Gender Studies Conference 2020

The project organizes a workgroup entitled
Are we over the couple yet? Sketching out futures of relating

Thu 12 Nov 2020 • 9.30–11

Fri 13 Nov 2020 • 9–11

In the last few years, we have witnessed an increasing media exposure and interest in relationship practices questioning coupledom and its normativities such as polyamory, open relationships and communal households. The organization of domestic and relational intimacies is changing, and the selection of partner/s may not be informed by romantic and sexual expectations. Friendship has been claimed to have become increasingly important to people in Euro-American societies. However, for many the couple norm seems to hold ground as the most desired way of building personal and intimate futures. Queer critiques have argued, how gender-neutral marriage legislation reinforces hetero- and couple normative structures, and there are heated discussions on and around the declining birth rate, re-centering the couple as a key variable. At the same time, a Finnish production company introduced a tv-show, where experts help people become elective co-parents. Inspired by these and other timely conversations on organizations of personal relations we invite scholars, artists and activists of various fields to discuss futures of relating from the perspective of changing relationship practices. How are the core questions in Gender Studies, gender and sexuality re-formulated in the process of changing relationship forms? How can feminist perspectives benefit from or contribute to these debates; is there momentum e.g. for novel feminist politics of intimacy?