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Feminist Theory >> Content Detail



Readings and Discussion Questions



Readings and Discussion Questions


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Required Texts


Amazon logo [Exile and Pride] Clare, Eli. Exile and Pride. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780896086050.

Amazon logo [Don't Call Us] Dodson, Lisa. Don't Call Us Out of Name. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780807042090.

Amazon logo [Curious Feminist] Enloe, Cynthia. The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780520243811.

Amazon logo [Theorizing Feminisms] Hackett, Elizabeth, and Sally Haslanger, editors. Theorizing Feminisms: A Reader. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780195150094.



Recommended Text


Amazon logo Dunlap, Louise. Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing. Oakland, CA: New Village Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780976605492.



Readings by Session


The discussion questions in the following table were captured by Lara Yeo.


SES #TOPICS AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONSREADINGS
1Introduction (PDF)No readings.
2What is feminist theory? (PDF)

Haltzman, Scott. "7 Truths Men Wish You Knew about Men." Redbook 210 (February 1, 2008): 123.



What is feminism


Curious Feminist. "Introduction: Being Curious about Our Lack of Feminist Curiosity." Introduction, pp. 1-13.

Curious Feminist. "The Surprised Feminist." Chapter 1, pp. 14-18.

Curious Feminist. "Whom Do You Take Seriously?" Chapter 5, pp. 69-82.

What are women's experiences and how do we talk about them

Don't Call Us. Preface and Introduction, pp. vii-13.



Historical views of feminism


Mill, John Stuart. "The Subjection of Women." Chapter 1 in Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 97-112.

Truth, Sojourner. "Ar'n't I a Woman?" In Theorizing Feminisms, p. 113.



Intersectionality – gender is not one thing


Lorde, Audre. "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 292-297.

Grillo, Trina. "Anti-Essentialism and Intersectionality: Tools to Dismantle the Master's House." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 30-40.



Identity politics


Combahee River Collective. "A Black Feminist Statement." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 412-417.

Matsuda, Mari. "On Identity Politics." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 418-421.

Anzaldua, Gloria. "La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 422-430.



Dominance approach to sex discrimination


MacKinnon, Catharine. "Difference and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 244-255.



Social construction


Haslanger, Sally. "Gender and Social Construction: Who? What? When? Where? How?" In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 16-23.

3Sex, gender, and the body (PDF)

Amazon logo Martin, Emily. "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles." In Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader. Edited by Janet Price and Margrit Shildrick. New York, NY: Routledge, 1999, pp. 179-189. ISBN: 9780415925662.

Fausto-Sperling, Anne. "The Five Sexes." The Sciences 33, no. 2 (March 1993): 20-24.

———. "The Five Sexes, Revisited." The Sciences 40, no. 4 (July/August 2000): 18-23.

Bertky, Sandra Lee. "Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 277-292.

Butler, Judith. "Against Proper Objects." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 540-551.

Bornstein, Kate. "Send in the Clowns." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 382-384.

Bordo, Susan. "Material Girl: The Effacements of Postmodern Culture." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 385-404.



Film


Miller, Jennifer. Juggling Gender, VHS. Directed by Tami Gold. Harriman, NY: Anderson Gold Films, Inc., 1992.

4Embodied knowledge (PDF)

Exile and Pride. "The Mountain." pp. 1-16.

Exile and Pride. "Clearcut: Explaining the Distance." pp. 17-28.

Exile and Pride. "Losing Home." pp. 29-40.

Exile and Pride. "Freaks and Queers." pp. 67-102.

Exile and Pride. "Reading across the Grain." pp. 103-122.

Exile and Pride. "Stones in My Pockets, Stones in My Heart." pp. 123-138.

Kadi, Joanna. "Stupidity 'Deconstructed'," in FT, pp. 40-50.

Amazon logo Nkweto Simmonds, Felly. "My Body, Myself: How Does a Black Woman Do Sociology?" In Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader. Edited by Janet Price and Margrit Shildrick. New York, NY: Routledge, 1999, pp. 50-63. ISBN: 9780415925662.

Amazon logo Marshall, Helen. "Our Bodies, Ourselves: Why We Should Add Old-Fashioned Empirical Phenomenology to the New Theories of the Body." In Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader. Edited by Janet Price and Margrit Shildrick. New York, NY: Routledge, 1999, pp. 64-75. ISBN: 9780415925662.



Film


Sprinkle, Annie, and Susan Stryker. Gendernauts, DVD. Directed by Monika Treut. New York, NY: First Run Features, 1999.

5The work of family (PDF)

Don't Call Us. "Daughters' Work." Chapter 1, pp. 14-49.

Amazon logo Saul, Jennifer. "Politics of Work and Family." Chapter 1 in Feminism: Issues and Arguments. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 5-44. ISBN: 9780199249473.

Roberts, Dorothy E. "Punishing Drug Addicts Who Have Babies: Women of Color, Equality, and the Right of Privacy." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 445-456.

6Gender and sexuality (PDF)

Don't Call Us. "Boyfriends, Love, and Sex." Chapter 2, pp. 50-82.

Rubin, Gayle. "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 527-540.

Lorde, Audre. "Use of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 188-192.

Hammonds, Evelynn. "Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 552-562.

Frye, Marilyn. "Willful Virgin or Do You Have to be a Lesbian to be a Feminist?" In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 325-332.

MacKinnon, Catharine. "Desire and Power." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 256-265.

7Pornography, rape, and the politics of consent (PDF)

MacKinnon, Catharine. "Sex and Violence: A Perspective." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 266-271.

Stoltenberg, John. "Confronting Pornography as a Civil Rights Issue." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 298-310.

Duggan, Lisa, Nan D. Hunter, and Carole S. Vance. "False Promises: Feminist Antipornography Legislation." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 311-324.

Crenshaw, Kimberly. "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 159-173.

Marcus, Susan. "Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 368-381.

Langton, Rae. "Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts." Philosophy and Public Affairs 22, no. 4 (Autumn 1993): 293-330.

8Gender and parenting (PDF)

Don't Call Us. "Choice and Motherhood in Poor America." Chapter 3, pp. 83-113.

Ruddick, Sara. "Notes Toward a Feminist Maternal Peace Politics." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 225-237.

Amazon logo Crittenden, Ann. "How Mothers' Work Was 'Disappeared': The Invention of the Unproductive Housewife," and "The Welfare State Versus a Caring State." Chapters 3 and 10 in The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2001, pp. 45-64, 186-201. ISBN: 9780805066180.

9The welfare state (PDF)

Don't Call Us. "Losses and Loathing in the Welfare Years." Chapter 4, pp. 114-146.

Fraser, Nancy, and Linda Gordon. "A Genealogy of Dependency: Tracing a Keyword of the U.S. Welfare State." Signs 19, no. 2 (Winter 1994): 309-336.

Amazon logo Lubiano, Wahneema. "Black Ladies, Welfare Queens, and State Minstrels: Ideological War by Narrative Means." In Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality. Edited by Toni Morrison. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1992, pp. 323-363. ISBN: 9780679741459.

10The political sphere: policy and change (PDF)

Don't Call Us. "Moving On: 'Don't Call Me Out of Name'." Chapter 5, pp. 147-185.

Young, Iris M. "Five Faces of Oppression." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 3-16.

Addams, Jane. "Women and Public Housekeeping, 1913." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 187-188.

Schechter, Susan. "Social Change on Behalf of Battered Women: Reforming the Criminal Justice System." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 140-150.

Fraser, Nancy. "Multiculturalism, Antiessentialism, and Radical Democracy: A Genealogy of the Current Impasse in Feminist Theory." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 459-469.

Feinberg, Leslie. "Walking our Talk." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 521-526.

11Militarism and gender (PDF)

Amazon logo Cohn, Carol. "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals." In Feminist Theory in Practice and Process. Edited by Micheline R. Malson, Jean F. O'Barr, Sarah Westphal-Wihl, and Mary Wyer. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 107-138. ISBN: 9780226502946.

Curious Feminist. "All the Men Are in the Militias, All the Women Are Victims: The Politics of Masculinity and Femininity in Nationalist Wars." Chapter 7, pp. 99-118.

Curious Feminist. "Spoils of War." Chapter 8, pp. 119-121.

Curious Feminist. "Masculinity as a Foreign Policy Issue." Chapter 9, pp. 122-130.

Curious Feminist. "'What If They Gave a War...': A Conversation between Cynthia Enloe, Vivian Stromberg, and the Editors of Ms. Magazine." Chapter 10, pp. 131-144.

Curious Feminist. "Sneak Attack: The Militarization of U.S. Culture." Chapter 11, pp. 145-147.

Curious Feminist. "War Planners Rely on Women: Thoughts from Tokyo." Chapter 12, pp. 148-151.

Curious Feminist. "Feminists Keep Their Eyes on Militarized Masculinity: Wondering How Americans See Their Male Presidents." Chapter 13, pp. 152-154.

12International economics and politics (PDF)

Curious Feminist. "Margins, Silences, and Bottom Rungs: How to Overcome the Underestimation of Power in the Study of International Relations." Chapter 2, pp. 19-42.

Curious Feminist. "The Globetrotting Sneaker." Chapter 3, pp. 43-56.

Curious Feminist. "Daughters and Generals in the Politics of the Globalized Sneaker." Chapter 4, pp. 57-68.

Curious Feminist. "A Feminist Map of the Blocks on the Road to Institutional Accountability." Chapter 17, pp. 233-236.

Curious Feminist. "Updating the Gendered Empire: Where Are the Women in Occupied Afghanistan and Iraq?" Chapter 19, pp. 268-305.

Sen, Amartya. "More than 100 Million Women are Missing." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 150-159.

Gandhi, Leela. "Postcolonialism and Feminism." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 470-480.

Stoler, Ann Laura. "Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Gender, Race, and Morality in Colonial Asia." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 481-489.



Film


Gray, Lorraine. The Global Assembly Line, VHS. Harriman, NY: New Day Films, 1986.

13Research paper presentations (PDF)No readings.
14Concluding thoughts and dilemmas (PDF)

Don't Call Us. "A Common Woman's Resistance." Chapter 6, pp. 186-221.

Krik, Gwyn. "Standing on Solid Ground: A Materialist Ecological Feminism." In Theorizing Feminisms, pp. 501-520.


 








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