Women, Genders, and Sexualities
WMGS 5A, Fall 2014
(Monday/Wednesday 2:00 to 3:20 p.m., Olin-Sang 101)
Harleen Singh
Office Hours: Mon/Wed: 11:00-12:00 and by appointment
Office: Mandel 114
781-736-8485
harleen@brandeis.edu
Course Description:
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies envisage a transformation of our social, judicial,
cultural, and academic lives by bringing together inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural
perspectives. It is also a practice that spans many disciplines in its aim to reinsert gender
as a crucial component of our analytic practices. This interdisciplinary course introduces
central concepts and topics in the field of women's, gender, and sexuality studies.
Explores the position of women in diverse settings and the impact of gender as a social,
cultural, and intellectual category in the United States and around the globe. This course
will examine some of the integral intellectual concepts, social movements, and cultural
specificities within women’s studies. Our aim is to understand the changing definitions
of gender and women’s roles, and our contemporary relationship to them, within the
intersections of history, race, culture, religion, and economics. We will also study
women’s movements, history, and politics in terms of colonialism, post-colonialism,
socialism, rising global markets, and a changing geo-political and religious atmosphere.
We will texts, theoretical concepts, and popular culture to understand how gender is
represented in these varied fields, and to imagine new methods to think critically about
gender and sexuality in our world.
Teaching Fellows:
1. Jax Gonzalez
jax@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Mondays, from 4-6 pm, Raab 252
2. Jessica Bray
jlbray22@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 1-2pm, Raab 252
3. Jara Connell
jarac@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Thursday 12-1, Rabb 219
4. Paige Henderson paige@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 12-1, Rabb 219
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Required Texts:
1. Feminist Frontiers (Taylor, Whitter, Rupp)
2. Other articles available through LATTE
Required Videos:
1. Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo (Susana Munoz and Lourdes
Portillo, 1985, 64 min.)
2. Maid in America (Anayansi Prado 2004, 57 min.)
3. The Shape of Water (Kum-Kum Bhavnani, 2006, 70 min.)
Course Requirements:
1. Small Group Discussion: You must attend and participate actively in a
discussion group that will meet bi-weekly during our class time. A graduate
teaching fellow will lead each group and your attendance is mandatory.
2. Class Participation: Your active participation is integral to this course. We
will be in class together to not simply listen to lecture but to create a new
comprehension of concepts and texts through our active dialogue. You must
come to class fully prepared to participate in discussion, and please do bring
copies of the day’s readings. Since this is a large class, we will not be able to
do much discussion during lecture, and that is why it is imperative that you
participate in your small group discussion.
3. Written Assignments:
(A) 2 short papers
30%
10/01/2014
11/10/2014
(B) 2 Mid-Terms
40%
10/22/2014
11/24/2014
(C) 5 page final paper
20%
(D) Section participation will be
10%
12/08/2014
Grade to be compiled by TF
4. You will not be permitted to use laptops during lecture. Please contact me if
permission is required for a learning disability, which must be documented.
Week One
September 3, 2014
Introduction to Women’s, Genders, and Sexualities
Week Two
September 8, 2014
Why Women’s Studies?
Introduction to Cross-Cultural Study of Women’s Issues (WAC 1-15, LATTE)
Women’s Low Status and Power (WAC 16-44, LATTE)
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September 10, 2014
Bodies and Representation
“Gender Stereotyping in the English Language” Laura Richardson (103-107)
“Cosmetic Surgery: Paying for your Beauty” Debra L. Gimlin (128-141)
“The Body Beautiful” Rosalind Coward (LATTE)
“Ain’t I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth (LATTE)
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” Peggy McIntosh (11-17)
Week Three
September 15, 2014
Perspectives on Sex, Gender, and Difference
“Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender” Judith Lorber (33-48)
“The Medical Construction of Gender” Suzanne Kessler (49-62)
“Transgender Feminism: Queering the Woman Question” Susan Stryker (63-69)
“Masculinities and Globalization” R.W. Connell (87-100)
September 17, 2014
“A Way outa No Way”: Eating problems among African-American, Latina, and
White Women” Becky Wangsgaard Thompson (340-348)
“Italians Contemplate Beauty in a Caribbean Brow” Christine Bohlen (LATTE)
“Ideological Racism and Cultural Resistance: Constructing Our Own Images”
Yen Le Espiritu (LATTE)
“Beyond Pro-Choice Versus Pro-Life: Women of Color and reproductive Justice”
Andrea Smith (372-382)
Week Four
September 22, 2014
Gender and Media
“Sex, Lies and Advertising” Gloria Steinem (LATTE)
“Advertising and the Construction of Violent White Masculinity” Jackson Katz
(LATTE)
“Form and female authorship in Music Video” Lisa A. Lewis (LATTE)
“Its my Thang and I’ll swing it the Way that I feel: Sexuality and Black Women
Rappers” Imani Perry (LATTE)
September 24, 2014
Maid in America (Anayansi Prado 2004, 57 min.) View in Class
Week Five:
September 29 Discussion Section
October 1, 2014 First Short Paper Due
“Maid in L.A.” Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo (219-236)
“Sex Segregation in the U.S. Labor Force” Christine Bose and Rachel Whaley
(197-205)
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“Working At Motherhood: Chicana and Mexicana Immigrant Mothers and
Employment” Denise A. Segura (LATTE)
“The Means to Put my children through: Child-Rearing Goals and Strategies
among Black Female Domestic Servants” Bonnie Thornton Dill (LATTE)
Week Six
October 6, 2014
The Body and Reproductive Rights
Reproductive Rights (WAC 46-73, LATTE)
October 8, 2014
“Reproductive Rights,” Angela Davis (LATTE)
“More than Mothers and Whores: Redefining the AIDS Prevention Needs of
Women,” Kathryn Carovano (LATTE)
“Google Babies: Race, Class, and Gestational Surrogacy” France Winddance
Twine (365-376)
“Reproductive Laws, Women of Color, and Low Income Women,” Laurie NsiahJefferson (LATTE)
“Contested Terrain: The Historical Struggle for Fertility Control,” Susan Davis
(LATTE)
Week Seven
October 13, 2014
Brandeis Thursday No Class
October 15, 2014
Sexuality and Identity
“Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The radical potential of Queer
Politics” Cathy J. Cohen (536-552)
“Doing Desire: Adolescent Girls’ Struggles for/with Sexuality” Deborah Tolman
(284-294)
“Sexing the Internet: reflections on the Role of Identification in Online
Communities” Danah Boyd (108-114)
“Hetero-Romantic Love and Heterosexiness in Children’s G-Rated Films” Karin
A. Martin and Emily Kazyak (153-164)
Week Eight
October 20, 2014 Discussion Section
11th Annual Eleanor Roosevelt Lecture in WGS
David Lisak
"Sexual Violence on College Campuses: Confronting the Reality"
October 21st, 2014 @ 3:30pm
International Lounge (extra credit if you attend and register with TA)
October 22, 2014
MID-TERM
Week Nine
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October 27, 2014
Religion and Gender
“Do Muslim Women really need saving? Anthropological reflections on Cultural
Relativism and its Others” Lila Abu-Lughod (486-495)
“Unmasking Tradition” Rogaia Abusharaf (LATTE)
“Hindu Women’s Activism in India and the Questions it Raises” Amrita Basu
(LATTE)
“An Indian Muslim Woman in the Land of Oz” Almas Sayeed (LATTE)
“The Muslim Female Heroic: Shorts or Veils?” Jennifer Hargreaves (LATTE)
October 29, 2014
Culture and Identity
“Frontlines and Borders: Identity Thresholds for Latinas and Arab American
Women” Laura Lopez and Frances Hasso (LATTE)
“Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism” Maxine Boca Zinn and
Bonnie Thornton Dill (FF 70-76)
“Feminism without Borders” Chandra Talpade Mohanty (LATTE)
“Masculinities and Globalization” R.W. Connell (LATTE)
Week Ten
November 3, 2014 Discussion Section
November 5, 2014 A Global view of Education
“Naughty by Nature” Ann Arnett Fergusan (LATTE)
“Girls and Boys Together…but mostly apart: Gender arrangements in Elementary
Schools” Barrie Thorne (167-177)
Week Eleven
November 10, 2014 Second Short Paper Due
Race, Religion, Gender, and Identities
“The Master’s Tools will never dismantle the Master’s house” (22-23)
“Being the Bridge: A Solitary Black Woman’s position in the Women’s Studies
Classroom as a Feminist Student and Professor” Kimberly Springer (6-10)
“We don’t sleep around like White girls Do: Family Culture and Gender in
Filipina American Lives” Yen Le Espiritu (178-194)
“Jews, Class, Color, and the Cost of Whiteness” Kaye/Kantrowitz (LATTE)
November 12, 2014
No longer an Island…
“The Globetrotting Sneaker” Cynthia Enloe (LATTE)
“Consumption: North American Perspectives” Hynes (LATTE)
“Forever Feminism: The Persistence of the U.S. Women’s Movement” Crossley,
Taylor, Whittier, Fabrizio Pelak (498-515)
“From the Third World to the ‘third World Within’: Asian Women Workers
Fighting Globalization” Grace Change (442-453)
“Contesting Militarization: Global Perspectives” Gwyn Kirk (470-485)
Week Twelve
November 17, 2014
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Sexualities
“Black Sexual Politics” Patricia Hill Collins (LATTE)
“Toward a Global History of Same-Sex Sexuality” Leila J. Rupp (LATTE)
“Shopping for Love: Online dating and the Making of a Cyber Culture or
Romance” Sophia de Masi (295-300)
“Becoming 100% Straight” Michael A. Messner (LATTE)
“Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity: “Gender Normals,” Transgender
People, and the Social Maintenance of Heterosexuality” Kirsten Schilt and Laurel
Westbrook (309-322)
November 19, 2014
Motherhood/Fatherhood/Families
“Queer Parenting in the New Millennium” Nancy Naples (LATTE)
“Wedding Bells and Baby Carriages: Heterosexuals Imagine Gay families, Gay
Families Imagine Themselves” Suzanna Danuta Walters (LATTE)
“What is marriage is bad for us?” Laurie Essig and Lynn Owens (258-260)
“For Better or for Worse: Gender Allures in the Vietnamese Global Marriage
Market” Hung Cam Thai (271-281)
Week Thirteen
November 24, 2014 Second Mid-Term
November 26, 2014(Wednesday before Thanksgiving) No Class
Week Fourteen
December 1, 2014 Discussion Section on The Shape of Water
December 3, 2014
Don’t Know Much Biology
“The Bare Bones of Sex: Part I—Sex and Gender” Anne Fausto Sterling (326339)
“The Egg and the Sperm” Emily Martin (LATTE)
“The Ethics of Genetic Research on Sexual orientation” Schuklenk, Stein, kerin
and Byne (LATTE)
Week Fifteen
December 8, 2014 Violence and Gender
Fraternities and Rape on Campus” Patrician Yancey Martin and Robert A.
Hummer (405-413)
“Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity, Politics, and Violence Against
Women of Color” Kimberle Crenshaw (414-426)
“Accountability or Justice? Rape as a war Crime” Mary Ann Tetreault
(LATTE)
“Sex and War: Fighting Men, Comfort Women, and the Military-Sexual
Complex” Joane Nagel (LATTE)
Final Paper due with Teaching Fellows Today
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