WMNST 360 W OMEN ’ S S EXUALITY AND THE B ODY
F ALL 2015
Dr. Kimala Price
Associate Professor, Women’s Studies
Office: Arts and Letters Building, Room #344
Office Phone: 594-8442
Email: kprice@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30am-10:30am, and Wednesdays 10:30am-
11:30am.
C OURSE D ESCRIPTION AND O BJECTIVES
This course examines the social, cultural, political and historical constructions of sexualities and women’s bodies in our society. Some of the topics covered in this course are: the medicalization of women’s bodies; body size/fatness; sexual behavior, desire and pleasure; racialized sexuality; queerness; and sexual negotiation and consent. We will explore these issues through historical analysis, cultural criticism, film and other media, women’s personal stories, and behavioral research. We will not only explore these issues through the lens of gender, but also across other points of difference and oppression, e.g. race/ethnicity, class and age.
In this course, students will:
 Explain how the construction of women’s bodies is closely connected to the construction of women’s sexualities;
 Define and apply new terminology for understanding the social construction of sexualities and women’s bodies;
 Explore the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class and sexuality;
 Analyze how the various mechanisms of power, oppression and resistance impact individual women’s understandings and expressions of their sexualities and bodies;
 Analyze media representations of women’s bodies and sexuality.
G ENERAL E DUCATION E XPLORATIONS C OURSE
Courses that fulfill the 9-unit requirement for Explorations in General Education take the goals and skills of GE Foundations courses to a more advanced level. Your three upper division courses in Explorations will provide greater interdisciplinary, more complex and indepth theory, deeper investigation of local problems, and wider awareness of global challenges. More extensive reading, written analysis involving complex comparisons, welldeveloped arguments, considerable bibliography, and use of technology are appropriate in many Explorations courses.
This is an Explorations course in the Humanities and Fine Arts. Completing this course will help you to do the following in greater depth: 1) analyze written, visual, or performed texts in the humanities and fine arts with sensitivity to their diverse cultural contexts and historical moments; 2) describe various aesthetic and other value systems and the ways they

2 are communicated across time and cultures; 3) identify issues in the humanities that have personal and global relevance; 4) demonstrate the ability to approach complex problems and ask complex questions drawing upon knowledge of the humanities.
R EQUIRED T EXTS
The Politics of Women’s Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior (4 th edition) edited by Rose
Weitz (Oxford University Press 2014). (This textbook is referred to as “PWB” in the rest of the syllabus.)
The Vagina Monologues: 10 th Anniversary Edition by Eve Ensler (Villard Books, 2008)
Additional Readings are available electronically on Blackboard. (There are approximately 15 documents on Blackboard.)
All of the textbooks are available for sale at the SDSU Bookstore, and might be available at KB Books
( www.kbbooks.com
, 5187 College Ave, San Diego).
G RADING AND A SSIGNMENTS
Class Participation and Attendance* 10% Ongoing
Take-Home Midterm Exam #1 30% October 1
Take-Home Midterm Exam #2
Media Analysis Portfolio
30% November 12
30% December 10
C LASS AND A SSIGNMENT S CHEDULE
August 25 Introduction
August 27 What is Sexuality?
September 1, 3 Social Construction of Women’s Bodies and Sexuality
Key terms: social construction of gender, sexuality and bodies; compulsory heterosexuality; sexual scripts; intersectionality
Rose Weitz, “A History of Women’s Bodies,” pp. 3-12. (PWB)
Judith Lober, “Believing Is Seeing: Biology as Ideology,” pp. 13-26. (PWB)
Ruth Hubbard, “The Social Construction of Sexuality,” in The Social Construction of
Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality (3
E. Ore (McGraw Hill, 2006). (Blackboard) rd edition), edited by Tracey
September 8, 10 Medicalization and Politicization of Bodies
Key terms: medicalization of bodies, intersexuality, transgender
Sarah Jane Brubaker and Heather E. Dillaway, “Medicalization, Natural Childbirth, and Birthing,” pp. 49-63. (PWB)
Cheryl Chase, “Affronting Reason,” pp. 67-75. (PWB 3 rd ed.) (Blackboard)

3
E.J. Graff, “M/F Boxes.” The Nation. December 17, 2001, pp. 20-24. (Blackboard)
Film: The Business of Being Born
September 15, 17, 22, 24 Women’s Personal Narratives/Women’s Lived Experiences
Vagina Monologues, pp. vvvii-xlv (foreword and preface), 3-32, 77-125, 167-185.
“Sarita,” Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy by Tricia Rose
(Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2003), pp. 23-49. (Blackboard)
Film: The Vagina Monologues
September 29, October 1 Menstruation
Key terms: sexual objectification, bodily alienation
Janet Lee, “Menarche and the (Hetero)sexualization of the Female Body,” pp. 101-
119. (Blackboard)
Vagina Monologues, pp 33-40.
October 1: 1 st Take-Home Mid-term Exam Due IN CLASS.
October 6, 8, 13 The Racialized Female Body
Key terms: racialized sexuality, sexualized race, intersectionality, Otherness
Patricia Hill Collins, “‘Get Your Freak On’: Sex, Babies, and Images of Black
Femininity, pp. 164-175 (PWB).
Isabel Molina Guzm á n and Angharad N. Valdivia, “Brain, Brow, and Booty: Latina
Iconicity in U.S. Popular Culture,” pp. 176-183. (PWB)
Rhys H. Williams and Gira Vashi, “Hijab and American Muslim Women: Creating the Space for Autonomous Selves,” pp. 331-345. (PWB)
October 15, 20 Doing Media Analysis
Shyron Baumann, “The Moral Underpinning of Beauty: A Meaning-Based
Explanation for Light and Dark Complexions in Advertising,” pp. 258-276. (PWB)
Media Education Foundation, “How to Be a Critical Media Viewer.” (Blackboard)
Media Education Foundation, “Deconstructing an Advertisement.”
(Blackboard)
Film: Killing Us Softly 4(2010)
October 22, 27, 29 Sexual Desire, Attraction and Identity
Key terms: sexual scripts, sexual identity, queerness; sexual fluidity

4
Deborah L. Tolman, “Daring to Desire: Culture and the Bodies of Adolescent
Girls,” pp. 120-142 (PWB).
Michael S. Kimmel and Rebecca Plante, “The Gender of Desire: The Sexual
Fantasies of College Women and Men.” In Sexualities: Identities, Behaviors, and Society, edited by Michael S. Kimmel and Rebecca F. Plante (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 123-136. (Blackboard)
Athena Douris and Diane Anderson-Minshall, “What Happens to a Dyke Deferred?
The Trouble with Hasbians and the Phenomenon of Banishment,” in Bitchfest: Ten
Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine, edited by Lisa Jervis and Andi
Zeisler, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006). (Blackboard)
November 3, 5, 10, 12 Sexual Behavior and Pleasure
Key terms: sexual scripts, social construction of sexuality
Celia Roberts, Susan Kippax, Catherine Waldby and June Crawford, “Faking It: The
Story of ‘Ohh!’” Women’s Studies International Forum. 18(5/6) (1996): 523-532.
(Blackboard)
Clive M. Davis, Joani Blank, Hung-Yu Lin, and Consuelo Bonillas, “Characteristics of Vibrator Use Among Women.” Journal of Sex Research. 33(4) (2006): 313-320.
(Blackboard)
Amy L. Gilliland, “Women’s Experiences of Female Ejaculation.” Sexuality &
Culture. (2009) 13:121–134. (Blackboard)
Film: Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm (2008)
November 12: 2 nd Take-Home Mid-term Exam Due IN CLASS.
November 17, 19 Reproductive and Sexual Health
Jason D. Hans, Martie Gillen and Katrina Akande. “Sex Redefined: The
Reclassification of Oral-Genital Contact.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.
42(2) (2010):74–78. (Blackboard)
Laura Carpenter and Monica J. Caspar, “A Tale of Two Technologies: HPV
Vaccination, Male Circumcision, and Sexual Health,” pp. 143-163. (PWB)
November 24, 26 NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
December 1, 3 Body Image
Key terms: objectification, the male gaze, hegemony, resistance, agency, fat studies, thinness, body image
Patricia Gagne and Deanna McGaughey, “Designing Women: Cultural Hegemony and the Exercise of Power among Women Who Have Undergone Elective
Mammoplasty,” pp. 201-222. (PWB)

Samantha Kwan, “Navigating Public Spaces: Gender, Race, and Body Privilege in
Everyday Life,” pp. 241-257. (PWB)
Kate Harding, “How Do You Fuck a Fat Woman?” Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female
Sexual Power & a World without Rape, edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti
(Seal Press, 2008), pp. 67-76. (Blackboard)
Video: Heidi Montag interview on ABCNews (YouTube)
December 8 Navigating and Negotiating Sex
Key terms: compulsive heterosexuality, consent
C.J. Pascoe, “Compulsive Heterosexuality: Masculinity and Dominance,” pp. 346-
356 (PWB)
Rachel Kramer Bussel, “Beyond Yes or No: Consent as Sexual Process,” Yes Means
Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power & a World without Rape, edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti (Seal Press, 2008), pp. 43-52. (Blackboard)
December 10 Closure (Last Day of Class)
Media Analysis Portfolio Project Due.
5