WGST 2530 Fall 2003


Dr. Lori E. Amy Director, Women's and Gender Studies Program Georgia Southern University	P.O. Box 8090 Statesboro, GA 30460 (912) 681-0625/fax (912) 871.1386

Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies
WGST 2530 A T / TH 5:00 - 6:15 NEWTON 1108

Course Description
At its most basic level, a course in Women’s and Gender Studies asks us to examine all of our traditional concepts – concepts of “man” and “woman,” first and foremost, but also of church, family, nation, class, race, and economy – and to ask how these concepts rely on the subordination (or: disenfranchisement, marginalization, inequality) of certain groups of people. In this sense, a women’s and gender studies course requires a detailed analysis of power – who has it, how it works, what its effects are – and of the cultural arrangements according to which power is distributed and circulated.

Because we analyze gender and power in culture, this interdisciplinary course draws on many different disciplinary understandings of gender (psychology, anthropology, sociology, biology) and power (political science, philosophy, economics). As an introductory course, WGST covers a broad range of issues from many different perspectives so that you get both an overview of the important topics in WGST and ideas about how to further explore these topics in your major and minor fields and in your careers.

Our Work
I want our classroom to be a space of collaborative community in which we can encounter not only ideas, but each other and ourselves. To really encounter ourselves, I believe that we must read the course material carefully and critically, with both our hearts and our minds fully engaged; we must, in other words, open ourselves to self-reflection, to an examination of old ideas and a consideration of new ideas. To encounter each other, we must come to class ready to listen compassionately, and to speak honestly and passionately but also with respect for the many differences in life experiences, world views, and subject positions from which we engage with each other. Outside of class, you will work on reading, writing, and in groups on projects. In class, we will work on community.

Weekly Reading Questions/Points (30%) Each week, for each of the readings, you must submit AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS three discussion points and three questions for each reading. This takes the place of quizzes and helps me to make sure that you are keeping up with the readings. The readings, which are generally short, provide the catalyst for our thinking and classroom discussion.Because this is a discussion-based class that relies on your active engagement with the material both to establish our community and to carry on the intellectual work of the class, it is EXTREMELY important that you come to class prepared!
Reflection Papers (30%): Throughout the semester, I'll expect you to turn in the 5 short (2 - 3 page) reflection papers. These assignments take the place of tests, let me know how you are responding to the issues we address, and help me direct your research and your final project work. These are not argument or research papers, but, rather, writing from your personal experience encountering the ideas in the readings. You'll need to refer in concrete, specific ways to the texts on which you are reflecting so that I know you have read the work carefully and critically, but you also need to connect your personal experience to the texts you are writing about. Do the readings reflect your world back to you? Present you with ideas that are different and/or unsettling? Are you changing your mind about issues in response to the readings and/or class discussions? It is perfectly appropriate to refer in the reflection papers to classroom discussions, to your own emotional conflict, and to any larger issues that the readings raise for you.
Attendance and Class Participation (10%) Each of you will be responsible for leading class discussion at some point throughout the semester. After we have gotten comfortable with each other, I'll ask you to sign up for readings/days for which you lead discussion.
Final Project (30%): Your final project reflects what you have accomplished throughout the semester. In broad strokes, I want your project to analyze gender images in our cutlure. For example, you might analyze gender stereotypes in film, on television, and in public discourse (political debates about “family,” welfare or war, for example). Or, you could analyze gender in your family or social group (church, fraternity, sorority, club). You have a great deal of flexibility for this project. Most importantly, I want you to define an aspect of gender in your immediate life/sphere that is important to you and use your final project work to help you think this issue through more carefully. Think of your final project as the fireworks display that opens or closes big events – New Years, the Fourth of July, the grand finale of a major show. This is your chance to show off, to perform, to produce something that you find personally meaningful and fulfilling.
Throughout the semester, I will be talking with each of you about what you might do for your final projects – I want you to use your time and energy for these projects in a way that actively accomplishes something for you and your life.
I want your projects to mean something – to you, your peers, your community – and I want them to draw on your experience, interests, and expertise in ways that meet your current needs. Most importantly, your final projects need to be something that you can use outside of and beyond this class—they might be material for a professional portfolio (samples of writing, art, web work, poetry, music, etc.), web projects that you publish for the larger world, gifts that you give to friends and loved ones. . . anything that documents, explains, analyzes, critiques, and/or engages in some meaningful way with gender and culture.
If you are getting ready to go to graduate school or on the job market, you might do a project that researches graduate programs in Women’s and Gender Studies or jobs/professions that allow you to work on behalf of women’s and gender issues. You might do an oral history project (interviewing, for instance a specific group – family, targeted community – about gender issues). If you are an artist, you might produce a work of art – a poetry chapbook, a show of photographs, a play, a movie, a musical score. You can also do collaborative final projects – you might, for instance, work with a group of people to develop, design, produce, and publish a WGST magazine or a class web site; write and perform a play; make a movie; or organize an art show/exhibit or other community event.
I encourage multi-media projects (projects that combine film, photographs, music, writing, art, the world wide web, oral and transcribed interviews, etc.)
By the middle of the semester, I will ask for a Final Project Proposal that defines the project you want to work on. Using this proposal as a starting point, I will work closely with you to help you think your project through and to find resources.
For those of you interested in developing web sites, I will assist you with every aspect of this – web work can be fun and empowering, so I hope that you will take this opportunity to let me work with you to develop a web site.

Readings/Texts

Feminist Frontiers. 6th . Edition. Eds. Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier. McGraw Hill, 2004.
Selected Web sites (see syllabus links)
Women's Activist Groups http://merlin.alleg.edu/employee/a/acarr/ws/activism.html

Attendance
Do I have to say this? Come to class. I hope to make each class session intrinsically meaningful and explicitly productive. If you find yourself not coming to class, then we will need to talk. I don’t want you to be where you don’t want to be, so, if you don’t want to be in the class (as in, attend) then you need to rethink whether or not you want to be in the class (as in: enrolled). If you want to be in the class (enrolled), then, clearly, you will attend. I assume that, throughout the semester, you'll be sick at least once, you'll have a conflicting obligation at least once, and you'll need a mental health day at least once. Hence, I give you three excused absences. If you miss 5 classes, I'll dock your grade a full letter. The bulk of the work of this class happens IN class. If you are not here, you are not doing the work! If you have missed 7 classes or more before midterm, I will counsel you to drop. If you miss more than 7 classes, I reserve the right to give you a failing grade.

Course Overview:
Weeks 1 - 2: Establishing Premises and Methods
Weeks 3 - 5: Gender, Culture, and Society
Weeks 6 - 7: Race Issues
Weeks 7 - 9: Bodies and Sexualities
Weeks 9 - 10: Violence
Weeks 11 - 13: Global Perspectives
Weeks 13 - 15: Final Presentations

SYLLABUS

Supplementary Articles from Gender & Society, Volume 19, Number 3 (June 2005)
"Beards, Breasts, and Bodies: Doing Sex in a Gendered World," Raine Dozier, pp. 297-316 ; "Transsexuals' Embodiment of Womanhood," Douglas Schrock, Lori Reid, Emily M. Boyd, pp. 317-335 ; "

Books: Dubious Equalities & Embodied Differences: Cultural Studies on Cosmetic Surgery; Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery ; Feeding Anorexia: Gender and Power at a Treatment Center ; Connecting Girls and Science: Constructivism, Feminism, and Science Education Reform

wk 1
8.16

8.18

Course overview
Review text pp 1 - 3/ Introduction
Assign: pp 4 - 5 "Diversity and Difference"
pp. 6 - 8 "Oppression"

Discuss "Diversity and Difference" and "Oppression"
Model Format for daily notes
Assign: pp. 22 - 24 "Master's Tools"

wk 2
8.23

8.25

Exchange Names and Phone Numbers -- Support Networks
Discuss: "Master's Tools";
Model format for Reflection papers
Notes from Audre Lorde's "Master's Tools"

Discuss: pp. 24 - 29 "Teaching About Being an Oppressor" and pp. 37 - 38 "Portrait of a Man"
Notes for Schacht

wk 3
8.30

9.1

Gender, Culture, and Society

pp. 85 - 86, "Gender, Culture and Society" &
PP. 33 - 51 "The Social Construction of Gender"

Sex Signal Performances:
Tuesday August 30, 4:00 & 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, August 31, 11:00, 4:00, and 7:00 pm
All performances in the RU Ballroom

Fausto-Sterling "The Bare Bones of Sex" --To access this article, go to the library's home page and click on the "Go" button, then click on exact search, click "Journal Title," and type in Signs in the search bar; scroll down page and click link online access; click on EBSCO Host and then click on "issues available at publisher's site" -- go to available issues and click on Volume 30, number 2 (Winter 2005), and then click on "The Bare Bones of Sex
"The Missing Vagina Monologue" http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=13&compID=98
pp. 88 - 93 "Gender and Stereotyping in the English Language" &
p. 94 "Why I'm Not a Lady"

wk 4
9.6

9.8

9.6 -- Labor Day
pp. 51 - 66 "The Medical Construction of Gender" &
pp. 95 - 108 "Cosmetic Surgery"
pp. 108 - 110 "The Myth of the Perfect Body" & Notes from Kessler/Gimlin Readings

Pause: What we've done so far: where did we start, where are we now, where are we headed?
Final Project Description

Journals: Gender and Society, Feminist Review, Women's Studies Quarterly, Women's Studies International, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Ms.,
EagleSource
Group Library Exercise -- review articles for the last 6 months - 1 year in a feminist journal and on a feminist website to get a sense of the issues being discussed. As a group, chat over what you have read about, what the exercise reveals to you. Submit a response (1 page, with all group members' names) briefly describing the journals/websites you have reviewed and the your groups' perceptions/responses/thoughts about what you have reviewed.
Message Board Link: http://s7.invisionfree.com/Enchanted_Love/index.php To join the message board, first register with InvisionFree. If you weren't in class when we registered for this, email me for the group password.

wk 5
9.13

9.15

pp. 166 - 169 "What are Little Boys Made Of?" &
p. 169 "Inherit the War" &
pp. 327 - 331 "Becoming 100% Straight"

Race Issues
pp. 119 - 127 "Selling Hot Pussy"

Links on Poverty:
Being Poor http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/003704.html
Live Journal Link http://www.livejournal.com/users/cadhla/833321.html

Hispanic Awareness Month Events
Candle Light Vigil for Hurricane Katrina Students at GSU : Sept. 15, 8:45, Rotunda

wk 6
9.20

9.22

Sex Roles Volume 52, Numbers 7-8 (April 2005) "Development of the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory" by James R. Mahalik, Elisabeth B. Morray, Aimée Coonerty-Femiano, Larry H. Ludlow, Suzanne M. Slattery, Andrew Smiler
pp. 417-435 (this issue has a bunch of great articles -- see especially these:)
Article Available through our class forum or the Library Course Reserves

Direct Link to Sex Roles Article http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_7-8_52/ai_n13815569 (courtesy Ebony!!)

Invitation to Join Amnesty International

Study Abroad Fair will be held in the Russell Union Ballroom on Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m

wk 7
9.27

9.29

pp. 144 - 154 "The Means to Puty my Children Through"
pp. 225 - 227 "The Reality of Affirmative Action"
pp. 473 - 483 "The Gendered Organization of Hate: Women in the U.S. Klu Klux Clan"

Reflection Papers: Begin Now and turn in one a week for the next 5 weeks; use as pre-writing for Final Project

Race, Poverty, Gender, Katrina

Amy Goodman: Interview with Lorrie Beth Slonsky http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50B11FD3E550C768CDDA00894DD404482
New Orleans Resident on Gov't Betrayal http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/12/1426233&mode=thread&tid=25
Hitchins & Galloway http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/16/1223201&mode=thread&tid=25
The Militarization of New Orleans http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/16/1222257&mode=thread&tid=25

wk 8
10.4

10.6

Bodies and Sexualities
pp. 348 - 353 "I'm Taking Back my Pussy: A Transgression of Privatized Gynecological Boundaries" &
pp. 324 - 326 "Sex Ed: How do we Score?"

pp. 306 - 312 "In Hiding and On Display"

wk 9
10.11

10.13

pp. 353 - 363 "No Way Out"

Sample Resume for Students working with faculty/research grant

Guest Speaker: Doris Wilbon

wk 10
10.18

10.20

City Council Meeting

pp. 286 - 296 "Wedding Bells and Baby Carriages" &
pp. 296 - 299 "A Member of the Funeral"
pp. 302 - 305 "Finding the Lesbians in Lesbian History" &

“The Gay Lifestyle: Myths and Perceptions” Discussion (Refreshments will be provided) / Russell Union Room 2047 6pm-8pm

Homecoming: Oct. 22

wk11
10.25

10.27

REFLECTION PAPER DUE!!!!!!! -- if I have not already approved a written proposal for your final project, you need to see me ASAP!!!

Violence
pp. 403 - 404 "Letter from Claudia"
pp. 389 - 397 "Fraternities and Rape"
pp. 401- 403 "Supremacy Crimes"
pp. 388 - 401 "Men Changing Men"

Readings:

E-reserves article: "Cruel Edge"
article on Electronic Reserve: http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/ (From library page: click on "go" button, click on Electronic Reserve, click arrow and cursor down to instructor's name, click on the article you want to read, click down to EReserve article link; pop-up box asking for user id and password will come up -- type in prism for both user id and password -- article should pop up.
http://www.menstoppingviolence.org/articles/whymenbatter.html

Resources: (Bundle each of these web sites into one reading notebook entry -- I'm looking to see that you have read at least the page to which the link takes you and skimmed other links so that you see what kinds of information is available on the site.)

Center for Disease Control's Sexual Violence Fact Sheet http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/svfacts.htm &
Intimate Partner Violence Fact Sheet http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/ipvfacts.htm
GSU's 2002 Campus Security Report http://welcome.georgiasouthern.edu/publicsafety/stats.html

wk 12
11.21

11.3

REFLECTION PAPER DUE!!!!!!!
Global Perspectives

pp. 415 - 427 "Rape as a War Crime"
pp. 404 - 414 "Mapping the Margins"
Sex Slave Trade http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/jun/20us1.htm
Human Trafficking http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/resources/humantraffic/USA.pdf
Additional sources for war, sexual violence

Donna Hughes: issues on traffickling in women, sex slavery
Kate's Blog from an Israeli Prison http://www.iwps.info/en/articles/article.php?id=702
Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report
refugees, violence against women/children/ war zones, sex slavery

wk 13
11.8

11.10

REFLECTION PAPER DUE!!!!!!!
pp. 453 - 457 "The GlobeTrotting Sneaker" &
pp. 444 - 451 "The Truth About Women and Power"

Dr. Abraham Verghese on the rural AIDS epidemic and the power of story in diagnosing and treating patients. 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Russell Union Ballroom -- GO!! Bring money; he will be signing copies of his books -- you definitely want to buy My Own Country

Abortion
1: "The Way it Was" on E-Reserve http://libweb.lib.georgiasouthern.edu/reserves/AmyWGST2530TheWayItWas.pdf -- remember, you have to enter the galileo password to access this article -- enter the password on both lines of the form
2: Global issues -- Gag rule http://www.globalgagrule.org/ & video http://www.globalgagrule.org/video.htm; Center for Reproductive Rights GGR http://www.crlp.org/pub_fac_ggrbush.html

wk 14

11.15
11.17

REFLECTION PAPER DUE!!!!!!!

Vagina Monologues Auditions Rescheduled! New Dates:
Wednesday, November 30, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m., RU 2080
Thursday, December 1, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m., RU 2054 (auditions -- waiting room and script review, RU 2048)

Wal Mart movie showings information at www.georgiasouthern.edu/~pforte/walmart.html
Kassandra's showing the film Thursday night, 7:30 p.m., University Pointe #88 --

FILM

Wk 15
11.22

11.24

FILM

Wed Nov. 23 - Fri Nov. 25: Thanksgiving Holiday

wk16
11.29

12.1

Final Project Presentations
You'll have 7 - 8 minutes to give an oral summary of your final project work. Completed projects are due to me by Friday, December 2, 5:00 p.m.

Final Exam Format

FinalExam

Final Exam: Tuesday, Dec. 6, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Newton 1103

Link to Marion and Syveria's Final Project: http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=juno_lucina

activating your GSU web site
using Netscape composer
saving and linking images

Final Exam Format:
As we bring this semester to a close, I'd like for you to seriously reflect on the difference our work together has made. What has been the effect of sitting in our classroom, twice a week, thinking and talking about readings that explore oppression, sexism, racism, violence? What effect has having a radical feminist teacher lead discussion about these texts had on your experience of our discussions? I want to know, in part, what you have learned, but, even more importantly, what this has *meant* to you. Do you see this world any differently now? Has your thinking about feminism/feminists, about the social problems we have been confronting, changed during this semester? Has your Feeling changed during this semester? Have your classmates' voices impacted you? If so, how?

Here's what I am imagining: a reflection in the form of a letter that tells me and your classmates what, at the end of this semester, you end up taking away. I'd like for you to be unflinchingly honest in this letter. If you have wanted to say "wait, stop -- you have not heard me" or "hey, wait a minute, I don't agree with that" about anything we have taken up, this letter allows you a voice for that. If you have had an insight that you have not had the opportunity to share, this letter allows you to voice that. If you have not spoken much this semester, this is an important opportunity to give your classmates the gift of your voice, of your experience of this class and of them. Equally important, we need to give you the gift of hearing you. For your five minutes, we will simply hear you.

A few students will have to finish their project presentations, and then I'll ask you to read your letters. In my ideal world, you'd have a copy of your letter to hand out to students, or you could email the letter to the class. I'll bring some food, and any of you that can bring something, please do. Chips and cookies/dessert things would be good.

Points from Men and Women's Studies Discussion
Men and Women’s Studies: Premises, Perils, and Promise/ Michael Kimmell

Intellectual space for talking about gender
Made men visible (decentered)
Academically/ women’s histories – achievements – accomplishments
Celebrates “ordinary” – all women indebted for/to (implies: materialist analysis of women’s labor)
Utterly embodied/ socially constructed (and related race, privilege as invisible)
Creative alliances (refers: Donna Haraway/ situational alliances)
Pro-feminist men
Gender = power relation

Women’s Studies: A Man’s Perspective/ Evan Weissman

What can men do for women’s equality
Difference between acting against men and acting against actions of men

Issues with both articles:

Why is “man” working on behalf of “woman”?

problem 1: not ALL women are working on behalf of "equality"
what does "equality" mean (re: different cultures have different contexts for understanding gender, "rights," etc. -- need to problematize and keep returning to this question)
only two positions for man = passive/do nothing to help or active/take over, appropriate, usurp feminist activism -- disavows men who obstruct/ resist
What are costs to power and privilege?
What are costs to men of gender roles “man”?
Assumes that constructions of "masculinity" across the board confer benefit to man -- how does what does construction of normative masculinity debilitate/ hurt/ harm individual men?

Civic Action Internship
The Institute for Civic Leadership (ICL) runs an intensive program for junior and senior college women each fall at Mills College (a small liberal arts women's college in the San Francisco Bay Area).

The ICL curriculum provides an opportunity for undergraduate women leaders to study social change strategies, develop their leadership skills and cultivate their own unique visions of change - all while participating in a diverse community of women leaders.
The program includes rigorous academic classes that connect scholarship from the social sciences and humanities to issues of civic leadership and social change.
It also includes an individually-tailored internship placement in a community organization (10-15 hrs. a week), skills-building workshops, retreats, a speaker series and mentoring from local women leaders.
The curriculum helps women develop their abilities to critically analyze social and political issues, while providing them with concrete strategies for instigating social change in their communities.
Need-based financial aid is available. After the semester, women are eligible for mini-grants of up to $1000 for carrying out their own civic/academic projects.

Check out the ICL website at http://www.mills.edu/ICL, or call 510-430-2192 with questions.

"Relationships Between Men's and Women's Body Image and Their Psychological, Social, and Sexual Functioning" by Tanya E. Davison, Marita P. McCabe pp. 463-475 ; "Variation in the Application of the "Promiscuous Female" Stereotype and the Nature of the Application Domain: Influences on Sexual Harassment Judgments after Exposure to the Jerry Springer Show" by Tara Ferguson, Jeff Berlin, Erica Noles, James Johnson, William Reed, C. Vincent Spicer pp. 477-487 ; "Stereotype Threat in Men on a Test of Social Sensitivity" by Anne M. Koenig, Alice H. Eagly pp. 489-496 ; "Preschool Children's Pretend and Physical Play and Sex of Play Partner: Connections to Peer Competence" by Malinda J. Colwell, Eric W. Lindsey pp. 497-509