants greater funding for or from a university, however the university as an institution repeatedly engages in this behaviour. The construction of EDI committees is not a disruptive form of activism like the discomfort-inducing work described by Ahmed (2023), but more akin to the “box ticking” described by Graeber (2018). In combination with the relationships with industry, and the policing of gender on campus, the “box ticking” activism that the university engages with on a structural level represents more than just ‘bad feminist praxis’, it represents actual harm that delegitimizes feminist activism and praxis on campus at the expense of feminist inquiry and scholarship.
While his work does not specifically focus on feminist activism, Graeber’s (2018) description of “Bullshit Jobs” is relevant here when considering how to reconceptualize how feminist praxis can be undertaken on campus. Graeber’s (2018) final working definition of a Bullshit Job defines it as “A bullshit job is a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that is not the case.” (Graeber 2018:9–10). In combination with both Living a Feminist Life (Ahmed 2017) and The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (Ahmed 2023), we can conceptualize a term for the type of feminist “praxis” that the University engages in. In Living a Feminist Life, Ahmed (2017) notes that intersectionality is the basis through which feminism should be understood. Borrowing the “eloquence of Flavia Dzodan” (Ahmed 2017:5), they make clear that feminism that is not intersectional is “Bullshit” (Ahmed 2017:5). Further, they note that there is a considerable struggle with describing the fact that both sexism and racism continue to exist, and that sexism and racism are fundamental features of capitalism (Ahmed 2017). In the Feminist Killjoy Handbook, Ahmed (2023) describes the Feminist Killjoy as someone who speaks back to authority against sexism, to become one is to “get in the way of happiness of others, or when you just get in the way” (1). The Feminist Killjoy is one who lives a feminist life, engaging in disruptive, uncomfortable praxis.
The University does none of this. The University engages in practices that protect structures of racism, it protects individuals who uphold those structures, it victimizes trans students, it limits the accessibility for nonbinary students, it reifies Eurocentric understandings of gender and essentializes gender to sex assigned at birth. What the University of Calgary does is not feminism, the EDI committees are not feminism, but they use the language and imagery of feminism to advance a capitalistic agenda. One could describe this as White Feminism, as Ahmed (2017) does, but this term softens what is actually happening. While the structure of whiteness is familiar to academics, sociologists, and most activists, the structure of whiteness is somewhat difficult to explain in non-abstract terminology. For our purposes, it’s undeniable that the University of Calgary engages in white feminism, however perhaps it would be better to borrow the “eloquence of Flavia Dzodan” (Ahmed 2017:5) and the terminology of Graeber (2017). There is a level of provocation in the term “Bullshit Jobs”, and in an effort to discomfort the institution perhaps that provocation should be present in the language of activism. In this case, I propose describing what the University is doing not as “White Feminism”, but rather “Bullshit Feminism”, which we could define as:
“Bullshit Feminism is a form of institutional activism that uses the language of praxis, feminism, and theory as a means to inhibit intersectional feminist activism with the aim of upholding patriarchy, capitalism, and racism, even if the institution professes it is doing otherwise.”
The University of Calgary undertakes many different institutional forms of action that it professes are for the benefit of students, and the adoption of EDI committees does have potential for activist action within the academy, however the current form that these committees take is more akin to Graeber’s (2017) “Box Tickers” than any actual form of activism.
References
Abdo, Nahla. 1996. “Introduction.” Pp. 1–32 in Sociological Thought beyond eurocentric theory. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc.
Ahmed, Sara. 2017. Living a Feminist Life. Durham: Duke University Press.
Ahmed, Sara. 2023. The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way. New York: Basic Books.
Amnesty International. 2022. “Canada: Indigenous Land Defenders At Risk.” Retrieved April 15, 2024 (https://www.amnesty.org.uk/urgent-actions/indigenous-land-defenders-risk-0).
Banerjee, Pallavi, and Raewyn Connell. 2018. “Gender Theory as Southern Theory.” in Handbook of the Sociology of Gender, Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research, edited by B. J. Risman, C. M. Froyum, and W. J. Scarborough. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Butler, Judith. 2007. “Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire.” Pp. 4–44 in Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge.
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2019. “Intersectionality as Critical Inquiry.” Pp. 21–53 in Intersectionality as Critical Inquiry. Duke University Press.
Davis, Angela. 2016. “Feminism and Abolition: Theories and Practices for the Twenty-First Century.” Pp. 91–110 in Freedom is a constant Struggle. Chicaco: Haymarket Books.
Ellis-Petersen, Hannah. 2019. “‘Bhopal’s Tragedy Has Not Stopped’: The Urban Disaster Still Claiming Lives 35 Years On.” The Guardian, December 8.
Graeber, David. 2018. Bullshit Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Mazloum, Toula. 2022. “Food Insecurity among Calgary Students.” CityNews. Retrieved April 15, 2024 (https://calgary.citynews.ca/2022/09/18/uofc-student-food-insecurity/).
McKenna, Cara. 2023. “Report Details ‘intimidation and Harassment’ of Wet’suwet’en People by RCMP Protecting Pipeline Company.” IndigiNews. Retrieved April 15, 2024 (https://indiginews.com/features/report-details-intimidation-and-harassment-of-wetsuweten-people-by-rcmp-protecting-pipeline-company).
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 2016. “Chandra Talpade Mohanty, ‘“Under Western Eyes” Revisited: Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles.’” Pp. 413–30 in Feminist Theory Reader, edited by C. McCann and S. Kim. Fourth Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2016. | Revised edition of: Routledge.
Na’Moks, Chief. 2024. “Chief Na’Moks: The RCMP’s Specialized C-IRG Unit Exists to Crush Indigenous Resistance.” Ricochet. Retrieved April 15, 2024 (https://ricochet.media/indigenous/chief-namoks-the-rcmps-specialized-c-irg-unit-exists-to-crush-indigenous-resistance/).
University of Calgary. 2023. “Compensation Disclosure.” Retrieved April 15, 2024 (https://www.ucalgary.ca/hr/work-compensation/compensation/compensation-transparency-act/data).
University of Calgary. 2024. “Winter Career Fair | Centre for Career & Personal Development | University of Calgary.” University of Calgary. Retrieved April 15, 2024 (https://www.ucalgary.ca/career-personal-development/events/winter-career-fair).