WGS201: Introduction to Women and Gender Studies

Summer 2010 – Online

This Course’s Facebook Group: WGS201 Blue Summer 2010

Please join this group no later than Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Instructor: Ami Blue Email:

blueami@msu.edu
Facebook: www.facebook.com/abluedude Skype:
abluedude

Materials
Textbook: Kesselman, Amy, Lily D. McNair and Nancy Schneidewind. Women Images and
Realities: A Multicultural Anthology. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2008.
Additional readings made available through email attachment, Facebook links to free
online content, and Blackboard.
Other required materials: EKU email address, Internet access, Facebook account, YouTube
account, access to webcam (optional, for optional video uploads).

Course Description
Formerly WMS 201. Introduction to the interdisciplinary field of women and gender
studies, which includes a range of topics in feminist scholarship and masculinity theory.
Provides overview of the diversity of women’s experiences and issues, and addresses the
intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality, ability and nationality. The course
integrates the experience and ideas of students and requires active and service learning
opportunities. This course will address Gen. Ed. VIII.

This course is also the introductory course to the Women and Gender Studies Program. To
find out more about the WGS minor, campus activist/involvement groups, or any other
aspect of multicultural studies at EKU, contact the WGS and the Office of Multicultural
Affairs, Lisa Daniels, at lisa.daniels@eku.edu.

After briefly acquainting ourselves with the concepts of gender, masculinity, femininity,
and queerness, we will explore women, men, queers, and some categories in between.
This will take us through the first 3 weeks, after which we will investigate the intersections
among gender and institutions, like race, nationality, religion, and class. We’ll end the
semester talking about the psychology of gender trauma, and then you will each present
your own gender transgression projects to the class through a formal presentation the last
week of class.

Course Objectives: By the end of this course, students are expected to

1. understand the frameworks of core areas of gender studies.
2. apply the different frameworks in an analysis of contemporary issues women[, men,
or queers] struggle with today.
3. argue for changes in political systems, social norms, medical treatment, religious
institutions, educational institutions, the media, etc., to benefit women and society, as
a whole.
4. perceive how personal development has been impacted by society’s treatment of
men, women, and queers.
5. develop intersectional connections between gender and other realms of identity,
including race, ethnicity, age, sexuality, and class status.
6. understand cross-cultural connections and differences regarding gender issues.
7. critically analyze issues linked to gender and communicate those issues in an
organized, effective way, in verbal or written form.

General Course Overview

Relying heavily on technology and self-education through participation and activism, this
course is designed to guide you through an introduction to the ever-expanding and diverse
fields of Women and Gender studies. As gender studies is pretty new, textbooks are
expensive and hard to find, so in addition to the textbook you should purchase (see
above), each of you will build your own reference manual that includes sources not found
in your textbook. I’ll help you to compile readings and videos on women, men, feminism,
masculinity, and sexuality so that by the time the semester is over, you will understand
the broad scope of the intersecting and overlapping disciplines.

Each week, you will be responsible for 30-50 pages of reading from the textbook, free
Internet, and PDF’d articles that I’ll send you through your EKU email account. You should
critically read each article and watch any accompanying videos I post on Facebook,
sometimes rereading or rewatching until you’re sure you understand the scope of the
assignment. This class depends on your enthusiastic engagement. Each week is divided
into two sections—a Monday/Tuesday section and a Wednesday/Thursday section—which
you will have conversations with the instructor and other students about through informal,
loose Facebook Wall chatter; this will take place on Facebook Discussion Boards clearly
labeled for each specific part of each week. At the end of each week, you’ll post a more
formal, academic response to the wall of that week’s Facebook Event (see details below in
Assignment Descriptions). You can navigate to these separate sections of our Facebook
Group using the tabs at the top of the Facebook Group wall, “Discussions,” “Video” and
“Events.”

At the end of the semester, you will post a final project that you can work on throughout
the semester or conduct during the last two weeks of class (I will post the assignment
description for this project no later than week 2 of the semester as an email attachment; I
will post on the Facebook wall once I’ve sent the email so that you can get started right
away). Your semester grade will be determined based on your weekly participation and
active engagement on the Discussion Boards and Events walls, as well as your creativity
and presentation of your final project. You should always keep in mind as you’re creating
each week’s informal and formal responses that your goal in doing so is to engage other
thinking minds in academic discussion about gender; mindless bickering should be
avoided.

Technology and Reading Component

This course depends heavily on technology and on reading. You will read resources from
the Internet, participate in Blackboard discussion boards, access information through a
variety of electronic means, prepare Prezi.com or YouTube.com presentations, and check
your email and Facebook daily. You will read between 30-50 pages per week from the
textbook or materials I link/send. I will say again: this course relies heavily on reading and
reading comprehension; in addition to the 50-or-so pages you’ll read more formally for the
class, you’ll also get to know other classmates and the instructor primarily through textual
interactions. Please be aware before we even begin this semester that you will spend the
majority of your time interacting with me through writing and reading, although you have
the option of using alternative media for your responses (such as Prezi.com and
YouTube.com, see below).

Assignment Descriptions
Facebook Discussion Board Chatter
For each part of each week—part 1 on Mon/Tue and part 2 on Wed/Thur—you will see a
Discussion Board on FB where you should chime in with your comments, concerns,
questions, reactions, responses, etc. These are informal, friendly discussions like the ones
you would have in a lecture classroom, a place where students should feel free to say
what they want as long as it’s respectful, thoughtful, and moves the conversation about
gender forward into new and unexplored territories (this can mean a variety of things to
each person in the course, as we all come from different gender histories). You should post
links to videos and websites you’ve found that address the topic under discussion as well
as responses to other students’ comments and questions; if you post something, you
should always contextualize it by telling why you’re posting it, how it fits into the
discussion we’re already having, or why it affirms/contests a topic we’ve been considering.
Similarly, be sure if you are responding to someone you make it clear to whom and to
what you’re responding so the students and I know where your comment fits in to the
larger discussion. So much of our class depends on your ability to keep up with the forum-
like discussions, so to facilitate that, you should make at least one response to each bi-
weekly Discussion Board and you should check back a few times to read what others have
said (and respond to others if you so choose). I will also be contributing to the chatter with
news articles, YouTube videos, and other posts to expand our discussion outside of the
confines of our textbook. So should you! Discussion board chatter will count toward your
weekly attendance and in-class participation.

End-of-the-Week Facebook Events

At the end of each week, you will post a 300-500-word formal discussion of the week’s
topics onto the Event marked for that week. In this response, you should reference at least
two sources from that week’s readings, one from part one of the week and the other from
part two of the week. You do not need to include a Works Cited, but you should make sure
that readers know which source you’re using by supplying us with the name of the author
as well as the title of the work. You might even include a page number in parentheses if
you’re referring to a specific page. I’ll post new events weekly with questions for you to
consider as you’re reading, but you should feel free to take your own approach to these
end-of-week responses if you’ve really been pondering something and feel like you need
to express your thoughts about it. These reflections should be critically engaged and
thoughtful. Your responses should be composed in a word processor (like MS Word) so that
you can insure good spelling and grammar, then you should copy/paste them onto the wall
of that week’s event.

Alternately, you can choose to respond each week via a video or Prezi response, but you
must master these softwares on your own as we do not have time to teach them in this
course. If you choose to upload a video response rather than a written one, your video
must still reference two of that week’s sources, as explained above, and it should be 2-5
minutes in duration. You can record yourself speaking into a webcam or you can use video
editing software to come up with something more creative and dynamic. If you choose to
use Prezi.com, the same rules apply: 2-4 minutes, 2 referenced sources. If you’d prefer to
use YouTube.com or Prezi.com, you should create an account on the site of your choice,
upload, and then link us to the video in the appropriate Discussion Board or Event. If you
choose to create a video, you should insure that the video is of high quality, that you’ve
practiced what you will say so that your argument is cogent and well-articulated. In short,
your video should be as well-polished, revised, and edited as the written work that you’d
submit.

I will respond to these posts over the weekend, and although they will not be graded in the
traditional fashion (assigning them an A, B, or C), I will let you know in my response what
you’re doing really well and where you might improve in the future. Your course grade will
reflect your ability to take my advice and suggestions and to build on them in order to
become a more academic and critically-engaged Women’s Studies student.

Final Project: Transgressing the Gender Binary

This project will be announced shortly after the semester begins, and you will have until
June 25th to complete it. It can be completed in the form of a 5-7 page essay response, a
Prezi presentation, or a YouTube video upload.

Course Policies
General Questions
I’ve created a Discussion Board on Facebook near the beginning (just after parts one and
two of week one) for your general questions, comments, and concerns. Rather than
emailing the instructor to ask general questions or make general observations, you should
post them here so that other students can benefit from your questions and the responses
that the instructor or other students post. Feel free to ask anything here, and you should
also feel free to answer questions or comment if you know how to help a student in need.

Facebook, Skype, and “Office Hours”

Because we will be using Facebook to conduct class, those who do not feel comfortable
sharing their “real” Facebook page with the group should create a new account for the
purposes of this class. If you choose to use your real Facebook page, you should be aware
of your privacy settings, which dictate who can see what on your Facebook page, including
wall posts, photos, comments, updates, notes, etc. You can limit who sees what, and you
do not have to ‘friend’ anyone in our class in order to participate in Discussion Boards and
Events in our group.

As the first block of information at the top of this document suggests, I will be holding
office hours throughout the semester via Facebook chat and Skype. These office hours will
not be scheduled, but if I’m at my computer reading your responses, I will have both
Facebook chat and Skype open; if you’ve friended me on Facebook, or if you’ve added me
on Skype, you should feel free to chat with me when you see me online so that you can
ask me questions about the course or just talk through some issues you’re having with the
work load, readings, and Facebook layout. If you would like to meet with me at a specific
time, send me a Facebook or email message and we can negotiate a time to text chat
using either of these services. My Facebook address and Skype account are listed at the
top of this document.

Late Work
Absolutely no late work will be accepted during the semester without an extremely
worthwhile excuse (I’ll judge). Computer and technology problems are not worthwhile
excuses, so you should always be sure to save often and occasionally email yourself
assignments or upload the important ones to a web server or hard drive. You can contact
EKU’s ITDS at (859) 622-3000 for assistance with on-campus Internet connections.

Grading
The semester’s assignments are listed below alongside their point values. You should
assume that you’re in good standing in the course unless I email you specifically to
encourage you to engage more specifically in some aspect of the class. There’s no
competition for grades here; everyone can get an A if each of you demonstrates a
willingness to think, participate, and critically engage the readings and classroom
discussions. Your grade will be lowered if you fail to participate, critically read and
respond, or fall behind in the assignments.

A 90-100%
B 80-89%
C 70-79%
D 60-69%
F below 60%

Academic Honesty
Students are advised that EKU's Academic Integrity Policy will strictly be enforced in this
course. The Academic Integrity policy is available at www.academicintegrity.eku.edu.
Questions regarding the policy may be directed to the Office of Academic Integrity. I
consider academic dishonesty at this level of education to be any use of anyone else’s
words or work without giving them proper credit (in this class, this means citing the name
of your source and its author, either through parenthetical citations or through speaking
their names in video posts). It also means you can’t reuse assignments from other classes
or concurrently submit assignments in two classes. If you plagiarize, you will receive an F
on the assignment.

Attendance
I’ll take attendance every week to insure that you’re responding to one another and
keeping up with the online chatter. You should strive to spend approximately one hour a
day on Facebook catching up and adding your voice in the form of comments, questions,
and critical interpretations, both of the content you’ve read and the content that’s been
posted by myself and your classmates. This one hour a day on Facebook is the equivalent
to the one hour a day you would spend in a summer class. The readings are, of course, to
be done outside of this class time, much like they’d be done outside of class were we
meeting face-to-face. As you know if you’ve taken summer classes before, keeping up with
the pace of the work is half the battle. You should set aside approximately 2.5 hours each
weekday to complete all of the assigned readings, viewings, chatter, and discussion.

Respect Clause
Class time is for sharing ideas about the topic at hand. Respect your classmates and me
by treating people kindly. This means reading each others’ posts with open minds,
critically thinking instead of dismissing comments without thought. I have the right to ask
you to leave if you continuously disrespect the class. Also remember that Facebook and
MySpace are public networks, and the things you say or post on these sites get around.
Respect yourself and respect others.

Disabilities Statement
If you are registered with the Office of Services for Individuals with Disabilities, please
make an appointment with the course instructor to discuss any academic accommodations
you need. If you need academic accommodations and are not registered with the Office of
Services for Individuals with Disabilities, please contact the office on the third floor of the
Student Services Building, by email at disabilities@eku.edu or by telephone at (859) 622-
2933 V/TDD. Upon individual request, this syllabus can be made available in alternative
forms.

Tentative Schedule of Readings and Assignments

Below, you’ll find the tentative schedule of assignments. I’ve broken each week down into
two sections, a Monday/Tuesday and a Wednesday/Thursday, as you’ll see in the far-left
column. Week 1, for example, is broken down in to Week 1.1. and 1.2. After these two
parts, you’ll see an end-of-the-week row that gives the “long” assignments for each week.
During each week, Monday through Thursday, you should log into Facebook and post your
own responses to the readings, read others’ responses, and respond to their comments.
Each end-of-the-week 300-500-word assignment will be due by Sunday. This will give you
Monday and Tuesday to read and respond to part one of each week—and Wednesday and
Thursday to respond to part two of each week. There will be no assignments on Fridays so
that you have time to craft a thoughtful, critically-engaged response to the week’s
activities. Readings or postings below marked with an asterisk (*) will be posted on
Facebook as links to the free Internet or they will be sent to you at the beginning of the
week as a PDF through your EKU email. Those not marked with an asterisk can be found in
your textbook. Some readings are extremely short; others are a bit longer. I ask that you
read and reread each article until you understand the content (some are more difficult
than others).

Week This Week’s Reading and Watching Response Assignments

Assignments
1.1. Chapter 1: What is Women’s Studies? 1.1. Facebook Discussion
 • “What is Women’s Studies”
Monday Introduction (Kesselman et al. 8-15)
5/17 • “Claiming an Education” (Rich 19-
& 21)
Tuesday • “The Politics of Black Women’s
5/18 Studies” (Hull and Smith 21-24)
• “Women’s Studies as Women’s
History” (Boxer 34-39)
Board Chatter: Add your voice to
the FB discussion board. Respond
with your own questions, reactions,
challenges, critiques, advice,
research, websites, and other
information that will help us as a
class further our knowledge of
Women’s Studies.

1.2. What is Men’s Studies? 1.2. FB Discussion Board

• “Academic Viagra: the Rise of Chatter
Wednesd American Masculinity Studies”
ay (Traister 274-300)*
5/19 • “Men and Women’s Studies:
& Premises, Perils, and Promise”
Thursday (Kimmel 24-28)
5/20

1 Week 1 Facebook Event Wall:

Why bother with Women’s and
Friday Men’s Studies? Post a 300-500-
word response on Facebook’s
Week 1 end-of-the-week Event.

2.1. Women in History 2.1. Facebook Discussion Board

• “The Intimately Oppressed” (Zinn)* Chatter
Mon • “The First and Second Waves of
5/24 Feminism in the U.S.” (Kesselman
& 542-48)
Tues • “The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights
5/25 Convention, 1848” (548-551)
• “Sojourner Truth’s Defense of the
Rights of Women” (551-52)

2.2. Ch. 2: Becoming a Woman in Our Society 2.2. Facebook Discussion Board
• “Brideland” (Wolf 61-63) Chatter
Wed • “not a pretty girl” (difranco 69)
5/26 • “The Sexual Politics of
& Interpersonal Behavior” (Henley
Thur and Freeman 84-93)
5/27 • “Teen Mags: How to Get a Guy,
Drop 20 Pounds, and Lose Your
Self-Esteem” (Higginbotham 93-96)
• “No Respect: Gender Politics and
Hip-Hop” (Cole and Guy-Sheftall
99-105)
• “Video” (Arie 108)
 2 Week 2 Facebook Event Wall:
Post a 300-500-word response on
Friday Facebook’s Week 2 end-of-the-
week Event. I’ll provide the writing
prompt during week 2.

3.1. Becoming a Man in Our Society 3.1. Facebook Discussion

• “Masculinity as Homophobia” Board Chatter: Choose one blog
Mon (Kimmel)* entry from The Art of Manliness
5/31 • “Men will be Boys: A Generation of blog to respond to. How does the
& Males that’s Stuck in Guyland” article reinforce what you’ve
Tue (Kimmel)* always thought to be true? How
6/1 • The Art of Manliness* (spend about does the article challenge what
half an hour looking around this you’ve always believed?
blog)

3.2. Ch. 3: Gender and Women’s Bodies 3.2. Facebook Discussion

• “The Beauty Myth” (Wolf 120-25) Board Chatter
Wed • “Homage to My Hair” (Clifton 129)
6/2 • “Homage to My Hips” (Clifton 139)
& • “‘We Don’t Sleep Around Like
Thur White Girls Do’: Family, Culture,
6/3 and Gender in Filipina-American
Lives” (Espiritu 144-52)
• “In Search of the Elusive Orgasm”
(Tharps 161-65)
• “Bisexuality, Feminism, Men, and
Me” (Ochs 165-69)

3 Week 3 Facebook Event Wall:

Post a 300-500-word response on
Friday Facebook’s Week 3 end-of-the-
week Event. I’ll provide the writing
prompt during week 3.

4.1. Human Bodies: Gendered and Sexed 4.1. Facebook Discussion

• “The Categories Themselves” Board Chatter
Mon (Valentine)*
6/7 • “Elusive Intersections” (Long)*
& • “‘Night to His Day’: The Social
Tue Construction of Gender” (Lorber 1-
6/8 9)*

4.2. Ch. 4: Institutions that Shape Women’s 4.2. Facebook Discussion

Lives Board Chatter
Wed • “An Overview of Women and Work”
6/9 (Bravo et al. 180-85)
& • “The Politics of Housework”
Thur (Redstockings 188-91)
6/10 • “How to Bring Children Up Without
Putting Women Down” (Crittendon
220-26)
• “Why We’re Not Getting Married”
(Ackelssberg and Plaskow 274-76)
• “My Church Threw Me Out”
(Sorrentino 277-80)
• “Christian Fundamentalism:
Patriarchy, Sexuality, and Human
Rights” (Rose 281-87)

4 Week 4 Facebook Event Wall:

Post a 300-500-word response on
Friday Facebook’s Week 4 end-of-the-
week Event. I’ll provide the writing
prompt during week 4.

5.1. Ch. 6: The Differences Among Us: 5.1. Facebook Discussion

Divisions and Connections Board Chatter
Mon • “Codes of Conduct” (Su 385-87)
6/14 • “White Privilege: Unpacking the
& Invisible Knapsack” (McIntosh 388-
Tue 92)
6/15 • “Homophobia and Sexism” (Pharr
416-20)
• “Livin’ in a Gay Family” (McGuire
427-30)
• “Older Women: The Realities” (434-
38)
• “Boundaries: Arab/American” (464-
68)

5.2. Ch. 7: Violence Against Women 5.2. Facebook Discussion

• “Violence in Intimate Relationships: Board Chatter
Wed a Feminist Perspective” (hooks
6/16 495-96)
& • “Whose Body is it, Anyway?”
Thur (Fletcher 507-10)
6/17 • “Naming and Studying
Acquaintance Rape” (Sanday 511-
18)
• “Protecting Male Abusers and
Punishing the Women Who
Confront Them: The Current Status
of Child Sex Abuse in America”
(Fisher-Hertz 522-28)
• “Making Sense of the Experience of
 Incest Survivors” (Rainbow 528-33)

5 Week 5 Facebook Event Wall:

Post a 300-500-word response on
Friday Facebook’s Week 5 end-of-the-
week Event. I’ll provide the writing
prompt during week 5.

6.1. Ch. 8: Changing Our World 6.1. Facebook Discussion

• “The Making of the Vanguard Board Chatter
Mon Center: Black Feminist Emergence
6/21 in the 1960s and 1970s (Roth 558-
& 65)
Tue • “The Development of Chicana
6/22 Feminist Discourse” (Garcia 565-
73)
• “Thoughts on Indian Feminism”
(Shanley 573-75)
• “Manifesta: Young Women,
Feminism, and the Future”
(Baumgardner and Richards 627-
32)

6.2. Week 6 Facebook Event Wall:

Transgression assignment. Details
Wed TBA.
6/23,
Thur
6/24,
&
Fri
6/25