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Women's Studies 1500: Introduction to Women's StudiesUpdated Mon Jan 4 2016WOMEN'S STUDIES 1500Introduction to Women's StudiesSpring 2016Tuesdays 5:30 - 8:10pmWith Hybrid/Blended CourseworkElizabeth Hall Room 118Eva Ludwiga Szalay, Ph.D.Main Office: Elizabeth Hall 265Office Hours: T, Th anytime prior to and after class, and,??as always, by appointment throughout the weekPhone: 626-7908 / Fax: 626-7588Email: eszalay@weber.eduWebsite: course provides an introduction to critical texts and research on women and gender issues from the primary perspectives of the humanities and social sciences. We ask: what is Women's and Gender Studies? What constitutes feminism as we know it today and as it has appeared historically? What are the diverse kinds of feminism? What exactly are "woman," "man," and "gender"? How do a culture's belief systems, unexamined assumptions, and social institutions justify the oppression--and by contrast, the elevation--of one gender over another? How do assumptions about race, ?social class, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and physical ability intersect in our lives today? How might we be unconsciously complicit in the very institutions that benefit only some lives at the expense of others? How do global and multicultural perspectives affect our understanding of these and related questions?WS 1500 considers in detail the various interpersonal relationships, socioeconomic status, power, and authority as individuals experience these relationships. The Introductory course to Women, furthermore, explores the realities and the myths about the differences between the genders, and among individuals of different races, classes, ethnicities, sexual orientations, ages, and physical abilities in the United States. COURSE OBJECTIVESStudents will: a) consider feminist critiques of science as the model of knowledge in Western traditions; b) evaluate various methods of knowing and gathering information; c) estimate and judge the impact of feminism on various disciplines, and d) plan distinct phases of a small, independent research project that involves an element of community service (e.g., creating links between Weber State University and the local YWCA, or YCC, known as Your Community Connection).The course, as designed around its Learning Outcomes, is also designed to hone critical thinking skills in several ways by:1) identifying and challenging the assumptions that underlie the ideas, beliefs, values, and actions taken for granted in dominant research design and implementation;2) demonstrating the importance of context in shaping our habitual perceptions, understandings, and interpretations of the world. This course will also promote critical consciousness of the practices, structures, and actions that organize the manner in which dominant research is practiced;3) uncovering ways of imagining and exploring alternatives to prevailing ways of conducting research, and more broadly, science;4) developing a reflective skepticism about claims made by science and research.TEXT(S)Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology. Fifth Edition.Editors: Amy Kesselman, Lily D. McNair, and Nancy Schniedewind. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill,(Dec. 11) 2011. [NOTE: The Fourth Edition, pub. 2008, is also acceptable for use in this course]Additional readings relevant to an "Introduction to Women's Studies" will be made available to course participants; some texts will be on Electronic Reserve, see: Accessing E-Reserve.KEY TERMSPatriarchy: Power of the fathers; used by feminists to describe:1) a society in which older men are in positions of power, and 2) a male-dominated society.Epistemology: The theory of knowledge. Epistemology involves questions about who can be a "knower"; what kinds of tests must beliefs and values pass in order to be legitimated as "knowledge (e.g., only those tests measured by hegemonic experiences and observations?).Ontology: A way of being in the world; the conditions of gendered human existence.Intersectionality: The idea that distinct systems of racism, sexism, and class oppression interact simultaneously in the lives of women in the United States.COURSE REQUIREMENTS:Readings: (as assigned; see "Course Plan" below).Class Participation: Students are responsible for coming to class prepared, actively engaging in class discussions, raising thought-provoking questions, and consistently answering questions to demonstrate mastery of the material. Participation also involves work in small group projects, and it is important that students use the in-class tasks to expand upon material communicated in the lecture format. Highly consistent class attendance is expected and required.More information on the Grading and Attendance Policy and on Services for Students with Disabilities is available at: Course Policies and Services.htm.See also, Absence Policy.Presentations: Presentations constitute a very critical portion of the overall grade in WS 1500: at least 45%. Each student is required to present both formally and more informally throughout the spring semester on a weekly basis, and I welcome and encourage students to find a partner to present with, particularly if there is a topic of interest to at least two course members. NOTE: If any student finds that he/she would like to have a partner but cannot readily locate a partner at the start of classes, please let Prof. Szalay know of this interest, and she will share it immediately with the class, so that all class members are aware and that team-presentations can be enabled.It follows from this, that for partnered presentations, the presentation length will be greater than the length of an individual presentation (approx. twice as long) and each of the team presentation members will be required to indicate clearly that the presentation project was a team effort. You will note that there are many options for each of the course section themes to present on, and, should you find a topic of interest that is not noted, but still highly relevant, please do not hesitate to make your interest in a special topic known, so that an amendment can be made to the course plan. Particularly if there is a Women's Studies theme (book, article or text, film, news item, internet website, blog, etc.) that relates clearly to the given course topics, do by all means explore this interest with the instructor of record for this course, Professor Szalay.Detailed information on creating the presentation and the Presentation Handout are provided at these links: a) Women's Studies 1500 Handout Guidelines and Sample Handout and b) Women's Studies 1500 Course Presentation. The first link a) provides specific information on how to put together the handout in content and structure and the second link b) gives specific information on how to present the topic in keeping with the style and manner of a genuinely formal presentation. Although our classroom style will be relaxed and welcoming, the presentation styles will be in keeping with the academic context. Of course, this information will be covered in sufficient detail at the beginning of the course, so that all students will have the requisite information and the opportunity to ask questions about the preparation of the presentations and the presentation handouts.Reflective Media Reviews and Analysis (Journals): These journal entries (approx. 3-4 paragraphs in length or at least 1 page) require students to use course readings and related MEDIA materials (specifically, films, internet sites, newspaper reviews, blogs, etc.) and the notes from class discussions to create a succinct, clearly delineated positioning on the topic(s) addressed in each of the four-five units (What is Feminism/Women's Studies; Creating Genders: Feminine, Masculine...; Bodies; Institutions) covered in this course. Journals may be collected on a "no-advance-notice" basis, so students should always come to class prepared to turn in what is due to date. All journals will also be collected before the official end of the semester, and are due on:Monday, April 25 in Professor Szalay's Office in Elizabeth Hall 265.Please refer to "Media Review/Journal Guidelines" (see below). Detailed guidelines and information on how to proceed in composing the Reflective Media Review and Analysis are offered at the link: Introduction to Women's Studies Media Review and Analysis Assignment.The general idea is to: a) summarize how a feminist issue or theme, as elaborated in our course, involves a select problem that concerns you and requires addressing as it is portrayed and presented in the media (newspaper or magazine article, internet, TV, film, textual representation, etc.);b) offer relevant historical documentation of how a particular approach has already dealt with this problem or issue; and c) consider why (--or why not) this approach, this school or approach of Women's Studies/feminist thinking, or philosophy, ?is particularly relevant to this subject matter.Clearly, certain feminist approaches may not fit perfectly or at all with the subject area you have selected. In these cases, focus instead on the approach in feminism/Women's Studies that does address, or is relevant to, this issue and more briefly explain why other approaches do not concern themselves (as competently) with this subject matter.Ultimately, assessment of your written project will rest on your ability to demonstrate that you understand the main parameters of the issue and the finer points of the theoretical approach or application (praxis) you are using as your framework. Your research should reinforce this understanding through illustrations and examples taken from class discussions. Try to view research as supporting and perhaps productively questioning certain assumptions, and, foremost, focus on providing a competent, more in-depth review of a relevant theory (or two, for comparison-contrast purposes) rather than attempting to "do it all" rather superficially.R ?Reflective Media Review and Analysis Paper Preparation We will commence work on the writing process by the 3rd or 4th week of class.During this week, we will go over composing an introduction, thesis statement, and defining the key terms in your thesis statement. In subsequent weeks, we will go over the various components of the review paper, so that the papers will uniformly be of high quality. In keeping with thorough preparation, all course participants must turn in an outline with their final papers.For matters of form and style, beyond the most important elements covered in class, you are strongly encouraged to visit the Writing Center, Academic Support Services, in the Student Center, Room 261. Students who visit the Writing Center to improve their papers will receive credit for their efforts.Reflective Media Review and Analysis Preparation and Critique of Presentations by Peer Review: ?Approximately two to three weeks prior [during the week of July 14th (Tue) -- July 16th (Th)] prior to the final due date, a good portion of the preceding class periods will be devoted to a peer review session that will enable all students to address questions and concerns with their papers and their reworking, where necessary, of their presentation handouts. All students must bring a copy of their media review paper to class to discuss refining their work for final submission on Monday, April 25, 2016. ?Length of Media Review Analysis (Summary here; see link above for full details): * Cover Sheet (not included in paginating the 4-6 pp. paper) with:??Full Student/Course Participant name, title of Media Review paper, Course Name and Number, and??Professor of Record for Course included.* 4-6 pp. double-spaced, 1" margins all around.* Font: Time Roman or similar font with 12-, 13-, or 14- point font.* Paginate: number each page*An "Annotated Bibliography" or "Works Cited" and footnotes or endnotes documenting your assertions and research are required. Detailed information on the 'Annotated Bibliography' is provided below, under "Bibliography for the Introduction to Women's Studies Term Paper: Documenting Sources According to MLA Guidelines."Volunteer Service Project: Students are required to volunteer 8 hours with a community service organization selected by the course instructor. A list of organizations will be provided on the first day of classes and students already involved in service appropriate to Women's Studies service project themes, may upon discussion and approval of the course instructor -- continue this service commitment as part of this WS course's requirements. The organizations must -- and will all -- have an affiliation with women's issues, be these political, social, welfare, and/or educational in nature. All participants must keep a log or journal of activities (see below: Service Project Journal Guidelines) and provide a short oral presentation about their experiences to be held during the last weeks of classes.Specific Information on the Service Project that reiterates and details what is mentioned in class is available at Women's Studies 1500 Service Project Assignment.In addition to receiving a hard copy of the WS 1500 Service Project Contract in class from Professor Szalay during the first day/week of classes, students can always access the contract itself for review and printing at Women's Studies 1500 Service Project Contract.STATEMENT OF CORE BELIEFSThis course includes a "Statement of Core Beliefs," which -- as highly relevant to WS 1500 and to The Women's Studies Program -- requests that faculty members whose courses include potentially controversial material may wish to include a statement in the syllabus referring to this policy, or to deal with this issue in early class discussion, or both. Because, as Instructor of Record for this WS 1500 course, I, Professor Eva Ludwiga Szalay, deem this matter to be applicable to our class and our working from a common understanding, the following Core Beliefs Statement is included here:Core Beliefs: ?According to PPM 6-22 IV, students are to “[d]etermine, before the last day to drop courses without penalty, when course requirements conflict with a student's core beliefs. If there is such a conflict, the student should consider dropping the class. A student who finds this solution impracticable may request a resolution from the instructor. This policy does not oblige the instructor to grant the request, except in those cases when a denial would be arbitrary and capricious or illegal. This request must be made to the instructor in writing and the student must deliver a copy of the request to the office of the department head. The student's request must articulate the burden the requirement would place on the student's beliefs.”WSU Academic Standards & Course Participation ExpectationsAll courses in the Women's Studies Program adhere to the Weber State University Policy on Academic Standards. In cases of alleged violations, the procedures outlined in the policy will be followed. A complete description of the WSU Policy on Academic Standards is available in the WSU Student Code, Section IV, titled "Student Responsibilities."CLASS COMPORTMENT (Expectations and Guidelines):For this course, it is expected that all participants participate at all times in professional and respectful manner throughout the duration of this course, from start to finish. Any behavior that is disruptive to the learning environment may constitute a cause for disciplinary action under the -- and as per the -- WSU Student Code of Conduct.ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:at some or all of your assignments be submitted to Turnitin this semester. ?Documents submitted to Turnitin are retained, anonymous specified in PPM 6-22 IV D, cheating and plagiarism violate the Student Code. ?Plagiarism is “the unacknowledged (uncited) use of any other person’s or group’s ideas or work.” ?Students found guilty of cheating or plagiarism are subject to failure of a specific assignment, or, in more serious cases, failure of the entire course.?WSU and WS Course 1500 Statement Regarding :WSU subscribes to , an electronic service that verifies the originality of student work. ?Enrollment in this course may require therefore, in the company’s databases.For best practices in using Turnitin, see ? SummaryCourse Preparation & Participation ????Readings, leading & participating in course discussions........20%Class / Online Presentations.....................................................45%???[Presentations (12 in sum at 3.75% each)..........................45%]Reflective Media Review............................................................15%Review Writing Paper (as process writing)...............................10%Volunteer Service Project...........................................................10%All above course assignments due/finalized by April 25, 2016 5:00pmturned in, in person/at Office of Professor Szalay, EH 265.A ??Academic Dishonesty: ?As specified in PPM 6-22 IV D, cheating and plagiarism violate the Student Code. ?Plagiarism is “the unacknowledged (un-cited) use of any other person’s or group’s ideas or work.” ?Students found guilty of cheating or plagiarism are subject to failure of a specific assignment, or, in more serious cases, failure of the entire course.?If instructors plan to utilize , they should include a statement in the syllabus along the following lines:????WSU subscribes to , an electronic service that verifies the originality of student work. ?Enrollment in this course may require that some or all of your assignments be submitted to Turnitin this semester. ?Documents submitted to Turnitin are retained, anonymously, in the company’s databases. ?(For best practices in using Turnitin, see ? )COURSE PLANReadings must be completed prior to the class for which the assignment has been made. Presentations must be presented on the date for which they are scheduled; any unscheduled delays, that is, delays that are not formally requested ?(by this backing up a personal communication with a written email) in advance and/or are not properly substantiated with documentation (e.g., an illness), will result in an automatic deduction of one grade level, e.g., from an A to a B, at the outset of grading for this assignment.Weeks 1 & 2 (January 12; January 19): What is Women's Studies? and Changing our World:The History of Women's Studies/Feminism as Social MovementsIssues: "the personal is the political"; "gender" as substitute and synonym for "women" and "men," for "masculine" and "female"; gender ideology as reflective of socioeconomic structures, as well as of psychic configurations; the power of "gender" to constitute "sex"; pro- and contra-positioning with respect to the deployment of experience as a basis for knowledge; (Enlightenment) assumptions undermining postmodern feminist projects; negotiating central tensions between Enlightenment and postmodernism in feminist projects.Terms to define: Kesselman et al.: sexism, patriarchy; women's studies, gender studies; first wave of feminism; second wave feminism; Alice Walker's "womanism"; ?third wave feminism and global feminisms; Kimmel: visibility.Readings:Chapter 1: What is Women's Studies? pp. 7-43"What is Women's Studies?," Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology (hereafter referred to as W: I&R), pp. 7-15.Adrienne Rich, "Claiming an Education," W: I&R, pp. 19-21.Michael Kimmel, "Men and Women's Studies: Premises, Perils, and Promise, W: I&R, pp. 24-28.Stacey G. H. Yap, "Have you ever heard of Asian-American Feminists?," W: I&R, pp. 28-29.Evan Weissman, "Women's Studies: A Man's Perspective," W: I&R, pp. 33-34.Chapter VIII: Changing Our World, pp. 535-582//548-651Feminisms as Social Movements"Changing our World and Feminisms as Social Movements," W: I&R, pp. 535-541.Amy Kesselman, "The First and Second Waves of Feminism in the U.S.," W: I&R, pp. 542-548."The Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention, 1848," W: I&R, pp. 548-551.Susan Faludi, "Blame it on Feminism," W: I&R, pp. 577-583.Presentation Topics for Weeks 1 & 21) The Speeches of Famous Women: From Suffragette to Senator (Film, VHS, 1995; 56 min.) Women's suffrage leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Betty Ford, noted feminist Betty Friedan, Illinois Senator Carole Mosley-Braun, California Senator Barbara Boxer provide a history of what it's like to be a woman in America in the 20th century. From Stanton's struggles early in the century to pass the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote to Braun's becoming the first African-American woman ever elected to the senate in 1992, this video covers the history of the women's movement. Included for coverage in the video are the 1940 Women's Centennial Congress, the debate on the Equal Rights Amendment, the International Year of the Woman, and speeches before Congress. Other titles worth noting in this genre include Women Hope of the World and Women Entrepeneurs Making a Difference.Date of Presentation: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________2) Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony (Film, DVD, 2003, w/ Sally Kellerman, Ronnie Gilbert, Julie Harris, Amy Madigan, Keith David ; film mixes actors reading the seminal works of Stanton and Anthony, with archival footage, photos and commentary from historians). "Feminism" and the "women's movement" are terms often wielded with little understanding of the context in which the feminist movement was born; fortunately, renown directors Ken Burns and Paul Barnes have created a superb documentary to remind us of the roots of the women's movement. In the 19th century, Susan B. Anthony chose the life of the spinster to retain her independence, having been born into a Quaker family devoted to abolition. Anthony championed the reform movement and dedicated herself to the suffragette life. In contrast, Elizabeth Cady Stanton married, had many children, and also sought the vote for women. A friendship with Lucretia Mott sparked a desire to work for the cause of women, and eventually Cady Stanton teamed up with Anthony to revolutionize the cause for women of the United States.Date of Presentation: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________3) Iron-Jawed Angels (Film, DVD, 2004, 120 min; w/ Hilary Swank, Julia Ormond, Angelica Houston). During the first decade of the 1900s and the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the second wave of the suffrage movement rises with Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, courageous activists who led the final fight for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Date of Presentation: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________4) Eleanor Roosevelt (Film, DVD, 150 min., w/ David McCollough and Alfre Woodard). Using early archival photographs to illustrate her early life, and extensive newsreel footage to document her decades on the public stage, Eleanor Roosevelt portrays the role of Mrs. Roosevelt in pioneering causes and expanding the traditional duties of the First Lady is presented in a very entertaining and informative manner. Extensive interviews with descendants, friends, and scholars also contribute to an incisive look at the woman who inspired the nation during the depths of the Depression, comforted Americans during World War II, and, after President Roosevelt's death, played a pivotal role in America's prominence at the United Nations. ??Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________5) Choices of the Heart: Margaret Sanger (Film, DVD, 1995/2005, 92 min., w/ Dana Delany, Rod Steiger, Henry Czerny). The "Margaret Sanger Story" is the dramatic narrative of public heroism, personal passion, and the private sacrifice of one woman's historic fight to promote family planning and sex education in the early part of this century. New York City, 1914. Modern progress confronts the oppressive prohibitions of the past. Moral crusaders enforce rigid laws banning "obscene" materials - including literature on safe sex and family planning. The result: desperate women with too little money and too many children risking their lives to end unwanted pregnancies. Working as a nurse in New York's poorest neighborhoods, Margaret Sanger (Dana Delany) boldly fights to end this epidemic of ignorance. However, zealots led by the formidable Anthony Comstock (Rod Steiger), Chairman of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, are determined to stop her rebellious campaign. Facing prison - and making headlines - for daring to voice her opinions, Sanger is forced to part with her loving husband (Henry Czerny) and three children and flee the country. Yet, public support for her becomes so strong that she overcomes the attacks of her puritanical opponents.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________6) One Woman, One Vote (Film, DVD, 1996, 106 min.; narrated by Susan Sarandon). How could America call itself "the world's greatest democracy," but continue to deny the right to vote to more than half of its citizens? This program documents the struggle which culminated in the passing of the 19th Amendment in the U.S. Senate by one vote. Witness the 70-year struggle for women's suffrage. Discover why the crusaders faced entrenched opposition from men and women who feared the women's vote would ignite a social revolution. Very importantly, this film demonstrates how racist "First Wave Feminism" was. It repeatedly shows wealthy white women selling African American women and immigrant women out in order to cater to their privileged male counterparts. This occurred even though African American women consistently supported the vote, and so did many African American men. Furthermore, although President Woodrow Wilson was considered very progressive in some respects, in the same way that he prevented civil rights for African Americans, he only halfheartedly supported women. Male viewers of One Woman, One Vote will be put at ease by this work. Not only were their supportive men at the Seneca Convention, it was a man who wanted to honor his mother that made the Amendment possible. The film shows supportive men of the time as well, to provide a balanced portrait of the movement and the times.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________7) Who is Adrienne Rich? (Biography/Autobiography; Author of Of Woman Born)Adrienne Rich's (b. 1929-) Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (1976) examines pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood from historical, physical, religious, institutional, political, and personal angles. In her introduction to the 1986 edition, Rich explains "I did not choose this subject; it had long ago chosen me... I only knew that I had lived through something which was considered central to the lives of women... a key to the meaning of life; and that I could remember little except anxiety, physical weariness, anger, self-blame, boredom, and divisions within myself..." Written with a stimulating combination of poetic rhythm, scholarly precision, feminist perspective, and personal reflection, Of Woman Born is both an engrossing read and an affirmative, potentially life-changing examination of what it means to be "of woman born."Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________8) Gloria Steinem: A Woman's Progress (Film, VHS, 1994)Gloria Steinem (b. 1934 -) remains one of the most influential feminists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and is founder, in 1973, of the influential feminist magazine, Ms. Magazine. In 1963, Steinem became employed as a "playboy bunny" in the New York Playboy Club in order to research an article that exposed how women were treated at the clubs -- with this act, Steinem became a fully engaged feminist and activist with a lengthy career that includesweighing in on critical contemporary topics, like the way in which women are forced to choose between a career and marriage (preceding the very influential feminist Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique).Steinem co-founded the Coalition of Labor Union Women in 1974, and participated in the National Conference of Women in 1977. She became Ms.magazine's consulting editor when it was revived in 1991, and she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. In 1991, Steinem founded "CHOICE USA." Steinem has recently also become an advocate for children she believed had been sexually abused by caretakers in day care centers (such as the McMartin Preschool Case).Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ___________________________ and ________________________9) Some American Feminists (Film, VHS, 1980; 56 min.) This film explores some of the most significant social histories of this century -- the Second Wave of the Women's Movement. It is a fascinating flashback on the women's liberation agenda in the light of the 1990s backlash. Inspirational interviews with Ti-Grace Atkinson, Rita Mae Brown, Betty Friedan, Margo Jefferson, Lila Karp, and Kate Millett are intercut with newsreel footage of the tumultuous seventies and early seventies. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, Some American Feminists is critical for all interested in women's studies, history, and social studies.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________10) Men and Masculinity: Changing Roles, Changing Lives (Film, VHS, 1990)An exploration of the people, the ideas, and the activities of the pro-feminist, gay-affirmative men's movement, with informal interviews, workshop footage, and concert performances recorded at the 13th National Conference on Men and Masculinity.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________11) The F Word: A Video About Feminism (Film, VHS, 1994; 40 min.)This discussion starter deconstructs the word (and concept) "feminism" as it is currently defined and perceived, particularly by young people from different backgrounds. Sound-byte style interviews are juxtaposed with punditry from the political right and left, all backed by a rap soundtrack.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________12) 1955-1977: New Attitudes Force Dramatic Change (Film, VHS, 1990; 25 min.)This first of a five-part series examines the unique challenges American women faced between the 1860s and the late 70s. Divorce rates began rising dramatically in the 1960s and many mothers began holding down full-time jobs. Single-parent homes increased as American adjusted to a variety of societal changes. Additional segments of this film look at how the Civil Rights Movement affected African-American women in the South, and how different factions of society responded to the feminist movement.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________13) Step by Step: Building a Feminist Movement, 1941-1977 (Film, VHS/DVD, 1999; 56 min.)Proving beyond a doubt that feminism began well before the 1960s, and that its players were not just the white middle class, this inspiring tape follows the lives of eight Midwestern women, six of whom became founders of NOW. Set against a backdrop of decades of war, prosperity and reform, their stories beautifully illustrate the continuity and diversity of 20th-century feminism, as the participants describe the labor, civil rights, and political movements of the '40s and '50s that led them to take independent action for women. Using well-chosen archival footage, stills, music, and primary-source narration, producer Joyce Follet of the University of Wisconsin and consulting producer Terry Rockefeller (Eyes on the Prize and America's War on Poverty) offer a first-rate, panoramic-yet-personal view of the women on feminism's front lines." Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________14) The American Woman: Portraits of Courage (Film, VHS, 1995)Developed from Anne Grant's book, Our North American Foremothers, this film recreates historical moments and women who fought for equality and freedom over the span of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The courageous men and women included in this cinematic portrait include: Rosa Parks, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, John Adams, Abigail Adams, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, among others.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________15) Is Feminism Dead? (Film, DVD, 2004; from the series: "I am Woman")**Presentation Ideas**: Link with pop-culture texts out on feminism today, like Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy (2005); Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters by Jessica Valenti (2007); BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine by Margaret Cho [foreword], Editors Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler (2006); Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild by Deborah Spiegel (2007)**Is Feminism Dead? deals with the years after the women's movement opened the doors of opportunity that had long been closed, and a new generation of women is questioning the meaning and the values espoused by the battles fought by the mothers (of contemporary feminism) and the grandmothers of the earliest parts of the movement. Has feminism somehow gone out of style? In Is Feminism Dead? Patricia Ireland (of NOW), Phyllis Schlafly of The Eagle Forum, Ellen Goodman of The Boston Globe, Dr. bell hooks of CUNY's English department, Dr. Tessie Liu of Northwestern University's History and Gender Identity Departments, and Dr. Martha Wharton, of the Ohio State University's Departments of African-American Studies and Women's Studies, appraise the women's movement as it currently exists and discuss its relevance to today's cultural climate.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 19Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________Weeks 3 & 4 (January 26 & February 2): Chapter 2: Becoming a Woman in Our Society; Dominant Ideas About Women; Masculinity and Femininity ExaminedIssues: social constructionism vs. essentialism/nature; the "objective" or instituted stances; normative or reified stance; exploring the meaning of "truth," "knowledge," and "reality" for feminist projects and examining claims that reality is socially constructed; assessing the intervening variables between gender and language use; the importance of ideological perspectives in effecting linguistic change.Terms to define: ontology, power, metaphysical issues, agency, normative expectations and evaluations, generic social construction, discursive constructions, (weak vs. strong) pragmatic constructionism, conflation; Wolf: "brideland," and class-ism; Sadker et al.: "disappearing syndrome," Title IX, verbal domination and gender segregation, female authorship and "the canon," the "glass wall" on college campuses, internalization/externalization as psychological processes; Henley and Freeman: Argyle et al. findings re: impact of nonverbal cues in contexts of power and status, rules of demeanor and deference, forms of address and status, circumscription of body movement, Jourard and Jourard's findings re: feminine/female self-disclosure, Ross's "law of personal exploitation," Waller and Hill's "principle of least interest," personal space, gaze aversion and the inhibition of potential aggression, characteristics of inferior status, women's "intropunitive" tendencies. Readings: "Becoming a Woman in Our Society," W: I&R, pp. 41-46."Dominant Ideas about Women," W: I&R, pp. 45-46.Betty Friedan, "The Problem That Has No Name," W: I&R, pp. 46-49. (Theme: make critical connections to the TV series, Desperate Housewives).Naomi Wolf, "Brideland," W: I&R, pp. 61-62.David Sadker, "An Educator's Primer on The Gender War," W: I&R, pp. 75-81.Nancy Henley and Jo Freeman, "The Sexual Politics of Interpersonal Behavior," W: I&R, pp. 84-93.Anastasia Higginbotham, "Teen Mags: How to Get a Guy, Lose 20 Pounds, and Lose Your Self-Esteem," W: I&R, pp. 93-96.Jennifer L. Pozner, "The Unreal World," W: I&R, pp. 96-99.Johnetta Cole, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, "No Respect: Gender Politics and Hip Hop," 99-105.Naomi Weisstein, "Mutineers in Mainstream Music: Heralds of a New Feminist Wave?," W: I&R, pp. 105-108.Presentation Topics for Weeks 3 & 41) Who is Betty Friedan? (Biography/Autobiography) & The Speeches of Famous Women: Excerpt on Betty Friedan (VHS, 1995)One of the most influential feminists of the late 20th century (see below), Betty Friedan (b. 1921) was a women's rights activist and author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), which became a national best seller and propelled Friedan to a leadership position in the burgeoning women's movement of the 60's and 70s, known as "The Second Wave of Feminism." She is also the founding member of NOW (The National Organization for Women), The National Abortion Rights League, and the National Women's Political Caucus. In her most famous text The Feminine Mystique, Friedan identified a condition she claimed women suffered as the result of a widely accepted ideology that placed them first and foremost in the home (see below; comparison with the TV series "Desperate Housewives"). Attacking the notion that "biology is destiny," which ordained that women should devote their lives to being wives and mothers at the expense of other pursuits, Friedan called upon women to shed their domestic confines and find other meaningful endeavors.Earlier on, Friedan opposed "equating feminism with lesbianism," although she later acknowledged that she had been "very square" and was uncomfortable about homosexuality. She is said to have coined the anti-lesbian phrase "Lavender Menace" during a 1969 National Organization for Women (NOW) meeting. The term was later used by gay rights activists as the original name of the pro-lesbian group "Radicalesbians.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 26Presenter(s): ________________________ and _________________________2) Betty Friedan, "The Problem That Has No Name," The Feminine Mystique (1963). **Presentation Idea*: make critical connections to the TV series, Desperate Housewives.** For her 15th college reunion in 1957, Friedan conducted a survey of Smith College graduates, focusing on their education, subsequent experiences and satisfaction with their current lives. She started publishing articles about what she terms "the problem with no name", and got very passionate responses from many housewives grateful that they were not alone in experiencing this problem.Friedan decided to rework and expand this topic into a book, The Feminine Mystique. Published in 1963, The Feminine Mystique depicted the roles of women in industrial societies, especially the full-time homemaker role, which Friedan deemed stifling. Friedan speaks of her own 'terror' at being alone, and observes in her life never once seeing a positive female role-model who worked and also kept a family. She provides numerous accounts of housewives who feel similarly trapped. With her psychology background, Friedan offers a critique of Sigmund Freud's "penis envy" theory, noting the multiple paradoxes in his work. Friedan attempts to offer some answers to women who wish to pursue an education. The book quickly became a bestseller, which some people suggest was the impetus for the Second Wave of Feminism, and spurred the contemporary women's movement.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 26Presenter(s): ?________________________ and ________________________3) Who is Naomi Wolf? (Biography/Autobiography)Like Betty Friedan (see: above) and Susan Faludi (see below), Naomi Wolf has authored some of the most vital texts in feminism, including Fire with Fire(1994); Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood (1998); The End of America: A Letter to a Young Patriot (2007). In her book, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women (1991), Wolf argues that women's insecurities are heightened by images of glossed and touched-up perfection, then exploited by the diet, cosmetic, and plastic surgery industries. Every day new products are introduced to "correct" inherently female "flaws," drawing women into an obsessive and futile cycle built around the attempt to reach an impossible standard of beauty. In showing how this myth works against women and how women sabotage themselves by their complicity with this impossible standard, she discusses at length two unfortunate consequences: the growth in the number of bulimic and anorexic women and the increasing popularity of cosmetic surgery.Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 26Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________4) Naomi Wolf's "Brideland" (in-depth) and Here Comes the Bride: Women, Weddings, and the Marriage Mystique by Jaclyn Geller (2001).**Presentation Idea: Compare Wolf's critiques with Geller's (or with another feminist's work)**In our course book, Women: Image and Realities, Naomi Wolf's 1995 text "Brideland," (pp. 61-62) analyzes how the world of the bride and preparing for marriage (i.e., that imaginary country or landscape: "Bride-land") evolve into a one-time state of fantasy that, as Wolf puts it, has very little to do with the relationship or even the marriage....Brideland has an awful lot to do say about what women want that they are not getting..." (61). Like Wolf, Geller explodes the myth of marriage; "Here Comes the Bride" demystifies the wedding, examining the accepted conventions of this most coveted ritual and the social forces that shape how we feel about modern nuptial celebrations. Drawing on sources as varied as Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice, Emma), and popular television series, cinematic romances, and honeymoon advertisements, Geller critiques the history and continuing allure of matrimony, shedding light on this stronghold of romanticism. Presentation Date: Tuesday, January 26Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________5) Patently Offensive: Porn Under Siege (Film, VHS, 1991)Winner of a coveted award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Patently Offensive: Porn Under Siege examines pornography in its social and historical context. As a dominant force in popular entertainment, porn has redefined the image culture. Its iconography has been co-opted by music videos, Hollywood films, TV sitcoms, and especially advertising: the most powerful socializing agents in contemporary life.Is the tension between freedom of expression and the preservation of values which define a civilized society irreconcilable? Whose interests shall prevail in the explosive, politically divisive dialectic which now rages about pornography's contribution to criminal behavior, its First Amendment status, its use and depiction of women and even children? The debate about pornography engages many of the major issues of this era: individual rights, censorship, feminist theory, artistic freedom, family values. Praised for its balanced presentation, Patently Offensive; Porn Under Siege contains exclusive footage of the controversial Meese Commission hearings on pornography as well as riveting interviews with principals on all sides of the porn wars. Amongst those included are ACLU spokesperson Barry Lynn, forensic psychiatrist Park Elliott Dietz, criminologist A. Nichols Groth, former Eros magazine publisher Ralph Ginzburg, anthropologist Carole Vance, pornographer Al Goldstein, Harvard Law School professor Frederick Schauer, radical feminist Andrea Dworkin, and representatives of Women Against Pornography, National Organization For Women, and the National Christian Association. Eight years in the making, this masterful documentary is an invaluable asset to serious discussion in disciplines as varied as sociology, ethics, women's studies, psychology, constitutional law, and criminal justice.Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 2Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________6) Pornography:The Double Message (Film, VHS/DVD, 1987; Produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.)This documentary explores the effects of the deluge of hard-core pornography in our society. Do people become desensitized to violence by the images of rape, domination and bondage that abound? Pornography surveys many research studies on how attitudes change after continued exposure to sado-masochistic images. At the University of Wisconsin, a test group was less sympathetic to the victim at a rape trial after viewing pornography. The documentary also emphasizes the efforts made by legislators, censors and community groups to control this problem. Pornography is clearly big business, and the problem of regulating it has yet to be solved. Please note that there is explicit material in this presentation.Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 2Presenter(s): ________________________ and _________________________7) The Date Rape Backlash (Film, DVD/VHS, 1994, 57 min.). How did date rape shift from a "shockingly frequent...outrage" as Newsweek once called it to a controversy over "crying rape," as New York Magazine later labeled it? Academy Award-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) guides audiences through complicated intersections of gender, sex, power and violence, while Susan Faludi (Backlash), bell hooks, and others expose this shift as a classic case of media "backlash" against women's autonomy. Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 2Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________8) Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes (Film, DVD, 2006, 60 min.). A riveting examination of masculinity, sexism, and homophobia in hip-hop culture. Delivered as a critique of rap music, director Byron Hurt -- a former star college quarterback, longtime hip-hop fan, and now gender violence education educator -- pays tribute to the power and creativity of hip-hop while challenging the rap music industry to take responsibility for glamorizing destructive, deeply conservative stereotypes of manhood.Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 2Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________9) Righteous Babes (Film, VHS, 1998)This documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Pratibha Parmar (A Place of Rage, Warrior Marks) explores the intersection of feminism with popular music, focusing on the fole of female recording artists in the 1990s and their influence on modern women. Included are Tori Amos, Neneh Cherry, Andrea Dworkin, Farai Chideva.Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 2Presenter(s): ________________________ and __________________________10) Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex & Power in Music Video (Film, DVD, 2004, 60 min.; Dreamworlds 2, 1995)Film on the stories and narratives that music videos tell about girls and women and, by extension, boys and men, and how these shape contemporary attitudes. The film provides meticulous analysis of how these narratives reflect and shape individual and cultural attitudes toward femininity, masculinity, sexuality and race. Systematically dismantling music video's most persistent and disturbing stock representations, and setting them against cases of real-world violence, sexism and discrimination, Dreamworlds 3 inspires viewers to critically examine how the distorted images of the "Dreamworld" connect with the lives and real girls and women, and real boys and men.Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 2Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________11) War Zone (Film from Media Ed. Foundation, DVD, 1999)What does it feel like to be a woman on the street & in public spaces in a broader (American) cultural environment that does nothing to discourage men from heckling, harassing, and punishing women/gendered identities, specifically those identities that are "other than typical masculine")?Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 2Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________Weeks 5 - 7: (Feb 9 - Feb 16 - Feb 23) ?Chapter III: Gender; Women's & Men's & Gendered BodiesPower and the Making of Contemporary Femininity and Masculinity1) Pornography:The Double Message (Film, VHS/DVD, 1987; Produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.)This documentary explores the effects of the deluge of hard-core pornography in our society. Do people become desensitized to violence by the images of rape, domination and bondage that abound? Pornography surveys many research studies on how attitudes change after continued exposure to sado-masochistic images. At the University of Wisconsin, a test group was less sympathetic to the victim at a rape trial after viewing pornography. The documentary also emphasizes the efforts made by legislators, censors and community groups to control this problem. Pornography is clearly big business, and the problem of regulating it has yet to be solved. Please note that there is explicit material in this presentation.Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 9Presenter(s): ________________________ and _________________________2) The Date Rape Backlash (Film, DVD/VHS, 1994, 57 min.). How did date rape shift from a "shockingly frequent...outrage" as Newsweek once called it to a controversy over "crying rape," as New York Magazine later labeled it? Academy Award-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) guides audiences through complicated intersections of gender, sex, power and violence, while Susan Faludi (Backlash), bell hooks, and others expose this shift as a classic case of media "backlash" against women's autonomy. Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 9Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________3) Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes (Film, DVD, 2006, 60 min.). A riveting examination of masculinity, sexism, and homophobia in hip-hop culture. Delivered as a critique of rap music, director Byron Hurt -- a former star college quarterback, longtime hip-hop fan, and now gender violence education educator -- pays tribute to the power and creativity of hip-hop while challenging the rap music industry to take responsibility for glamorizing destructive, deeply conservative stereotypes of manhood.Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 16Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________4) Righteous Babes (Film, VHS, 1998)This documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Pratibha Parmar (A Place of Rage, Warrior Marks) explores the intersection of feminism with popular music, focusing on the fole of female recording artists in the 1990s and their influence on modern women. Included are Tori Amos, Neneh Cherry, Andrea Dworkin, Farai Chideva.Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 16Presenter(s): ________________________ and __________________________5) Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex & Power in Music Video (Film, DVD, 2004, 60 min.; Dreamworlds 2, 1995)Film on the stories and narratives that music videos tell about girls and women and, by extension, boys and men, and how these shape contemporary attitudes. The film provides meticulous analysis of how these narratives reflect and shape individual and cultural attitudes toward femininity, masculinity, sexuality and race. Systematically dismantling music video's most persistent and disturbing stock representations, and setting them against cases of real-world violence, sexism and discrimination, Dreamworlds 3 inspires viewers to critically examine how the distorted images of the "Dreamworld" connect with the lives and real girls and women, and real boys and men.Presentation Date: Tuesday, February 23Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________6) War Zone (Film from Media Ed. Foundation, DVD, 1999)What does it feel like to be a woman on the street & in public spaces in a broader (American) cultural environment that does nothing to discourage men from heckling, harassing, etc.?Presentation Dates: Tuesday, February 23Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________WEEKS 8 - WEEK 10Tuesday, March 1 -- Tuesday March 15Issues: the naturalization of gender through the construction of an inner psychic or physical necessity; body as "political field" in the Foucauldian sense; decisions about methods; dynamics of power; manipulation and control; regularities into "laws"; relationships of knower :: known; social construction of knowledge.Terms to Define: Delgado: delgada vs. flaca; Bordo and Bartky: power as repressive/constitutive; overdetermined symptoms; axes of power: the dualist, control, and gender/power axes; body fetishism; psychic authenticity; body cathexis; collusion; self-surveillance; docile bodies; panopticonism.Readings: (Selections)Intro to Chapter III, W: I&R, pp. 116-118.Naomi Wolf, "The Beauty Myth," (1991), W: I&R, pp. 119 & 120-125.Abra Fortune Chernik, "The Body Politic," W: I&R, pp. 130-134.Graciela (Chely) Rodriguez, "Breaking the Model," W: I&R, pp. 134-138.July Siebecker, "The Fat Girl Rules the World," W: I&R, pp. 138-139.Susan Faludi, "Blame it on Feminism," excerpt from Backlash (1991), W: I&R, pp. 577-583.Classroom Activities: Reading excerpts from Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth, Susan Faludi's Backlash, and viewing film/film excerpts on the topic: "Becoming a Woman" (Films: Killing Us Softly; Tough Guise; Barbie Nation) Week 8: Tuesday, March 1Issues: the naturalization of gender through the construction of an inner psychic or physical necessity; body as "political field" in the Foucauldian sense; decisions about methods; dynamics of power; manipulation and control; regularities into "laws"; relationships of knower :: known; social construction of knowledge.Terms to Define: Delgado: delgada vs. flaca; Bordo and Bartky: power as repressive/constitutive; overdetermined symptoms; axes of power: the dualist, control, and gender/power axes; body fetishism; psychic authenticity; body cathexis; collusion; self-surveillance; docile bodies; panopticonism.Readings: (Selections)Intro to Chapter III, W: I&R, pp. 116-118.Naomi Wolf, "The Beauty Myth," (1991), W: I&R, pp. 119 & 120-125.Abra Fortune Chernik, "The Body Politic," W: I&R, pp. 130-134.Graciela (Chely) Rodriguez, "Breaking the Model," W: I&R, pp. 134-138.July Siebecker, "The Fat Girl Rules the World," W: I&R, pp. 138-139.Susan Faludi, "Blame it on Feminism," excerpt from Backlash (1991), W: I&R, pp. 577-583.Classroom Activities: Reading excerpts from Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth, Susan Faludi's Backlash, and viewing film/film excerpts on the topic: "Becoming a Woman" (Films: Killing Us Softly; Tough Guise; Barbie Nation) 1) Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women, w. Jean Kilbourne (Film, DVD, 2000, produced by the outstanding Media Education Foundation). This pioneering work -- first produced in the Killing Us Softly of 1979 -- constitutes a study of gender representation in advertising, and includes sections "Taking Advertising Seriously," "Perception and Artificiality," "Objectification," "Fragmentation," "Femininity, Appearance and Slimness," "Cutting Girls Down to Size," "Sexuality, Infantalization, and Pornography," "The Trivialization of Sex," "Violence," "Polarizing Femininity and Masculinity," and "Progress & Activism."Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 1Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________2) Women: A True Story: Body Politics (Film, VHS, 1997) Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 1Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________3) Who is Naomi Wolf ? (Biography/Autobiography)Excerpt from Naomi Wolf's famous text, The Beauty MythLike Betty Friedan (see: above) and Susan Faludi (see above), Naomi Wolf has authored some of the most vital texts in feminism, including Fire with Fire(1994); Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood (1998); The End of America: A Letter to a Young Patriot (2007). In her book, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women (1991), Wolf argues that women's insecurities are heightened by images of glossed and touched-up perfection, then exploited by the diet, cosmetic, and plastic surgery industries. Every day new products are introduced to "correct" inherently female "flaws," drawing women into an obsessive and futile cycle built around the attempt to reach an impossible standard of beauty. In showing how this myth works against women and how women sabotage themselves by their complicity with this impossible standard, she discusses at length two unfortunate consequences: the growth in the number of bulimic and anorexic women and the increasing popularity of cosmetic surgery.Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 1Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________4) Righteous Babes (Film, VHS, 1998)This documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Pratibha Parmar (A Place of Rage, Warrior Marks) explores the intersection of feminism with popular music, focusing on the fole of female recording artists in the 1990s and their influence on modern women. Included are Tori Amos, Neneh Cherry, Andrea Dworkin, Farai Chideva.Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 8Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________5) Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour (Film, VHS/DVD, 1998) juxtaposed w/Step by Step: Building a Feminist Movement (Film, VHS/DVD, 1998)"Everybody has a Barbie story...but the stories are really about us," says reporter turned filmmaker Susan Stern as she rips the roof off Barbie's "Dreamhouse" and explores the history and fantasy behind this unlikely cultural icon. Through the prism of Barbie-mania, fans, foes, fetishists and even the creator of this eleven-and-a-half inch wonder offer glimpses of who we are and how the creative spirit can thrive in an increasingly mass-produced world.Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 8Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________6) Wrestling with Manhood: Boys, Bullying & Battering (Film, DVD, 2002, edited version: 45 min., unedited version 60 min.; Media Education Foundation). While this critically-acclaimed film considers the persistent appeal of professional wrestling, its larger concern is how American popular culture idealizes pathological forms of masculinity that encourage sexism, homophobia, gender violence, and bullying. The film looks beyond the spectacle of professional wrestling to reveal its real world implications and explode the myth that "it's only entertainment."Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 15Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________7) Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity (Film, DVD/VHS, 1999, edited version 57 min, unedited version 82 min.; The Media Education Foundation). In this influential and groundbreaking film, pioneering anti-violence educator Jackson Katz argues that we need to understand the crisis of violence in American society -- including school shootings, bullying, hate crimes, sexual assault, and teen dating violence -- as part of a more fundamental crisis in masculinity. Taking a sustained look at media portrayals of boys and men, the film shows how American pop culture glamorizes definitions of manhood that normalize men's violence.Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 15Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________8) Let's Face It: Women Explore their Aging Faces (Film, VHS/DVD, 2003)Seven articulate women, age 45 to 63, speak openly, honestly and with wry humor on the reality of the sags, bags and wrinkles on their faces. As they reveal feelings of ambivalence, vanity and anxiety to each other, their attitudes toward aging move toward acceptance. Odil is offended by the cultural aesthetic bias against aging. Aspasia notices all the changes that contrast with her inner picture of herself. Beverley wishes she had appreciated her looks as a young woman. Carole is pleased at the outcome of cosmetic surgery, and Wendy thinks she looks just fine for her age--most of the time--and her status of grandmother. The women uncover the sources of their assessments: family judgments, comparisons with siblings, teen-age competitiveness and the unrelenting messages of an advertising/media culture that emphasizes youth as the epitome of beauty. In the same way that young women in the 1970's started to examine their feelings about being female in America, three decades later women find that frank talk helps them develop a personal balance at a stage when they are threatened with invisibility. After two years each woman discovers she's developed a personal "philosophy" of how she would like to age. Each one knows her attitudes may change--in any direction--but all find the process itself is enlightening and full of comfort. The film serves as a model for individuals and groups as we shift away from acceptance of the culture's emphasis on youth to a broadening of what is an "attractive woman." Women are grateful for this help in liberating themselves from the longing to look forever young. Let's Face It is a catalyst for stimulating on-going conversations among women in various settings. The documentary has been featured in a number of film festivals, including the San Francisco Film Arts Foundation's Independent Cinema Festival, Santa Cruz Film Festival, California Independent Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival.Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 15Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________9) Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (Book, 1991)Susan Faludi’s bestselling book, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, constitutes a methodically researched and documented work challenging conventional wisdom about the American women’s movement and women’s gains in achieving equality in the latter years of the twentieth century. Faludi begins the book by looking carefully at then-current myths about the status of women, including the press reports that single career women are more likely to be depressed than other women, that professional women are leaving their jobs in droves to stay at home, and that single working women over age thirty have a small chance of ever getting married. Not only are these myths not true, says Faludi, but they are evidence of a society-wide backlash against women and what they have achieved in recent years. She describes this backlash as a ‘‘kind of pop-culture version of the Big Lie’’ and declares that ‘‘it stands the truth boldly on its head and proclaims that the very steps that have elevated women’s positions have actually led to their downfall.’’ In this book, Faludi takes the press to task for failing to challenge the myths about women in the 1980s and especially for spreading, through ‘‘trend journalism,’’ stories about how unhappy women are, despite their having reaped the benefits of women’s liberation in the 1970s. Faludi challenges the prevailing wisdom that the women’s movement is to blame for women’s unhappiness; she believes their unhappiness actually stems from the fact that the struggle for equality is not yet finished.Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 15Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________Weeks 11 - 13 (March 22 -- March 29 -- April 5) Chapter IV: Institutions that Shape Women's Lives: Employment, the Law, and Health Care (169-303)Issues: the production of gender; discourse as instrument and effect of power; repeated play of sexuality (re)constitutes gender-identity, and, paradoxically, the repetition of that play; gender as performative in the sense that it constitutes an effect of the very subject it appears to express; the logic of "inversion" with respect to gendering; examination of the ways in which filmic media control images, reflecting dominant, socially established interpretations of gender difference.Terms to define: Butler: regulatory regimes; catachrestic operations, performance/performativity, citationality, the constitution of the "abject," foreclosure, compulsory performativity; Mulvey: phallocentrism, scopophilia, diegesis, fetishistic scopophilia.Readings: (Selections)EmploymentIntroduction, Chapter IV, ?W: I&R, pp. 170-178.Introduction to Women and Work, W: I&R, pp. 179-180.Ellen Bravo, Gloria Santa Anna, and Linda Meric, "An Overview of Women and Work," W: I&R, pp. 180-184.Gender Segregation and Pay Differentials in Occupations, W: I&R, p.185.National Committee for Pay Equity, "Questions and Answers on Pay Equity," W: I&R, pp. 185-187."Office Double Standards," p. 188.Pat Mainardi of Redstockings, "The Politics of Housework," W: I&R, pp. 188-191.Ann Crittenden, "The Price of Motherhood: Why is the Most Important Job in the World Still Undervalued,?" W: I&R, pp. 191-194.Julia Whealin, "Sexual Harassment," W: I&R, pp. 202-204.Arlene Foy Reynolds, "Sexual Harassment and the Law," W: I&R, pp. 204-206."Unions Benefit Working Women," W: I&R, p. 206.Bernice Sandler, "In Case of Sexual Harassment: A Guide for Women Students," W: I&R, pp. 206-208. LawKristian Miccio, "Women and the Law," W: I&R, pp. 214-217.Employment; Employment and Sexual Harassment1) The Corporation (Film, DVD, 2005; w/ Ray Anderson, Pope John Paul XXIII). America's dominant institution gets a thorough "Frontline"-like going- over in this documentary based on Joel Bakan's best-selling exposé. The Corporation looks at corporations as legal entities and examines their manipulative business practices in interviews with C.E.O.s, whistle-blowers, and media figures such as Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, Ray Anderson, and Noam Chomsky,Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 22Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________2) North Country (Film, DVD, 2005, 126 min., w/ Charlize Theron, Elle Peterson). Based on the book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law, North Country is based on actual events at the Eveleth Mines in Minnesota's Iron Range. Women were first allowed into the mines in the late 1970's and the stories that North Country relates occurred all throughout the 80's and into the first class action sexual harassment lawsuit in the early 1990's. Director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) spoke with some of the women miners and had one, Lynn Sterle as an advisor for the film.Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 22Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________3) V-Day: Until the Violence Stops (Film, DVD, 2003, w/ Jane Fonda, Amy Hill and Isabella Rossellini). Chronicles how Eve Ensler's hit Broadway solo showThe Vagina Monologues grew into V-Day, an international grassroots movement to stop violence against women and girls. With readings by everyday and celebrity women, incl Rosie Perez, Salma Hayek, Rosario Dawson, Jane Fonda, and Lisa Gay Hamilton. Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 29Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________4) Breaking Our Silence: Glouchester Men Speak Out Against Domestic Violence (Film, DVD, 2002, 11 min., The Media Education Foundation). This 11-minute documentary focuses on the activist efforts of a group of men in Gloucester, MASS. They speak with urgency and passion about the alarming rates of ?men's violence against women, while challenging cultural definitions of manhood that excuse and glamorize gender violence and bullying. This documentary can serve as an excellent companion piece to MEF's Tough Guise (see above).Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 29Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________5) Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (Film, DVD, 2005, w/ Eric J. Stein, Edith Arana). This film takes viewers behind the scenes to examine the real lives of Wal-Mart workers, their families, business owners, and their communities. The assumption here is: what is Wal-Mart hiding, in view of ?"the corporation's" (See film title above, The Corporation) spending on trying to convince consumers that it cares about them. The attempt here is to get viewers to challenge the way they think, feel and, critically, shop.Presentation Date: Tuesday, April 5Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________Health CareIntroduction: The Health Care System, W: I&R, p. 316.The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, W: I&R, pp. 317-323.Sabrina McCormick, "Breast Cancer Activism: Moving Beyond the Mammography Debate," W: I&R, pp. 343-344.The "Top Ten Breast Cancer Myths Debunked," ?W: I&R, pp. 345-346.1) Michael Moore's Sicko (Film, DVD: Special Edition, 123 min, w/ Michael Moore). Sticking to his one-man approach toward social criticism, Moore sheds light on the complicated medical affairs of individuals and local communities. As Moore clarifies from the outset, his subject is NOT the 45 million Americans without insurance, but rather those whose coverage has failed to meet their needs. He starts by speaking with patients who've been denied life-saving procedures, like chemotherapy, for the most spurious of reasons. Then he travels to Canada, England, and France to see if socialized medicine is as inefficient as U.S. politicians like to claim--especially those who receive funding from pharmaceutical companies. Moore finds quality care available to all, regardless as to income.Presentation Date: Tuesday, April 5Presenter(s): ________________________ and ________________________****Writing Assignment:1) Brief descriptive statement of research paper topic due;2) Biographical sketch relating your interests in this particular research paper topicDue Monday, April 25 -- The Official End of Classes, Spring 2016 Semester).Activities: Group discussions of and reporting on the implications of power (relationships and configurations) on the methodologies employed in research; importantly, integration of the knowledge of these methodological implications for individual research projects.FINAL PAPER: REFLECTIVE MEDIA REVIEW PAPERDue: Monday, April 25, 2016 by 5:00pm ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Service Project Journal GuidelinesIntroduction to Women's StudiesWomen's Studies 1500Since reflective or journal writing is an integral part of this Introduction to Women's Studies course, it is vital that you consider the following points, not so much as rigid instructions, but rather as guidelines to be used in focusing and directing your writing. The guidelines are, above all, intended to promote your critical thinking on these topics, providing a means for you to develop a habit of critical reflection and writing while allowing for flexibility and creativity.How often to write: The journals, ideally, require consistent attention on your part, and as such they are an important part of your development in academic writing. Therefore, writing should be done on a regular basis, approximately every other day. The requirement is four to five entries (with each entry approximately 3 paragraphs in length) during each two-week period/theme.How much to write: The decision of the length per entry is largely up to you, given a minimum of 3 paragraphs. Beyond this minimum requirement, I am not articulating a specific length or time requirement. Clearly, the more you reflect, compose, and produce academic writing, the better you get at it. On some days you will have more time to write and more to say than on others. Your individual progress is largely determined by your own efforts.Audience: For whom are you writing? Certainly you should tailor your language to an academic audience; however, the specific addressee -- as you reflect on your service experience -- may vary from entry to entry, as on one day, you may elect to address the author(s) of the article(s), on another, a personality or feminists on the postmodern or modern side of the divide. Vital is that you make that choice, and make it evident by indicating with eachentry for whom/to whom you are writing (e.g., the class, as we learn about what you experience "on the site" as a service volunteer for women's issues; Susan Bordo, feminist author of an article on femininity and body image; Matell Corp., a major representative of consumer culture; the editor of an academic journal like The Chronicle of Higher Education; a fictional addressee, etc.).Format: The format for each entry must include the date and the audience. This information must be explicitly stated for each entry, even if the addressee remains the same.Assessment: When the service journals are reviewed, attention will be primarily given to content. Only when comprehension is obviated will form be an issue. Occasionally I will respond to your entries; feel free to reply to any comments in future entries.When are the journals due? Journals will be collected at different points, sometimes--if deemed necessary--with little or no advance notice. Remember to always have your journals prepared and up-to-date, and bring these to class. Certainly be prepared to turn in your journals for the final collection date: Monday, April 25, 2016, 5:00 pm. As with the Term Paper, see below, the work is to be turned in to Professor Szalay/Office in Elizabeth Hall, Room 265. Media Review and Analysis Paper Formatting RequirementsDocumenting Sources According to MLA Guidelines:Virtually all the research you read for this course builds on previous research, and this is particularly true for the materials you are using to define your term paper. In presenting your work, it is essential you acknowledge your debt to (feminist/Women's Studies) predecessors by carefully documenting each source, so that earlier contributions receive appropriate credit.According to MLA Guidelines (Fifth Edition), you acknowledge your sources by keying brief parenthetical citations in your text to an alphabetical list of works that appears at the end of your paper. The parenthetical citation that concludes the following sentence is typical of MLA style:A theory of ideology makes it possible to explain the complex ways social reality is shaped--through the overdetermined relations among mechanisms for making sense, distributing resources, dividing labor, and sharing or wielding power (Hennessy xvi).The citation "(Hennessy xvi)" indicates to your readers that the information in the sentence was taken from page xvi (part of an introduction or preface) of a work by an author named Hennessy. If readers should want to check this information or need further information about this source, they can turn to your "Annotated Bibliography" or "Annotated List of Works Consulted" list, where, under the name "Hennessy," they would find the following information:Hennessy, Rosemary. Materialist Feminism and the Politics of Discourse. New York: Routledge, 1993. This source elucidates a vital connection between postmodernism and materialism, aspiring to account for a feminist theory that appropriates the best of both. This discussion of how to strengthen feminist standpoint epistemology as a critical practice is particularly useful because Hennessy's trenchant analysis demonstrates how "tried and tested" conceptual frameworks still manage to subvert the aims of feminism's political agenda. In the contexts of a research project on violence and the media, this source is particularly invaluable because it articulates.....This entry indicates that the work's author is Rosemary Hennessy and its title is Materialist Feminism and the Politics of Discourse, and further, that the text was published in New York City by Routledge Press in 1993. The annotation contains descriptive, and often evaluative, comments on the source listed. A citation according to MLA guidelines contains only enough information to enable readers to find the source in the "Annotated Bibliography" or "Annotated List of Works Consulted" list. If the author's name is mentioned in the text, only the page number appears in the citation: "(197)." If more than one work by the author is included in the list of works cited, then a shortened version of the title needs to be provided to clarify for the reader which text is being cited: (Hennessy, Materialist Feminism xvi).When is the final paper on the media review & analysis due?: As with re-workings of your presentation handouts (see above), all the work is to be turned in to Professor Szalay/Office in Elizabeth Hall Room 265, by the deadline of Monday, April 25, 2016, 5:00pm.USEFUL WEBSITES AND LINKS FOR An Introduction to Women's Studies** * * * * * * - The National Women's History ProjectThe site is known for the saying: "History sure looksdifferent when the contributions of women are included."mar/women.htmlEssays on women in history, internet exercises, classroomdiscussion topics and questions, web links, and more.Press-Release/www/1999/ff99-03.htmlThe U.S. Census Bureau's Women's Statistics Press Releasescrux.astra.ua.edu//4000ws/4000ws.html4000 Years of Women in Science and MathematicsBiographies, photos, and reference listslib.utsa.edu/Archives/links.htmA guide to uncovering women's history in archival collections /A state-by-state listing of links to archives, libraries, and otherrepositories that have primary source material by or about women.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/wise/wise.htmlArchives of Women in Science and EngineeringThis site documents the history of women in these fields,individually and collectively, with excellent links to related sites.150th Anniversary of the Women's Rights Movement1848 ?- 1998voyVoices of Youth from UNICEFThe Feminist Majority On-line - - many superb resources, includinglinks to: Breast Cancer Center; Student Activism, FeministResearch Center; Global Feminism; Feminist Arts, Literature,and Entertainment.news.newsbyte/newsnow.htmlThe Feminist Majority Foundation online - constructed by others.go-Site on women, sports, and health issues.Excellent source of texts from all disciplinesProfessor Szalay invites comments and suggestionsfor this sites list; contact: eszalay@weber.edu ................
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