INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN’S STUDIES 101
SPRING 2001
Wednesday
Dr. Janet M. LaBrie Campuses Included:
UW College –
Office Phone: 262-521-5521 Marinette
Home Phone: 608-758-3351
Email: jlabrie@uwc.edu or jlabrie@myexcel.com Office: W134
Office Hours: T-R
W: after class
Required Texts:
Issues in Feminism, 4th
Edition. Sheila Ruth.
The Color Purple. Alice Walker.
Step 2, http://blackboard2.imt.uwm.edu
Step 3 – find
choose
WOM 101 82101-37sp01-01
The material from Coontz and
from Houppert will be posted on blackboard.
1.
Stephanie Coontz. The Way We Never Were: American Families
and the Nostalgia Trap.
2. Karen
Hourpert. The
Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation.
.
COURSE
DESCRIPTION: Women's Studies 101 is a
course that investigates the position of women and the attitudes toward women
in western culture,
most particularly in American culture. Since women's presence and achievements have
often not been recognized or have been minimalized when they are recognized, it
is important that we develop a women-centered perspective for this class.
Specifically, this course will examine how women
have historically been socialized into their feminine roles through various
cultural prescriptions, as well as what these roles have traditionally meant in
terms of women's status, roles, treatment and choices. Therefore, for the sake
of contrast and to better understand this process of constructed feminine
behavior, we will sometimes have to consider how masculinity and male roles are
constructed and how male behavior, roles, attitudes and possibilities are also
affected by these constructs. We will
also look at ways in which women have been attempting to change their roles and
possibilities. In the course of this
study, we will question how positions of difference in terms of race, class,
and gender affect the meaning of women as a group and the nature of power
structures and oppression.
NOTES ABOUT THE
COURSE:
In order to examine women’s lives and
cultural attitudes toward women, we must develop and apply critical thinking
processes; we must learn to be analytical, and to be
prepared to question and challenge some commonly held assumptions about
women. Also, since many of these issues
are still in the process of being examined and understood, we must expect some
disagreements among scholars and authorities, as well as among ourselves, over
these issues. Controversy can be a
useful learning tool, while courtesy helps us to examine controversies without
enmity.
Anecdotal reporting, the use
of personal examples, is useful, but keep
in mind that while feminists have always believed that "the personal is
political,' for good reason, one incident can not either prove or disprove
an entire body of knowledge or misinformation.
When you read essays from and about
the 19th and early 20th Century, rather than rejecting their ideas
because they may seem to you to be out of date, ask yourself which of these
attitudes and ideas or roles are still applied to women today.
COURSE
REQUIREMENTS:
1. Attendance, preparation and
active participation are vital so that each person and the class learn as a whole. Classroom discussions enable us to share
information and ideas and to expand our thinking. Also it is necessary to keep up on the
reading in order to understand the issues.
Therefore, attendance is required; any absences must be excused. Assignments not in on the due date will
automatically be down-graded.
2. A media-oriented research
and report (classroom presentations and 4+ page
report) on some aspect of women’s portrayal in the media.
You may do a group
report, but each
group member must write her/his own paper, as well as contribute to
and participate in the group report.
3. A
mid-term (sixth week) and a final exam.
3. Weekly written responses to
the readings consisting of a one paragraph summary of
argument and key points of
the readings assigned each week
and a paragraph of
critique or questioning and personal response. The responses must show that you
have read and thought about the issues in the readings.
Due each week on Wednesday.
4. A report post to blackboard
on a famous but unknown woman in either
International politics, due
before class on February 21. Be ready to
introduce your famous woman in class that day.
6. A paper resulting from a
series of interviews
with an older woman (two generations older than you) about her life as it
relates to three of our class topics.
possible topics: work life, education, dating,
courtship and sexual mores, religion,
femininity,
menstruation, birth control,
child-bearing, etc. Due May 2.
7. A report posted to
blackboard on your choice of a 3rd world country and the problems of
its women.. Due
on April 25, at which time you must also report in class.
8. Discussions will be an important part of this class
to aid in the development of our
understanding
of various women's issues. They will be based on the readings and on personal experience.
9. You must analyze one issue
of MS Magazine from one month this semester. Examine all aspects of the magazine and
discuss. Include a brief comparison with
a women’s magazine of your choice.
10. You are encourage to bring in or email to me
humorous material, especially gender
jokes and cartoons, about any of the issues, for extra
credit.
COURSE
SCHEDULE
Section
I: What about Gender?
First day of Classes
What is the difference
between your life today and your grandmother’s life
at your age? Post to the Blackboard site.
Historically, what have
women’s problems been in the past?
What do you know about
men’s past? Their history? How did you learn it?
What
do you know about women’s past? How did
you learn it? Why should we
know about it?
Who
are women in American Society: Roles,
Perceptions, Attitudes
toward
women.
What are women’s problems today?
What’s good about being
a woman in today’s society? A man?
What’s
negative about being a woman? A man?
Consider the intersection of
race, class, gender, gender, ethnicity.
Male bashing: Female
Bashing: blond jokes, mother-in-law jokes, wife jokes,
frigid women jokes,
Hand-out
of Key terms. Learn them and then use these terms in your
writing
throughout the semester.
Issues: 3-19
Roles? Work? Behavior?
Where does difference
come from? Nature vs Nurture; Gender roles vs sex
roles Women and Men’s Roles as
Gender-defined.
Theories of Gender: and How does Society
justify these difference?
Nature Vs. Nurture, Biological-evolutionary, Psychoanalytic,
Cognitive-
developmental, Socio-biological or
evolutionary, socialization
Issues:
“Reflections on Male Bashing”
48-54
Issues: “Men’s
Power to Define” 442-447
Issues:“Gender
and Race: The Ampersand Problem in Feminist Thought” 22-34
Western Civilization as
Basis for our Cultural beliefs and values
How that
Historical Background affects Women’s Present
Patriarchy
FEBRUARY IS BLACK
HISTORY MONTH
Why should we know it about it if we are not
black?
Issues: “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” 510-514
Issues: “The
Issues: “I Have a Motherland” 190
What do we know about black women’s lives in
the past and present?
How did we learn it?
Issues:
“Gender and Race: The Ampersand Problem in Feminist Thought”
22-34
Issues: “Men, Manhood, and the Dynamics of Patriarchy” 57-69
Issues:
“Images of Women in Patriarchy: The Masculist Defined
Woman” 104-
115
Images: ”The Double Task” 22-27
Women’s Images in Literature
As a group, choose a form of the media to study and report back to the class on.
Soaps, women’s magazines, cartoons, MTV videos, ads, etc.
Images: “Sex in Education” 16-18
Issues:
“The Origins of Female Subordination” Science, Myth and Theory”
192-200
Issues:
“The Egg and the Sperm: How
Science Has Constructed a Romance
Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles” 220-229
Issues: “Woman the Gatherer: Male Bias in Anthropology” 214-220
Issues: “Transforming Knowledge” 448-463
Women’s Images in Religion
Issues: “Genesis” 201-203
Images: “The Pastoral Letter” 63-64
Images: “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes” 64-67
Issues: “A Wife’s Role” 136-140
Issues: “Fundamentalism: Religious Wars against Women” 141-148
Images: “Worldly Lessons” 317-321
Issues: “Women’s Spirit and Men’s
Religion” 473-480
Wages, Jobs, The Glass Ceiling, Sexual Harassment
Images:
“The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter” 291-300
Images:
“Women and the American Economy” 346-359
Issues: “Eye Openers” 364-365
Images: “Delores Huerta: A Woman of the Boycott” 304-309
Images: “Two Observations on Sexual Harrassment” 367-372
Legal entities: Legal Rights
Marriage, Birth Control, Sexuality
Images: “1855 Marriage Contract” 217-218
Issues: “Law and Equality” 406-417
Issues: “ “The Civil
Rights History of ‘Sex’ : a Sexist,
Racist Congressional
Joke” 550-552
Issues: “The Equal Rights Amendment: Why?” 418-421
February
23 Women in Politics and Government
Women as citizens,
law-makers,
Images: “1855 Marriage Contract” 217-218
Women in Sports
Find a famous woman you have
never heard of before; post a report on her:
Who, when she lived,
what she did, how and why she did it, how was it unusual
that
she did it?
The Feminist Movement: Three
Stages
Issues:
“
Issues: “”The Class Roots of Feminism” 540-549
Issues:
“Ain’t I A Woman Too” 520-521
Issues: “The problem That Has No Name” 287-290
Issues: “National Organization of Women, NOW Bill of Rights” 553-554.
Issues: “Feminisms’ Daughters” 557-560
What is equality?
What is a feminist? Why would anyone want to be one?
Issues: “Rediscovering American Women” 494-509
Issues:
“Light Bulbs, Radishes, and the Politics of the 21st Century”
187-189
SECTION
III: CULTURAL REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN
Issues: “How the Entertainment Industry Demeans,
Degrades, and Dehumanizes
Women.” 470-472
‘
Encoding Cultural Messages:
Fairy Tales
Video: Still Killing Us Softly
Bring a women’s magazine to
class.
Women in Visual Images: Art, Advertising, and Pornography
The pornography debate
Issues: “I’m Not a Feminist, But I Play One on TV” 35-41
Images: “Erotica v. Pornography” 153-157
Images: “Feminism, Moralism, and Pornography” 157-162
SECTION
IV: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF WOMEN
Women’s Health Issues
Images: “Rest” 75-78
Images; “The Yellow Wallpaper” 78-88
Issues: “The Politics of Women and Medical Care” 387-405
Sexuality, Birth Control, Reproduction and
Parenting
Issues: “Is a Bad Dad Better than No Dad? 94-96
Images: “The turbid Ebb and Flow of Misery” 97-100
Issues: “Abortion: A Positive Decision” 296-304
The Politics of Beauty and Romance: The Price of Both
Images: “How to Get Plump” 133-139
Issues: “Myth
Issues: “Jane Fonda and Other Aging Bodies:
Femininity and the Limits of Resistance”
267-275
Images: “Motherhood Today and Yesterday” 239-241
Images: “Mom” 245-247
Images: “Modern Woman: The Lost Sex” 247-249
Images: “Lesbian Mothers” 254-259
Women and Relationships:
Connection vs Autonomy
Issues:
“Women’s Personal Lives: The
Effects of Sexism on Self and Relationships”
233-258
Issues: “Men: Tomorrow’s Second Sex” 97-103
Images: “Women are No Give-Aways” 216-217
Images: “Your Marriage” 203-206
Images: “The Total Woman” 206-210
Issues: “Men Listening” 69-74
Issues: “Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism” 276-286
Domestic Violence, Murder
Stranger Rape, Date Rape
FGM
Issues: “”Rape: The Power of Consciousness” 305-314
Issues: “Rape” 204-205
Issues: “ ‘The Rape’ of Mr. Smith” 315-16
Images: “The Trials of Convicting Rapists” 165-168
Issues:
“ ’Til Death Do Us Part” 326-333
Images: “Battered Wives, Battered Justice” 169-172
Images: “With No Immediate Cause” 172-174
Issues: “Two Perspectives on Female Genital Mutilation” 317-325
Work and House Work
Sex for
Divorce, Poverty, Welfare and W-2
Issues: “Marriage and Love” 532-535
Issues: “Women and the American Economy” 346-359
Issues: “Welfare ‘Reform”: Betrayal and Assault” 373-386
George
April
26 Agency and The
Color Purple
Women in
Music and Videos.
Post the story of a woman who is changing the world for women.
Call her names, such as
“Feminist” or
“Lesbian” or “Femi-Natzi” or “Bitch”
Or “Man-hater”or”Ball-Buster’ or “Butch” or “Unfeminine” etc.
Use humor against her, then
accuse her of not having a sense of humor.
Accuse her of ‘male bashing.’
Issues: “Antifeminism” 116-119
Issues:
“27 Reasons Why a Beer Is Better
than a Woman” 149
Issues: “Reflections on ‘Male Bashing’ “ 48-53
Issues: “Myths to Divert Black Women from Freedom” 176-184
How to
Create Change.
Talk Back, persuade your friends, become an
activist
Issues: “Talking Back: Feminist Responses to Sexists and Sexism” 150-162
Issues: “National Organization of Women, NOW Bill of Rights” 553-554.
Issues:
“Amnesty International
Issues: “The UN
Issues: “Affirmative Action: Building a National Community That Works” 360-366
What are Women’s problems? What is real equality?
What has to change in our society so that women will
have real equality?
How will it change?
FINAL EXAM