Please note that this week we are moving from more general understandings of gender/sex/sexuality to understanding the systems that maintain the status quo:

Privilege and Oppression

You have two readings for the week: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh and Oppression by Marilyn Frye. These readings focus on two different, but complementary concepts that help us understand HOW the gender binary is thought to be common sense (even though we now know from previous readings it is not). Snapshots are due Sunday, September 19 and Content Responses are due Tuesday, September 21.

We will focus on understanding how privilege and oppression work both this week and next week. Even though many of us think we understand these concepts, we often cannot explain them with much depth. The readings for the next two weeks are there to help you have a deeper understanding so that you can explain them…eventually. Please take your time with the readings, as they may be more difficult than those we have already covered. Feel free to ask me any questions about them on the discussion board or via email.

REMINDERS

Your Content Responses should be a minimum of 500 words. I have been lenient about this so far, but from now on, if your post does not meet this requirement, it won’t receive full credit. Additionally, you should respond to both the readings and a classmate’s snapshot in your content response. Many of you are doing these things already – thank you for that. For those of you who are not doing this, please start now in order to receive full credit for your work.

And a note: more than a few people used he/him/his pronouns when referring to our last week’s author, Alok Vaid-Manon in their content responses. Alok made it clear in their book that they use they/them/theirs pronouns. You should reflect this in your writing. Additionally, if you are referring to a classmate or an author who has not disclosed their pronouns, please defer to using their name and/or the neutral pronouns they/them/theirs.