Coloniality of gender

The coloniality of gender is a concept developed by feminist philosopher María Lugones, which she defines as "the analysis of racialized, capitalist, gender oppression", while the process of potentially overcoming this practice can be defined as "decolonial feminism".^[1]:747 Central to these terms is the definition and recognition of indigenous social structures and their relation to land, and the articulation of how these epistemologies occupy an oppositional consciousness^[2] to colonial systems of social, sexual, ecological, spatial, and temporal hierarchy. María Lugones describes this difference as the 'oppressing ←→ resisting' relationship.

Colonialism of gender has altered the indigenous sense of self, identity and to the larger extent their cosmology and gender relationships. With the colonization of indigenous groups, it allowed European to implement their idea of gender and sex. This covered up the preexisting conception of sex and gender in the indigenous group during the pre-colonialism times. This is evident with the lack of representation or awareness in Western society for the indigenous concept of being "Two Spirited"^[3] The idea of gender itself was believed to be introduced by Western colonizers as a way to distinct two dualistic social categories which are men and women.^[4] The colonizers had introduced the idea of gender itself into Indigenous groups as this was originally a colonial concept which was made to organize production, territory and behavior. The desire for the colonizer to put forth the idea of gender onto an Indigenous group was to have control over their labor, authority, influence their subjectivity and ideas of sexuality.^[5]

In relation to race, land, and sovereignty

According to Glen Sean Coulthard in his essay For the Land: the Dene Nation's Struggle for Self-Determination, Indigenous resistances against "capitalist imperialism" can be understood as struggles surrounding the question of land and knowledge-based practices encompassing the "relation to one another and our surroundings in a respectful, nondominating and nonexploitative way".^[6]:60 Coulthard defines this system of relationality as "grounded normativity"^[6]:60 stating, "the late Lakota philosopher Vine Deloria Jr. argues that one of the most significant differences that exist between Indigenous and Western metaphysics revolves around the central importance of land to Indigenous modes of being, thought, and ethics".^[6]:60 Further to this, Coulthard argues that Indigenous "philosophies of nonoppression" are defined through spatial as well as temporal relationships.^[6]:62 Lugones refers to these Western-versus-Indigenous epistemologies as 'cosmologies'^{[1]:754, 749} in her essay Toward a Decolonial Feminism, where she analyzes these structures in relation to the colonial imposition of gender binaries on Indigenous communities.

According to Lugones, colonial modernity is positioned as "the dichotomous hierarchy between the human and the non-human",^[7] summarized by Lugones' use of the term "colonial difference".^[1]:743 Lugones states that within the context of colonization in the Americas and the Caribbean, this hierarchy was employed as a tactic of subordination of the colonized to "Western man".^[1]:743 Lugones argues that related hierarchies were constructed by colonizers to create a binary division between men and women, describing this distinction as "a mark of the human and a mark of civilization. Only the civilized are men or women," which excluded Indigenous peoples and Africans as being non-human animals, while upholding the status of "bourgeois European women" as passive reproductive servants of "white bourgeois" male colonizers.^[1]:743 According to Lugones, colonial relations of power constructed through such binaries comprise the "colonial difference", a term with open-ended origins that Lugones attributes to Walter Mignolo's book Local Histories/Global Designs.^[1]:751

Logones has stated that colonial notions of femininity as inversions of masculinity did not grant human status, but rather established a gender dimorphism of hypersexuality and sexual passivity that rendered colonized "men" and "women" as non-human gendered entities.^[1]:744 Through the performance of colonial anthropocentrism and the disruption of Indigenous cosmologies of grounded normativity, extreme acts of sexualized violence could be justified towards gendered and dehumanized colonized subjects, as stated by Lugones.^[1]:744 Lugones writes that through murder and rape,^[1]:744 control of colonized bodies institutionalized the internalization of colonial systems. Religious indoctrination, with divisions between good and evil equating colonized females with Satan, arguably established not only a colonization of bodies, but of memory.^[1]:745 Systematic replications of these ideologies, according to Lugones, facilitated the erasure of Indigenous cosmologies of reciprocal relations to place, psychologically clearing the way for the re-appropriation of land toward the implementation of capitalist projects.^[1]:745

Within Lugones' analysis of Mignolo's usage of the colonial difference is her assertion that the colonial difference (and the coloniality of gender) is "not an affair of the past";^[1]:752 as such, as a contemporary phenomenon, Lugones argues that seeking parity with the colonizer by erasing colonial difference does not eliminate oppression.^{[1]:752–753} Rey Chow terms the act of seeking parity with the colonizer as "the ascendancy of whiteness",^[8] which Arvin, Tuck and Morrill further elaborate as taking part in the colonial "settling process" to dispossess "'other-ed' peoples globally".^[8] Instead, Lugones proposes a "feminist border thinking" that positions learning from subalternity at the colonial difference as central to a decolonial feminism.^[1]:753 This concept embraces movements toward coalitional social relations between feminists of color, which Lugones describes as "the oppositional consciousness of a social erotics."^[1]:755

In this context, according to Arvin, Tuck, and Morrill, "Indigenous communities' concerns are often not about achieving formal equality or civil rights within a nation-state, but instead achieving substantial independence from a Western nation-state—independence decided on their own terms."^[8]

Colonialism of gender in Canada

Some researchers believe that contact with patriarchal, European colonial contact reduced the value of Indigenous women in Canadian society.^[9] According to them, colonialism greatly shifted the role of women in Indigenous communities through patriarchal laws and regulations placed on marriage and other sexual relations between Indigenous women and European men, to whom the Indigenous people were viewed as inferior.^[10] Legal impositions on sexual relations between Indigenous women and European men resulted in such relations to have underlying monetary agendas, a commodification of women that caused many Indigenous women to involve themselves in prostitution.^[10] During this Indigenous people as a whole were encouraged to adopt what European Canadians and the Canadian government considered to be "Canadian culture", eschewing their native culture and traditions in favor of assimilation.^[11][12]

The emergence of the Canadian Indian residential school system in 1847 contributed to the systemic racism, violence, and sexual mistreatment of Indigenous people, which led to the normalization and repeated occurrence of this abuse.^[10] Cindy Hanson feels that this has contributed to a lingering sense of trauma among Indigenous women and girls that has caused them to become further victimized and disenfranchised, as well as impact how they interact with their families and communities.^[9] The issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has been cited by researchers such as Robyn Bourgeois as an example of how colonial exploitation has led to systemic racism, causing Indigenous women to be stereotyped or discriminated against as dirty, sexually indiscriminate bodies that can be violated and thrown away.^[13]

Discrimination towards Indigenous

The impact of colonialism of gender is evidently seen in Canada with Indigenous women as they often migrate to urban areas due to a lack of education and opportunities in general. While there is a lack of survey regarding the migration of indigenous people from rural to urban the 1991 Aboriginal People's Survey suggests that 61% of Aboriginal people have moved at some point in their life indicating their strong desire to seek out better career and livelihood.^[14] In 1970 and 1980, the Indian Act created by Canadian government dictating Indigenous women as the act controlled their status, land, resources...etc. This act made it so if an indigenous women marries an individual without the same status, the women will lose their status.^[14] Since making this act obsolete. the number of registered Indians doubled as many were reinstated. This is seen in 1985 there were approximately 360,000 registered and 778.000 in 2007.^[15] Indigenous women are seen to be most affected by Colonialism of Gender as there are many missing reports or homicides among Aboriginal females. A study shows that between 1980 and 2012, a total of 1,017 Aboriginal female were homicide victims and 164 women currently missing with additional 225 unsolved cases. As of November 4, 2013, 11.3% (1,455 total) female were considered missing.^[16]

Pre-colonial Indigenous idea of gender

Not only has the idea of gender and sexuality changed due to colonialism, but power distribution and family structure as well. In the pre-colonial times, Indigenous families were not organized through an authoritative figure but rather it was more communal. Some pre-colonial Indigenous communities were matrilineal and gave women very powerful roles within the society.

This drastically changed once they became colonized, European values and structures were enforced onto this community thus covering their pre-existing idea of gender and family. European societies were placed power onto the men and families were patrilinal rather than matrilineal.^[17] In colonized societies, men often are the head of the family which allows them to make important decisions while the women are often seen more submissive and plays a supportive role for the men. This contrasted with the Indigenous way of life as Cree women were believed to be the center of life and Iroquois women were given spiritual roles and control over food for the community.^[18] A German philosopher Immanuel Kant comments on the different gender power the Indigenous communities has compared to those who are colonized, as he says "'Among all savages there are none by whom the feminine sex is held in greater actual regard than by those of Canada. They assemble and deliberate upon the most important regulations of the nation'".(Kant, 1997)^[19]

See also

• Coloniality of power
• Colonization
• Gender
• Gender binary
• Indigeneity
• Indigenous feminism
• Postcolonial feminism
• Third World

Notes