- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
This week I changed my topic, so I didn’t get as much done as I otherwise might have. I saw a quote from a publication by the Family Research Council in which they were listing reasons to oppose laws against discrimination against transgender people and the first item of the list was “Such laws increase government interference in the free market”. I was drawn into wanting to examine the relationship between conservative views of gender diversity and the neoliberal framework. I think it could be interesting to examine how the overarching view of both gender and the free market as something natural, whereas in reality both of those systems require significant upkeep. For example, the Family Research Council, in their “Issue Analysis: Understanding and Responding to the Transgender Movement” published in June 2015, includes a list of actions to respond to “cross-gender behavior in children” that includes “Mother’s Distancing Themselves and Affirming Father’s Masculinity”. This could in itself be seen as an interference in what would happen if parents just let things be. Thus, both the free market and traditional gender roles both would need help to run as people feel they ought to.
The Southern Poverty Law Center writes that the Family Research Council “often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science”. I want to investigate how much they are representative of a segment of the US population, versus being a driving force in informing people’s ideas.
Next week, I should increase the breadth of my research and gain a theoretical model. I didn’t get as much done on my current topic as I wanted.
This is a very interesting topic, Jackie. In the US, buttressing gender dichotomy and neoliberal free-market ideology often goes hand in hand. We could argue that these views see “gender” and “market” as natural entities that should not be subject to state intervention. However, we also know that there is nothing natural about “gender” or “market” since social and political institutions support and protect gender regimes and the operations of market.
My only concern regarding your project is that just looking at the Family Research Council might give you enough material to work with. You might want to look at other venues as well.
Also, just a quick recommendation: you should take a look at Melinda Cooper’s book on family values. We will be discussing her other book on biotechnologies but I think this book would help you better frame your project. Here is the link to the book:
Let me know if you want to talk to me about your project.