Required
Texts and MaterialsINTRODUCTION TO WOMEN’S STUDIES
WOMEN’S STUDIES 150•SEC. 1•FALL 2007•3 CREDITS
University of Wisconsin-Superior/Dianna Hunter
Class place and time
Tues./Thurs. 2:30-3:45 p.m.
HWC 2430
dhunter@uwsuper.edu
http://frontpage.uwsuper.edu/wspage
Office: 143 Sundquist
Office phone: 394-8405
Office hours: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays 1-2:15. I am also glad to meet with you at other times by appointment. You can contact me by phone or email to schedule a time that works for everyone concerned.
Required
Texts and MaterialsBooks:
All About Love: New Visions. bell hooks. Cited in the schedule as hooks.
Slut: Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation. Leora Tanenbaum. Cited in the schedule as Tanenbaum.
Young Wives’ Tales: New Adventures in Love and Partnership. Jill Corral and Lisa Miya-Jervis, eds. Cited in the schedule as Corral.
Additional resources:
Handouts and videos as announced in class.
You will need to supply ten or more three-by-five-inch notecards.
Extra credit is available for attending events announced by the instructor.
Welcome to Introduction to Women’s Studies. This class focuses on American women’s experiences and provides a start to thinking about how gender shapes our lives. We’ll question the meanings of “sex” and “gender,” and we’ll observe how these concepts have been constructed for us and by us. Students should be prepared to encounter the voices and perspectives of people who fall between our usual two-part-only categories of “male” and “female.” We’ll take their experiences and men’s—but especially women’s—into account as we seek a better understanding of what it means to be female in relation to others. Our entry point for this exploration will be the topic of women and love.
Love is an idea and a cultural ideal that affects our lives at many levels, whether we identify as female, male, or someone in between. Class materials and discussions will take into account a diversity of perspectives. We’ll encounter writers of different generations, races, ethnicities, nationalities, physical abilities, sexual identities, sexual orientations, and economic classes. Your willingness to engage with these writers’ ideas is essential for fulfilling the learning objectives for this course.
We’ll seek to understand how empathy for diverse perspectives can build identity and self-love. We’ll also look at how difference has been used to privilege some and disadvantage others. And since a main goal of our women’s studies program is to identify and activate positive change by and for women, we’ll explore possibilities for improving how we understand and practice love and relationships, both in the privacy of the home and in more public domains. Our own perspectives—that is, the perspectives of the students and the teacher—will become part of the evidence as we deepen our understanding.
Learning
goals for this class:
Expectations:
The Work of This CourseWe’ll need to work together to keep this class interesting. After years of teaching, I can tell you that the success of any class depends on the students at least as much as the teacher. The class will truly come alive if the students engage creatively and energetically. If you complete the readings, attend class regularly, view required films and videos, work well in small groups, and participate in an open, helpful, inclusive way, we’ll have a great class experience.
Assignments
In this class, you will be encouraged to explore, deepen, and record your own thinking, to think critically about your own work, and to participate responsibly and generously in individual and group projects. The goal is for you to claim your own education, as poet and essayist Adrienne Rich has put it so eloquently. Class work will include class discussions, written comments, mid-term and final tests, and projects engaging individuals and groups.
A list of assignments and their weight in determining the final grade follows:
Buy yourself a small supply of 3-by-5-inch note cards. Use these cards to write questions and comments about the readings. I will collect the cards most class days. Check the syllabus for the schedule. I will read some of the comments to clear up confusion, explore controversies, and spur class discussion. Names will not be shared with the class, but you should write your name on each card so that you get credit for this assignment. Each student must turn in ten cards during the semester. You may turn in additional cards, but you will not earn extra credit in this way. I will not accept late comment cards.
Fuller descriptions of the other assignments will be given in class. A reasonable amount of class time will be provided for working on the activism/service learning project. Groups will work on this project in the Women’s Resource Center (Room 19 in the basement of the Rothwell Student Center). Keep in mind that a good rule of thumb is to expect to spend about three hours on class work outside of class for each hour you spend in class.
Ground Rules
For Respectful Discussions
The following ground rules for respectful discussion are not true “rules.” We all know they can’t be strictly enforced, but if we agree to do our best to follow them, they should help us have open, interesting, and non-threatening class discussions:
Class
Policies
Please come and see me if you have any questions or concerns at all. My office hours and contact information are shown on page one of the syllabus.
Your words and ideas must be your own. If you use anyone else’s words or ideas, you need to give them credit by naming them and giving the title of the work they wrote or otherwise created. Do this in oral presentations, as well in written ones. Not to give credit is plagiarism, and plagiarism will affect your grade. At the instructor’s discretion, plagiarism may result in failing the assignment or the course. Plagiarism may also result in referral to a university investigating officer. University sanctions may include probation or expulsion.
Attendance. Since this is a student-centered class, with discussion playing a major role, you need to attend regularly. Attendance will affect your class participation grade. Eight or more absences will automatically result in failure of the class, except in cases of bona fide emergency, when arrangements are made with the instructor.
Cell phones and electronic devices. Unless you are facing an emergency, all cell phones must be turned off or silenced AND stored out of sight. This policy also applies to other electronic equipment. Exceptions must be pre-approved by the instructor.
Class cancellations due to weather will be announced via the media. Please don’t call Campus Safety. Phone lines need to be open for emergencies.
Accommodation of religious beliefs: University policy states that students’ sincerely held religious beliefs shall be reasonably accommodated with respect to scheduling all examinations and other academic requirements. If you have such needs, please inform me at the start of the semester.
Disability, pregnancy, childbirth, and other accommodations needed: If you need adaptations of methods, materials, space, or testing, please see me, and I will work with the appropriate offices to confirm your situation and make adaptations.
For more on university polices, schedules, expectations, and student services, see this weblink: http://www.uwsuper.edu/provost/Welcome%20Week/StdtInfo-SyllabusAtt.pdf
If you like this course, you would probably enjoy completing a minor in women’s studies. For more information, see me or check the Women’s Studies Program web site: http://frontpage.uwsuper.edu/wspage
CLASS
SCHEDULE
(Subject to change. Listen
for class announcements.)
Complete the readings by the date listed. Assignments are due on the date listed.
Tues: Introductions. Who are we? Where are we coming from?
Thurs: “What is love?” Bring your own original, 81/2” x 11” visual representation to class. Also read hooks on clarity (Chapter 1).
Tues: “The Changing Face of Relationships,” Rowe-Finkbeiner handout.
Thurs.: Kinds of love and sexual identities. Read hooks on justice (Chapter 2) and Alcantara-Tan essay (pages 92-96 in Coral). Choose readings for reports next week.
Tues.: Kinds of love and sexual identities. View Our House.
Thurs: Kinds of love and sexual identities, cont’d. Reports on readings from Coral.
Tues: Kinds of love and sexual identities, cont’d. Reports on readings from Coral.
Thurs: Perspectives on gender construction. What makes a woman? Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” Freud, “Femininity,” Notes on Freud, Weisstein “Psychology Constructs the Female” (handouts).
Tues: Perspectives on gender construction: questioning biological gender. Anne Fausto Sterling, Traditional Values Coalition, Gorman and Cole on intersexuality, and “Rethinking Gender” by Newsweek staff writers (handouts).
Thurs: Spirituality, the Church, control of sexuality, and the traditional commitment to dualistic gender. Genesis and other handouts. View The Burning Times.
Tues: Perspectives on gender construction. What makes a man? Begin to view Tough Guise. Read Kimmel handout.
Thurs: Challenging traditional masculinity. Diener & other handouts. Finish Tough Guise. Take-home mid-term test due.
Tues: What does honesty have to do with gender and love? hooks (Chapter 3). Vocabulary quiz in class.
Thurs: Loving the self, challenging self-loathing and misogyny. hooks on self love (Chapter 4) and Susan Brownmiller “The Enemy Within” (handout).
Tues: What does ‘sex’ mean and who can enjoy it? “Then there were the tramps.” Tanenbaum 27-72. View A Century of Women: Sexuality and Social Justice in class.
Thurs.: Defining & controlling sexuality & reproduction. “The Sexual Girl.” Tanenbaum 73-114.
Tues: Control of sexuality continued. View The Pill. Read Koedt “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” and “The Vagina and Its Neighbors” (handouts).
Thurs: The raped girl. Tanenbaum 115-156.
Tues: The outsider. Tanenbaum157-201. Look ahead to activism project.
Thurs: Come to class with an idea for an activism project. Discuss research methods and sources. Form groups. Start to plan for activism project.
Tues: Representations, greed & love. hooks on greed (Chapter 7). Bring an advertising image showing how gender is constructed through representations in ads. View Still Killing Us Softly 3 in class. Discuss your images, the reading, the video, and possibilities for change.
Week 12: Nov. 20. (Comment cards Tuesday only)
Thurs.: No class. Have a nice Thanksgiving!
Tues.: Wealth, economic class & right relationships. hooks on values (Chapter 6).
Thurs.: No class. Continue to work on activism project.
Tues: View A Passion for Justice in class. What is feminism to us at this time?
Tues.: From sexism to sexual freedom. Can feminism fix love? Afterword & Appendix A. Tanenbaum 203-246.
Thurs.: Vocabulary quiz, wrap up, write class evaluations.
Introductory Glossary for Intro to Women’s Studies
First half of semester:
Culture: The values, symbols, means of expression, language, and interests of a group of people. Dominant culture: The cultural group in power. Cultural myth: A shared story that determines how members of a culture think about reality.
Femininity: A role, a guise, a disguise made up of traits that we learn, through socialization, to associate with the “female.” Primary (genitals and chromosomes) and secondary (voice, body hair, muscularity, etc.) sexual characteristics may make us biologically female, but performance of the role is required to make us feminine. Be careful not to confuse ‘femininity’ with ‘feminism.’
Feminism: Some say there are as many varieties of feminism as there are feminists. In general, though, feminism is both a consciousness and a political movement based on awareness and analysis of 1) the social construction of femininity and masculinity and 2) power dynamics based on sex and gender.
Gay, Lesbian, or Homosexual: A person whose affections and sexual attractions are primarily focused on people of the same gender. Lesbians are women.
Heterosexual: A person whose affection and sexual attraction are directed toward people of the opposite gender. In the 1860s, writer Karl Maria Kertbeny first invented the term homosexual and later coined heterosexual as its opposite. The term was well established by 1915 when Sigmund Freud used it in a revised edition of his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality as a synonym for "normal" sexuality, sexual desire directed toward members of the opposite sex. (The expanded definition comes from the Gay History web site).
Identity: How we define ourselves at a particular moment in time.
Intersex: The gender of a person whose biological gender is neither completely male nor completely female based on chromosomes, hormones, or primary and secondary sexual characteristics.
Masculinity: A role, a guise, a disguise made up of traits that we learn, through socialization, to associate with the male gender. Primary and secondary sexual characteristics may make us biologically male, but performance of the role makes us masculine.
Misogyny: The hatred of women, characteristic of patriarchies, which may exist at subtle, almost imperceptible levels and may be internalized as self loathing.
Omnisexual: Alcantara-Tan’s term for a person who whose affection and sexual attraction is directed toward people of all gender identities. Alcantara-Tan rejects the idea that gender and sexual identity are binary (male/female and heterosexual/homosexual).
Patriarchy: A system of cultural, social, political, and economic institutions that support male dominance and power. Male dominance: The privileging of masculinity over femininity and the exertion of power over women by men, all of which can be enacted at the personal or societal level. Female submission: The assumption that reality requires female powerlessness and passivity and acceptance of male power and dominance.
Privilege: An unearned advantage enjoyed by a dominant group. In patriarchy, male privilege advantages men over women. In a society like ours in which white culture is dominant, white privilege advantages whites over people of color.
Queer: An umbrella term encompassing the “alphabet soup” of gender and sexual-variant identities (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender). CAUTION: This word has been reclaimed and given a positive connotation, especially by young people, but its history as a derogatory term for gay and lesbian people remains a problem. Many still use and understand “queer” in its negative context. If unsure, it’s best to avoid using this term.
Transgender. A broad term for all gender-variant people, including transsexuals, cross-dressers, and people who do not choose to identify as either of the two sexes as they are currently defined by the dominant culture.
Transsexual. A person whose gender identity does not match the sex he or she was born with. Some transsexuals cross-dress while others opt for surgery to change their bodies from female to male or vise versa (Definition from Gay History web site).
Second half of semester:
Coercive sexual encounter: A physical act of a sexual nature initiated by force, emotional pressure, or unfair persuasion.
Consensual sex: Pleasurable physical acts engaged by mutual agreement.
Dynamics of power and control in relationships: Strategies for getting power over another while supposedly “loving” the other. Examples include lying, using coercion and threats, using intimidation, using put-downs and other emotional abuse, using isolation, using children as pawns or to relay messages, treating the other like a servant, insisting on being the only one to make decisions, etc.
Good girl/bad girl dichotomy (Also called the virgin/whore dichotomy): A false division of all women into two mutually exclusive groups based on their engagement in sex and sexual pleasure. “Bad girls do; good girls don’t,” unless in love and in a committed relationship (Tanenbaum calls this idea “the romance myth” and says boys don’t share it). Even being in a committed relationship doesn’t always protect sexually active women from being called sluts.
The personal is political: Personal acts have effects at the community, societal, and global levels that are political because they involve advantaging some and disadvantaging others. For example, when people practice power and control behaviors in the family, these acts support a broader system of male dominance and female submission.
Predatory experience: An encounter in which one party has used the other for self-centered, non-mutual gratification (Tanenbaum’s definition).
Rape: A form of sexual assault usually defined as nonconsensual penetration.
Representations: Images or characterizations (for example, ads and photographs) that define, portray, or otherwise fix an understanding of an individual or group. Representations may contradict the individual’s or group’s identity.
Sexual assault: Nonconsensual, often violent, acts of a sexual nature (more about power and control than pleasure, sex, or making love).
Sexual double standard: Unequal and unfair judgment of men and women for the same conduct.
Sexual harassment: Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other physical conduct and expressive behavior of a sexual nature. This form of illegal discrimination is against UW-Superior regulations.
Quid pro quo: This for that. Submission to the sexual harassment is traded for a job, a grade, a favor, or some other term or condition.
Hostile climate: An intimidating or demeaning work or school environment caused by sexual harassment.
Slut: A derogatory term for a woman, implying loose morals or sexual promiscuity.
Some ways that girls get labeled as sluts:
1) Having sexual desire/seeking sexual pleasure
2) Developing physically
3) Being seen as sexually aggressive
4) Having sex outside of a committed relationship (romance)
5) Being raped (Rosalina Lopez)
6) Teaching about sex education (Rosalina Lopez)
Slut bashing: A political act at a personal level. A form of sexual harassment for the purpose of keeping women’s sexuality under control one person at a time (“as a kind of scapegoat,” according to Deborah Tolman).