CGS 2A
INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL GENDER STUDIES:
Tue & Thu, 11:00-12:20, in WLH 2111
Prof. Steven Epstein
Department of Sociology
Contact info:
Office phone: 858-534-0489
E-mail: sepstein@ucsd.edu
Home page:
http://sociology.ucsd.edu/~sepstein
Sections:
A01 (#568557): Wed 2:00-2:50, HSS
1315
A02 (#568558): Wed 3:00-3:50, HSS 1315
TA: Tom Waidzunas
Email: twaidzunas@ucsd.edu
Summary:
This course will examine
how 20th- and 21st-century social movements have promoted and contested ideas
and institutions relating to gender and sexuality. How do social movements
challenge the social organization of gender and sexuality? How do movements
mobilize, how do they define interests and frame issues, and what kinds of
effects do they have on society? How do movements construct their identities
and grapple with differences? Our examples will include feminist and
antifeminist movements; men’s movements; movements of women of color; women’s
health movements; reproductive rights movements; lesbian and gay movements;
AIDS activism; and movements for peace, social justice, and human rights. While
focusing on the
The course will address a range of specific intellectual questions:
1) What kinds of goals have been advanced by women’s movements, men’s movements, and movements on behalf of sexual and gender minorities in the United States in recent decades?
2) How and why have the social meanings of gender and sexuality become subject to debate and struggle?
3) What does it mean for a social movement to be “gendered”? What are the consequences of organizing “as men” or “as women”?
4) How unitary are categories such as “women” or “men”? What are the effects of racial, class, sexual, and other divisions on the political activism of women or men?
5) Is there such a thing as a unique set off “women’s interests” or “men’s interests” that women’s or men’s movements seek to advance?
6) Just what is a social movement in the first place, and how do social scientists study them?
7) By comparing movements, what can we learn about how movements differ, and why some succeed while others fail?
Course Mechanics:
¨ The
following book is required for the course and should be purchased at the
UCSD Bookstore in the
Alice Echols, Daring to Be
Bad: Radical Feminism in
Copies of the book also are available on reserve at the Social Sciences and Humanities library at Geisel.
¨ All additional course readings are available for download via e-reserves (http://reserves.ucsd.edu/). Please note that you will be responsible for downloading and printing each item. You can access the files from any campus computer, and you can print them with an ACS laser printing account (see http://sdacs.ucsd.edu/~icc/laser.php). You can also download and print the files from off-campus, but in order to do so you need to specify a proxy in your web browser (an easy process; see http://www-ono.ucsd.edu/documentation/squid/). In the case of any problems accessing e-reserves, library staff are available to help you.
¨ Your grade for the quarter will be calculated on the basis of the following course requirements:
1. A take-home short essay that will focus on the material in the first three weeks of the course (25% of grade). The assignment will be distributed Thursday, October 5, and it is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, October 17.
2. A closed-book, in-class midterm on Tuesday, November 2, covering all material up through October 31 (25%). Bring a blue book!
3. A take-home final covering the entire course but emphasizing the material covered after the midterm (40%). The essay questions will be distributed Tuesday, November 28, and the final is due by 11:30 am on Tuesday, December 5 (the final exam date for the course). You may also turn in the final earlier, if you prefer.
4. Section attendance and participation (10%).
¨ Students are responsible for all material presented in the readings, videos, lectures, and sections. Class attendance is expected at both lectures and sections. Come to class with the reading for that day, and be prepared to participate!
¨ Late papers will be marked down unless a doctor’s note is presented.
¨ Please understand that, in a class of this size, I cannot accept any papers sent as email attachments.
¨ I am committed to strict enforcement of university regulations concerning plagiarism and integrity of scholarship, which means that I report all such cases to university administrators. Please familiarize yourself with the “UCSD Policy on Integrity of Scholarship” (http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/0506/front/AcadRegu.html). You should understand that examples of plagiarism include obtaining text from any source (including the internet), and passing off such text as your own work, rather than citing the source of the material. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism or academic dishonesty, I encourage you to speak to me or your TA about it. According to university policies, plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty will typically result in a failing grade for the entire course and may lead to dismissal from the university.
¨ At the beginning of class, please make sure your cell phone is turned off or set to vibrate.
¨ Arriving late, leaving early, and walking in and out of class are distracting to those around you. Obviously they are sometimes unavoidable. But I’d appreciate your keeping them to a minimum.
¨ This
syllabus and all lectures for this course are copyright 2006 by Steven Epstein.
Students are prohibited from selling (or being paid for taking) notes during
this course to or by any person or commercial firm without the express written
permission of Professor Epstein. Audio recordings of lectures are forbidden
without the permission of Professor Epstein.
Schedule of
Thu, Sep 21: Introduction
Tue, Sep 26: Case Study: The Radical Feminist Movement
Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in
Thu, Sep 28: Case Study: The Radical Feminist Movement (cont.)
Echols, Daring to Be Bad, 51-101, 103-114, 120-137, 139-158, 197-202 (Chapter 2, parts of Chapters 3-4).
Tue, Oct 3: Case Study: The Radical Feminist Movement (cont.)
Echols, Daring to Be Bad, 203-241, 243-245, 269-281, 284-286 (Chapter 5, parts of Chapter 6).
Thu, Oct 5: Radical Feminism and Women of Color
Video: “
**Take-home essay assignment distributed**
Echols, Daring to Be Bad, 287-295 (Epilogue).
Tue, Oct 10: Social Movements: What Are They? How Do We Study Them?
Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements and
Contentious Politics, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press, 1998), 1-25 (Introduction and Chapter 1).
Robert D. Benford and Scott A. Hunt, “Dramaturgy and Social Movements: The Social Construction and Communication of Power,” Sociological Inquiry 62, no. 1 (February 1992): 37-55.
Thu, Oct 12: Varieties of Women’s Movements: From Experience to Action
Gloria Lockett, “CAL-PEP: The Struggle to Survive,” in Women Resisting AIDS: Feminist Strategies of Empowerment, ed. Beth E. Schneider and Nancy E. Stoller (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1995), 208-218.
Byllye Y. Avery,
“Breathing Life into Ourselves: The Evolution of the National Black Women’s
Health Project,” in Phil Brown, ed., Perspectives
in Medical Sociology, 3rd ed. (
Tue, Oct 17: Varieties of Women’s Movements: From Experience to Action (cont.)
**Take-home essays due**
Marysa Navarro, “The
Personal is Political: Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo,” in Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements, ed.
Susan Eckstein (
Mary S. Pardo: Mexican American Women Activists: Identity
and Resistance in Two
Thu, Oct 19: Varieties of Women’s Movements: From Experience to Action (cont.)
Video: “Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza De
Mayo” (Susana Muñoz and Lourdes Portillo, 1985, 64 min)
Tue,
Oct 24: Varieties of Women’s
Movements: Social Context and Social Structure
Raka Ray, Fields of Protest: Women’s Movements in
India (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), 45-62 and 102-120
(Chapter 3: “
Thu,
Oct 26: The Gendering of Social Movements
Verta
Taylor, Rock-A-By-Baby: Feminism,
Self-Help, and Postpartum Depression (New York: Routledge, 1996), 163-179
(Chapter 6: “The Revolution from Within: Gendering Social Movement Theory”).
Rachel L. Einwohner, “Gender, Class, and Social Movement Outcomes: Identity and Effectiveness in Two Animal Rights Campaigns,” Gender & Society 13, no. 1 (February 1999): 56-76.
Tue, Oct 31: Legacies
of Feminism: The Politics of Influence
Nancy Whittier, Feminist Generations: The Persistence of the Radical Women’s Movement
(
Verta Taylor, Rock-A-By-Baby: Feminism, Self-Help, and Postpartum Depression (New York: Routledge, 1996), 125-162 (Chapter 5: “The Metamorphosis of Feminism in Women’s Self-Help: Collective Identity in the Postpartum Support Group Movement”).
Thu, Nov 2: **IN-CLASS MIDTERM** (Bring a blue book!)
Tue, Nov 7: Legacies of Feminism: Women on the Right
Rebecca E. Klatch, Women of the New Right (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987), 119-153 (Chapter 5: “Feminism”).
Kathleen M.
Blee, Inside Organized Racism: Women
in the Hate Movement (
Thu, Nov 9: Legacies of Feminism: Postfeminisms
Martha McCaughey, Real Knockouts: The Physical Feminism of Women’s Self-Defense (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 1-18, 59-88, 177-180, and 200-211 (Introduction, Chapter 2, and parts of Chapter 5).
Tue, Nov 14: Varieties of Men’s Movements
R. W. Connell, “Men and the Women’s Movement, Social Policy, Summer 1993, 72-78.
Michael S. Kimmel and Michael Kaufman, “Weekend Warriors: The New Men’s Movement,” in Michael S. Kimmel, ed., The Politics of Manhood (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995), 15-43.
Thu, Nov 16: Varieties of Men’s Movements (cont.)
Video: “Daddy Said So” (Niklas Sven Vollmer, 1996, 45 min. [watch segment])
Robert Reid-Pharr, “It’s Raining Men,” Transition, no. 69 (1996): 36-49.
Brian Donovan, “Political Consequences of Private Authority: Promise Keepers and the Transformation of Hegemonic Masculinity,” Theory and Society 27 (1998): 817-843.
Tue, Nov 21: Lesbian and Gay Movements: From Early Days to Gay Liberation
Video: “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin” (Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer, 2002, 83 min [watch segment])
John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual
Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1983), 57-91 (Chapters 4-5).
Thu, Nov 23:
Tue, Nov 28: Lesbian
Feminism; LGBT Politics and Racial Difference
**Take-home final exam distributed**
Verta Taylor and Nancy E. Whittier, “Collective Identity in Social Movement Communities: Lesbian Feminist Mobilization” in Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, ed. Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 104-129.
Cathy J. Cohen, “Contested
Membership: Black Gay Identities and the Politics of AIDS,” in Queer Studies: An Interdisciplinary Reader,
ed. Robert J. Corber and Stephen Valocchi (
Thu, Nov 30: The New Politics of Homophobia
Janice M. Irvine, “Anti-Gay Politics Online: A Study of Sexuality and Stigma on National Websites. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 2, no. 1 (March 2005): 3-21.
Arlene Stein, “Make Room for Daddy:
Anxious Masculinity and Emergent Homophobias in Neopatriarchal Politics.” Gender and Society 19, no. 5 (October
2005): 601-60.
**TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE** on the final exam date for this course, Tuesday, December 5, at 11:30 am.