My fall course………. It is going to be a challenge for
the students, but it will be fun.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Borders of Desire: Sex and the Nation State is
an interdisciplinary and transnational survey of political and
academic debates that arose in the 1980s concurrent with the
“feminist sex wars,” including gay and lesbian activism, HIV/AIDS
activism, and black feminist and queer of color responses to
reproductive and immigration policies. We will focus on the
implementation of U.S. federal and state laws that regulate
gendered behavior and shape normative understandings (and thus
practices) of sexuality. We will examine how knowledge is
(re)produced globally through U.S. “development” efforts that often
focus upon minoritized bodies (through race, gender, and sexuality,
among other identity categories. Not only will we be
introduced to the material effects of national regulations on the
human body through feminist and queer theory, but we will broaden
our discussion of to include the body politic as a site of
regulation. The course will introduce students to approaches
to the regulation of gender and human desire from the fields of
history, philosophy, Native American and Indigenous Studies,
transnational feminist and post-structuralist theories.
Ultimately, we will study “desire” as 1) a category of analysis and
2) a lived experience or daily practice to situate how ideas and
knowledge about race, sex, gender, and sexuality get circulated,
locally, nationally, and globally.
Some of our guiding questions and problematics
include: How is sexual desire, race, and gender
identity related to American citizenship? How do human bodies
become disciplined through the nation as a “regulatory regime of
power” (Foucault)? What is a nation-state? How is the
nation a body? How does pleasure surface in the relationship
between the desiring subject, the material body, and the
nation?
The required texts include* (please order
them early online to save money, although you will be able to buy
them at the bookstore):
- Duggan, Lisa and Nan Hunter, Sex Wars:
Sexual Dissent and Political Culture (10th Anniversary
Edition), Routledge, July 24, 2006
- Luibheid, Eithne. Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at
the Border, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 2002
- Alexie, Sherman. Flight. New York: Black Cat,
2007.
*There are also readings posted in
oncourse/resources/readings.
Learning Outcomes: In Borders of
Desire we will explore how gender and sexuality are mutually
constitutive and how they intersect with and diverge from American
mass culture and nationalisms.
- Become familiar with how gender and sexuality is understood in
U.S regulatory politics and understand sexual regulations in
relation to identity categories, such as race, gender, and
class.
- Become conversant with major theoretical and critical
approaches relevant to the study of gender and sexuality and use
relevant concepts and terms in the study of gender studies in
writing exercises.
- Students will strengthen their oral and writing skills and
demonstrate their ability to use critical analysis through
successfully completing a variety of written assignments and in
class presentations.
- Students will be introduced to a range of library sources and
writing resources.
G205 Syllabus – Subject to
Change
- Reading marked with this symbol is located in
oncourse/resources/readings. I encourage you to bring digital
items (laptop, netbook, etc.) to access the .pdf readings in class,
but do not abuse this privilege.
What is sex/gender/sexuality? How does one study
it?
Week
1
TU, 8/31/2010
Introductions, Syllabus, Groundings, Watch episode?
TH, 9/2/2010
- Angier, Natalie. “Birds Do It. Bees Do It. People Seek The Keys
to It.” The New York Times. April 10, 2007 (7 pages)
Hunter/Duggan, BOTH Introductions and Chapter 1,
"Contextualizing the Sexuality Debates: A Chronology 1966-2005,"
(ix-29)
What are some feminist approaches to sexuality (and why
feminism)?
Week 2
TU, 9/7/2010
Hunter/Duggan. Chapter 2, “Censorship in the name of Feminism,”
(p. 29-39) and Chapter 3, "False Promises: Feminist
Anti-pornography Legislation," (41-64)
TH 9/9/2010
- McRobbie, Angela. “Feminism Undone? The Cultural Politics of
Disarticulation.” (p. 24-53) In The Aftermath of Feminism:
Gender, Culture, and Social Change. Los Angeles: Sage
Publishing, 2009.
How does sexual pleasure and desire figure in light of
regulations on deviant sexualities?
Week 3
Introducing "Queer"
TU 9/14/2010
Hunter/Duggan Chapter 12, "Making it Perfectly Queer,"
(149-163)
Hunter/Duggan Chapter 15, "The Discipline Problem: Queer Theory
Meets Lesbian and Gay History," (p. 185-196).
TH 9/16/2010
Hunter/Duggan Chapter 14, "Queering the State," (171-183)
- “Straight Eye for the Straight Guy,” in Ferguson, and Marso
(eds), W Stands for Women: How the George W. Bush Presidency
Shaped a New Politics of Gender. Durham: Duke University
Press, 2007, p. 65-86.
HOMEWORK Reflection Paper #1 Due online by Sat. 9/18/2010 at
noon in oncourse assignments: One page single spaced critical
reflection on the week’s readings. Take one issue, quote, or
aspect of the week’s readings and react to it in a way that is
analytical rather than emotional. Use evidence rather than
opinion and please cite your sources.
How do human bodies become disciplined through the
nation as a “regulatory regime of power”
(Foucault)?
Week 4
Survey of sexuality, pleasure, and desire in post-structural
and queer theory
TU 9/21/2010
- Foucault, Michel, “Objective,” and “Method,” in The Deployment
of Sexuality, The History of Sexuality: an Introduction, Volume
1. New York: Vintage Books, 1978.
TH 9/23/2010
- Foucault, Michel. “17 March, 1976,” (p.239-263). Society
Must Be Defended: lectures at the College de France 1975-1976.
New York: Picador Press, 1997
Week 5
TU 9/27/2010
- Gayle Rubin, excerpts, “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical
Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.” Pleasure and
Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. Edited by Carole S. Vance.
London: Pandora, 1984. pp. 267-319.
- Butler, Judith. “Gender Regulations,” in Undoing
Gender. New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 40-56.
TH 9/30/2010
TBA, catch up
HOMEWORK Reflection Paper #2 Due online by Sat. 10/2/2010 at
noon in oncourse assignments: One page single spaced critical
reflection on the week’s readings. Take one issue, quote, or
aspect of the week’s readings and react to it in a way that is
analytical rather than emotional. Use evidence rather than
opinion and please cite your sources.
What is a nation-state? How is the nation a
body? Where does gender fit in?
Week 6
TU 10/4/2010
- Rosen, Deborah A. Chapter 6, “State Citizenship by Legislative
Action,” (p. 155-179) American Indians and State Law:
Sovereignty, Race, and Citizenship, 1790-1880. Lincoln, Neb.:
University of Nebraska Press, 2007.
TH 10/7/2010
Luibheid, Eithne. Introduction and Chapter 1 (ix-30), Entry
Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border
How do pleasure and desire surface in light of
regulations on deviant identities and sexualities?
Week 7
TU 10/12/2010
Luibheid, Eithne. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 (31-76), Entry
Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border
TH 10/14/2010
- Allison, Dorothy. “Public Silence, Private Terror,” (103-114)
in (ed.) Carole S. Vance, Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female
Sexuality. Winchester, MA: Routledge, 1984.
- Bowers v Hardwick Decision or ->to hear the argument
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1985/1985_85_140/argument
- Lawrence v. Texas Summaries (4 pages, 2 pdfs)
- Lawrence v. Texas Decision (9 pages)
Upcoming due date: Short Essay #1, Due October 26, 2010, by 5
p.m. through oncourse/assignments/short essay #1
Week 8
TU 10/19/2010
Hunter/Duggan, Chapter 6, 7, "Banned in the U.S.A.: What
the Hardwick Ruling Will Mean," "Life After Hardwick," (77-98 and
119-136), Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political
Culture
TH 10/21/2010
Hunter/Duggan, Chapter 10, "Identity, Speech and
Equality," and Chapter 16, "Lawrence v. Texas as Law
and Culture," (p. 197-209), Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and
Political Culture
Week 9
TU 10/26/2010
- Ruskola, Teemu. "Gay Rights versus Queer Theory: What is
Left of Sodomy After Lawrence v. Texas?" Social Text
84-85, Vol 23, Nos. 3-4, Fall-Winter, 2005.
TH 10/28/2010
Female Masculinity and Rape as a Form of State
Violence/Control over Sexuality
Luibheid, Eithne. Chapters 4-5 (77-136).
Luibheid – Conclusion
Week 10
How is sexual desire, race, and gender identity related
to American citizenship?
Revisiting our central questions through CASE
STUDIES
TU 11/2/2010
Sherman Alexie, Flight, Chapters 1-10
TH 11/4/2010
Sherman Alexie, Flight, Chapters 11-20
“MIDTERM” – Short Essay #1 Due Saturday
11/6/2010
(Pick one of the central questions under investigation
during the first eight weeks to answer in 2-3 pages, ds, times new
roman, default margins. You must use at least two sources
from class and use proper citations.)
Week 11
HIV/AIDS – Intersections of Race, Gender,
Sexuality
TU 11/9/2010
- Hammonds, Evelynn . “Black (W)holes and the Geometry of
Black Female Sexuality,” Feminism Meets Queer Theory
Edited by Elizabeth Weed & Naomi Schor (Bloomington: Indiana
University, 1997)
- Brier, Jennifer. “The Immigrant infection: Images of Race,
Nation, and Contagion in the Public Debates on AIDS and
Immigration,” in Allida M. Black, (Ed.), Modern American Queer
History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001
TH 11/11/2010
- Brier, Jennifer. “Locating Lesbian and Feminist Responses
to AIDS, 1982-1984,” Women’s Studies Quarterly; Spring
2007; 35, 1/2; p. 234-248.
- Cohen, Cathy J. “Contested Membership: Black Gay identities and
the Politics of AIDS,” from The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS
and the Breakdown of Black Politics, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1999, pp. 46-60.
Reminder due date: Final Short Essay due in
oncourse/assignments/final on 12/10/2010 by 5 p.m.
Week 12
Population and Reproduction /
Revisiting Nation Making
TU 11/16/2010
- Smith, Andrea. “Better dead than pregnant: The
colonization of Native Women’s Reproductive Health,” Chapter 4,
Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide.
Cambridge, Mass.: South End Press, 2005.
- Smith, Andrea. “Ch. 1, Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide,”
(p. 7-54) in Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian
Genocide. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2005.
TH 11/18/2010
- Roberts, Dorothy, “From Norplant to the Contraceptive Vaccine:
The New Frontier of Population Control,” (p. 104-150), in
Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and
Week 13
TU 11/23/2010
- Briggs, Laura. “Chapter 5, The Politics of Sterilization,
1937-1974, in Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and
U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2002.
TH 11/25/2010
Screening: La Operacion 1982 / 40 minutes – This
documentary brings to the foreground the problem of widespread
sterilization among Puerto Rican women through the use of personal
testimony, newsreels, and government propaganda excerpts. The
procedure is so common that more than one-third of all Puerto Rican
women of childbearing age have been sterilized. Begun in the 1930’s
as a means of curbing the surplus population, it continues to be
reinforced politically and socially in the Puerto Rican
communities.
How does gender and pleasure surface in the relationship
between the desiring subject, the material body, and the
nation?
Week 14
TU 11/30/2010
- Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, "Introduction," Friction: An
Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton University Press,
2005.
- Mohanty, Chandra. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist
Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” (pp. 17-42) Feminisms
Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing
Solidarity. 2003/2006.
TH 12/2/2010
- Stacy Leigh Pigg and Vincanne Adams, “Introduction: The Moral
Object of Sex,” Sex in Development: Science, Sexuality, and
Morality in Global Perspective. Edited by Vincanne Adams and
Stacy Leigh Pigg, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005,
pp.1-38.
- Stacy Leigh Pigg, “Globalizing the Facts of Life,” Sex in
Development: Science, Sexuality, and Morality in Global
Perspective. Edited by Vincanne Adams and Stacy Leigh Pigg,
Durham: Duke University Press, 2005, pp. 39-66.
Week 15
TU 12/7/2010
Final papers due Friday this week – no
final exam
- Brennan, Denise. “Performing Love,” (p. 91-115) in
What’s Love Got to Do with It? Transnational Desires and Sex
Tourism in the Dominican Republic. Durham: Duke
University Press, 2004.
- Salzinger, Leslie, “Chapter 1 Ways of Seeing, Chapter 2,
Producing Women: Femininity on the Line,” Genders in
Production: Making Workers in Mexico’s Global Factories.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
TH 12/9/2010
- Mohanty, Chandra, Under Western Eyes, Revisited, parts 1 and
2.
FINAL Papers Due Friday 12/10/2010- Short Essay #2 Due
(Pick one of the central questions under investigation during the
semester to investigate in 4-5 pages, ds, times new roman, default
margins. You must use at least 4 sources from class and use
proper citations.)
Jul. 9
Check out
this entry, which will take you to a clip of a young man who
lost a bet and went to his prom dressed like a woman. This
version of male femininity was not "read" as a threat, but
Escboar’s feminine masculinity was–after three days and when he
had permission. What is really at stake in the school
district’s dress code to prevent feminine gender expression in
men?
Jonathon
Escobar powerpoint
BHR teaches students that "the gender box" is foundational
to power and privilege and demonstrates that "the gender box"
is held in place through a variety of means,
including racism, sexism, classism, and
homophobia. Julia Serano, a trans biologist in
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the
Scapegoating of Femininity (2007), breaks down sexism in a
really interesting way that is helpful to unpack the heterosexual
imperative of the gender box.
Serano argues that
transphobia and
homophobia (see entry on Lawrence King) are rooted
in "oppositional sexism, which is the
belief that female and male are rigid, mutually exclusive
categories, each possessing a unique and nonoverlapping set of
attributes, aptitudes, and desires
(13)." What is being banned in Escobar’s
case is the expression of male femininity.
Traditional sexism is the "belief that
maleness and masculinity are superior to femaleness and femininity
(14)," according to Serano. Finally, Serano wants to
make it clear–it is her manifesto–that
"misogyny is the tendancy to dismiss and
deride femaleness and femininity."
Serano argues that transmisogyny explains the jokes "at the expense
of trans people" (like Micah’s prom above), but she goes on to
argue that the majority of violence directed at trans people is
directed at trans women. Serano argues that "men" who
wear women’s clothing are pathologized, while the reverse is not
true for women who wear men’s clothes: it is
trans-misogyny.
More on prohibition of male
femininity……………………..
Morehouse, an all male traditionally black college (also in
Georgia), recently
added a prohibition of "feminine attire." The code
specifically reads "no wearing of clothing usually worn by women
(dresses, tops, tunics,purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus
or at college-sponsoredevents."
The Gender Press 