Sex, Power, and Politics
Women's Studies
San Diego State University
Spring 2016
Professor Shogofa Abassi
Office: Arts and Letters 330
Office Hours: 12:30-1:30 T/TH & 3:15-4:14 Thursdays or by appointment
Email: sabassi@mail.sdsu.edu
Notice: The California Faculty Association is in the midst of a difficult contract dispute with
management. It is possible that the faculty union will call a strike or other work stoppage this term. I will
inform the class as soon as possible of any disruption to our class meeting schedule.
Course Description:
Understanding the power relations requires an attention to context, particularly the social values,
cultural mores, and communal norms that shape our society and sense of self. In this course we will
explore the historical and theoretical bases power differential with regard to sex and gender as well
as their social and political implications. This course is designed to help students understand the
processes by which “sexuality” (understood broadly to include gender and sexual difference) is
constituted through relations of power and comes to shape the lives of everyday citizens. To that
end, we will consider questions such as, how do theories of sexuality inform political leadership and
public policy? How do these theories, and the policies they engender, perpetuate or minimize
relations of subordination and domination? How, in other words, do our gender norms undermine or
enable human flourishing and freedom? And what, if anything, can or should be done in response?
The course brings works of feminist and political theory together with the study of contemporary
public policy controversies. Students will have the opportunity to explore theories of sexuality and
consider questions such as, are men and women born or made? Is biology destiny or is it social
constructed? And what difference does difference make? In addition we will examine the
relationship between theory and practice, explore the ways in which theoretical conceptions of
sexuality inform, and/ or are challenged by leadership practices and public policies.
Communication: The best way to contact me is email (sabassi@mail.sdsu.edu ). Please inform me by
email prior to the class of an anticipated absence. If you have any questions or concerns, please visit
me during office hours. I recommend you swap e-mail with a classmate to keep you up to date in
case you miss a class.
Please DO NOT
• email me to find out what you missed Or email me assignments
Email communications must contain the following in the subject line to get a timely response:
 Your last Name
• Your class number and section
• A brief description
Ex: Abassi_375_0_question regarding best way to send an email
Required Texts:
All required materials will be provided electronically.
Classroom Etiquette: Students are to conduct themselves in a manner that will not detract from the
learning environment of the classroom. Except in cases of emergency, students are expected to
remain in the classroom for the duration of the class. Tardiness is considered rude and disrupting to
the instructor and to other students. Please arrive on time.
Old School: or other electronics may be used during lectures. EVER. i.e. : Upon entering
classroom:

NO Cell phones

NO Laptops

NO texting in class

NO Headphones

NO I-Pods or I-Pads

NO Blackberries

NO other electronic device
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism is the use of ideas belonging to someone else as
your own in your written work. When using another individual’s ideas in your work, you must
acknowledge this by using the appropriate citations. Students who violate the university’s
policies on plagiarism or academic dishonesty will receive disciplinary and/or academic
sanctions, according to university provisions. Penalties for plagiarism range from an F in the
course to expulsion from the university. (refer to SDSU General Catalog)
Students with Special Needs:
Students who need accommodation of their disabilities should contact me privately to discuss
specific strategies for accommodation; however, they must have received authorization
beforehand. If you have a disability, but have not contacted Student Disability Services (619594-6473, Calpulli Center, Suite 3101), please do so before making an appointment with me.
General Education Course:
This is one of the General Education Courses that fulfill the 9-unit requirement for Explorations in
General Education that 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 in-depth 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 Social and Behavioral Sciences. Completing this course
will help you learn to do the following with greater depth: 1) explore and recognize basic terms,
concepts, and domains of the social and behavioral sciences; 2) comprehend diverse theories and
methods of the social and behavioral sciences; 3) Identify human behavioral patterns across space
and time and discuss their interrelatedness and distinctiveness; 4) enhance your understanding of the
social world through the application of conceptual frameworks from the social and behavioral
sciences to first-hand engagement with contemporary issues.
Course Objectives and Goals:
To develop the ability to critique dominant
and traditional knowledge on sex, gender,
sexuality and the body.
Create a comprehensive knowledge of
societal gendered and sexual norms and the
ability to locate yourself in these norms.
Goal is met by exams, discussion Q & A, and
media portfolio.
To demonstrate an understanding of the ways
that women’s lives are shaped by culture,
social structures and representation.
Goal is met by the media portfolio
assignment.
Understand how power and privilege operate
in representations and expectations of
women’s bodies.
Goal is met by exams, discussion Q & A
Gain the critical thinking skills to discuss and
write about power, sexuality and politics in a
thoughtful and well-articulated manner.
Goal is met by exams, discussion Q & A,
and media portfolio
Inspire a critical consciousness that becomes
a part of your everyday life.
Goal is met by journal by journal entries.
Goal is to be met by reflective journal entries.
1.
Class Attendance and Participation: 10%| This class will be run in an interactive manner. That
means your participation in discussion is absolutely key to making this class work. Please be sure to
have done the readings for the day assigned and bring those readings with you to class. Keep in
mind that participation grades will be based on the quality of contributions made to discussion not
simply quantity or attendance.
2.
Exams: 30%| there will be two exam; each worth 15% of the grade. The exams will be multiple
choice questions and you will be provided with a study guide a week prior to exam.
3.
Take home quizzes 40%| there are discussion questions for each assignment that must be
answered and turned in every Thursday. These questions are designed to help students:
1.
Keep up with the assignments
2.
Highlight key concepts
3.
Inform our class discussions
4.
Use as study guides for the exams
Additionally students are required to attend at least one lectures at the Feminist Research (this
will account for 5% of your take home quizzes) Colloquia. Please refer to this website for dates
and times: http://wwwrohan.sdsu.edu/~wsweb/news_and_events.htm
Community Engagement & Response
Throughout the course of the semester community events will take place that connect to the
theme of women’s sexuality and the body. I will announce these events and I encourage you to
announce events that may be of interest to this class, as they may also qualify as a community
engagement experience. You must attend at least one event this semester and write a summary
of the event and a reflection that addresses the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
What is the relevant connection between the event you attended and the theme of
women’s sexuality and the body? Also consider any underlying connections that
may be subtle and discrete.
Describe your experience in attending the event: was it new to you, did you feel
comfortable, did you feel like an outsider, an insider, something in between?
Explore your experience and how you fit in to it, carefully examine why and
how this is.
In what ways did the event you attended support or/and contradict the themes,
arguments, references of this class thus far? Be sure to use proper citation where
appropriate in considering this question.
Each reflection must be 1-2 double-spaced pages in length. The papers must include the title
and date of the event as well as the name(s) of the sponsor(s) of the event. If the event is a panel
discussion, you must list the names of the all of the panelists. You should describe what
happened at the event and give your impression of what went on. Your impression of the event
should go beyond: “It was great/interesting/eye-opening/a waste of time.” You need to state
why it was great or uninformative.
4.
Group Discussion 10%| Students will be randomly placed in groups and will discuss special
topics and will take place on Thursdays. The discussion should be reflections in which you will
thoughtfully engage in the readings, lectures, discussions, films and other activities your group is
assigned. You group must also relate the material to real life. This assignment is meant to be an
eye-opening exercise that allows each student to apply what she or he learns in this course to the
“real world.” You will be able to track your personal progress with the class materials to see how
concepts in Women's Studies and feminism come up in your life. You may draw from just about
anything: Facebook posts, Internet articles, advertisements of all kinds, personal conversations,
TV shows, movies, cartoons, comics, medical forms, wanted ads, job applications, wedding
invitations, etc. The requirements are as follows:
o Connect at least one idea/term/concept found in the week's readings to what you observe
in your daily life. Define this term drawing from the reading in which it appears.
o Explain the situation in which you experienced or observed the concept appearing in
your life. Explain either the implications or affects of the issue. Why does it matter? How
and whom does it hurt/disempower? If it is a positive experience, how and for whom?
o Explain your personal reactions. For instance, are you shocked? Surprised? Upset?
Worried?
Facebook:
Here is a mock video game box that suggests that a woman's duty is to be in the kitchen. Several of the
Facebook comments were somewhere along the lines of “get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich.”
Many users commented that the picture was sexist, while others responded that they needed to learn to
“take a joke.” Here, I would connect this picture to a reading about gender roles and societal
expectations to fulfill domestic roles. Imagine that this picture would have read “Men's Edition” if you
have trouble seeing the double standard.
5.
Media Analysis Portfolio 10%| For this project, students are required to collect and analyze
media items related to gender, sexuality and the body. The portfolio must include three (3)
advertisements from newspapers, magazines, billboards, websites, and/or TV commercials. The
ads should be for different products or brands. For instance, only one ad can be for a fast food
restaurant chain or a specific brand of perfume or cosmetics line. In other words, all of your
examples should not just be McDonald’s ads or ads for Chanel perfume or Maybelline products.
Each item entry in the portfolio must include:
1.
A copy of the actual advertisement; and
2.
2-3 paragraphs (between 250-350 words total, typed and double-spaced) that analyzes
how the item illustrates a concept (e.g. objectification and queerness) that has been discussed in
this course. Please explicitly refer to at least one of the course readings in each of your ad
analysis and make sure to identify the ad you are analyzing.
You should use separate pages for the analysis of each item. For items that you obtain from a
website, please make sure to include the site’s url address and date last accessed.
General Grading Rubric for Portfolio & Journals
Skills
5
4
3
2
1
Depth of
reflection
Demonstrate a
conscious and
thorough
understanding of
the prompt and
the subject
matter. This
reflection can be
used as an
example for other
students.
Demonstrate a
thoughtful
understanding of
the prompt and
the subject
matter.
Demonstrate a
basic
understanding of
the prompt and
the subject
matter.
Demonstrate a limited
understanding of the
prompt and subject
matter. This
reflection/answer
needs revision.
Demonstrate little
or no
understanding of
the prompt and
subject matter.
This reflection
needs revision.
Use of textual
evidence and
historical
context
Use specific and
convincing
examples from
the readings,
videos, class
lectures and/or
discussion studied
to support claims
in your own
writing, making
insightful and
applicable
connections
between texts.
Use relevant
examples from
the readings,
videos, class
lectures and/or
discussion studied
to support claims
in your own
writing, making
applicable
connections
between readings,
videos, lectures
and discussions.
Use examples
from the readings,
videos, class
lectures and/or
discussion to
support most
claims in your
writing with some
connections made
between texts.
Use incomplete or
vaguely developed
examples to only
partially support
claims with no
connections made
between readings,
videos, lectures
and/or discussions.
No examples from
the readings,
videos, class
lectures or
discussion are
used and claims
made in your own
writing are
unsupported and
irrelevant to the
topic at hand.
Language use
Use stylistically
sophisticated
language that is
precise and
engaging, with
notable sense of
voice, awareness
of audience and
purpose, and
varied sentence
structure.
Use language that
is fluent and
original, with
evident a sense of
voice, awareness
of audience and
purpose, and the
ability to vary
sentence
structure.
Use basic but
appropriate
language, with a
basic sense of
voice, some
awareness of
audience and
purpose and
some attempt to
vary sentence
structure.
Use language that is
vague or imprecise for
the audience or
purpose, with little
sense of voice, and a
limited awareness of
how to vary sentence
structure.
Use language that
is unsuitable for
the audience and
purpose, with
little or no
awareness of
sentence
structure.
Course Schedule
**Subject to change at discretion of instructor
Week 1 Introduction
Week 2: Prehistory
Assignment for week 2: Due 1/28/16
o
“When God Was A
Woman”: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=documentary+when+god+was+a+wo
man&view=detail&mid=78696D207CA3E39B50D078696D207CA3E39B50D0&FORM
=VIRE1
Quiz due 1/28/16: “When God Was A Girl”
1. What do you think is the relationship between power and knowledge
2. Of the total figures unearthed between 30,000 years ago and presently, what is the majority
of them? Why do you think this is?
3. What is the position of women in Goebekli Tepe?
4. What did they find at Catalhoeyuk?
5. As prehistory moves to history and people begin to write, what were some of the names of
goddesses mentioned and what traits do they all share?
6. As Societies increased in scale and got more sophisticated, what happened to the goddesses?
7. Please discuss the story of Gaia and the 'war of the sexes'.
i. Who won?
ii. Who got promoted?
iii. Who got demoted?
iv. *What does all this tell you?
8. What is buried underneath the Basilica? Why do you think this is?
Week 3: Religion
Assignment for week 3: Due 2/4/16
o
“Love and Sex in the Bible”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WrK0moaneo
Discussion Questions
1. According to the video, how was Eve created? Do you think this makes a difference on
how perceive who comes from whom? Why or why not?
2. Who was the first woman and how was she portrayed? What happens to her?
3. With the exception of Isaac, what did all the first families of the Bible, the “patriarchs”
practice? What do you think about this? What does this show about the status of men
and women?
4. What is adultery? Who can be called an adulterer men or women? What is the
relationship between property and adultery?
5. Why do you think that lesbianism is not mentioned? According to video why was
homosexuality and male transvitism forbidden?
6. What does Lot offer instead of his guests to be sodomized?
7. How do men achieve honor and how do women achieve honor? What does this tell you
about the value system at play?
8. The video argues that the story of the house of David has a lesson for us about women,
that her body is a sacred symbol and not pawns in men’s politics but life and joy. Can
this perspective be reconciled with the next part of the story of Solomon being God’s
favored king? How does Solomon treat women? How many wives and Concubines does
Solomon have? How is Solomon portrayed today, when you think of Solomon what first
comes to mind?
Group 1 Discussion: 2/4/16
Chris Knight: “Early human kinship was Matrilineal”
What was the “mission” of the new archaeologists post-WWI?
What were Lewis Morgan's ideas?What is “matri-local residence”?
What changes this and what are the consequences of those changes?
According to Knight what role did “ political passions” play in the scientific
abandonment of first societies being matrilineal and matrilocal?
5. According to Knight, what were social anthropologists molded specifically in reaction
against?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Week 4: Philosophy
Assignment for week 4: Due 2/11/16
Susan Moller Okin: “Philosopher Queens and Private Wives: Plato on Women
and the Family”
1. What is the role of Plato's view of property and its role in corruption? What is the
solution to this problem that results in corruption?
2. According to Okin, what does Plato think will happen to the family with the
communalization of property?
3. According to Okin, what is the association between private possession of women
and corruption for Plato?
4. What is meant by adultery in ancient Greece?
5. What were the customs with regard to women?
6. Why is Plato's proposal control the intimate lives of his guardians viewed
supposedly as impossible to enact when women's sexual lives have been restricted
throughout history?
7. How was kinship ties expanded rather than obliterated in the guardian class?
8. Plato, in Laws, introduces the concept of the “second best city”, and in he reinstates
private property. What kinds of consequences does this have?
Group 2 Discussion: 2/11/16
Oyewumi: "Family Bonds/Conceptual Binds"
9.
1. According to Oyewumi, how has feminism's Euro-American nuclear family
controlled feminist scholarship and how is this and ethno-centric paradigm?
2. Why does Oyewumi say that in this ethno-centric paradigm, woman at the heart
of feminism is a wife? What gets exposed?
3. How does Oyewumi discuss the public/private binary space with respect to the
nuclear family and how does this explain the other problem of feminist
scholarship?
4. According to Oyewumi, oko, the Yoruba category rendered as husband, not
gender specific it encompasses both males and females. Please explain
this. Please discuss “wifehood” and “husbandhood”.
5. How is the African construction of motherhood different from that as articulated
in feminist theory?
Week 5 Power, Conquest and the State
Assignments for Week 5:
o
o
Diane Wolfthal: "Images of Rape" (attached as "Images of Rape")
clear images of some of the pictures from the article:
http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth200/Heroic_Rape.html
Quiz due:due Feb 18, 2015
12. Under Roman Law what kind of crime was rape considered?
13. According to Wolfthal, what where the three functions of these so called "heroic" rape
art?
14. How was rape linked to reconcilation? and what other ways was rape excused, justified
and glorified?
15. Ancient mythologies offered a rage of erotic themes of willing sexual partners, why do
you think the renaissance artist and more importantly their patrons latched on to these
images of force?
16. How is military and sexual conquests linked in these stories and art?
17. How did women of the Renaissance view these pieces of art?
18. How do art hisorians discuss "heroic" rape?
19. Please pose two questions (or comments) you found relevant.
Group 3 Susan Faludi: "The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11
America": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ0SfCqHmuA
TBA
Week 6: Classical Liberalism
Assignment for week 6 Due 2/25/16
Carol Pateman: Chapter 3 “Contract, the Individual and Slavery” from The Sexual Contract(only
pages 39-60) (you'll also find the outlines of some of the thinkers Pateman discusses to attached for
your convenience:-)
1. According to Pateman, what is the difference between Social Contract Theory and
other theoretical strategies that justify subjugation and present it as freedom?
2. With the exception of Hobbes, what is the origin of political right? How is man’s
right over women justified (again with the exception of Hobbes)
3. Pateman claims that in order to make their natural beings recognizable, social
contract theorists smuggle social characteristics into the natural condition (or their
readers supply what's missing). What is being “smuggled” in? What is not included
in Rawls' “original position”?
4. Hobbes as opposed to the other contractarians, assumes that there is no natural
mastery of male over female. Hobbes also argues that the original political right
comes from the right of the mother over the child. Political rights is originally
maternal and not paternal. Why isn't this original right paternal? How is this over
turned?
5. Pateman argues Hobbes' patriarchalism is not paternal but conjugal. Please explain
what she means by this. What does it have to do with Hobbes' definition of family?
6. Why, according to Pateman, is accounting for the survival of the infants part of the
general problem of contractarianism?
7. Please discuss how Locke may be seen (at first glance) to be a proto-feminist but
closer examination does not bear this out. Please fully discuss the first glance view
and close view of Locke's theory.
8. What's the basis of Rousseau's argument that civil order depends on the right of the
husband over their wives?
9. Please explain the “individual' found in Hobbes', Locke's, and contemporary
contractarians. What are the properties/qualities of the individual's relation to
property? To others?
10. What are the socialist and feminist arguments against the contract?
Group 4: Joan Scott: “Sexularism”: http://vimeo.com/19931695 Due 2/25/16
1. What are the assumptions frequently invoked about secularism?
2. Where does the discussion of secularism come up these days? What does this
discussion entail?
3. Please discuss the French Revolution's history of gender equality and secularism
4. Please discuss the abundance of breast imagery in the Jacobin phase of the French
Revolution. How did remove the contextual symbolic significance of the breast and
make the image into a fetishistic phenomenon?
5. What is Scott's argument against the “long march” process toward equality through
secularism?
6. Please discuss the role of religion in America's early feminism.
Week 7: Midterm
Mar 1: Catch-up/Review
Mar 3: Midterm exam
Week 8: Science, Sex and Gender
Assignment for week 8: DUE 3/10
Anne Fausto-Sterling: “The Five Sexes: Why Female Are Not Enough”
1. How many sexes did Plato count?
2. Under Jewish law how were hermaphrodites regarded terms of inheritance, seclusion,
and serving as witnesses? And why do you think that is?
3. Why does Fausto-Sterling argue that some medical accomplishments could be seen as
modes of discipline rather than progress?
4. What caveats do the idealized notions of males and females paper over?
5. Please discuss the circumcision male function and the transformation of “John” to
“Jane”. What was the theory of sexual assignment at the time? Please watch the
following short video and discuss the story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFMfrBWM7_A
6. What does the above story tell us?
Group 5: Video: Rose: Steven Rose: “Can Genetics Explain Human Nature?” 3/10/16
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DswL_7dnI4A&feature=relmfu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7-I8ba1wLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9ZAzeneo2Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3RHGT2ImlU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6E_Oniy0vc
1. What does Rose say about the Guardian article reporting, “science has now proved
that gay men and lesbians have different brains from straight men and women?
2. What is Rose’s critique of evolutionary psychology?
3. What is the example of fast evolutionary change that can happen and what point is
he trying to prove with this example?
4. What is “Flinstone” psychology?
5. Why does Rose argue that the crucial thing about being human is not shaped
primarily by our genes?
6. Why cannot we regard a single gene as doing a particular job?
7. How does Rose talk about “free will”?
8. What does Rose say about IQ tests?
9. According to Rose what are the dangers of brain imaging (internal) surveillance?
Week 9: Gender
Assignment for week 9: due 3/17
Video: Sut Jhally: “The Codes of Gender”:http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-codes-of-gender/
1. How do you define sex and gender? Do they have the same meaning? If not,
2. What are the codes of gender that Goffman refers to? What is “gender display”?
3. Why did Goffman focus on advertisements?
4. How are female hands commonly displayed in advertising? What are the common
characteristics of these displays? What about men? What are the common ways male
hands get displayed in advertising?
5. What are the characteristics of female sexuality as decoded by Goffman?
6. What is a “canting” posture? Woman’s head lifted upwards? Infantilization?
7. A recent study found that men convicted of physically assaulting women chose their
victims partially based on body posture and non-verbal cues. According to Jhally, these
body postures mirrored the gender displays in commercial advertising. What’s the point
of Jhally’s comparison here? Is he blaming advertising images for men’s violence against
women? Or is he saying something more subtle?
8. Jhally believes this is an extremely problematic portrayal of women. Why? Is it possible
that these images are simply what we naturally consider sexy and that’s why they are so
prevalent in commercial photography? Or do you think advertising plays a role in shaping
ideas and ideals that some people consider to be “natural”?
9. More generally, when does something meaningless and fun in pop culture become
meaningful, in your view? Is anything ever actually meaningless? Give specific examples
either way.
10. Jhally asserts that masculinity “is defined through what it is not – through its opposite –
meaning what the culture defines as feminine.” What does he mean? What are some ways
this definition through absence manifests itself in advertising? How about in the wider
culture? How about in the actual day-to-day world around you?
11. What are some of the ways advertisers like Abercrombie & Fitch seem to go out of their
way to prove that their male models are heterosexual even when they are posed in highly
feminine ways?
12. What are some of the reasons female athletes so often pose in men’s magazines in the
same submissive postures as female models? Do you think this increases, decreases, or
has no effect on viewership of their respective sports? Explain.
13. GUESS founder Paul Marciano is quoted as being “attracted to the femininity of the
women of that [Western 1950s] era.” What specifically does Marciano like about this era
and the types of femininity portrayed? Why does Jhally find this significant, and
troubling?
14. Jhally asserts that it’s “only when you make something strange” that you have any chance
of changing it. Do the gender codes in advertising need to be changed? If so, what are
some of the ways we can make them “strange”?
Week 10: Constructing Femininty
Assignment for week 10: Due Mar 24
Susan Bordo’s Unbearable Weight: “Introduction: Feminism, Western Culture, and the
Body” only required to read from 3rd paragraph of pg 3-35 first paragraph
Discussion Questions:
1. Please discuss conceptions of the body as portrayed by
a. The Ancient Greeks: Plato (both views)
b. Christian Thought: Augustine
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
c. Enlightenment thinkers (mechanistic science) and the body’s relation to objectivity
Please watch this video interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B55icuOXOHk ) with
Anita Hill and then talk about Bordo’s discussion of Anita Hill/Clearance Thomas
controversy with respect to:
a. Stereotypes of black men and women
b. “scientific” representations of the black body
c. Black woman carrying the triple burden of the notion negative association
Please differentiate the myth from reality about the egg and the sperm.
Please discuss the critique of the “politics of the body” by
a. Feminists
b. Marx
c. Foucault
Please discuss the following on feminist movements:
a. 1914 Feminist Mass Meeting, what were listed among the various social demands?
b. 1971 “consciousness raising “exercise for men on female subjectivity.
c. The very first public act of the feminist protest in August of 1968, what were their
objections?
d. Bra “burning” myth, how it came about and media representation
Please discuss how feminism has inverted and converted the old metaphor of the Body
Politic,
a. How was viewed by the philosophers of Ancient Greece, Rome and later Britain?
b. How has feminism ‘re”-imagined it?
c. The commodification of the African Slave woman.
How do representations
a. homogenize? (Consumer capitalism through representations) depend on continual
production of novelty?
b. How do homogenized images normalize?
c. Aging body
Please discuss Bordo’s point that
a. Women sometimes colluding in sustaining sexual stereotypes
b. men are not the enemy but may often have a higher stake in maintain institution
Group 7: Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex: Introduction
TBA
Week 12: Constructing Masculinity
Assignment for week 12: Due 4/7
Katz: “Tough Guise2” Videos: will be streamed on Blackboard
“Tough Guise 2” discussion Questions
1. Please discuss the “two Americas” when it comes to violence and the relationships
the two have to each other.
2. How do the media cover mass shootings and what are the effects of these baseline
failures to acknowledge gender have on the other supposed causes of violence.
3. What does Katz say about race, sexual orientation and gender with respect to the
dominant group? What is one of the ways that the power of the dominant group
isn’t questioned?
4. What is the common refrain that biology and evolutionary history are destiny and
what’s wrong with this?
5. Katz discussed how the discourse after the Sandy Hook shooting of the culture of
violence in American quickly descended into a distracting and false debate between
the defenders of the gun industry and defenders of the entertainment industry. Why
does Katz argue that this a false and distracting debate?
6. Why is the pressure to conform to violent masculinity more acute among groups and
communities that are under threat in the real world from things like racism or rising
economic inequality
7. Please discuss what Katz says about “a culture of retreat” as talked about by popular
media? What’s the “wussification of America”? The etymology of the word ‘wuss’
is as follows: “1982, from earlier wussy (circa 1960), probably a blend of wimp and
pussy.”
8. According to James Gilligan’s study of violence, what was the single most powerful
reason prisoners turned toward violence?
9. Please relate the effects that the culture of violent masculinity has on men.
10. What are some benefits to boys and men of putting on the “tough guise”? When is it
an effective and adaptive response, and when is it self-destructive and dangerous to
others?
11. What is the difference between using the common term “violence against women”
rather than the less commonly used “men’s violence against women”? And why is
this difference significant?
12. The rugged individualist ideal – as represented by the John Wayne and others –
plays a powerful ideological and political role in our society. How does the
ubiquitous message that a “real man” makes it on his own influence contemporary
political debates about such issues as homelessness, welfare, labor unions, crime,
etc.(as Schwartzenegger calls them—“economic girly men”)?
Group 8: Jensen: ”Feminism and
Masculinity”(101:35 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvZee1gh3N4
TBA
Week 13: Pornography
Assignment for week 13: Due 4/14
“The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and
Relationships": http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-price-of-pleasure/
PRE-VIEWING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS—you do NOT have to turn in these pre-viewing
questions just answer them for yourself prior to viewing the video.
1. Have you ever viewed a pornographic image? Why or why not? If so, how were you first
exposed to pornography? Explore your reactions to what you saw.
2. What are your current feelings about pornography? Have you ever thought about how
pornography portrays men, women, and sexuality? What are your initial thoughts about this? Do
you think these portrayals can have an affect on our relationships? Why or why not?
Discussion Question: Price of Pleasure: Pornography, sex and relationships
1. How big is the porn industry?
2. Gail Dines compares the analogy of “if your against pornography, you’re against sex”
to what?
3. What are some of the ways that pornography has been pushed into the mainstream?
Do you think this mainstreaming has normalized pornography? Why or why not?
How does the normalization of pornography affect the culture and the content it
produces?
4. Look into the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in favor of virtual child
pornography. Research other legal battles the Free Speech Coalition has lobbied for
since its founding in 1991. How has their presence changed the current state of
pornography?
5. What aspects of our popular culture are rife with erotic imagery? What aspects are
not? Why is sex used to sell products and services? Who primarily controls the
messages in advertising and other forms of media?
6. Robert Jensen argues that pornography has been commodified within capitalism.
Explore your thoughts about the process of commodification. What should be
commodified? What should not?
7. Is pornography just a fantasy? Why or why not? How does pornography shape and/or
reflect our understanding of human sexuality?
8. Why do you think racist imagery is so prevalent in pornography? Do you think the
mass media has been successful in correcting some of the stereotypical imagery they
produce? Give specific examples.
9. Do you believe Ernest Greene’s statement that “evildoers do evil things and don’t
need pictures to tell them how”? Do you think images can shape our thoughts and
actions? Why or why not?
10. Did you know that torture was used in pornography as a means to sexually arouse?
How does that make you feel? Explore your overall thoughts about the use of torture.
Group 9: TBA
Week 14 Reproductive Justice
Assignment for week 14: Due 4/21
Susan Bordo: Unbearable Weight “Are Mothers Persons? Reproductive Rights and the Politics
of Subjectivity”
1. According to Bordo, some groups have been accorded subject status and its protections
and others have been regularly been denied. To whom is she referring and what exactly
does she mean?
2. Please discuss the McFall v. Shimp (1979) case.
3. Please discuss the metaphor of vampirism that Bordo illuminates.
4. Please discuss the history of involuntary sterilization and then sterilization today,
Norplant, women on welfare, and the inability to care model.
5. Please discuss the judge’s choice of words in the Madyun Case
6. Please discuss the archetype of the cold, selfish mother.
7. How are pregnant women treated as fetal incubators?
8. Bordo states, “Only the pregnant woman, apparently, has the ‘duty of care’.” What does
this mean? What is she trying say with this statement?
9. Bordo says “by the fetal-rights arguments, that a two-year old child has fewer rights than
a six month old fetus”. What does she mean?
10. What does Bordo say about the “father’s right issue”
1. The notion of couples being pregnant
2. In order to view pregnancy in a mechanistic way what must it be divested of?
3. Is the following statement problematic why or why not, “she wants control of her
body but what about me? Am I not allowed to have control of my body?”
Group 10 : "The Business of Being Born": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvljyvU_ZGE
1. Please discuss the percentage of births by midwives in the U.S. versus in Europe and
Japan as well as mortality rates of mother and child.
2. when and why did the shifts from midwives to hospital births come about? What
imagery was portrayed?
3. Please discuss the connection between pitocin and increase of pain during labor as
well as baby distress. What are the differences between oxytocin and pitocin (this
come later on in the documentary).
4. Please list and discuss all the reasons reasons for the sharp increase in cesarean
sections over vaginal birth. What are the risks involved for each?
Week 15: globalization
Assignment for week 15: Due 4/28
Mclaren: Gender Equality and the Economic Empowerment of Women: Only required to read
until the last paragraph of the first 4 pages
1. Please discuss the critique of universal human rights including some feminists’ critique of
Liberal Feminist positions with regard to culture and tradition.
2. Please discuss Mclaren's presentation of the Liberal Feminism vs Multicultural Feminism's
positions and what do both positions neglect?
3. Please explain the following two positions from Abu-lughod and Spivak,
a. historically the West has justified its interventions into other cultures by seeking to
“protect women
b. History is full of examples of “white men saving brown women from brown men.”
4. Mclaren argues that “the West is privileged as the standard, and so is taken to be normatively
neutral” why does she view this a problem?
5. Of the 1.3 biollion people in the world who are recognized as the ‘absolute poor’ nearly what
percentage are women?
Turcotte: Contextualizing Petro-Sexual Politics
6. According to Turcotte, how does knowledge (in the West) conceal, obscure, elide and
“disappear” structural and interpersonal global histories of gender, sexual, and racial
violence? What is “epistemic violence”? Please be prepared to discuss and give examples of.
7. According to Turcotte, “Polgreen’s article constructs a teleological and unidimensional
understanding of petroleum violence, one that begins and ends with community.” What does
this framing of the conflict do? What does it erase?
8. Please explain the ways in which such segregation renders U.S., transnational oil
corporations and others involved outside and above the conflict.
9. According to Turcotte, how do media portray and use of rubric such “ethnic conflict” carry
with racial, ethnic and gendered stereotypes of violence?
10. What alternative historical narrative of gender and petro-politics in the Delta does Turcotte
offer and how does that narrative challenge of “closed logics”?
Group 11 TBA
Boris: On Cowboys and Welfare Queens
1. Please explain the metaphorical images of the “cowboy” and “welfare” what are they
trying to depict? How do these gendered depictions relate to neo-liberalism?
2. Please explain and give examples(you’ll find them throughout the article) of the scholarly
division of division of labor by suggesting one set of connections based on the two
cultural/political archetypes, the cowboy and the welfare queen, and the ways in which
each was simultaneously gendered and radicalized.
Week 16 Economy
Assignment for week 16: Due 5/5
“Who's Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global
Economics”: https://www.nfb.ca/film/whos_counting
Discussion Questions:
1. What doesn’t Gross Domestic Product figures, which form the basis of macroeconomic
policy throughout the world recognize?
2. According to the current UN rules of economics, which governs the IMF, nations and
international money flow, who has worth?
3. How are Destructive activities such as war, pollution, and sexual slavery viewed in this
economic system or in the accounting books?
4. How are Non-monetary human values such as peace, community, and environmental
preservation are viewed in this economic calculus?
5. What do women for example do women Kenya, for example, to obtain water?
6. Please pose or address four questions or issues not already asked.