FEMINIST THEORY
Office Hours: M 2-4, W
Texts
IT Donovan, Josephine. Feminist
Theory: The Intellectual Traditions
FT
FTB Price, Janet and Margrit Shildrick. Feminist
Theory and the Body
Course
Objectives
This course explores feminist theories, beginning with
historical contexts and moving into contemporary applications in both academic
and personal spheres. I use the plural theories because there is a wide variety
of feminist theories, some of which compete with and
even contest one another. Our goal is to
tread through competing theories, read them critically, and make informed
judgments on their soundness and applicability.
Good theories raise good questions. For example: Why does feminist theory matter? How does feminist theory change the nature of
research in the Academy as a whole? How
does feminist theory influence the lives of everyday people? Feminist theory
developed largely in the West. How must
it change when looking at the world from a more global perspective? These are all good questions for us to think
with, mull over, and use to gain additional insights into the nature of human
experiences.
Course
Requirements
This course will be conducted as a seminar with an emphasis
on student participation through class discussions and commentaries on the
readings, and with a minimal amount of lecture.
Attendance is required, and students are expected to have completed the
required readings prior to class in
order to participate in discussion. As a 400-level seminar, you must have some
background in Women’s Studies or permission before taking this class. Students
with disabilities should request that Disability Resources staff send a
Grading
Scale
100-94 A 76-74 C
93-90 A- 73-70 C-
89-87 B+ 69-67 D+
86-84 B 66-64 D
83-80 B- 63-60 D-
79-77 C+ 59-0 F
Grades will be distributed as follows:
Reading
Commentaries (8) 25%
Take-home
Exams (2) 30%
Research
Paper 25%
Abstract
and Bibliography 5%
Class
Participation 10%
Presentation
of Research 5%
These are weekly reflections on readings that are due in
class, starting with Week 4. Comments
must be typed, double-spaced, 2-3 pages long, and engage the readings in a way
that demonstrates that you have
read, understood, and thought coherently about
them. You are required to bring two
copies of your comments to class each week:
one to hand in and one to share in class during discussion. Comment
papers will not be returned to you. Eight weekly comment papers (out of a
possible 11) are required. While this gives you some latitude on which
commentaries you turn in, they are due in class on the day of the assigned
readings. No late comments will be
accepted without written medical excuse or prior approval. Keep a copy of all
of your work—either on disk or in paper form.
As scholars we need to become fluent in the language of
theory and to be able to write and talk about complex concepts in both specialized
and ordinary language. The readings and the commentaries are an important part
of this learning process. Read the
materials carefully and critically. Give yourself plenty of time. Reread. Think about what the author writes
and what the implications are for the author’s ideas. What is the author’s point? Do you see any problems? Do the author’s
ideas apply to all women or just some women?
Are they connected to a particular cultural or historical
framework? Does the material generalize
or essentialize the subject in some way?
How can this be avoided? Does this material apply in any way to the
lived experiences of women? To yourself? How does
this material illuminate (or obscure) the experiences of women?
Do NOT give me a
simple summary of the reading; it will be returned to you with zero points
earned.
The exams require critical reading and analysis of assigned
materials and refer to information presented in lectures and discussions. Each exam is about 4-5 pages in length and
must be typed double-spaced, using normal margins and a 12 point font. Exams
are graded for both content and clarity of argument. In other words, you are graded on how
accurately and completely you answer the question as well as on how you present
your answer. Points are deducted for
poor organization, lack of coherent argument, and poor grammar and
punctuation. Proofread and spell
check. Late essays will be penalized one
point per business day, unless you have a written
medical excuse or documented family emergency.
Research Paper
The research paper should critique or explore some aspect of
feminist theory. It will be graded on both content and clarity: the quality and
organization of materials gathered, including the statement of your problem and
thesis; on the consistency of your argument and your use of materials to
document your statements; on the clarity of your presentation, and on your
general level of effort. It must be
10-12 pages (undergraduates) or 15-20 pages (graduates) long, typed
double-spaced, spell checked, and proofed for grammar and punctuation. You may
footnote using the
You will turn in a written proposal or abstract by the 9th
week and an annotated bibliography by the 11th week of class. These are worth
5% of your grade. The abstract should be
a concise summary of your research plans, clearly identifying the problem you
will be investigating long before the paper is due at the end of the
semester. The abstract must be 1-2 pages
in length, double-spaced, spell checked, and proofed for grammar and
punctuation. You must include books and
journal articles in your bibliography.
I will not accept a paper based exclusively on websites. Go to the library. Early.
Class
Schedule (Modified as Needed)
8/23 Welcome, Introductions
Syllabus, requirements,
expectations
8/30 Overview: What is feminist theory? Keywords, concepts, categories
FTB, 1.1, Schiebinger, Londa. “Theories of Gender and Race,” pp. 21-31.
Week 3
9/6
9/13 The Cult of True Womanhood and the
Enlightenment Challenge
FT, pp. 56-75,
Sections 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Wollstonecraft,
Grimke,
Comment Paper 1, Week 4
Week 5
9/20 Cultural Feminism: Woman as the Essence of Nature/Nurture
FT, Sections 17, 46, 74, 76
Comment Paper 2, Week 5
9/27 Woman as Body
Spelman,
Elizabeth. “Woman as Body:
Ancient and Contemporary Views.”
Birke,
Lynda. “Bodies and
Biology.”
Simmonds, Felly
Nkweto. “My Body, Myself: How Does a Black Woman Do Sociology?” Marshall, Helen. “Our Bodies, Ourselves: Why we Should Add
Old Fashioned Empirical
Phenomenology to the New Theories of the Body.”
Comment Paper 3, Week 6
10/4 Woman as Laborer
Engels, Gilman,
Hartmann
Comment Paper 4, Week 7
•Take-home
Exam, due in class 10/4
10/11 Challenging Binary Oppositions
FT, Sections 31, 40, 41
Beauvoir,
Firestone, Murray
Comment
Paper 5, Week 8
Week 9
10/18 Riding the Second Wave and Beyond
FT, Sections 33, 34, 36, 56, 57
Friedan, NOW,
Millett, Frye, Lorde
Comment Paper 6, Week 9
•Abstract
due, 10/18
10/25 Woman as Sexual
Objects/Subjects
FT, Sections 55, 59, 60, 78, 81
Irigaray, Wittig,
Rich, Mackinnon,
Comment Paper 7, Week 10
11/1 Woman as Sexed Body(ies)
Hammonds,
Evelynn. “Toward a Genealogy of Black
Female Sexuality: The Problematic of Silence.”
Segal, Lynne. “Body Matters: Cultural Inscriptions.”
Creed,
Barbara. “Lesbian Bodies: Tribades, Tomboys, and Tarts”
Hallberstam,
Judith. “F2M: The Making of Female Masculinity.”
Findlay,
Heather. “‘Freud’s
Fetishism’ and the Lesbian Dildo Debates.”
Comment Paper 8, Week 11
•Annotated
Bibliography due 11/1
11/8 Women and Science
Jordanova,
Ludmilla. “Natural Facts: A Historical Perspective on Science and Sexuality.”
Fausto-Sterling,
Anne. “Menopause: The Storm before the Calm.”
Martin,
Emily. “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has Constructed
a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles.”
Comment Paper 9, Week 12
•Take-home
Exam due in class, 11/8
11/15 Women, Violence, and Religion
Hawley,
John Stratton, ed.
1994. “Introduction,” in Fundamentalism and Gender, pp.
3-46.
Balmer,
Randall. 1994. “American Fundamentalism: The Ideal of Femininity, in Fundamentalism
and Gender, pp. 47-62.
Comment Paper 10, Week 13
Week
14
11/27 Break
Week. No Classes.
11/29 Fundamentalism and the Control of Women
FTB, Section 5.3,
Parmar and
Handouts:
McCarthy
Brown, Karen. 1994. “Fundamentalism and the Control of Women,” in
Fundamentalism and Gender, pp.
175-202.
Malti-Douglas,
Fedwa. 1995. “Faces of Sin: Corporal Geographies in Contemporary Islamist
Discourse,
in Religious Reflections on the Human
Body, ed. by Jane Marie Law, pp. 67-75.
Comment Paper 11, Week 15
12/6 Presentations
12/13 I will be in my office from 11-12 for discussion or for you to pick
up any essays, exams, or other assignments that you may not have already retrieved.