Feminist Thought (Revised June 13, 2012)

POLS 341/WOMS 401

E-mail:  brunell@gonzaga.edu

 

Purpose: 

To learn to use gender and gendered experience as analytical lenses through which we view social relations, attempt to solve political dilemmas and seek social justice.  In our survey, we will touch upon many approaches to gender and sexuality including: functionalism/conservatism, liberalism, Marxism, existentialism, radical feminism, post-modernism, third wave feminism and queer theory.

 

Some questions we will explore include:  How does looking at a problem from a feminist or gender-informed point of view alter the project of “doing theory?”  What is feminism?  Are you a feminist? Can men be feminists? Can feminist theories be used to emancipate men? What are the natures of sex/gender and sex/gender difference?  Is sex/gender socially constructed or biologically determined or both?  Is biology itself a social construct?  What does it mean to say that gender and sexuality exist on a continuum rather than as a dichotomy?  What was the nature of sex relations in a state of nature?  Is there such a thing as a “state of nature?”  How have gender roles in reproduction and family affected women’s and men’s roles in the economy and politics?  How have women’s and men’s roles in the family affected the conceptualization of rights, i.e., what rights are necessary and from whom/what do they afford protection?  Can individual rights as construed by liberal theorists provide for women’s emancipation?  Is the framework provided by human rights more helpful for attaining women’s emancipation and empowerment? How are gender identities mediated by our other class, race, or ethnically-based identities?   What is intersectionality and how is it useful for building a more just world?  What distinguishes First, Second and Third Wave feminism from each other? What’s different about Third Wave feminism?  What would a gender just world look like?

 

Method:

Because this is an on-line course, links to Lecture Notes as well as to other materials found on the Internet are embedded in this syllabus.  Please click on them and read the materials they are linked to.  Follow your interests from there!  Browse further into subjects and authors in order to whet your interests and choose a paper topic.  Feel free to do your own search on the theorists and concepts the course covers.  A multiplicity of sources will enhance your understanding of the course material.

Frequently in my Lecture Notes, I ask questions.  They are not always answered in written form in the notes.  If you cannot answer these questions, or you’d like my input or input from your classmates on what they think the answers are, please post your questions (and answers!!) to the Discussion Board Forum I’ve created for this purpose in Blackboard.  You are not required to post questions every week, but 10% of the total course points will be based on your participation here.  Quality is more important than quantity.

 

Required Texts:
Kolmar, Wendy K. and Frances Barkowski.  2005.  Feminist Theory:  A Reader.  2^nd Edition.   Boston:  McGrawHill.

MacKinnon, Catherine.  1989.  Toward a Feminist Theory of the State.  Cambridge:  Harvard University Press.

 

Graded Work and Assignments:
Before doing any of these click here for information on acceptable format, citation style, and research strategies.

1.  Written homework assignment of roughly two pages about the definition(s) of feminism you like best and whether or not you consider yourself a feminist.  See Topic 1.1 on Course Schedule (below) for complete list of questions to answer in this assignment.

2. Five quizzes interspersed throughout the course.

 

3.  Paper on the feminist or gender theorist of your choice.  It does not have to be a theorist covered in the course, but

your choice of theorist should be approved by Professor Brunell.

 

The paper should be 10-12 pages in length. The paper should include:

 

a.  a roughly 3-page biography of the theorists life and major works;

 

b.  a roughly 2-page discussion of the context within which the theorist was writing, i.e., what was going on in the world, in the society, in the time period in which the theorist was writing;

 

c. a roughly 2-page section characterizing where the theorist fits among feminist/gender theorists, i.e., is the theorist a functionalist, a Liberal, a Socialist, a post-modernist, a queer theorist, etc.  Ask Dr. Brunell for help if you are having trouble fitting the person in a particular category or if none of the categories you know about seem to fit.

 

d. a section using the theorist’s mode of analysis and theoretical insights to analyze a contemporary issue/problem of gender justice confronting society today. 

 

This section should describe the issue you’ve chosen and why it is an issue of feminist concern.  How did the status quo come to be?  How is the status quo justified by those who would recommend doing nothing to change it?  How would your chosen theorist see the issue?  How would your theorist argue against the points raised by proponents of the status quo?  What are your theorist’s preferred remedies to issues of gender injustice and how would those apply to this situation?  What can we learn from approaching this issue from this theorist’s point of view?  What kind of resistance to this theorist’s proposed solution can you anticipate? 

 

Some issues to choose from are:  the underrepresentation of women in politics; the gender pay gap; women’s disproportionate responsibility for housekeeping and childrearing; the controversy over birth control being covered as a standard part of health insurance plans; women serving combat roles in the military; the controversy over the performance of the Vagina Monologues being performed at Gonzaga and other Catholic or conservative institutions; some other issue suggested by you and approved by Professor Brunell.

 

Please communicate with Dr. Brunell as your researching, THINKING, and writing proceed.  She can help you put your theorist into perspective with other theorists and help you apply the theorists ideas to the issue you choose.  We can communicate by email or by phone or in person if possible and you prefer it.  Just send an email to initiate the process.

 

 

Grade Breakdown:

Posts to Discussion Board:  10%

Definitions of Feminism Reflection Paper:  10%

Quizzes 5 @ 10 pts each:  50%

Paper:  30% 

Note on Terminology:

Many words we will come across in the readings and lectures are “five-dollar words.”  If it is a word that is unfamiliar to you, look it up!!  I recommend first looking up the definition in an on-line dictionary, and then looking in philosophical dictionary like the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  Also, many words with which we are familiar will be used in a different way by a specific theorist.  Please feel free to ask for discussion/clarification of any word’s meaning(s).  You can post your questions to the class discussion board so that others can see the answers too.

 

Class Schedule:

Week 1:  Feminism, Feminist Methods and Epistemologies

Topic 1.2: The “F” Word:  Defining Feminism and Feminist Theory
Reading:  Treichler, Paula and Cherie Kramarae, "Feminism" from The Feminist Dictionary; and Alice Walker. “Womanist.”  These are Chapters 1 and 2 in Feminist Theory:  A Reader, edited by Wendy K. Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski (henceforth referred to as “K and B”).

Lecture Note Link:  Defining Feminism and Feminist Theory

Written Assignment (about 2 pages):  What is Feminism?  What Definitions of Feminism most appealed to you?  What is Womanism as Walker describes it?  Is it different from Feminism?  How/why?  Does Feminism promote a specific form of justice?  Describe it.  Are you a Feminist?  Why or why not?  Can men be feminists?  Why or why not?  What can feminist theorizing do for women, men, gender relations, the world?  Do feminists promote a particular vision of social justice?  If so, what is it? 

 

Topic 1.2:  Feminist Method, Feminist Epistemology

Reading: Lexicon of the Debates:  Introduction and Section on Epistemologies, in K and B, p 42 and 45-47;  Catherine A. MacKinnon, “Consciousness Raising,” Chpt. 5 in Toward a Feminist Theory of the State;” Harding, Sandra.  “From the Woman Question in Science to the Science Question in Feminism,” Chpt. 78 in K and B; and Jaggar, Allison. “Love and Knowledge:  Emotion in Feminist Epistemology” (Under Course Documents in Blackboard).

 

Lecture Note Links:  Feminist Method, Feminist Epistemology, Consciousness-Raising

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading:  Define method and then feminist method (refer back to the definitions in lecture notes and in Wikipedia entries).  Define epistemology and then feminist epistemology. 

What is feminist method, according to MacKinnon?  Why is it necessary for women to have their consciousness raised?  Could men benefit from consciousness raising?  How would you construct a consciousness raising experience for men? 

Harding offers a critique of (Western?) scientific method.  What according to her is problematic about its assumptions, methods, standards?   Describe the feminist method she presents?  How does this complement or enhance scientific method as commonly practiced?  How does feminist epistemology differ from positivist or masculinist epistemologies?  Does asserting there is such a thing as a feminist method or a feminist epistemology depend on functionalist or essentialist notions of sex difference?

 

According to Jaggar, what has been the relationship between Reason and Emotion in the Western tradition?   What does she mean by Western “dualism?”  How does she call Western ideas about the relationship between Reason and Emotion into question?  Does she persuade you that feeling emotions is or can be part of good reasoning?  Can you think of examples of how allowing emotion to affect our judgment allows us to make better, more well-reasoned decisions?

 

Topic 1.3:  The Body Politic:  Nature, Sex and Biological Difference
Reading:  Lexicon of the Debates:  Introduction and Bodies, in K and B, pp. 42-45; Wilson, Edward O. "Sex."  (Under Course Documents in Blackboard); Ortner, Sherry B., “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” Chpt. 54 in K and B; Okin, Susan Moller.   Excerpt from “Women’s Place and Nature in a Functionalist World,” pp. 73-84.  (Under Course Documents in Blackboard).

 

Lecture Note Link:  The Body Politic:  Nature, Sex and Biological Difference

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading:  What is functionalism?  Describe how Wilson uses a functionalist approach to explain women’s temperment/status/roles and the evolution of sex (i.e, reproduction). How would you critique his work from one or more of the feminist epistemologies we have learned in the class thus far?  How does Ortner explain the fact that women are universally subordinated to men and their consistent association with nature?  Describe how Aristotle thought of women (and men) and their social/political roles, as Okin describes them.  Do these notions correspond to what Ortner described as the nature/culture dichotomy?  According to Ortner, are women doomed to always be subordinated to men or is there a way out?  If so, what is it?

Topic 1.4: Science and the Body/Sexuality

Reading: Essentialism/Social Construction/Difference, pp. 47-49 in K and B; York, Frank.  “Gender Differences are Real,” and Fausto-Sterling, Anne. “The Five Sexes.” 1993. Sciences, Vol. 33, Issue 2 (Mar/Apr):  20-26 (Find article using Foley Library Academic Search Complete).

 

Lecture Note Link:  Bio-Determinism and Feminist Critiques Thereof

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading:  According to each author, is sex difference a biological fact?  How many sexes are there?  Why is it important to each author to argue that there x number of sexes or that sex differences are natural or not?  How does each use science to support his/her arguments? What are the social/economic/political implications of their assertions?  Does studying biology necessarily lead to essentialism?

 

Take Week 1 Quiz Between Friday at noon and Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

 

Week 2:  Liberalism, Feminist Critiques of Liberalism

Research Task for Week:  Begin thinking about theorists/issues for your paper.  Browse the table of contents of the K and B book, the syllabus, and the web to help you find a theorist that you are interested in learning more about.

 

Topic 2.1:  Introduction to Liberal Political Theory: Hobbes, Locke and Natural Rights, the State of Nature, the Social Contract and the Leviathan
Reading:  Thomas Hobbes, Chapters XI, XIII, XIV and XV in The Leviathan; John Locke, Chapters I, II, V, VI, VII, XV, XIX froom the Second Treatise on Government; Susan Moller Okin, “John Stuart Mill, Liberal Feminist,” pages on Hobbes and Locke only, pp. 197-201 (in Course Documents in Blackboard).

 

Lecture Note Links:  Liberalism, Hobbes, Locke

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading:  Who was Hobbes, what years was he alive and what social and political conditions in England that shaped his writing?  What are natural rights?  What is the state of nature?  Describe its characteristics, Hobbes’ assumptions about it.  What is the relationship between men, between men and women in the state of nature?  What is the social contract?  Who are the parties to it?  Why do people agree to the social contract?  What rights do men give up/retain as a result of the social contract?  Do women give up/retain the same rights? Are men living in an absolute monarchy more or less free than they are in a state of nature? Are women living in an absolute monarchy more or less free than they are in a state of nature? 

 

How is the marriage contract between husbands and wives in modern England like or not like the social contract for men, for women? Is a married woman’s relationship with her husband analogous to that between a male subject and the ruler of the Commonwealth?  How so?  How not?

 

Questions on Locke:  Describe Locke’s state of nature.  How does it differ from the state of nature assumed by Hobbes?  What rights does man have as a result of “natural law”?  Do you think that Locke thought women possessed these rights as well?  What is the right to property as Locke describes it?  What are the origins of this right? What is civil society?  What is its basis?

 

How did Locke describe marriage?  What are its purposes?  What rights/duties did it include?  Are men and women equal partners in marriage, according to Locke?  Why or why not?  Do they share the right to common property accumulated in the marriage?  According to Locke, would people have the right to terminate their marriages?

 

Would abortion be legal in a Lockean world?  Why or why not?  As the logical extensions of what rights?  For Locke, is the realm of marriage/family organized according to the same structures and principles as political society?  Why or why not?

 

Does Lockean liberalism lead to different degrees of freedom for women and men?  Why?  How would Locke explain the inequalities that exist in society today?  Overall, do you think Locke is more helpful or harmful for creating a gender just society?

Topic 2.2:  Liberal arguments for women’s equality in First and Second Wave Feminism

Reading:  Wollstonecraft, Mary, Chpt. 9 in K and B; and Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, “Declaration of Sentiments,” Chpt. 11 in K and B; Harriet Taylor, “The  Enfranchisement of Women,” Chpt. 12 in K and B. John Stuart Mill, "On the Subjection of Women," Chpt. 15 in K and B; Susan Moller Okin, “John Stuart Mill, Liberal Feminist,” pp. 202-end (in Course Documents; NOW. "Statement of Purpose,” Chpt. 44 in K and B.

 

Lecture Note Links:  Liberalism in First Wave Feminism, Harriet Taylor, JS Mill, Liberalism in Second Wave Feminism, Liberalism in New Conservative Feminism

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading on Liberal Feminism in the First Wave:  Give examples of how Wollstonecraft is a Liberal political theorist, i.e., list/describe the Liberal concepts, ideas, assumptions she makes. To what does she assign blame for women’s “folly”?  What kind of an argument is that?  Is the Declaration of Sentiments a Liberal document?  Give examples of ideas that are clearly Liberal in their intent. Are there ideas in the Declaration that go beyond Liberalism?  How?  Why?  Do the American legal, political, economic and social systems of today approximate these ideals today? Where does it meet them?  Where does it fall short?

 

What occasion prompted Taylor’s writing?  How does she argue in favor of women’s rights?  How does she answer those who question the propriety of women participating in politics?

 

According to Okin, in addition to Liberalism, what other schools of thought influence Mill?  How are these evident in his argument in “On the Subjection of Women”?  What is Mill’s aspiration for the relation between the sexes, as articulated in  “The Subjection of Women?”  What, according to Mill, is the role of feeling in defending one’s argument (417)?  Does this seem an odd notion?  Why?  Why do you think Mill includes this appeal to feeling in his argument?

 

Why, according to Mill, can we not assume that men’s subordination of women is the best social practice, despite the fact that most would argue “it’s always been this way” so it must serve some purpose?  What, according to Mill, are the origins of women’s subordination to men?  What, in other words, was a “state of nature” like for women?  How does Mill call into question the notion that being a wife and mother is “natural” to women?  How does women’s position as wife differ from that of a slave, according to Mill?  On what grounds does Mill argue in favor of admitting women to professions and political office and to extending to them the franchise?

 

What is the role of competition in Mill’s social, political and economic worlds?  Have his predictions about competition between women and men proven true in contemporary society?  Why or why not?

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading on Liberal Feminism in the Second Wave:  Is the NOW Statement of Purpose a liberal document?  How/why?  Give some examples that support your answer.  Do the rights that NOW asserts coincide with or derive from the natural rights espoused by liberal thinkers such as Hobbes or Locke?  If not, what is different about them and can they still be called rights?  Has progress been made toward guaranteeing these rights?

 

 

Topic 2.3:  The Limits of Liberalism:  A Radical Feminist Critique

Reading:  MacKinnon, Catherine A., Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, Chapter 8 “The Liberal State."

Chapter 12 "Sex Equality:  On Difference and Dominance.”

 

Lecture Note Link:  MacKinnon’s Critique of Liberalism

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading on Radical Feminist Critiques of Liberalism:  What is the “liberal state,” according to MacKinnon?  Can the liberal state/liberalism achieve gender equity or the just treatment of women, according to MacKinnon?  Why or why not?  What theory of the state does MacKinnon suggest feminists adopt? 

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading on Sex Equality:  What two standards to sex equality are found in American jurisprudence?  Has either of these been used to improve women’s status in the US?  Give examples.  What is MacKinnon’s feminist critique of these two standards?   What would be a more just approach to attaining sex equality?

 

 

Take Week 2 Quiz Between Friday at noon and Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

 

Week 3:  Marxism, Marxist Feminism, and a Feminist Critique of Marxism

Research Task for the Week:  Email Dr. Brunell your choice of theorist and issue for your paper.

 

Topic 3.1:  Marxism, Historical Materialism and Its Application to the Family, Gender Roles

Reading:  Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto; Engels, Friedrich, Excerpt From “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,” in K and B Chpt. 20.

 

Lecture Note Links:   Marxism/Historical Materialism,  The Communist Manifesto, Engels/On the Origin of Family

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading of the Communist Manifesto:  What has divided people historically and today?  What are the primary economic stages of history and what classes did they each produce?  What kind of political structure did each stage produce? How does capitalism grow?  What is the nature of bourgeois society?  How/why will bourgeois capitalism come undone? What roles are women playing in bourgeois capitalism? How will proletarian society be structured?  How will these changes affect women?

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading of Engels:  What, according to Engels, determines family structure?  Describe the marriage/family systems Engles describes.  How/why did they develop these forms?  What is the gender division of labor?  Is this natural?  What determines it?  What kind of family structure, laws and state structures grow out of the industrialized capitalism of the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries?  What kind of family structures/gender roles/gender division of labor predominate in today’s post-industrial capitalism (i.e. service-based economy)?  Is the shift to post-industrialism creating a more gender equal world? Why or why not?

 

Topic 3.2  Socialist Feminism

Reading:   Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, From “Women and Economics:  A Study of the Economic Relation between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution,” Chpt. 23 in K and B.

 

Lecture Note Link:  Socialist Feminism

 

Discussion Questions to Guide Your Reading of Gilman:  Which Marxist methods and categories does Gilman use to explain women’s relation to men?  What, according to Gilman, is the nature of the problem?  Do you find Marxism useful for feminist analysis?  Why or why not?

 

Topic 3.3:  (A Radical) Feminist Critique of Marxism

Reading:  Catherine MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, "A Feminist Critique of Marx and Engels"

and “The Problem of Marxism and Feminism."

 

Lecture Note Links:  Roman numeral III in Notes on Engels and Feminist Critique of Marxism

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading of MacKinnon:  Why, according to MacKinnon, is Engels characterization of the history of family and economy incomplete?  What does she argue is obstructing Engels’s view?  How does a feminist like MacKinnon characterize the evolution of family roles/structures, the economy/private property, the state?

 

According to MacKinnon, what is the relationship between sex/gender and class?  For example, do these social categories over-lap each other?  Intersect?  Does one take precedence over the other?  Do men and women experience these categories in the same way?  Does Marxist analysis contribute to an understanding of sex inequality or confuse or inhibit it, according to MacKinnon?  Do you think one can be both a Marxist and a feminist?  Does MacKinnon think so?

 

Take Week 3 Quiz Between Friday at noon and Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

 

WEEK 4 Radical Feminism

Research Task for the Week:  Start researching your theorist, gathering sources, making your list of Works Cited.

 

Topic 4.1:  Radical Feminism
Reading:  Daly, Mary.  "The Metapatriarchal Journey of Exorcism and Ecstasy;” Chapter 67 in K and B.

 

Lecture Note Link:  Radical Feminism, Mary Daly

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading:  Describe Daly’s writing style?  Why does she employ this style?  What is your reaction to it?  What makes her a radical feminist (hint:  see Lecture Note link on Radical Feminism)?  Give some examples of radical feminist ideas from her work.

Topic 4.2:  Radical Feminism:  Toward a Woman Identified Life

Reading:  Rich, Adrienne.  “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Experience,” Chpt.71 in K and B.

 

Lecture Note Link:  Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Experience

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading of Rich:  What are the 8 phenomena that Rich says reveal and perpetuate male power over women?  What is lesbian existence?  Why does Rich reject the term gay?  Who were the Beguines?  What other examples of woman identified women does she give?  What is the double life?  What is the lesbian continuum?  Does she think we should abandon all heterosexual relationships?

 

Topic 4.3:  Catherine MacKinnon, Radical Feminism

Consider/Review:  all we’ve read by MacKinnon so far.  Consider her criticisms of both liberalism and Marxism.  Why do both theoretical approaches fall short of a theory that can adequately emancipate women?

 

Take Week 4 Quiz Between Friday at noon and Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

 

Week 5:  Third Wave Feminism, Post-Structuralism

Research Task for the Week:  Read up on the issue you’ve chosen.  Start thinking about how your theorist would think about it.

 

Topic 5.1:  Third Wave Feminism

Reading:  Brunell, Laura.  2008.  “Feminism Re-Imagined:  The Third Wave.” Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year.  Chicago:  Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. (In Course Documents in Blackboard and also in Britannica On-line which can be found using the “Encyclopedias” link on the Foley Library website); Baumgardner, Jennifer and Amy Richards, “Third Wave Manifesta,” Chpt. 100 in K and B. View the two monologues from the Vagina Monologues found in Course Documents.

Visit:  Third Wave Foundation

Guerrilla Girls

V-Day Foundation

Lecture Note Links:  The Third Wave

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading of Third Wave Feminism:   According to Brunell, what distinguishes the Third Wave from other waves of feminism? Describe Baumgardner and Richards’ Third Wave Manifesta? Do you identify as a Third Wave feminist? Why or why not?  What does the Third Wave have in common with the first two waves of organized feminism?  What is different about it, in your opinion? Is post-structuralism part of Third Wave feminism?  Why or why not?

 

Topic 5.2:  Post-Structuralism, Post-Modernism, Queer Theory

Reading:  Scott, Joan A., “Deconstructing Equality-versus-Difference: or, The Uses of Post-Structuralist Theory for Feminism; Wittig, Monique. "The Straight Mind,” Chpt.  70 in K and B; Judith Butler, excerpt from Gender Trouble, Chpt. 89 in K and B.

 

Lecture Note Links:  Post-Structuralism, Post-Modernism/Queer Theory

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading of Scott:  What is post-structuralism?  What are the elements of the post-structuralist approach that Scott lists?  Why are these particular strategies helpful to the feminist cause?

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading of Wittig:  Can Wittig’s approach be characterized as post-structuralist?  How/why?  What post-structuralist conventions does she use?  What other kind of feminist theories/methods are evident in her writings?  What is semiology/semiotics?  What is the difference between language/words and signs?  How can women be signs?  What is the “Structural Unconscious?”   What is discourse as she uses the word?  What does she mean by discourses of heterosexualty?  What do these discourses do?  How is a discourse different from an ideology?  How is pornography a discourse?  What does it do as such?  What is the straight mind?  How is the straight mind produced? She asserts that “it has been accepted in recent years that there is no such thing as nature, that everything is culture” (345).  What theorists we’ve read would disagree with this?  Do you agree that there is no such thing as nature?  What does it mean to say that “when thought by the straight mind, homosexuality is nothing but heterosexuality?” (345)  What other theorist we’ve read talked about difference and dominance?  Are they making the same point?

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading of Butler:  What does it mean for gender to be “performative” in Butler’s theory?  How, according to Butler, can we create “gender trouble”?   Can you give some examples of people in the public eye who cause gender trouble? What does it mean to be “queer” according to queer theorists?  What is the difference between identifying as queer and identifying as gay or lesbian?  What does it mean to offer a queer analysis of a text?  

 

Topic 5.3  Intersectionality and a Critique Standpoint Theory

Reading:  “Intersections of Race, Class and Gender,” pp. 49-50 in K and B; review Harding; Gloria Anzuldua, “La Conciencia de la Mestiza:  Towards a New Consciousness,” Chpt. 80 in K and B; and Patricia Hill Collins, “From Black Feminist Thought,” Chpt. 90 in K and B.

 

Lecture Note Links:  Intersectionality, Multiculturalism, Black Feminist Thought and Standpoint Theory

 

Questions to Guide Your Reading:  What is mestiza consciousness (la conciencia de la mestiza) described by Anzuldua?  What shapes this consciousness?  How does it come about?  What does Anzuldua say about duality, subject-object?  What is machismo, according to Anzuldua, what are its origins/causes?  How does homosexuality function in Anzuldua’s consciousness/identity/experience?  How does she celebrate her Chicana identity? What is the Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology suggested by Hill Collins?  How does Alarcon problematize the concept of “standpoint”?

 

Take Week 5 Quiz Between Friday at noon and Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

 

Week 6:  Writing your paper

This week is devoted solely to the task of writing your paper.  Papers are due by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 10.  Please do not hesitate to email Dr. Brunell with questions that arise along the way.