Category: Module

There is no new reading for this week, but there is a discussion board post! Please also review the deadlines/schedule below.

DEADLINES

MAY 11: 

Last day of class =

Presentations + End of Semester Review + Final Exam Instructions

Final Deadline for Final Project (Memoir or Manifesto)

MAY 14:

Final Deadline for Short Essays— remember you must complete 3 out of 5 short essays. If you complete more than 3, the additional ones will count as extra credit.

Final Deadline for any late Discussion Board Posts: You can make up posts for half credit (1 point, instead of 2) but you must submit them by May 14.

MAY 21:

Final Deadline for Final Exam 

Discussion Board #13 (due 5/10)

The workshop conducted by Victoria (Women’s Resource Center) and Robert (Counseling Center) focused on healthy relationships. What is one (or two) takeaway for you from that workshop? Based on the workshop and discussion, please write about something that you learned,  or made you think about relationships in a different way, or left you with a question that you want to explore further.

Please title your post: First Name Last Name: DB 13 and select “DB 13” as the category for your post.

 

OVERVIEW: MAKE-UP WORK

There is no new reading or material for this week, and no new discussion board. Please use this time to catch up on missing work for this class:

1. Short Essays: Remember that you must complete THREE of the five possible essays before the end of the semester. All of the prompts are now up for you, under Assignments . The absolute final deadline for the essays is May 14, but I suggest that you use this week to write and complete them if you can.
2. Discussion Board Posts: You can make up discussion board posts for partial credit, so this would also be a good week to make these assignments up.

FINAL PROJECT

I will be sending you feedback on your drafts over the next week. If you have not yet turned in your draft, do so as soon as possible. Remember to include a letter to me that includes an assessment of your work:

OVERVIEW FOR THIS WEEK

This week, we will continue to look at gendered violence, including sexual harassment, sexual violence, criminalization and police violence. [Some of the materials for this week do contain representations or descriptions of these forms of violence so please take good care of yourself as you read/watch.]

We will spend time in class continuing to talk about the two documentaries that you were asked to watch last week. So, this week, please watch the one that you did not watch last week! I’m expecting that you will have watched both films by the time we are in class on Tuesday.

WATCH

Please select one of two documentaries to watch this week– both are available on the Kanopy database, which you can access through the BMCC Library. Remember, you need a login, but it is very quick to set up.

1. Anita: Speaking Truth to Power (2013) (77 minutes): This film tells the story of Anita Hill, who accused her boss — Clarence Thomas, a then-nominee to the Supreme Court– of sexual harassment.
2. Out in the Night (2014) (77 minutes): This film follows the story of 4 young Black lesbians who experience sexual harassment on the street. When they act in self-defense, they are arrested, charged, and incarcerated.

As you watch either (or both) of these films, please consider the following questions:

• What forms of gendered violence are represented in this film? What do we learn about this violence and its impacts?
• What do the victim-survivors say about their experience and how are their stories received– by their family/friends/colleagues, the legal system, the media?
• Using Crenshaw’s framework of intersectionality, what do you see as the  the role of racism, or other structures of oppression like homophobia, in these stories of misogynistic violence?

DISCUSSION BOARD #11

There is no discussion board post due this week. If you did not do Discussion Board #10, you can still do it, for full credit. Prompt is here

FINAL PROJECT TO-DOS + DEADLINES

• FINAL PROJECT DRAFT DUE NO LATER THAN APRIL 27
• You will turn in a draft of your project for feedback to me.
• In addition to your draft, I ask you to write me a short letter in which you share your own assessment of your work:
  • What are your goals?
  • What do you think is working well in your project?
  • Where do you feel you need support or improvement?
• You can post your draft on Open Lab and select “DRAFT” as your category. It can be a private post. Your letter can be in the post or you can add it as a comment.

• I will hold open writing time for anyone who wants to come and work on their projects. I will bring writing prompts if you need and will be available to answer questions– but mostly, we will just sit together and write. Tuesday and Thursday 12:00-1:30 PM, Zoom link here
• If you have not done so: sign up for a class presentation ASAP here
• The instructions for the project are here.

OVERVIEW FOR THIS WEEK

This week, we will look at different dimensions of gendered violence, including sexual harassment, sexual violence, criminalization and police violence. Some of the materials for this week do contain representations or descriptions of these forms of violence so please take good care of yourself as you read/watch.

I did not record a video or make slides this week– instead, you will find some information and questions for each reading/film below.

One note: below I am using the term “victim-survivor” to refer to people who have experienced gendered violence. There are many different viewpoints about what language to use + I am happy to share more about these debates and why I have chosen to use this term here.

WATCH [required]

We are going to start this week with a video of a Ted Talk by Kimberle Crenshaw, a Black feminist legal scholar who is often credited with coining the term “intersectionality.” Her first use of this term was now many decades ago (1989, to be exact), and in this talk, Crenshaw discusses why we must understand and work from this framework if we want to end gender-based violence and discrimination.

WATCH or LISTEN: Crenshaw, “The Urgency of Intersectionality” (18:40)-and, you can also read the transcript below the video.

WATCH [PICK ONE (or both!)]

Please select one of two documentaries to watch this week– both are available on the Kanopy database, which you can access through the BMCC Library. Remember, you need a login, but it is very quick to set up.

1. Anita: Speaking Truth to Power (2013) (77 minutes): This film tells the story of Anita Hill, who accused her boss — Clarence Thomas, a then-nominee to the Supreme Court– of sexual harassment.
2. Out in the Night (2014) (77 minutes): This film follows the story of 4 young Black lesbians who experience sexual harassment on the street. When they act in self-defense, they are arrested, charged, and incarcerated.

As you watch either (or both) of these films, please consider the following questions:

• What forms of gendered violence are represented in this film? What do we learn about this violence and its impacts?
• What do the victim-survivors say about their experience and how are their stories received– by their family/friends/colleagues, the legal system, the media?
• Using Crenshaw’s framework of intersectionality, what do you see as the  the role of racism, or other structures of oppression like homophobia, in these stories of misogynistic violence?

READ

 Read: Critical Resistance + Incite Statement 

In 2001, INCITE!, a network of radical feminists of color organizing to end state violence and violence in our homes and communities, collaborated with Critical Resistance, an organization dedicated to prison abolition, to write a joint statement: “Statement on Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex.”

This statement takes a position that criminalization — policing, prosecution, prisons– is NOT the solution to domestic violence and sexual assault.  And, at the same time, it says that we need to then BUILD solutions that keep us safe without using the police.

As you read the statement, ask:

• Why do they believe that prisons are not the solution for gendered violence?
• What are the limits of the anti-prison movement’s work to address gendered violence?
• What are the solutions that they propose?
• Who signed on to this statement? What types of organizations or groups?

DISCUSSION BOARD #10 (DUE 4/19)

For this week’s discussion board, please respond to any (or all) of these questions:

• What do INCITE/Critical Resistance say about why prisons are not the solution for gendered violence? Based on Crenshaw’s talk and (if you watched it), Out in the Night– what evidence can you offer to support their argument?
• Based on the film(s) you watched, using Crenshaw’s framework of intersectionality, what do you see as the  the role of racism, or other structures of oppression like homophobia, in these stories of misogynistic violence?
• Based on the film(s) you watched, what do the victim-survivors say about their experience and how are their stories received– by their family/friends/colleagues, the legal system, the media?
• What questions do YOU want to bring to class for discussion?

FINAL PROJECT TO-DOS + Deadlines

• FINAL PROJECT DRAFT DUE NO LATER THAN APRIL 27
• You will turn in a draft of your project for feedback to me.
• In addition to your draft, I ask you to write me a short letter in which you share your own assessment of your work:
  • What are your goals? 
  • What do you think is working well in your project?
  • Where do you feel you need support or improvement? 
• You can post your draft on Open Lab and select “DRAFT” as your category. It can be a private post. Your letter can be in the post or you can add it as a comment.

• I will hold open writing time for anyone who wants to come and work on their projects. I will bring writing prompts if you need and will be available to answer questions– but mostly, we will just sit together and write. Tuesday and Thursday 12:00-1:30 PM, Zoom link here
• If you have not done so: sign up for a class presentation ASAP here
• The instructions for the project are here.

OVERVIEW for this week

Please watch this video (13 minutes!) for an overview/context for this week’s materials. If you want to access the slides directly, you can find them here

READ

beyondmarriage.org, “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families and Relationships“

Das Gupta, “‘Don’t Deport our Daddies: Gendering State Deportation Practices and Immigrant Organizing”  Read the section on “Caregiving Dads” (pages 92-98) + if you can, the beginning (pages 84-89) (and, of course, you are encouraged to read the whole article.)

WATCH

Paris is Burning (film, on Kanopy) (78 minutes): KANOPY is available on the BMCC Library’s Databases page here

Kanopy is amazing and I hope you browse the available films for your own viewing! You do need a log in but it takes 1 minute to set that up. Sometimes, I have a hard time opening Kanopy so I try a different browser and that always helps.

DISCUSSION BOARD #9 (DUE 4/12)

Instructions/How to post here

How do feminist and queer interventions challenge ideas of the “nuclear family?” What do they say are the limits? What other visions do we see for the ways that families can be formed? What are your thoughts about family structure and what these interventions offer us?

Please title your post: First Name Last Name: DB 9 and select “DB 9” as the category for your post.

FINAL PROJECT DRAFT due by 4/27

The draft for your project can be turned in ANYTIME but the absolute FINAL deadline is April 27. The sooner you give me a draft, the more time you will have to work on your revisions. You can turn the draft in as a post (just pick “Draft” as your category) — and you can also link to a googledoc or googleslide in your post. If you need to turn it in another way, just let me know ahead of time.

When you submit your draft,  I ask you to write me a short letter in which you share your own assessment of your work:

• What are your goals? 
• What do you think is working well in your project?
• Where do you feel you need support or improvement? 

FInal Project to-Dos

• The instructions are here.
• If you have not submitted your proposal, please do so as soon as possible. 
  • • You can write your proposal as a post on our course site and select “PROPOSAL” as your category. You can make it private. Either way, my feedback to you will be private.
• If you have not done so: sign up for a meeting with me ASAP here
• If you have not done so: sign up for a class presentation ASAP here

 

 

OVERVIEW

Please watch this video  (only 13 minutes!!)  in which I give you an overview + background for this week’s material.   If you want to access the slides directly, you can find them here

READ

AAUW, “The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap”

AAPI Women’s Economic Security

Kim, “Policies to End the Gender Wage Gap in the United States”

 

Listen

 “Domestic Workers Hit Hard by the COVID-19 Pandemic” (13:49)

Optional

Read: Red Canary Song Statement

Watch: Red Canary Song Vigil (1:38)

DISCUSSION BOARD #8 (DUE 4/5)

Instructions/How to post here

For this week’s post, please write one question or comment about something you learned about the relationship between gender and work, especially about the wage gap and other gendered disparities. Please also feel free reflect on your own observations or experiences in workplaces and what gender disparities you have or have not seen.

You can also write a response to any of the material by Red Canary Song.

Please title your post: First Name Last Name: DB 8 and select “DB 8” as the category for your post.

 

FINAL PROJECT TO-DOS

1. The instructions are here.
2. Your proposal was due earlier this week. If you have not submitted it, please do so as soon as possible. 
   • • You can write your proposal as a post on our course site and select “PROPOSAL” as your category. You can make it private. Either way, my feedback to you will be private.
3. Sign up for a meeting with me ASAP here 
4. Sign up for a class presentation ASAP here

 

MIDTERM CHECK-IN

You will receive an email from me in the next week to let you know what assignments you are missing and any other important information about class expectations. Please keep an eye out for this email!  You are also welcome to set up a time to talk with me about assignments or any other issues related to our class.

Overview

Please watch this video in which I give you an overview + background for this week’s material.  It’s 25 minutes! I will work on making the next one shorter- but I do hope you watch this one until the end. If you want to access the slides directly, you can find them here

READ

Read: Vasquez, “It’s Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women” 

Read: Transgender People and Bathroom Access 

Read (optional): NYC Executive Order 16 (2016)

LISTEN

Edge of Sports Podcast, Chase Strangio on Countering Attacks on Trans Athletes (*interview with Chase Strangio is the first 29 minutes of the podcast)

WATCH (optional)

Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Toilet Training (25 minutes)

Discussion Board #7 (due 3/22)

For this week’s discussion board, please write a response to any of the material from this week. Your response can include: a summary of the material, connections you are making between the readings/podcast/film and/or any questions that come up for you. You can also share in your post anything from the materials that you would like to talk about more in class– I’ll plan our class time in response to what you write.

Instructions/How to post here

Please title your post: First Name Last Name: DB 7 and select “DB 7” as the category for your post.

Essay #2

The prompts for Essay #2 are available under “Assignments” here

FINAL PROJECT TO-DOs

1. Read the instructions + come to class with any questions. 
2. Work on your proposal (due next week, 3/23) 
   • My suggestion is to look at your discussion board posts and/or Essay #1 and/or any notes you have taken in class and/or the readings/materials + ask yourself: what’s sparking your interest? What are you feeling excited or curious about? What do you want to say?
   • Write a short proposal (~2-3 paragraphs) in which you state:
     • which form you will be working in (memoir or manifesto)
     • initial ideas about the themes or issues that you want to engage: what do you already know about and what do you want to explore? 
     • if you already know: what form will you work in (an essay, or something else?)
     • DUE DATE: TUESDAY MARCH 23. You can write your proposal as a post on our course site and select “PROPOSAL” as your category. You can make it private. Either way, my feedback to you will be private.
3. Sign up for a meeting with me before April 16 here 
4. Sign up for a class presentation here

Overview

Our goal for this week: collective care.

Thank you to all of you for participating in such a beautiful, thoughtful, and vulnerable conversation this afternoon. I am appreciating the culture and community that you are building with one another.

I know you have a group chat on What’s App + I hope you are using it to check in with one another. Please know you can also reach out to me anytime as well.

For this week, there is no new reading or other material- let’s take this week to pause, reflect, show our care and support for one another. All you need to do this week is a new Discussion Board post. 

DISCUSSION BOARD #6

This week, please shower the class with your favorite memes, songs, tweets, images, poems, quotes, photographs, videos, or anything else that you think can offer the class some care and support.

Instructions/How to post here

Please title your post whatever you like.

Essay #2 

The prompt for Essay #2 will be up later today and the suggested deadline is next week.

OVERVIEW 

Welcome to Week 5 of Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week, we will read women of color feminist texts from the late 1970s into the early 1980s.

The first two readings for this week are from This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color (1981) edited by Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherrie Moraga. This collection was the first of its kind. It brought together writing from Black, Latinx, indigenous and Asian American women, many of whom identified as lesbian or queer, to articulate what feminisms meant for them as women of color. Much of this book comes out of the frustrations that women of color felt with the mainstream women’s movement and its inability to engage issues of racism and class inequality as part of its feminism.

The next reading is from Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa. The author is a Chicana lesbian feminist who grew up in the “borderlands” between the U.S. and Mexico and she works with the concept of “borders” to write about her own life and to engage issues of gender,  race/ethnicity, colonialism, language, and identity.

(On a personal note! I read these two books in my Introduction to Women’s Studies class in the early 1990s when I was in college in the Midwest. And, then I basically slept with them under my pillow for years– to say they changed my life is an understatement! At that point, I had barely encountered any feminism that also talked about racism, being from a working-class community, the impacts of colonialism and migration on families, and so on. Most of what I had been exposed to had been the Gloria Steinem versions of feminism, which I was excited to learn about  but also was not as personally relatable. Reading This Bridge and Borderlands is what led me to decide to major in Gender and Women’s Studies.)

READINGS 

• The Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement” (1977). 
  • This statement is written by the Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist lesbian socialist group that was based in Boston from 1974-1980.
  • As you read, consider what the authors say about why there is a need for this statement; how they see the position of Black women; what is the role of socialism in their statement and why?

 

•  Carillo, “And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You”
  • This poem by indigenous writer Jo Carillo is written about racism in the women’s movement.
  • As you read, consider what Carillo says about their experiences. How does racism operate in the women’s movement? What do you think about their choice to express their feelings through poetry?

 

• Anzaldúa “La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness”
  • [First, learn more about the use of the term Chicana by feminists like Anzaldúa in this short interview (4 minutes), with Cherrie Moraga here.]
  • As you read this piece, you’ll notice that some of the sentences/phrases are in Spanish. Some of you may be able to understand what the author writes and some of you will not.  Don’t worry about translating! Anzaldúa wrote at a time before we had Google translate at our fingertips so she knows that not all readers will be able to understand what she is writing. Instead, pay attention to how the use of language affects you, what it does for you as a reader when you can (or can not) understand what she writes.
  • What does Anzaldúa say about the border? How does she use the concept of mestiza? What does this mean for her? 

(OPTIONAL) Watch a film

Born in Flames (1983) (81 minutes), available on BMCC’s KANOPY Database. To access this database, log in to the BMCC Library and go to Databases. Click on the link for Kanopy. The first time you use it, you will have to create an account with your email address and password (it’s quick!).

Born in Flames is a “documentary-style feminist fiction film” that is set in some time in the future, after a peaceful socialist revolution. The story involves two feminist groups, underground radio station, a women’s army, street harassment, and direct action. I don’t want to say too much more before you watch it. If you’re able to see it, please do– it’s a classic film from this time period and engages so many of the critiques and visions from this week’s readings.

Discussion Board Post #5 (due 3/8)

Pick 2-3 of the major themes from this week’s readings (and film) and write about them. You can use the questions that I wrote for each reading as a guide to the themes.

Using quotes from the readings (or scenes from the film), write about the critiques, analysis, and vision that women of color feminists from this time period were engaging. What are your thoughts about their writing? Do you see these issues as resonant today, or do you feel as though they are no longer relevant? Be specific.

Instructions/How to post here

Please title your post: First Name Last Name: DB 5 and select “DB 5” as the category for your post.

 

OVERVIEW 

Welcome to Week 4 of Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies! 

As I mentioned in class yesterday, we are a little behind on the syllabus but we will be catching up this week! Please make sure you have read the materials from Module 3 (and posted on DB#3) so that we can have a good discussion in class next Tuesday.

The new readings in Module #4 will bump us up in time to the late 1960s/early 1970s– a huge leap in time from where we were last week! These materials will help us to get a sense of the major issues that faced the “second wave” of feminism in in the United States, which emerges through/from/after the Civil Rights movement.

The text for this week include several feminist manifestos, or documents that offer a critical analysis of gender and other inequities as well as a vision for what can and should be different, as well as an newspaper editorial and an interview. As you read, consider the themes or similarities across the texts– what issues are being taken up by these authors? What are their concerns? What do you notice about their critiques of gender inequity?  Also pay attention to the form of the text– how is it written, for whom, what is effective (or not)?

READINGS AND OTHER MATERIALS

“Redstockings Manifesto”(1969):  Redstockings was a radical feminist group that was founded in New York City in 1969.  Read their manifesto and learn more about what they believe, what they want, and how they will work towards their vision:

Mainardi, “The Politics of Housework”(1970) : Pat Mainardi was a member of Redstockings. What is she doing in this  short essay? What is she saying about housework? Who is she in dialogue with? 

Brady, “I Want a Wife” (1972): In this short essay, what does feminist Judy Brady mean when she says she wants a “wife?” What does she think it means to be a “wife?” 

Steinem, “Women’s Liberation Aims to Free Men Too” (1970): This newspaper editorial by feminist writer Gloria Steinem makes an argument about why women’s liberation is necessary. What does Steinem say to make her argument? What do you think about her evidence? What is persuasive or not? 

Feinberg, interview w/Sylvia Rivera, “I’m Glad I was in the Stonewall Riot” Learn more about Sylvia Rivera here and Leslie Feinberg here. As you read this interview, consider: what does Rivera say about her experience in the Stonewall Riot (which took place in 1969)? What are the issues that are of concern to her and why? 

POST ON DISCUSSION BOARD #4 (DUE 3/1)

Instructions/How to post here

For this week’s discussion board post, please respond to the following prompt:

Share your reflections about the texts from this week. What themes do you see across the different texts for this week? Based on these readings, what do you see as the primary issues that concern feminists in the late 1960s and early 1970s? Where in the texts do you see different priorities or concerns come up — and, what do you notice about these differences?

Please title your post: First Name Last Name: DB 4 and select “DB 4” as the category for your post.

Make up POSTs ON DISCUSSION BOARD (DUE 3/1)

As I mentioned in class today: usually, late discussion board posts will only receive half-credit (1 point). But, because we are at the start of the semester and it takes a little time to get used to the rhythm of things, you can make up any posts you have missed (Discussion Boards 1, 2, 3) before Monday 3/1 11:59 PM and receive full credit for them.

ESSAY #1

Instructions: For this first essay, please expand on your in-class writing, discussion board posts, and class discussion by responding to the following questions. Your essay should be about 500 words (2 pages double-spaced, in 12 point font). You can turn your essay in on Blackboard.

PROMPT: Following the model of the story by Ijeoma A.,  write about a lesson(s) you learned about gender expectations– it does not need to be a story about something that you yourself experienced but can be something that you witnessed or observed. If you write about something from your own experience, please be attentive to your own needs as you write and only write about something that you feel comfortable to think about and analyze in this assignment.

Describe the lesson: what did you learn? Where was the lesson taught and by whom? What was shared about the expectations and the consequences for not following the norm? What are your thoughts and reflections about these expectations and their impact?

What is the origin of these gendered expectations? What do they have to do with patriarchy, if anything? How does oppression play a role and if so, what kind?

 

See you next Tuesday!

[Marsha P. Johnson + Sylvia Rivera below]