Reading Schedule

GSS Instagram

Link to Syllabus

Schedule of Readings

Link to Google Drive folder with PDFs (requires Davidson log in)

Link to folder with all PPT slides used in class (will be updated after each class).

{Click a link below to jump to that week’s reading assignments}

8/26 WEEK 1
9/2 WEEK 2
9/9 WEEK 3
9/16 WEEK 4
9/23 WEEK 5
9/30 WEEK 6
10/7 WEEK 7
10/14 WEEK 8
10/21 WEEK 9
10/28 WEEK 10
11/4 WEEK 11
11/11 WEEK 12
11/18 WEEK 13
11/25 WEEK 14
12/2 WEEK 15

8/26 WEEK 1

Monday

  • Introduction to the course and each other
  • NB. For the grading specifications bundles, start counting your absences and in-class participation today.
  • Setting shared values and commitments for discussion
  • Think about community norms, re-read them, and offer edits, comments, and/or additions on this slido.

Unit: What is Bodily Autonomy?

Key Questions and Terms: What is bodily autonomy? What is abortion? What’s the history of how abortion has been understood? What do issues of bodily autonomy and abortion have to do with gender, sex, and sexuality? What is the difference between pro-choice and reproductive justice frameworks? 

Wednesday

  • Read through the entire syllabus. Bring your questions to class. Add to this slido any edits/modifications/additions to the community norms.
  • Watch the following videos and explore every link on the pages (you must be logged on) and fill out all of the worksheets (the links to worksheets will direct you to make a copy that will go into your own Google Drive, so you can fill it out there).
    • “Engaging with Opposing Viewpoints:” In a short video, Tiffany Johnson introduces viewers to the importance of learning about different perspectives and includes some tips on how to do so, including how to access the very useful Opposing Viewpoints, Issues and Controversies, and CQ Researcher databases. The module also includes a Finding Opposing Viewpoints Worksheet that students can use to practice their skills in identifying diverse perspectives on a contentious issue.
    • “Evaluating the Credibility of Sources:” Jayme Sponsel provides an overview of the SIFT framework for evaluating source credibility. This framework encourages students to 1) Stop, 2) Investigate the Source 3) Find better coverage, and 4) Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context. The module also includes a SIFT Evaluation Worksheet that asks students to use the framework to assess three different sources of information.
  • Locate 3 reliable sources of information on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), published after the June 24, 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade (1973). The 3 sources should address abortion and bodily autonomy, concepts of privacy, historical facts, frameworks of legal interpretation, the women’s movement, local implications for the inaccessibility of abortion, the impact of abortion access on different communities, all of the above, or another issue you feel is important in relation to abortion.
    • Be prepared to discuss how you located and SIFTED these sources, how reliable or unreliable they are (and why), and what new information you gleaned from these sources that you think should be incorporated into popular understandings of abortion.

9/2 WEEK 2

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday

Wednesday

Unit: What is Gender?

Key Questions and Terms: What is gender? What is transgender? How has gender been constructed socially over time? How do media, images, texts construct gender? How do gender and transgender intersect with race and class and sexuality? What does Butler mean by “gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original”?

9/9 WEEK 3

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday–

Guest Lecturer: Senior GSS major Mattie Baird

Class held in-person, in our normal classroom.

  • Get started on the readings for Wednesday.
  • Watch Season 1, Episode 3 of Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness, “Can We Say Bye-Bye to the Gender Binary” (featuring Alok V. Menon) on Netflix.
  • Watch Disclosure (2020) on Netflix. [Coordinate with classmates or try a trial subscription.]
  • Read through the AMA questions and my comments here. Answer any questions you feel able to answer by adding your own non-anonymous answers or follow-up questions in the Google comments. Add any additional anonymous questions to the SLIDO here.
  • Start filling out the Kate Bornstein workbook. (You will be able to keep your answers to yourself, so answer the questions for just yourself.)
    • Kate Bornstein, selections from My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex (2013). NOTE: Please do not read the original 1998 version in the PDF folder.

Wednesday:

  • Discuss Bornstein’s workbook, which you started earlier. You do not have to share your answers with anybody.
  • Jordan-Young, Brain Storm selections (2010) [Read the Preface and the entire Introduction.]
  • Lorber, “‘Night to His Day’: Social Construction of Gender” (1994)
  • Cancel any trial subscriptions to Netflix.
  • Read through the rest of the AMA document. There will be new questions at the bottom, and new answers toward the top. You are encouraged to reply to my comments, which counts as participation you can report on your final Self-Evaluation.

9/16 WEEK 4

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday

  • Wrapping up Gender Unit: Watch Judith Butler’s 3 minute video and view/read the related slides 72-87 in class PPT.
  • John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and Gay Identity” (1983)
  • Barker and Scheele, Queer: A Graphic History (2016), pp. 1-50 (page #s referenced here are from the linked e-book available through Davidson library; pagination is different in the physical book)
  • [Optional] Leila Rupp, “Toward a Global History of Same-Sex Sexuality” (2001) [Skim to extract the key argument and three key examples of same-sex sexuality across time and place that strike you as important and/or relate to other readings.]
  • Read through the rest of the AMA document. There are new questions at the bottom, and new answers toward the top. You are encouraged to reply to my comments, which counts as participation you can report on your final Self-Evaluation
  • watch the WordPress tutorial video in the “Assignments” page and email Jo (jopapadopoulou@davidson.edu) if you are having issues logging in to WordPress

Unit: What is Sexuality?

Key Questions and Terms: What is sexuality? When and how were the words and concepts homo- and heterosexuality invented? What is the “repressive hypothesis”? What is the relationship between capitalism and the ways that our lives and identities are organized? What is “compulsory heterosexuality” (Adrienne Rich)? What is “heteronormativity” (Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner)?

Wednesday

  • Jonathan Ned Katz, selections from The Invention of Heterosexuality (1995)
  • Michel Foucault, selections from The History of Sexuality (1979) [This is dense reading; it may be language unlike anything you have read before.]

    Read enough, up to p. 35 maximum, to produce answers to the following questions, with examples:

    • What is the repressive hypothesis?
    • What is the “incitement to discourse”?
    • How do Foucault’s arguments relate to D’Emilio’s arguments?
    • Select a particularly dense cluster of 2-5 sentences that you think would be worth reading closely with the class because they seem crucial to the main argument.

Looking Ahead: Final Media Analysis due Friday 9/27 by 8pm, published here on the blog

Unit: Bodies, Ads, and Fat Studies

Key Questions and Terms: How does size intersect with gender, sexuality, and/or race? What research grounds the body positivity movement? What is HAES? How might we distinguish between evidence-based interpretations of fatness and biased perspectives on fat? How might we understand make-up, hygiene products, and toiletries in a Foucauldian framework? Why do we believe we need the vast number of personal hygiene products marketed toward us in profoundly gendered ways? What is fat-shaming and what informs social hatred of fat people?

9/23 WEEK 5

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday

  • Review the Foucault slides in the PPT (linked at the top of this page)
  • Jean Kilbourne, TED Talk on Killing Us Softly IV: Advertising Images of Women (2014) 15 minutes
  • Marilyn Wann, foreword to The Fat Studies Reader (2009)
  • Virgie Tovar, TEDx Talk on Lose Hate not Weight (2017) 14:41 minutes and short video on the difference between fat activism and body positivity (2018).
  • Start Reading Deb Burgard, “What is Health at Every Size?” (2014)
  • Start thinking about your media analysis for the workshop next class; use your prep work to help you choose social media (meme, video, text post, anything) that you share for social media sharing this week

Wednesday

  • Media Analysis peer-review workshop:
  • Watch the video at the bottom of the Assignments page to familiarize yourself with posting in WP.
  • Before class, look for your WordPress log in information in your email (check Clutter, Other, and Spam mailboxes) before class and practice logging on.
  • Email Jo (jopapadopoulou@davidson.edu) if you cannot find your log in info after checking all your folders on your email or have any other issues with logging in to WordPress.

Final Media Analysis due Friday 9/27 by 8pm, published here on the blog

9/30 WEEK 6

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday:

Wednesday 10/2:

Unit: Feminism’s First Wave

Key Questions and Terms: When was the term “feminism” coined? What is first-wave feminism? What is suffrage? What is the significance of the Seneca Falls Convention? How did early feminists’ political priorities differ according to their race, gender, and class? How have Black, indigenous, and Third World women responded to first-wave feminism, both from within and from without the movement?

10/7 WEEK 7: Fall Break October 10 and 11

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday:

  • Review the Workshop on Privileges and Oppressions and reflect on how different factors of your social conditions and identities intersect and mitigate each other’s impacts, as in the final slides we reviewed in class Wednesday. Read through slides 25-the end.
  • Look up:
    • Seneca Falls Convention in order to understand its significance.
    • Look up Elizabeth Cady Stanton (main author of the Declaration) and Susan B. Anthony.
    • Recall what we learned about when “feminism” was coined
  • View Alok Menon’s book report on how women fought for the right to wear pants
  • Review these slides on the history of women at Davidson in relation to US history, including Seneca Falls.
  • Start reading preparing for Wednesday, and make a plan for getting the reading done that’s due Monday 10/14, in class.

Discuss Book Review due by 8pm on Friday 11/1  on Google Drive

Wednesday:

  • No Class Meeting.
  • View the recording of event hosted by the library,  “How to Spot Misinformation: An Evening with David Boraks,” and
    • Make your next social media sharing post on GroupMe about how you used what you learned from this talk to evaluate media of any kind.

10/14 WEEK 8

Monday

Artist talk between Catherine Opie and Charlotte Cotton, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 5pm, in Tyler-Tallman (reception follows at VAC).

Token opportunity: Attend this talk on 10/15, and read this article, watch Same Difference, a 30-minute film from 2011 co-made by Opie interviewing children with LGBTQ+ parents in a time when gay marriage was not nationally legal, and post about it on social media sharing to earn one token (without a 300-word blog post).

Free lunch with the artist Wednesday Oct 16, 11-12pm, for those who have attended the talk. RSVP for lunch by emailing the Gallery Director Lia Newman at linewman@davidson.edu.

Unit: The Second Wave

Key Questions and Terms: What is the second wave of feminism? What voices were centered in the second wave, and which were marginalized, silenced, or overshadowed? Are there any dangers to narrating history as progress? How might we re-write and complicate feminist narratives of progress?

Wednesday 10/16:

Looking ahead: Book Review due by 8pm on Friday 11/1  on Google Drive

10/21 WEEK 9

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday

  • Catch up on readings and argument summaries.

Wednesday 10/23

  • Betty Friedan, selections from The Feminine Mystique (1963)
  • bell hooks, “Black Women Shaping Feminist Theory” in Feminist Theory from Margin to Center (1984)
  • Committee on the Status of Women in India, “Towards Equality” (India, 1974)
  • Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, selections from Our Bodies, Ourselves (1971)
  • Peruse the contemporary Our Bodies site as well
  • Think through these questions:
    • What role does thinking critically about the body, and re-figuring out conception and relation to it, play in feminism at large?
    • What previous readings can you connect this to?
    • Also, where can we infer the importance of the body in the Committee on the Status of Women in India’s “Towards Equality”?

Book Review due by 8pm on Friday 11/1 on Google Drive

Unit: The Gay Rights’ Movement and the Third Wave

Key Questions and Terms: How do the readings demonstrate a split between more radical, anti-capitalist gay liberationist thought and activism that was more focused on creating safety for LGBTQ people via assimilation and pro-business policies (e.g. gay-owned bars)? How does Gould define the “heroic narrative” that emerged out of the “emotional habitus” of the early AIDs crisis and how did it impact activism? How do we explain the erasure of the more radical elements of early gay liberationist thought from contemporary mainstream LGBTQ activism, especially when factoring in Gould’s arguments? How does Gould help us understand contemporary gay respectability politics?

10/28 WEEK 10

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday

  • Documents from the 1969 Furor [Early gay liberation flyers and manifestos, and the emergence of the Gay Liberation Front in July 1969]
    • Make a list of the arguments found in these documents. What do they assert, defend against, deny?
    • What do these arguments have in common, if anything, with first- and/or second-wave rhetoric? Can you connect to any previous feminist readings?
    • Please note areas where the arguments emerging from the 1969 furor converge and/or diverge from contemporary activism.
  • Keep reading Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Wednesday

  • Bring in draft of your Book Review for peer review
  • Keep reading Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

11/4 WEEK 11

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday

  • Watch CBS’ documentary The Homosexuals (1967) and then research the terms “homonationalism” (Jasbir Puar), “homonormativity” (trans activists and Lisa Duggan), “neoliberalism” (Lisa Duggan), and “homocapitalism.”
    • Be prepared to define these terms and summarize what, in your view, has changed in the cultural representations and social status of homosexuality from 1967 to today, with at least two real-life examples.
  • Watch Screaming Queens (2005), film by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman about the 1966 riots (Film also available via PBS)

 

 

Unit: Intersectionality and WoC Feminisms 

Key Terms & Questions: What is intersectionality? What is Womanism and why do some people use it as an alternative to feminism? How do we explain the general trend among feminists and LGBTQ thinkers and activists to create new terms and re-signify existing terms as part of their political and personal projects?

 

Wednesday

 

 

11/11 WEEK 12

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday

 

Wednesday

  • Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Why Intersectionality Cannot Wait” (2015) [Also read the “primer” on intersectionality linked to at the beginning of the short article]
  • Website on Georgia Douglas Johnson by Davidson students, page on intersectionality.

 

11/18 WEEK 13

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday

  • Discuss Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (2021)
    • To prepare for class, read through the historical context provided by the author at the end
    • Read through the discussion questions at the end, and select 1-2 favorite questions to discuss

 

Bodies and Bio-Politics

Key Terms & Questions: What have GSS scholars revealed about the ways that scientific studies can and do unthinkingly reproduce social biases about gender and sexuality?

 

Wednesday

 

11/25 WEEK 14

Thanksgiving Break: Nov. 22 (4:20 p.m.) – Dec. 2 (8:05 a.m.)

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday & Wednesday

NO CLASS

 

12/2 WEEK 15

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

Monday

  • Watch both Saving Face (2004), available for streaming through the library, and The Half of It (2020), available on Netflix.
  • Come to class prepared to discuss these points.
    • Alice Wu wrote and directed both of these films but at different points in time and with unconnected narratives. Look her up online. What do you think is important to know about her in order to analyze representations of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity in these films?
    • What is it like to watch a film set in 2004 as somebody who was 0-4 years old when this movie came out? What aspects of material culture have changed, i.e., fashion, our primary modes of communication? What aspects of culture have changed since 2004?
    • Saving Face (2004) is set in New York City. The Half of It is set in the fictional small town of Squahamish (somewhere in the Pacific Northwest). How do the different settings shape each film’s representations of Chinese-American families, romance plots, and LGBTQ cultures in their respective time periods?

 

Wednesday 12/4

  • Last Day of Class
  • Roseann Liu and Savannah Shange, “Toward Thick Solidarity: Theorizing Empathy in Social Justice Movements” (2018)
  • Reflect and integrate. Think about the following questions and jot down some notes after you do your argument summary:
    • What have you learned so far in GSS 101 that you want to learn more about?
    • What have you learned that you want to remember long after this semester is over?

 

(Jump back to weekly scheduled readings)

December 12-17:

  • Final Self-Assessment due via email to Melissa;
  • Feminist Mix Tape due via Google Drive and on Spotify;
  • all final work due for all classes due by Dec. 17, including optional revisions of your Media Analysis and/or Book Review

 

  • Student with last names A-M will read the following article, and come to class prepared to summarize, for students who have not read it, the article’s engagement with other pieces of scholarship, main arguments, and key evidence, with at least 1-2 key examples in each category: Emily Martin, “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles” (1991)
  • Student with last names N-Z will read the following article, and come to class prepared to summarize, for students who have not read it, the article’s engagement with other pieces of scholarship, main arguments, and key evidence, with at least 1-2 key examples in each category: Noël Sturgeon, “Penguin Family Values: The Nature of Planetary Environmental Justice” (2010)

Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage

Last names A-N read and be prepared to explain: Kenyan Farrow “Is Gay Marriage Anti-Black?”

Last names M-Z read and be prepared to explain: Marlon M. Bailey, Priya Kandaswamy, Mattie Udora Richardson “Is Gay Marriage Racist?”

Nancy Polikoff, selections from Beyond (Gay and Straight) Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law   (2008) [Skim the Intro. and read Chapter 1 pp. 11-33]

Stephanie Coontz, selections from Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage [a longer reading, but easy to get through quickly, as it’s far from dense.]

Critical Prison Studies and Lit Reviews

Watch 13th on Netflix. [As you watch the full-length documentary, think about how a GSS critical lens may have taken the documentary narrative in new directions.]

Elias Walker Vitulli, “Queering the Carceral” [As you read the review essay, think about its form, and what it might teach you about approaching your own Lit Review. Also, revisit the question of how a GSS critical lens may have taken the documentary narrative in new directions.]

Workshop “What is a Woman?”, chosen by Facebook poll.

What is a woman? Safe vs. Exclusionary spaces. Find, read, and bring to class 1-2 online articles on the controversies surrounding the admittance of trans people into spaces like women’s colleges and women’s music festivals, as well as the conversation on our Media Sharing FB group on the new app Her.

Student Presentations: Prepare a brief, 60-second speech summarizing the Lit Review you are working on. Besides summarizing succinctly, the field or sub-field your Lit Review addresses, also include an example of something new and/or surprising that you learned doing it. Practice your speech and make sure it is no longer than 1 minute.

Students will write down questions during the presentations but hold them for Monday.

Browse articles from Against Equality; Feministing; and Wear Your Voice. Pick one that relates to something that you learned in GSS 101 for the very first time, particularly an idea that surprised you, led you to shift your understanding of some aspect of our world. Be prepared to briefly summarize the article and how it relates to your learning in class.

Read through the list of Learning Goals, as well as the Assignments, on the syllabus and make a list of what you have learned this semester in GSS 101.

Readings on hold:

Workshop on Free Speech and Hate Speech.

Research: What forms of speech are protected by the first amendment? What is hate speech, and is it protected by the first amendment? What sorts of arguments does MY make, and what sort of evidence does he use? How does he frame his own gay identity and sexual practices? What are his stated political goals? What are some examples drawn from his writing/speaking that can be considered “hate speech”? Think about what you consider to be an ideal response to hate speech in general, and his in particular.

Barker and Scheele, Queer: A Graphic History (2016), pp. 55-59, 102-133 (page #s referenced here are from the linked e-book; pagination is different in the physical book)

Sharon Marcus, selections from Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England  (2007) [Focus on the introduction; glean the gist and extract key evidence from Ch. 1 without reading it in full unless you have time.]

Riki Wilchins, selections from Queer Theory, Gender Theory (2004)

Eli Clare, selections from Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation (1999)

Michael Cobb, introduction to Single: Arguments for the Uncoupled (2012) [Skim and read for main argument]

Michael Warner, selections from The Trouble with Normal (1999)

Anne Fausto-Sterling, “The Five Sexes Revisited” (2000) and selections from Sexing the Body (2000)

[Optional] Anne Fausto-Sterling, “The Five Sexes” (1993)

Look up “compulsory heterosexuality” (Adrienne Rich) and “heteronormativity” (Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner) and be prepared to discuss their meanings.

Start Unit on Early Theories of Gender Difference and Proto-Feminisms

Key Questions and Terms: What access did women in the 17th century have to education, and how did class determine their access? How did 17th century women argue for women’s right to education and what common ideas were they arguing against? Is it anachronistic to talk about “feminism” before the 20th century? What is proto-feminism? Is it anachronistic to talk about “proto-feminism”? What is “just reading” according to Marcus?

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, “The Reply to Sor Filotea” (1691) [Before reading, look up who “Sor Filotea” was (and was not)]

Alice Sowal, “On Mary Astell’s Serious Proposal: Mind, Method, Custom” [Read enough to get a general sense of Astell’s text as well as Sowal’s general argument]

Unit: Disability Studies

Key Questions & Terms: How do disability studies intersect with the queer, gender, and fat studies we have learned about?

Robert McRuer, “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled Existence” (2006)

Carol Hanisch, “The Personal is Political” (1969)

Anonymous, “Queers Read This” (1990) [Browse the comments too.]

Michelle Jensen, Review of Baumgardner & Richards, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future (2000)

Susan Faludi, “Blame It on Feminism” (1991) [Read enough to summarize the main points]

Kathleen Hanna, “Riot Grrl Manifesto” (1991) [Look up images related to 1990s Riot Grrrl culture]

Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner The Thirteen Point Agenda from Manifesta (2000)

Michel Foucault, selections from The History of Sexuality (1979) [This is dense reading; it may be language unlike anything you have read before.]

  • Read enough to produce answers to the following questions, with examples:
    • What is the repressive hypothesis?
    • What is the “incitement to discourse”?
    • How do Foucault’s arguments relate to D’Emilio’s arguments?
    • Select a particularly dense cluster of 2-5 sentences that you think would be worth reading closely with the class because they seem crucial to the main argument.

UNIT: The Meaning of Marriage

Workshop on Student-Chosen Topic: Hook-Up and Rape Cultures

  • Read through this PPT. Consider the following questions: How do “identity contingencies” and “stereotype threat” impact you in GSS, and how do they impact our conversations in class? How do these categories intersect with the privileges and oppressions you identified in the previous workshop?
  • Read a previous student’s Book Review on Kathleen Bogle’s Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationship On Campus (2008).
  • Read 1.) Everyday Feminism article by Shannon Ridgway and 2.) article on examples of rape culture in Trump’s public statements by Arwa Mahdawi in the Guardian.
  • Consider the following question: In what ways might a sex positive outlook, one that promotes sex as a pleasurable activity for those who desire it and for those who actively consent to it, help combat rape culture? Should we use the language of “bodily autonomy” as a stronger alternative to “sex positivity”?
  • Read through all posts/articles linked to above.

Unit: Queer of Color & Non-Western Critique

Key Questions & Terms: In what ways have feminist thought and queer theory in the U.S. been excessively anglo- and white-centric? What are the weaknesses and costs of white-and anglo-centric feminist and queer thought? How have feminist arguments been used to support imperialist and racist political projects, particularly in non-Western contexts?

Monday

  • Watch both Saving Face (2004), available for streaming through the library, and The Half of It (2020), available on Netflix.
  • Saving Face (2004), available for streaming through the library, and The Half of It (2020), available on Netflix.

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