Brianne Waychoff passed away in 2022. You can read more about her at the links below:
https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/tribute-brianne-waychoff
https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/tribute-brianne-waychoff
What does it mean to move beyond the gender binary for Alok? Even for people who identify as cisgender, gender is fluid and complex. We all express and experience our gender in different ways, and for most of us, some aspect of our gender identity goes against the binary norm. In what ways does your gender identity go against the binary norm and in what ways does it fit the binary norm?
Make your post by Wednesday, February 16 at 11:59 pm. You will also want to respond to at least three of your classmates’ posts by Friday, February 18 at 11:59 pm.
Format Requirements
Due: Wednesday February 16, 11:59 pm.
Written in complete, well-formed sentences & carefully proofread
Engaged with the assigned text by explicitly referring to and/or citing them
400-600 words. Longer, but not shorter, posts are fine. To view your word count, click the info symbol at the top of the post draft!
How to Create the Post
1) Click on the black plus sign in a white circle at the very top of the site (in the black bar) to start the post draft:
2) In the title box, type the title “[FirstName] [LastName] Discussion 3″.
3) In the body of the post, type your response to the prompt.
4) On the right side, choose the post category “Discussion 3.” Your post will not publish without a category. DO NOT TAG THIS WITH ANY OTHER CATEGORY AND DO NOT USE A CATEGORY STICKY.
5) Click the blue Publish button on the top right.
More Help:
Here is a video tutorial on how to publish a post.
If you want to understand the difference between a post and a comment, see this help document.
This week you will be reading excerpts from Beyond the Gender Binary, by Alok Vaid Manon. Some of you may recognize Alok from social media or one of their other media engagements like in episode six of Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness, a new show on Netflix. In this book, Alok talks about their experience as a person who identifies as nonbinary in this world. They also give us some history about gender nonconformity. A lot of this revolves around how we perform gender, and Alok unapologetically performs gender in their own unique way. Here is a short video of Alok speaking about themself and some of the things in their book – viewing is optional
This week’s assignments:
Add a Profile Image
If you haven’t already, add an image to your OpenLab profile. It doesn’t have to be a picture of you, but it can be. It will give those of us who are visual thinkers something to picture when we read your posts and responses. Here is a tutorial on how to add an image if you need some help:
Reading Reflection 2
Due: Wednesday February 16, 11:59 pm.
250 words (roughly) To view your word count, click the info symbol at the top of the post draft!
How to Create the Post
1) Click on the black plus sign in a white circle at the very top of the site (in the black bar) to start the post draft:
2) In the title box, type the title “[FirstName] [LastName] Reflection 2“.
3) In the body of the post, type your response to the prompt.
4) On the right side, choose the post category “Reflection 2.” Your post will not publish without a category. DO NOT TAG THIS WITH ANY OTHER CATEGORY AND DO NOT USE A CATEGORY STICKY.
5) Click the blue Publish button on the top right.
More Help:
Here is a video tutorial on how to publish a post.
If you want to understand the difference between a post and a comment, see this help document.
Discussion Post #3
This week’s discussion prompt is:
What does it mean to move beyond the gender binary for Alok? Even for people who identify as cisgender, gender is fluid and complex. We all express and experience our gender in different ways, and for most of us, some aspect of our gender identity goes against the binary norm. In what ways does your gender identity go against the binary norm and in what ways does it fit the binary norm?
Make your post by Wednesday, February 16 at 11:59 pm. You will also want to respond to at least three of your classmates’ posts by Friday, February 18 at 11:59 pm.
Format Requirements
Due: Wednesday February 16, 11:59 pm.
Written in complete, well-formed sentences & carefully proofread
Engaged with the assigned text by explicitly referring to and/or citing them
400-600 words. Longer, but not shorter, posts are fine. To view your word count, click the info symbol at the top of the post draft!
How to Create the Post
1) Click on the black plus sign in a white circle at the very top of the site (in the black bar) to start the post draft:
2) In the title box, type the title “[FirstName] [LastName] Discussion 3″.
3) In the body of the post, type your response to the prompt.
4) On the right side, choose the post category “Discussion 3.” Your post will not publish without a category. DO NOT TAG THIS WITH ANY OTHER CATEGORY AND DO NOT USE A CATEGORY STICKY.
5) Click the blue Publish button on the top right.
More Help:
Here is a video tutorial on how to publish a post.
If you want to understand the difference between a post and a comment, see this help document.
CATEGORIZING : Select ONLY “Discussion 2” (or in the future “Discussion 3”) for the post category. Do NOT also select discussion. Do NOT choose a “Category Sticky” for any of your posts.
Please DO feel free to use separate paragraphs and/or headers to separate your ideas. If there is something you really want people to respond to, you can but in a bold or underlined font.
Please note DISCUSSION POSTS AND READING REFLECTIONS are not the same thing. Please read the descriptions of each if you are confused. They are in the syllabus and on our site. Reflections are solo and shorter – responding to them is not required. Discussions are in response to the prompt I provide. They are longer and you should respond to a least three of your classmates’ discussion posts each week.
I suggest seeing the posts by Sofia, Jade, or Aleah for examples of strong Discussion 2 posts (there were others but I am not listing all of them. For a discussion on some sexuality related terms, see the conversation between Dylan and Paulina. Note: This is not a course on sexuality so we won’t go deeply into this. I can recommend other courses or resources.
Her name is spelled bell hooks NOT Bell Hooks. She uses all lower case for a reason.
Overall I appreciated your Discussion 2 and how you responded to one another with respect. I sometimes reply to posts. I don’t always. It doesn’t mean anything if I don’t reply to your post. I appreciate that you will not all agree with everything we read. That’s OK. We learn a lot by trying to understand things we don’t agree with and sometimes our opinions change in big or small ways when we have more knowledge. While you may not agree with some of the theories, you have to work to understand these theories as part of this course. The learning outcomes clearly state this. Whether you adopt theories as your own or not is your decision.
I want to be sure to note, feminism CAN BE the fighting for equality and rights. That’s part of it and one type of feminism – in fact, it’s the type of feminist we see most. hooks is advocating for something more radical, that takes us to the root of the problem. She is giving her definition, which I think is a great one and is why I assigned this reading at the beginning of the class. Some others might not go as deeply as she does.
I assigned you one reading that dealt a lot with defining terms and making sure we know the difference between gender and sex, and how gender is learned through socialization. The other reading was focused on defining feminism and advocating for a specific kind of feminism. In Sex & Gender 101 I learned importantly that gender is who we feel we are, how we express that to the world, and how those connect. We learn gender through socialization – which means learning how to behave in socially acceptable ways. Sex is the biological features of a person’s body. It is most frequently determined by genital morphology – or the form a baby’s genitals take when they are born. But other things makeup sex including chromosomes and hormones, which we don’t see, and may impact sex. In the bell hooks piece we learned that feminism isn’t man-hating, but it is a movement to end sexism. We learned that all people are complicit in sexism because we are taught it through socialization. hooks also makes a distinction between reform and revolutionary feminism. Reform is wanting equality and for women to hold the same positions as men, make equal money, etc. It is within the system of capitalism and marked by conflict. Revolutionary wants to change the system because there are no chances for equity in our current systems. So it wants to change the system to one of cooperation. Its interest is equity, justice, and inclusion, not equality. I included this graphic to help explain the difference. Hooks wants us to move to the right side.
Below is a bulleted list of points to consider when doing future Reading Reflections. This is a general list based on my reading of all of your reflections. I also included a sample reflection that I wrote below.
Your reflection should be 250 words (roughly). Many of you wrote much longer reflections. Some of you wrote shorter reflections. For a classmate’s reflection that is a good example of length and depth, see Imane’s, Kayla’s or Paulina’s responses.
Make sure you select the correct category. For the first reflections that should be “Reflection 1.” Do not also select the category “Reading Reflection.”
You do not need to separate the readings and respond to each separately. You can give a holistic response.
REPLIES ON REFLECTIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED. You can read and respond (which is a great idea), but it won’t be counted in the same way the discussion responses are.
Reflections should give your impressions and thoughts, not be an outline of the readings.
Sample Reading Reflection on Week 1 Assigned Readings
One reading dealt a lot with defining terms and making sure we know the difference between gender and sex, and how gender is learned through socialization. The other reading was focused on defining feminism and advocating for a specific kind of feminism. In Sex & Gender 101 I learned importantly that gender is who we feel we are, how we express that to the world, and how those connect. We learn gender through socialization – which means learning how to behave in socially acceptable ways. Sex is the biological features of a person’s body. It is most frequently determined by genital morphology – or the form a baby’s genitals take when they are born. But other things makeup sex including chromosomes and hormones, which we don’t see, and may impact sex. In the bell hooks piece we learned that feminism isn’t man-hating, but it is a movement to end sexism. We learned that all people are complicit in sexism because we are taught it through socialization. hooks also makes a distinction between reform and revolutionary feminism. Reform is wanting equality and for women to hold the same positions as men, make equal money, etc. It is within the system of capitalism and marked by conflict. Revolutionary wants to change the system because there are no chances for equity in our current systems. So it wants to change the system to one of cooperation. Its interest is equity, justice, and inclusion, not equality. I included this graphic to help explain the difference. Hooks wants us to move to the right side.
Hi all – I will be making some more posts in the next 24 hours. One will be on what to do for week three and the other will be some thoughts on your posts from week two. In the interim, I wanted to let you know about two opportunities:
First is this information session for the BMCC-NBCU scholarship on February 23 at 2:00 pm via zoom. If you are interested in journalism and media you may qualify for this tuition scholarship!
Second, an invitation to the communication studies major orientation for those of you who are majors or those of you still reconsidering your major. It is on February 16 at 2:00 pm via zoom.
Hi everyone – Well, we made it to week two! I think most of you are figuring out OpenLab and please don’t hesitate to email me with questions. It takes a little time to get the hang of, but once you do I think you will like it. Plus, it gives you experience with WordPress, which will potentially be valuable outside of this class – I know it has been for me.
Before I review the assignments for this week, I want to highlight a little bit about my teaching philosophy. First, I want this course to feel like a community of learners. That includes me. I learn a lot from you and what you post. I am not an authority figure who is here to police you, make sure you are doing everything, and penalize you if you aren’t. I am more like a community facilitator who guides where we are going and offers feedback but does not judge or penalize.
So what does this mean about grading and deadlines? I am flexible. I wish I could get rid of grading completely, but I can’t. This is why grades are given based on how much you DO rather than how perfectly you master the material. So you can feel free to mess up and have it not hurt your grade. As far as deadlines, I would love it if you can meet all of them, but I know we are all human and things come up. If you look at the syllabus, I give you some “freebies,” as in you can miss up to three posts of each kind without it impacting your grade. If you find that you are struggling beyond this, please reach out and we can figure something out.
The reason I teach this course is that I believe that the more people who understand gender, oppression, justice, etc. the better. What I hope is that you finish the semester with a deeper understanding and willingness to take this knowledge into your own lives to make the world a more just place to live. I will treat you like I hope you will treat me: with compassion, kindness, and respect.
And here are the assignments for this week:
Add a Profile Image
If you haven’t already, add an image to your OpenLab profile. It doesn’t have to be a picture of you, but it can be. It will give those of us who are visual thinkers something to picture when we read your posts and responses. Here is a tutorial on how to add an image if you need some help:
Reading Reflection Number 1
This week you have two short readings to do. Readings can always be found hyperlinked in the course schedule. For this week you have two readings:
Sex & Gender 101 by Kyl Meyers. This is a piece from Kyl’s website “Raising Zoomer” which is focused on gender-creative parenting.
Feminist Politics: Where We Stand by bell hooks. This is a chapter from the book Feministm is for Everbody by bell hooks, who recently passed away. In it, hooks outlines her definition of feminism. Please note I have provided the entire book with this link, but you only need to read the one chapter, which starts a few pages in on the PDF, after the introduction to the book.
I suggest the first thing you do for the week is to complete these readings. Take your time and go as slowly as you need to. This is new information for many of you and might be hard to wrap your head around. After you complete the readings, go ahead and write your reading reflection. Do this by Wednesday, February 9 at 11:59 pm.
How to Create the Post
1) Click on the black plus sign in a white circle at the very top of the site (in the black bar) to start the post draft:
2) In the title box, type the title “[FirstName] [LastName] Reflection 1“.
3) In the body of the post, type your response to the prompt.
4) On the right side, choose the post category “Reflection 1.” Your post will not publish without a category.
5) Click the blue Publish button on the top right.
Discussion Post Number 2
The prompt for Discussion 2 asks you to reflect on the readings. So please do those first. Make your post by Wednesday, February 9 at 11:59 pm. You will also want to respond to at least three of your classmates’ posts by Friday, February 11 at 11:59 pm.
Some of you have already done your response to Discussion Prompt #1. Great! I wanted to some further instruction so you can go back and adjust what you have shared.
Discussion Posts should be in the form of a POST, not a COMMENT. Not sure what the difference is? Here is a helpful explanation.
Even though your Discussion Posts are technically responding to a prompt, they should be your own post so that it is clear to others whose thoughts these are. Your Discussion Responses (which are responses to what the class community writes in their Discussion Posts) will be in the form of comments. You will be asked to comment on three or more posts each week. For this, you will use the “reply” function.
Now that you know the difference between a Post and a Comment, here is a video tutorial on making a post. As always, if you have questions you can email me at bwaychoff@bmcc.cuny.edu. I check email 10 am-7 pm Monday through Friday.
Please use this first discussion post to introduce yourself to the rest of our community.
Tell us a little bit about who you are in the world. What you like, dislike, what you study, where you are from, what you value, what your hopes and dreams are, whatever you want to share with us. (You can read about me here.)
Let us know what pronouns you use (I use they/them/theirs and she/her/hers).
And tell us a little bit about why you are taking this course and what you hope to learn. Are there any topics specifically that you hope we cover? Do you have suggestions for films, books, podcasts, etc. that might be useful for this class? Let us know in this first Discussion Post.
PLEASE MAKE THIS ITS OWN POST WITH THE CATEGORY “DISCUSSION 1” Here is a video tutorial on how to make a post. If you want to understand the difference between a post and a comment, see this document.
Write these reading reflections in the voice you use with friends; people who share your values, and are interested in gender but don’t know the information that is in your reading. Your response should show that you:
have read the text and can identify the important information;
understand at least three important concepts, events, or people from the text; and
can explain the important information from the text using examples from your own experiences.
Reading reflection entries should be 250 words or more and are due weekly, on Wednesdays by 11:59 pm. It is advised you complete these reflections before the discussion board activity. You can think of the reflection as a warm-up to get you focused to engage with others.
To submit your reading reflections, go to the plus sign at the top of the site > type a title* and type the body of your post > choose the category “Reading Journal” on the right > publish.
*Please use the title format “Journal [Number]” for each entry.
