Date: 20 Oct 2021 (Wed)

Time: 12:30 – 14:15

Venue: Esther Lee Building LT4, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Speaker: Prof. Susanne Yuk-ping Choi (Professor, Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Moderator: Prof. Yiu-tung Suen (Assistant Professor, Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Abstract:

Right-wing groups have generally been considered gender-conservative or, in some instances, sexist. Given this background, it is a puzzle why young people, particularly women with relatively liberal gender attitudes, support these groups. This paper tries to answer this question by developing the concept of ‘gender irrelevance’, defined as the processes and strategies through which members of these groups render male dominance and gender segregation within their organizations trivial; sexist behaviours of some group members tolerable; and concerns about gender inequalities unimportant, secondary, and ultimately irrelevant in their decisions to support these groups. The paper further illustrates the strategies of ‘gender irrelevance’, which include the misrepresentation, naturalization, individualization, and universalisation of gender inequality and biases; the construction and deployment of the twin discourses of female privilege and male disadvantage; the tendency to compartmentalize gender biases; the argument of compromising gender; and criticism against an allegedly exaggerated, inconsistent, and double-standard feminism. We believe that the concept of ‘gender irrelevance’ has the potential to help us understand the global rise of the Right and anti-feminism political currents.

Speaker’s Biography:

Susanne YP Choi is Professor at the Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and co-Director of the Gender Research Centre. Her lead-authored book Masculine Compromise: Migration, Family and Gender in China won the International Sociological Association’s Sociology of Migration 2018 Best Book Award. Her other works were published in top international journals such as American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Marriage and Family, and British Journal of Sociology. Susanne serves as an editorial board member of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and a member of the International Advisory Board of Asian Population Studies, and an international advisory board member of Bristol University Press’ Gender and Sociology Series.

Language: English (Presentation)+English/Cantonese/Mandarin (Q&A and discussion)

Registration: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13640235