The value of affordance theory for critical realist feminism

Affordance theory provides a number of conceptual contributions to a critical realist feminist perspective on gender. First, an affordance-based theory allows us to more deeply understand the manifestations of gender at multiple levels of analysis, specifically: the biological/physiological, the psychological, and the social. At the biological level, gender structures the emergent properties of dimorphic sexed bodies via social processes, which carry with them particular physiological affordances in a non-deterministic way (Gunnarsson 2013; Hull 2006; New 2005). Gender is one of many social influences on our physiology, most noticeably upon the neural networks in our plasticine brains (Fine 2010, 2017), and may lead us to seek new psychological and social affordances through the alteration of our physical bodies (Heycs 2009). At the psychological level, gender may usefully be conceived of as a system of affordances (Gibson 1977; Heft 1989), indicating the range of natural, canonical, or designed action possibilities related to the enactment of masculinity or femininity for embodied subjects, as well as the appeal of some over others. At the interpersonal level, it is communicated through a set of signifiers (such as clothes, hair, makeup, vocal register, body carriage and other aspects of self-expression) combined with processes of interpretation that make bodies intelligible to social others, and as such engender particular social affordances. Lastly, at the structural level, gender can be conceptualised as an overarching social stratification structure with multilevel consequences, on par with politics and economics (Risman 2004).

Second, notions of affordance enable an alternative theory of gender that is less reliant upon individual issues of identification, and more aware of available action possibilities. This attention to the affordances offered to different kinds of bodies within social structures can contribute to de-pathologising individuals who conform to, defy, or disrupt gender norms by illustrating the constraints and enablements shaping their possibilities for action, and eventually, paving the way for more structural solutions. Thus, affordance theory holds particular value for the development of a queer and trans feminist realism. It offers a means by which to challenge hetero - and cis-normativity within theory by more accurately reflecting the perspectives of queer and trans people and theorising cis privilege, which, like most privilege, is invisible to those who possess it. Using the language of affordances, we can argue that, generally speaking, trans people’s bodies do not afford them the same gendered action possibilities as cis people. Such an analysis explains the motivation of many trans people to transition, no matter the physical, psychological, social or monetary cost. If trans people arc unable to access the same simple cascade of affordances as cis people, this justifies the demand for the availability of, for example, genderneutral toilets, based upon notions of equal treatment and non-discrimination. Furthermore, the notions of natural, canonical and designed affordances helps lend explanatory power to theories on the social inertia around gender norms through illustrating how canonical affordances are contextual and - at least theoretically - open to transformation, yet with a realist acknowledgement of the natural structural relations in which they arc embedded.

Third, an affordance-based theory of gender can be used to extend the contributions of a materialist feminist perspective (Gunnarsson 2013), for example by theorising phenomena related to trans and femme labour and relations to capital, which Namastc (2015, p. 21) highlights as a glaring omission in feminist theory. Such an investigation might explore how, due to structural discrimination, the labour affordances for people with trans bodies, especially those of colour and with few resources to medically transition, arc dramatically narrowed, leaving sex work as often the most lucrative, if not the only, form of labour available to them (Mock 2014), disproportionately exposing them to violence and disease (Namaste 2015). This could then justify increasing access to trans-positivc medical procedures and making the provision of trans-sensitive health care mandatory and widely available, which may expand the portfolio of available labour affordances, not to mention improve mental health outcomes (Durwood ct al. 2017). Finally, affordance theory offers new insights into the gendered mechanisms, constraints and enablements acting at all levels of reality and the relationships between them, thereby advancing our efforts to develop explanations of both variability and regularity, such that more equal and inclusive societies can be encouraged (Hull 2006; New 2005).

Future research

There is significant scope for future realist gender research using affordancebased conceptualisations. The first and most obvious for contemporary feminism is using the notion of affordances to develop an intcrscctional perspective in which gender is but one dimension of intersecting social hierarchies that arc causally efficacious in producing nuanccd and complex experiences of power, privilege and oppression. Affordance theory provides a useful set of conceptual tools, which, combined with critical realist concepts, can be used to theorise -in an intersectional way - how privilege and oppression may be co-constituted on the subject level, an area that has been identified by intcrscctionality scholars as underdeveloped (Nash 2008, p. 11). For example, a subject may be privileged with access to some affordances while denied access to others; the shared geohistorical and contextual awareness posited by intcrscctionality, affordance theory and realist feminism means that these affordances are understood not as static but changeable over space and time. There is also room for deeper exploration of the subject perception of affordances, and how this may factor into reflexive processes of decision-making, thus enabling a fuller conceptualisation of the social conditioning and internal conversations that arc enacted in agency (Elder-Vass 2007). We may apply insights from affordance theory to better understand the action possibilities open to people experiencing particular structural conditions, and thus better theorise and empirically investigate the murky area at the point where structure and agency meets: how structural conditions manifest in everyday life (Archer 2007).