Topics in Feminist Theory

PS 410/510

Spring 08

Thurs 2-4:50pm, Rm PLC 905

______________________________________________________________________________

Professor Priscilla Yamin

Office: PLC 916

Pyamin@uoregon.edu

Phone: 346-4879

Office Hours: Tuesday 1 – 4pm

Course Description

There are many different approaches to feminism; this course looks at the relationship between feminism, gender, and the state. In particular, it addresses questions such as: to what degree is gender oppression the result of action or inaction by the state? Can the state offer potential solutions to relieve or eliminate it? While the scope of this course is necessarily limited, we will see that there is a great deal of diversity in feminism and feminists do not always see eye to eye on what it means to be a man or woman, the source of gender oppression, the solution—if any—to oppression, and the place of the state in women’s lives.

This course is divided into four sections. The first introduces a variety of feminisms: liberal, socialist, cultural, women of color, and postmodern. The remaining three sections focus on the theme of regulating gender: bodies, political lives, and social identity. In each of these, we will be looking at contemporary (and often contentious) debates in feminism.

Texts

There is one required text for this course. The book, bell hooks Feminist Theory from Margin to Center (1984 or 2000) is available for purchase at the University Bookstore. The rest of the required reading materials will be posted on the course’s Blackboard website. These readings may be downloaded from the Blackboard site each week.

Important Note: This syllabus is subject to change as the course progresses. These periodic changes will be announced in class and a current copy of the syllabus will always be posted on the course Blackboard website. You should make sure your current email is linked to the Blackboard system and check email and Blackboard regularly for these updates.

Course Requirements

The focus of this course will be intensive reading and discussion of upper-level material.

1. 60 percent of grade: Weekly response papers (2 pages each), due at the beginning of class on Mondays. These papers should be more than summaries of the week’s readings, but rather evidence of your engagement with the reading. Papers are due for weeks 2-10. You can miss one week’s paper for the quarter, so you will turn in eight papers in all. These will be graded and returned each week. Any papers turned in late will result in a ½ grade reduction per day.

2. 30 percent of grade: One in-class presentation of the readings. In the presentation, which should be roughly ten minutes in length, you must present the key arguments of the reading, offer your OWN critical perspective on it, and link it to themes discussed in the course so far.

3. 10 percent of the grade: Seminar participation. This includes being prepared to discuss the readings in class, engaging in active and thoughtful discussion and listening respectfully. You are required to bring a copy of the day's readings to class, and you need to make sure you have read that day’s readings in advance of class so that you can intelligently discuss them.

Please note that “active and thoughtful” participation is in no way limited to providing “correct answers” to questions; rather, it means any participation in discussion that is a sincere attempt to come to terms with the material and/or advance the class’s consideration of the issue at hand. Such attempts may include raising your own questions about the text, pointing out connections that you see, responding to another student’s comments, and so forth.

“Listening respectfully” means taking the texts’ and other students’ ideas seriously, and making an honest effort to understand their basis, even when those ideas are not agreeable to you. Listening respectfully also applies to yourself; it means taking your own ideas seriously, and speaking them when appropriate, while allowing your ideas to develop over time, and while pursuing an understanding of their basis.

4. PS 510 Requirements for graduate students are similar to the above but also

includes additional readings, lead discussion for one seminar class and a short

paper. See me for details.

Class Policies

1. CLASSROOM CONDUCT: We are all accountable to create a climate of mutual respect in the classroom. While differences of opinion and perspective are vital and will be encouraged, common courtesy as well as University policy prohibit personal attacks and discriminatory conduct.

2. READING: This is a reading intensive course. Students must come to class having read all the assigned materials and prepared to engage in active discussion.

3. RE-GRADING OF ASSIGNMENTS: You may request the re-grading of a graded materials in this course. Students who wish to have materials re-graded may choose to do so if the following steps are taken:

-Student must wait at least 24 hours.

-Student must read through the assignment thoroughly before requesting a

re-grade.

-Student must provide a written statement of why he or she would like the

exam re-graded, which will be turned in with the original exam.

-The grade on the exam may be raised, lowered, or left the same.

4. EMAIL CORRESPONDANCE: Please identify yourself and the name of our course in all correspondence with the instructor. Do not expect an immediate response to your email—it is not appropriate to ask a question about an exam on the night before it is to be taken.

5. ELECTRONIC DEVICES. Wireless devices including Blackberries and cell phones must be turned off prior to class. I strongly prefer that laptops not be used during class, you must see me personally if you would like to be exempted from this rule.

6. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY AND PLAGIARISM. All work in this course must be your own and produced exclusively for this course. The use of sources (ideas, quotations, paraphrases) must be properly acknowledged and documented. For the consequences of academic dishonesty, refer to the Schedule of Classes published quarterly. Violations will be taken seriously and are noted on student disciplinary records. If you are in doubt regarding the requirements, please consult with the instructor before you complete any requirement of the course. Please review the University’s policies at: http://studentlife.uoregon.edu/judicial/conduct/sai.htm

7. DISABILITY SERVICES. If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, please make arrangements to meet with me soon. Please bring a notification letter from Disability Services outlining your approved accommodations. For information on Disability Services, go to http://ds.uoregon.edu/DS_home.html

Course Plan

I. Introduction to Feminist Theory: Women, Men and the State

In this section, we will look at several approaches to feminism. For each one, try to answer the following questions and compare with the other approaches

• What does it mean to be a woman? To be a man?
• Are women and men different?
• What causes women’s subordination? How much of that is due to action or inaction by the state?
• What is the right path to eliminating subordination? How large a role should the state play in it?

Week One : Course Introduction

Kate Dube. 2004. “What Feminism Means to Today’s Undergraduates.” (handout)

Harvey Mansfield. 2003. “The Manliness of Men.” The American Enterprise: 14, 6. p. 32. (handout)

Lecture on-campus: Reasoning from Race: Legal Feminism in the Civil Rights Era, Serena Mayeri, Professor University of Pennsylvania Law School

Week Two: Liberal Feminism

-John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (chapters 1, 4)

-Susan Moller Okin, “John Stuart Mill, Liberal Feminist”

-Martha Nussbaum. 2000. Selections from “In Defense of Universal Values”

For 510:

-Mary Wollstonecraft, “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”

-Carol Pateman, The Sexual Contract

Week Three: Marxist and Socialist Feminism/ A Few Words About Cultural Feminism

-Margaret Bentson. 1969. “The Political Economy of Women’s Liberation”

-Heidi Hartmann, “The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Toward a More Progressive Union.”

-Carol Gilligan. 1977. “In a Different Voice: Women’s Conceptions of Self and Morality.”

For 510:

-Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “Origins of Family, Private Property and the State”

Week Four: Feminisms and Women of Color

-bell hooks. 1984/2000. “Feminist Theory from Margin to Center.” Chapters 1-4

-Kimberle Crenshaw. 1997. “Intersectionality and Identity Politics: Learning from Violence against Women of Color.”

-Maria C. Lugones and Elizabeth Spellman. 1983. “Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism and the Demand for ‘The Women’s Voice.’”

For 510:

-Patricia Hill Collins, The Politics of Black Feminist Thought

-Shane Phelan, Getting Specific

Week Five: Postmodern Feminism

-Linda Nicholson and Steven Seidman. 1995. “Introduction.”

-Jane Flax. 1987. “Postmodernism and Gender Relations in Feminist Theory.”

-Judith Butler, “Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of “Postmodernisn”

-Sharon Marcus. 1992. “Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention.”

For 510:

-Joan Scott, “Experience”

-Nancy Fraser, “From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a Post-Socialist Age”

II. Regulating the Body

Shifting gears, we will now start the first of three sections looking at contemporary debates in feminist theory. In this first section, we will be looking at controversies surrounding who controls women’s bodies, how they do it, and why. For each issue we cover, think about the following:

• Are women’s bodies treated differently than men’s? If yes, why?
• How does the regulation of women’s bodies either subordinate or liberate women?
• How are these regulations tied with larger ideas about what “womanhood” or “manhood” means?
• How might some of the feminist approaches we looked at in section one respond to these debates?

Week Six: Reproduction

-Nancy Langston. 2003. “Gender Transformed: Endocrine Disruptors in the

Environment.” (This is a very interesting read despite the dry title.)

-Eileen McDonagh. 1996. “From Choice to Consent in the Abortion Debate.”

-Drucilla Cornell. 1995. “Bodily Integrity and Abortion.”

-Susan Bordo. 1993. “Are Mother’s Persons? Reproductive Rights and the Politics of

Subjectivity.”

-Patricia Bayer Richard. 1995. “The Tailor-Made Child: Implications for Women and the State.”

-Dorothy Roberts. 1997. “Making Reproduction a Crime.”

For 510:

-Denise Riley, Am I That Name? Feminism and the Category of “Women”

Week Seven:

Pornography

-Catharine MacKinnon. “Not a Moral Issue” and “Pornography: On Morality and

Politics”

-Wendy Brown. 2000. “The Mirror of Pornography.”

Female Genital Surgeries

-Susan Levine. 2000. “Determined to Spare Their Daughters: Mother Faces Deportation Despite Mutilation Fear.”

-Yael Tamir. 1996. “Hands off Clitoridectomy.” And responses.

-Chandra Mohanty. 1988. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse”

-Stanlie James. 1998. “Shades of Othering: Reflections on Female Circumcision/Genital Mutilation.”

III. Regulating Men’s and Women’s Political Lives

We now turn to contemporary debates about women’s political lives: whether family is empowering or oppressive; what citizenship means; and how welfare affects the lives of those who receive it. While some of these topics may seem “private” and non-political, we will examine the extent to which the state is involved in creating and maintaining each. The central questions for this section include:

• How is the state involved in family, citizenship, and welfare?
• Does the state’s involvement enhance or restrict freedom?
• Is there any alternative to state involvement? If so, what?
• Is it possible to divorce our political lives from our bodies or are they inherently tied together?

Week Eight: Marriage and Family

-bell hooks. 1984/2000. “Revolutionary Parenting.”

-Susan Moller Okin. 1989. “Vulnerability by Marriage.”

-Jean Bethke Elshtain. 1995. “Family, Feminism, and Community.”

-Martha Fineman. 1995. “The Sexual Family” and “Re-Visioning”

-Patricia Hill Collins. 1999. “Producing Mothers of the Nation: Race, Class, and

Contemporary U.S. Population Policies.”

For 510:

-Joan Tronto, Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for the Ethics of Care

Week Nine: Citizenship

-Uma Narayan. 1997. “Toward a Feminist Vision of Citizenship. Rethinking the Implications of Dignity, Political Participation and Nationality”

-Iris Marion Young. 1998. “Polity and Group Difference: A Critique of the Ideal of Universal Citizenship.”

-Mary Dietz. 1987. “Context is All: Feminism and Theories of Citizenship.”

-Marguerite Guzman Bouvard. 1994. “The Mother’s of the Plaza de Mayo”

-Dorothy Roberts. 1997 “Who May Give Birth to Citizens? Reproduction, Eugenics, and Immigration.”

-Nira Yuval Davis. 1996. “Women and the Biological Reproduction of the Nation.”

-Ruth Seifert, “The Second Front: The Logic of Sexual Violence in Wars.”

IV. Regulating Identity

In this final section on contemporary issues, we examine the relationship between sex, gender, and sexuality.

• Is there a useful distinction between sex and gender? If yes, what is it? If not, why not?
• Does Butler offer a real possibility for women or is her argument “feminism for academicians”?

Week Ten: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

-Judith Butler. 1990. “Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire.”

-Tina Chanter. 2000. “Gender Aporias.”

-Iris Marion Young. 1995. Gender as Seriality

-Monique Wittig. “One is Not Born a Woman.”

-Mary McIntosh. “Queer Theory and the War of the Sexes.”

For 510:

-Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body

V. Conclusion

There is no simple consensus in feminist theory. Postmodernists and women of color have challenged assumptions about what it means to be a woman. Further, the theorists we have read have very different ideas about what action feminists should take. In the final class, we review who constitutes the “we” in feminism and what actions we might take.

Wrap-up