Principles of Gender Theory: U.S. Perspectives
Monday 15:00-17:00
Michelle Gardner-Morkert, Ph.D.
Office Hour: Tuesdays 10:30-11:30 and by appointment
Week 1 – Introduction to the discipline, concepts, and frameworks
Explore definitions of theory, epistemology, methodology, gender performativity, praxis, and
activism. Review syllabus and course expectations.
Week 2 – Cult of masculinity (Kimmel Excerpts)
Analyze prevalent images of masculinities in contemporary U.S. popular culture using an
intersectional analysis. Examine the reciprocal relationship between representations and gender
performativity. Screen Tough Guise.
Key concepts: tough guise, masculinities, heteronormativity, intersectionality, social construction,
gender performativity.
Week 3 – Abolition, suffrage, and the first wave (Coryell/Faires pgs 267-314)
Discussion of the roots of theories underpinning waves of the U.S. women’s movement and links to
civil rights, theological debates, and suffrage activism.
Key concepts: abolition, cult of true womanhood, prohibition, suffrage, citizenship, Seneca Falls
Convention, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul,
Week 4 – Gender and work: Industrialization, Immigrant women’s lives, and militarism
(Coryell/Faires pgs 315-361)
Examine militarization and its diverse representations in popular U.S. culture and compare with
militarized gender roles in the WW II climate. Analyze U.S. government definitions and promotion
of “women’s work” in the 1940 and implications leading into the second wave of the women’s
movement.
Key concepts: Rosie the Riveter, Lowell Mill Girls, Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, Comstock Law
Week 5 – The personal is political: civil rights and the second wave (Coryell/Faires 362-402, Tong
pgs 50-92)
Analysis of gender in micro, meso, and macro levels with emphasis on radical gender theory.
Key concepts: radical-libertarian theory, radical-cultural theory, sex/gender system, Firestone, Daly,
political lesbianism, heterosexism as social institution, Rich)
Week 6 – Lived experience as historical and narrative theory (Anzaldua pgs 75-113)
Theory Summary Due
Analysis of Gloria Anzaldua’s theory of border crossing and identities in Borderlands/ La
Frontera. Juxtapose Anzaldua’s work collective and individual work with liberal gender theory.
Key concepts: mestiza, border crossing, sexuality, ethnicity, citizenship, liberal theory, Mill,
Wollstonecraft, National Organization of Women (NOW), Friedan, Alison Jaggar)
Week 7 – Constructing identity: social and cultural capital (Coryell/Faires 509-520, Tong pgs 93125)
Analysis of Socialist/Marxist gender theory in U.S. scholarly traditions and applications to gendered
labor and the body.
Key concepts: consciousness, economics, wage gap, global market, labor, society, family relations,
child-rearing, Mitchell, Hartmann, Young
Miss Representation Screening
Week 8 – Midterm Exam
Week 9 – Intersectional approaches to gender (Tong pgs 211-253, Lorde Excerpt, Hill-Collins
Excerpt)
Comparative analysis of intersectionality as a concept emerging from women of color gender
theory. Analysis of the work of Audre Lorde and Patricia Hill Collins as illustrations of women of
color gender theory. Particular analysis of tropes of welfare mother, mammies, and matriarchs.
Evaluate the need for intersectional analyses of gender, sexuality, race, class, ethnicity, religion, age,
and ability in the United States WGS fields.
Key concepts: multiculturalism, intersectionality, human rights discourse, sexuality, womanism,
African American/Black feminism, mixed race feminism, Latin American/Latina feminism, Asian
American feminism, Indigenous feminism, global, postcolonial, and transnational theories.
Week 10 – Womyn’s music, arts, and activism
Analysis of artistic and activist exploration of questions about power, gender and sexuality, practices
of racialization, nationalism, language, ableism, spirituality, and meaning.
Key concepts: Ecofeminism, militarism, Starhawk, Dinnerstein, Chicago, Michigan Womyn’s Music
Festival, Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, Sleater Kinney, Guerilla Girls.
Theory Summary Due
Week 11 – Queer theory and the third wave (Essay Excerpts)
Overview the interdisciplinary field of queer theory from its emergence two decades ago to present
day articulations. Analyze definitions of queer, homosexuality, gay, lesbian, transgender, and
cisgender.
Key concepts: LGBTQIA identities, androgyny, female masculinities, discourse, power, knowledge
Week 12 – Deconstructing, reclaiming, and globalizing (Tong pgs 173-210)
Survey social constructionist and other queer, postmodern, post-structural and anthropological
theories and ideas about gender, sex, and sexuality in the third wave of U.S. women’s and gender
studies.
Key concepts: Sartre, de Beauvoir, Butler, Derrida, Foucault, Cixous “other,” coherent self,
dichotomies, power relations, performativity, queering, universal knowledge, gender norms.
Week 13 – Riot Grrls, slut walks, and the blogosphere (Baumgardner Essay)
Theory Summary Due
Appraise modes of discourse and articulations in U.S. feminist activism with specific attention to
sexual assault protests, media representations, and social networking as activism. Screen poetry
slam performances as a space of interrogation and revolution.
Key concepts: Sexual Assault, discourse, globalization, transnational theory, activism, poetry slam
culture, queer youth identity, Bechdel test.
Week 14 – Fourth wave: contemporary debates
Explore the possibilities of a fourth wave and define the new directions of the women’s and gender
studies field transnationally. Begin the final discussions and applications of current gender debates
in the U.S. Begin to discuss relevance of U.S. theories and activism with student insights into
contemporary Croatian culture.
Key concepts: Analysis of topics to be selected by instructor and students.
Week 15 – Fourth wave: contemporary debates
Complete the discussion Key concepts: analysis of topics to be selected by instructor and students.
Final Exam Paper Due via E-mail:
Assignments:
All papers should be written in MLA format and should include proper citation. One tzped page should
equal 250 words. Please include a total word count at the bottom of the final page of the text, excluding
the List of Works Cited Page.
Attendance and participation
Contemporary Application Conversations (2)
Theory Summary Essays (3) – four student conversations per week
Midterm Exam
Final Paper
Contemporary Application Conversation- Each student will lead two 15 minute class discussions about
the relevance of a selected theory. Grades will be based upon evidence of contemporary gender issue
(article, etc.) and mastery of the primary theoretical inquiry. Students will extrapolate theoretical
questions from the readings and lectures to use as the basis for the class discussion. Submit the articleessay, etc. outlining the contemporary issue and 3-5 key quotes that guide the conversation.
Theory Summary Essays – Throughout the semester students will select a theory and write a three page
(750 word, excluding List of Works Cited Page) essay that explores the tenants of the particular
epistemological perspective. Students may include elements of comparison/contrast toward the end of
the semester. Due dates are listed on the syllabus.
Midterm Exam – All students will take an in-class midterm examination.
Final Essay- All students must submit the final essay via e-mail to pass the course.