WGSS 150 (01) – Women’s Voices Through Time

Spring, 2012 / January 17th – April 30th, 2012

Monday & Thursdays: 1:10 – 2:25 p.m.

Location: WARD, Room 105

SEE COURSE DESCRIPTION

Instructor: Kristin Scott

Email: kscott@american.edu

Office hours: by appointment

Course Schedule:

Textbook: Susan M Shaw and Janet Lee, Women's Voices, Feminist Visions. Classic and Contemporary Readings, 5th edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009). Available at the AU bookstore. You may use an earlier edition but by doing so you agree to take personal responsibility for differences between the two. 

Other assigned readings and visuals: These will be available on Dropbox in a folder specified for your use. You will need a Dropbox account. You can either download the Dropbox application to your desktop and access readings and worksheets from there, or you can simply sign into your account online. You should bring current readings to class with you on the appropriate days.

Thursday, January 19th: Introduction to WGST 150: Women’s Voices Through Time

Overview of course syllabus, goals, topics, and logistics; small group introductions

Monday, January 23rd: Women’s Studies - Perspectives & Theories

WVFV: Chapter 1, pages 1-22.

WVFV: Reading 1—Adrienne Rich. “Claiming an Education.” 23-30.

Dropbox: Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Chapter 1

Thursday, January 26th: Concepts and Practices of Feminism

WVFV: Reading 5—bell hooks. “Feminist Politics, Where We Stand.” 33-36.

WVFV: Reading 6—C.V. Harquail. “Facebook for Women vs. Facebook designed by Feminists: Different vs. Revolutionary.” 36-39.

WVFV: Reading 7—Anna Quindlen. “Still Needing the F Word.” 39-40.

Monday, January 30th: Systems of Privilege & (In)Equalities

WVFV: Chapter 2, pages 42-59.

WVFV: Reading 9—Patricia Hill Collins. “Towards a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection.” 60-67.

WVFV: Reading 11—Audre Lorde. “There Is No Hierarchy of Oppression.” 70-71.

Thursday, Feb 2nd: The “Nature” of Gender & Women’s Oppression

WVFV: Reading 10—Marilyn Frye. “Oppression.” 67-70.

WVFV: Reading 12—Suzanne Pharr. “Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism.” 71-75.

WVFV: Reading 13—Peggy McIntosh. “White Privilege and Male Privilege.” 75-82.

Dropbox: Excerpt—Simone de Beauvoir. “Introduction.” The Second Sex.

Monday, Feb 6th: Gender as a Social and Cultural Construction 

WVFV: Chapter 3, pages 105-120.

WVFV: Reading 19—Anne Fausto-Sterling. “The Five Sexes, Revisited.” 121-126.

WVFV: Reading 20—Judith Lorber. “The Social Construction of Gender.” 126-129.

Dropbox: Excerpt—Virginia Woolf. A Room of One’s Own. Chapter 6.

Thursday, Feb 9th: Gender Performances & Resistance 

WVFV: Reading 20—Debra Rosenberg. “(Rethinking) Gender.” 158-162.

WVFV: Reading 22—Evelyn Blackwood. “Trans Identities and Contingent Masculinities: Being Tombois in Everyday Practice.” 135-141.

WVFV: Reading 23—David Wexler. “Shame-O-Phobia.” 141-145.

Visual: Film—Boys Don’t Cry. 

Monday, Feb 13th: The Social Constructions of Scientific Discourses

WVFV: Chapter 5, pages 213-232.

WVFV: Reading 37—Gloria Steinem. “If Men Could Menstruate.” 238-239.

WVFV: Reading 45—Simone Weil Davis. “Designer Vaginas.” 270-277.

WVFV: Reading 50—Jennifer Parks. “Rethinking Radical Politics in the Context of Assisted Reproductive Technology.” 333-340. (Note to students: book table of contents has wrong starting page; 333 is correct starting page)

Thursday, Feb 16th: Women’s Bodies, Advertising and Concepts of Beauty 

WVFV: Reading 36—Joan Jacobs Brumberg. “Breast Buds and the ‘Training’ Bra.” 234-238.

WVFV: Reading 39—Marni Grossman. “Beating Anorexia and Gaining Feminism.” 241-243. (Note to students: book table of contents has wrong starting page; 241 is correct starting page)

WVFV: Reading 43—Courtney E. Martin. “Love you Fat Self.” 265-269.

WVFV: Reading 44—Jonathan Watts. “Chinas’ Cosmetic Surgery Craze.” 269-270.

Dropbox: Excerpt—bell hooks. “Beauty Within and Without.” Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. 31-36.

Monday, Feb 20th: Desire, Love, Erotica & Intimacy

WVFV: Chapter 4, pages 163-180.

WVFV: Reading 27—Jessica Valenti. “The Cult of Virginity.” 182-185.

WVFV: Reading 28—bell hooks. “Romance: Sweet Love.” 186-188.

WVFV: Reading 31—Leila Rupp. “A World of Difference.” 195-201.

Dropbox: Wanda Honn. “My Subway Lover,” in Reynolds, Margaret and Jeanette Winterson, eds. Erotica: Women’s Writing from Sappho to Margaret Atwood. 

Dropbox: Anaïs Nin. “The Delta of Venus,” in Reynolds, Margaret and Jeanette Winterson, eds. Erotica: Women’s Writing from Sappho to Margaret Atwood. 

Dropbox: Excerpt—Jeannette Winterson. “The Special Senses.” Written on the Body. 133-139.

Thursday, Feb 23rd: “Other” & Transgressive Bodies

Dropbox: Excerpt—Joshua Gamson. “Why I Love Trash.” Freaks Talk Back. 2-26.

Dropbox: Essay—Christine Braunberger. “Revolting Bodies: The Monster Beauty of Tattooed Women.” 1-23.

WVFV: Reading 17—Susan Wendell. “The Social Construction of Disability.” 91-99.

Visual: Film—Examined Life.

Saturday, Feb 25th: SHORT RESEARCH PAPER (5 pages) DUE VIA EMAIL by 6 pm.

Monday, Feb 27th: Sexualities & Queer Theory

Guest Lecturer: Andrea Rutan, Dept. of Sociology, George Mason University

WVFV: Reading 29—Jennifer Baumgardner. “What is Bisexuality?” 189-195.

WVFV: Reading 34—Andrea Smith. “Dismantling Hierarchy, Queering Society. 205-207.

WVFV: Reading 35—Kimberly Springer. “Queering Black Female Heterosexuality.” 207-211.

Visual: Film—Fire

Thursday, March 1st: Health & Reproductive Rights

WVFV: Chapter 6, pages 279-309.

WVFV: Reading 46—Margaret Sanger. “My Fight for Birth Control.” 310-312.

WVFV: Reading 47—Eleanor Cooney. “The Way It Was.” 312-319.

Dropbox: Excerpt—bell hooks. “Our Bodies, Ourselves: Reproductive Rights.” Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. 25-30.

Monday, March 5th:

GROUP PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

Thursday, March 8th:

GROUP PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

Monday & Thursday, March 12th & 15th: SPRING BREAK – NO CLASSES

Monday, March 19th: Violence Against Women

WVFV: Chapter 10, pages 503-524.

WVFV: Reading 77—Andrea Smith. “Beyond the Politics of Inclusions: Violence Against Women of Color and Human Rights.” 525-528.

WVFV: Reading 80—Debra Anne Davis. “Betrayed by the Angel: What Happens When Violence Knocks and Politeness Answers?” 534-537.

Dropbox: Excerpt—bell hooks. “Ending Violence.” Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. 61-66.

Thursday, March 22nd: Women, Militarism, and Violence (by Women) 

WVFV: Chapter 11, pages 548-569.

WVFV: Reading 89—Helen Benedict. “The Plight of Women Soldiers.” 582-585.

Dropbox: Joan Moore and John Hagedorn. “Female Gangs: A Focus on Research,” U.S. Department of Justice

Monday, March 26th: Women’s Bodies in Labor / Work Issues

WVFV: Chapter 8, pages 391-398.

WVFV: Reading 61—Sharlene Hesse-Biber and Gregg Lee Carter. “A Brief History of Working Women.” 417-429.

WVFV: Reading 62—Barbara Ehrenreich. “Maid to Order: The Politics of Other Women’s Work.” 429-435.

WVFV: Reading 66—Carol Leigh. “The Strange Relationship between Feminism and Sex Work.” 446-448.

Thursday, March 29th: Women, Globalization & Sex Trafficking

Dropbox: Excerpt—bell hooks. “Global Feminism.” Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. 44-47.

Dropbox: Report—“Sex Trafficking of Women in the U.S.” 

Thursday, April 5th: 

Dropbox: Article—“More than a Beautiful Game: Soccer, Sex Trafficking and Euro 2012 Poland-Ukraine.” Humanity in Action.

Dropbox: Article—Amy Fine Collins, “Sex Trafficking of Americans: The Girls Next Door,” Vanity Fair, May 24, 2011. 

DUE in class: Outline for final project.

Monday, April 9th: The “Femme Fatale” / “Action Girl” – Media Tropes

Dropbox: Excerpt—bell hooks. “Feminist Masculinity.” Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. 67-71.

Visual: Fine Arts—Charcoal Drawing. Pip Dickens. 

Due: Bring a short YouTube url clip (or have one ready to pull up on computer) of an example of a femme fatale or action girl to show class and be prepared to discuss. 

FILM Clips - short film clips to show in class that either highlights the "femme fatale" or "action girl" trope. 

Thursday, April 12th: Activism & Subversion of Identities 

WVFV: Chapter 13, pages 640-654.

WVFV: Reading 102—Phyllis Rosser. “Too Many Women in College?” 658-662.

WVFV: Reading 56—Charlene Gomes. “Partners as Parents: Challenges Faced by Gays Denied Marriage.” 380-385.

Monday, April 16th: International Issues & Movements 

WVFV: Chapter 12, pages 595-608.

WVFV: Reading 94—Karen McCarthy Brown. “Fundamentalism and the Control of Women.” 610-614.

Thursday April 19th: Biotechnologies & Theories of Postgenderism  and Imagining Feminist Futures

Dropbox: Article—Dvorsky & Hughes. “Postgenderism: Beyond the Gender Binary.” 1-18.

Video: PostGenderism: The Genetic Singularity(part 1 of 3), PostGenderism: The Genetic Singularity (part 2 of 3), PostGenderism: The Genetic Singularity (part 3 of 3)

WVFV: Reading 103—Michael Kimmel. “Real Men Join the Movement.” 662-666.

Online: Jessica Valenti. (2011). "SlutWalks and the future of feminism," Washington Post. 

Online: Emily Rapp, "Transformation and Transcendence: The Power of Female Friendship"

Monday, April 23th:

Wrap-up and paper / project workshop.  

Thursday, April 26th: NO CLASS - TEACHER AT CONFERENCE

Monday, April 30th: FINAL PROJECTS DUE VIA EMAIL by 6 p.m.