The University of Lethbridge
Faculty of Arts & Science - Department of Sociology
Sociology 5990
Fall, 2007 – Tuesdays and Thursdays, 13:40 – 14:55, Room TH377
Sociology of Sex, Sexuality & Gender
Professor: Dr. Claudia Malacrida Office hours:
Office: C890 Thurs. 3 p.m.
Telephone: 329-2738 Wed. 1-2 p.m.
Fax: (403) 329-2085 or by appointment
Email: claudia.malacrida@uleth.ca
COURSE OVERVIEW:
This course will provide an introduction to some recent sociological thinking about sex, sexuality & gender (SSG) as practices and as social constructs: in short, we will examine SSG as a set of experiences and institutions. As well, we will explore some of the social, cultural and historical processes that shape our understandings of SSG. Particular attention will be paid to that which is perceived to be “natural” and “normal,” the assumptions underlying social understandings of gender practice, and the implications of those assumptions for social change.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
This course will offer students the opportunity to critically reflect on what it means to talk about sex, sexuality or gender, to explore complexity and diversity in gender roles, sexual practices, identities, politics and experiences. Students will consider the ways that social processes and institutions shape our ideas and practices relating to sexuality, sex, desire, gender and identity. As well, students will be encouraged to understand the ways that power and oppression are attached to social constructions of SSG.
REQUIRED TEXTS
1. Custom Courseware, Selected Readings for Soci 4850. (Available in the Bookstore).
2. History of Sexuality: An Introduction by Michel Foucault
3. Making Work, Making Trouble: Prostitution as a Social Problem by Deborah Brock
ATTENDANCE & ETTIQUETTE
This course is structured as a seminar, so your attendance and preparedness to discuss course materials are essential. Students will be expected to participate in class discussions, identify key issues in the readings, and evidence a willingness to intellectually engage with the materials. You are invited to ask questions, raise relevant points of view, and give examples where appropriate. You are advised that some of the materials covered in this course are controversial and sexually explicit. If you are not comfortable viewing, discussing and thinking about this type of material, it is suggested that you not continue with this class.
To encourage open discussion each class member, as the basis of their participation, will agree to the following guidelines:
a. We acknowledge that racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism and ethnocentrism exist.
b. We are not to blame for theses “isms” in Canadian culture, but we ARE responsible for examining our attitudes and actions based upon them.
c. We will not use racist, sexist, classist, heterosexist and ethnocentric language or ideas to convey our points.
d. We will share information and insights in ways that do not demean, devalue or leave others feeling unsafe.
e. We will comply with a class member’s requests that their comments will not repeated outside of the classroom. This space must be safe for all members to exchange information and ideas.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
a. Analytic Book Reviews (2 @ 25% each) 50%
b. Seminar Presentation and Written Critique/Report
(1 presentation @ 20%) 20%
DUE: History of Sexuality – October 9th
Making Work – November 13th
c. Research essay 30%
DUE: Last class, December 6, 2002.
Students are responsible for all readings specified in the course outline, as well as all lecture materials (including films, guest speakers, etc.). A passing grade in this course requires that all assignments be completed.
a. Short Analytic Papers
Students will provide a written review of 2 books throughout the term, with the above due dates. These reviews should be 15 pages lng (typed, double-spaced font of 12)). Because these papers are conceived as contributing toward your own research proposal, this review should bemroe than a simple summary of thecore concepts in the books. In addition, you are encouraged to draw critical connections between the reading and your own proposed research directions. This may mean applying concepts to your proposed research topic, or discussing why such application may not be chosen.
b. Presentation and Written Critique/Report
Each student will present one reading for seminar discussion and will, in addition, provide a written report on that reading. Written reports should be no longer than 9 pages typed, double spaced, with font size 12. They are due the Tuesday of the week of your presentation. You oral presentation should be about 20-25 minutes long. This presentation will form the basis for class discussion of the readings.
Your presentation of the readings and your write up should clearly and briefly summarize the main points, and reflect critically on the material. This involves identifying those taken-for-granted assumptions about heterosexuality, gender normativity, and seemingly ‘natural’ splits between male/female, masculine/feminine, gay/straight, for example that are challenged (or not) by the authors. In other words, does the reading help one think about SSG in a different light, and if so, how? Are there important issues that go unaddressed? What questions for discussion does the material raise?
Research Essay
Each student will prepare an essay that is 15 pages (double spaced, using a font size of 12), not including references or title page. You will be required to integrate at least six refereed journal articles that are not part of your course materials as references for your paper (you may use course readings as references in addition to the six articles you have located yourself). This paper is due in class on Thursday, December 6th.
Explore one issue relevant to the social construction of gender, sex, and/or sexuality. Make connections between the political, historical, economic, or cultural and the personal. How does the social understanding and handling of the issue constrain or produce certain kinds of beliefs, understandings, identities and practices? What kind of ‘natural’ is produced? What interests are best served by this social construction? What interests are denied? Examine the transgressive/conservative aspects of the phenomenon, and explore the play of power that is contained within the issue.
NOTE: Any student who intends to engage in research/interviews/observations with human participants MUST have previous ethics clearance from the Sociology Ethics Review Committee.
Some possible research questions are outlined below. You may choose from this list or – perhaps even better – select your own topic. We will have a brief discussion of our topics in a later class to help ‘brainstorm.’
· Explore anti and pro-pornography arguments. What is the benefit of each argument? The risk? To whom?
· Write about the connection between sexual consumerism, objectification and violence.
· Why would transgender fit/not fit in the social and political GLB community? Discuss this from the viewpoint, for example, of gays, straights, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals and transgendered.
· Discuss the idea of a ‘third’ gender space in terms of the various trans groups (trans-vestites, -gendered, - sexuals). Speculate about how each group might challenge or shore up the gender status quo?
· Compare and contrast female circumcision and male circumcision. Do this within the context of geopolitics (cultural relativism versus ethnocentrism) and feminist ideas.
· What role has the medical/psychiatric community played in shoring up our ‘common sense’ belief in two sexes? Discuss the ethics, pro and con, of intervention with intersexed babies.
· What role has the medical/psychiatric community played in shoring up our ‘common sense’ belief in two genders? Discuss the notion of gender identity disorder as a psychiatric label and a treatment method.
· Explore the arguments for and against the idea of sex work as inherently exploitive. Underscore the potential gains or losses attached to understanding sex work as exploitation. Underscore the potential gains or losses attached to understanding sex work as a choice.
· Explore the privileges inherent in heterosexuality – legal, social, political. Conversely, examine the challenges and risks involved in transgressing heteronormativity.
· Discuss the implications of New Reproductive Technologies and ‘choice” and/or genetic screening.
Class Participation
Based on attendance and quality of class contributions.
COURSE GRADE ASSIGNMENT
Grade Percentage Grade Point Value and Description
A+ 90-100 4.0 Excellent
A 85-89 4.0
A- 80-84 3.7
B+ 77-79 3.3 Good
B 74-76 3.0
B- 70-73 2.7
C+ 67-69 2.3
C 64-66 2.0 Satisfactory
C- 60-63 1.7
D+ 56-59 1.3 Unsatisfactory
D 50-55 1.0
F 0-49 0 Fail
COURSE SCHEDULE:
The following is a tentative schedule of topics for class discussion, the accompanying readings, and the test and assignment timetable. This schedule may be changed if unforeseen circumstances arise.
Week Topic Readings, pages
Thurs., Sept. 6 Introduction to the course no readings required
Tues., Sept. 11 Uncoupling Sex/Gender/Sexuality Fausto-Sterling (2)
Katz
Tues., Sept 18 Heteronormativity, Homophobia Richardson
Nielsen
Franklin
Goldstein
Tues., Sept. 25 Heteronormative Violence Curry
Diken & Lausten
Tues., Oct. 2 Men’s Sexualities Candib & Schmitt
Hunter
Tues., Oct. 9 Women’s Sexualities Mellican
Sheehan
Martin
Tues., Oct. 16 Constructing/Limiting Desire HollandHamilton
Groneman
Tues., Oct. 22 Transgender Whittle
Feinberg (2)
Tues., Oct. 29 Sexuality & Commodification - Porn McElroy
Matrix
Kaminer
Jensen
Tues., Nov. 6 Sexuality & Commodification- Sex Work Brock
Brennan
Kempadoo
Tues., Nov. 13 Sexuality, Globalization, Colonialism Boddy
Gilman
Tues., Nov. 20 Sexuality & Bodily Boundaries Chase
Nelson
McWhirter & Weijer
Tues., Nov. 27 Sexuality & Difference Gerschick & Miller
Zitselberger
Tues. Dec. 4 Sexuality & Reproduction Pollitt
[RESEARCH ESSAY DUE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7TH – IN CLASS]
RESCHEDULING TESTS AND ASSIGNMENTS:
Students should note the regulations in the University of Lethbridge Calendar covering rescheduling examinations and tests. These regulations will also apply to tests and assignments in this class. Those who are unable on medical or other acceptable grounds to provide their presentation or hand in assignments at the time they are scheduled MUST notify the instructor that they will be absent, and MUST product medical certificates or other appropriate documentation when they come back to the class. Late presentations and assignments without appropriate documentation will have 10% deducted per day late; nonetheless, all assignments must be completed in order to achieve a passing grade in this course.
A student who is ill on the day of their reading presentation must leave a phone and/or email message for me prior to class, with as much advance notice as possible. A make-up presentation may be arranged in this case.
INTELLECTUAL HONESTY
Intellectual honesty is the cornerstone of the development and acquisition of knowledge and requires that the contribution of others be acknowledged. As a result, cheating or plagiarism on any assignment or examination are regarded as extremely serious academic offenses. Students are advised to consult the University Calendar, which presents a Statement of Intellectual Honesty, definitions of plagiarism, cheating and other academic misconduct, and the penalties associated with these offenses.
RETURN OF ASSIGNMENTS TO STUDENTS
Term assignments will be returned to students individually, during class, or during the instructor’s office hours; uncollected term assignments may be retrieved from the main Sociology office. For the final research paper, students may provide the instructor with a LARGE stamped, self-addressed envelope to be used for the return of the assignment.
It is the student’s responsibility to keep an extra copy of any assignments or papers handed in.
READINGS FOR SOCIOLOGY 4850 – FALL, 2007 1. Uncoupling Sex/Gender/Sexuality – Week of Sept. 11th
A. Fausto-Sterling, Anne (1993). The Five Sexes. The Sciences. March/April, 1993. 20-25.
And
Fausto-Sterling, Anne (2000). The Five Sexes, Revisited. The Sciences. 40(4) 18-24.
B. Katz, Jonathan Ned (1997). “Homosexual” and “heterosexual”: Questioning the Terms. A Queer World: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Martin Duberman, editor. New York: New York University Press. 177-180.C. Film: Anatomy of Desire
2. Heteronormativity, Homophobia – Week of Sept. 18th
A. Richardson, Diane (1996). Heterosexuality and social theory. Theorising Heterosexuality. Diane Richardson, editor. Philadelphia: Open University Press. 1-20.
B. Nielsen, Joyce McCarl, Glenda Walden and Charlotte A. Kunkel (2000). Gendered Heteronormativity: Empirical Illustrations in Everyday Life. The Sociological Quarterly, Spring, 4(2). 283-300.
C. Franklin, Karen (2000). Antigay Behaviors Among Young Adults: Prevalence, Patterns, and Motivators in a Noncriminal Population. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 15(4) 339-362. And
Goldstein, Richard (1998). The Hate That Makes Men Straight. Village Voice. 12/22/98 43(51). 64-67.
3. Heteronormative Violence – Week of September 25th – Papers Due
A. Curry, Timothy Jon (2001). Fraternal Bonding in the Locker Room: A Profeminist Analysis of Talk About Competition and Women. Men’s Lives (5th edition). Michael S. Kimmel and Michael A. Messner, editors. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. 188-201
B. Film: Dreamworlds
C. Diken, Bülent and Carsten Bagge Lausten (2005). “Becoming Abject: Rape as a Weapon of War.” Body & Society. 11(1). 111-128.
4. Men’s Sexuality – Week of October 2nd - Papers Due
- Candib, Lucy and Richard Schmitt (1996). About Losing It: the Fear of Impotence. Rethinking Masculinity: Philosophical Explorations in Light of Feminism (2nd edition). Larry May, Robert Strikwerda and Patrick D. Hopkins, editors. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 211-234.
B. Film: Sex, Drugs and Middle Age
C. Hunter, Allan (1993). “Same Door, Different Closet: A Heterosexual Sissy’s Coming-Out Party. In Heterosexuality: A Feminism and Psychology Reader. Sage: London. 150-168.
5. Women’s Sexuality – Week of October 9th – Papers Due
A. Mellican, Eugene R. (1995). Breast Implants, the Cult of Beauty, and a Culturally Constructed ‘Disease’. Journal of Popular Culture. Spring 28(4). 7-18
B. Sheehan, Elizabeth A. (1997). Victorian Clitoridectomy: Isaac Baker Brown and His Harmless Operative Procedure. The Gender Sexuality Reader: Culture, history, political economy. Roger N. Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo, editors. New York: Routledge. 325-334.
C. Martin, Emily (1992). Medical Metaphors of Women’s Bodies: Menstruation and Menopause. The Woman in the Body: A Cultural analysis of Reproduction. Boston: Beacon Press. 27-53.
6. Constructing/Limiting Desire – Week of October 16th – Papers DueA. Holland, Janet, Caroline Ramazanoglu and Rachel Thomson (2002). “In the Same Boat?” in Gender: A Sociological Reader, Stevi Jackson and Sue Scott, editors. 326-337.
B. Hamilton, Carol (2002). “Doing the Wild Thing: Supporting an Ordinary Sexual Life for People with Intellectual Disabilities.” Disability Studies Quarterly. 22(4). 40-58.
C. Groneman, Carol (19950. Nymphomania: The Historical Construction of Female Sexuality.” In Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives in Science and Popular Culture. Jennifer Terry & Jacqueline Urla, editors. Indiana University Press. Bloomington, Indiana. 219-149.
7. Transgender – Week of October 23rd – Papers DueA. Whittle, Stephen (1996). Gender Fucking or Fucking Gender?: Current cultural contributions to theories of gender blending. Blending Genders: Social Aspects of Cross-Dressing and Sex-Changing. Richard Ekins and Dave King, editors. New York: Routledge. 196-214.
B. Film: Adventures in the Gender Trade
C. Feinberg, Leslie (1996). Making History. And “Sisterhood: Make it Real.” Transgender Warrior: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. 109-119.
8. Sexuality and Commodification – Porn – Week of October 30th – Papers Due
A. McElroy, Wendy (1997). “A Feminist Defense of Pornography.” Free Inquiry. 17(4). Fall issue. Unpaginated.
And
Matrix, Cherie (1997). “Women and British Porn Laws.” Free Inquiry. 17(4). Fall issue. Unpaginated.
And
Kaminer, Wendy (2007). “Porn, Punishment and Hysteria” Free Inquiry. 27(4). June-July issue. Unpaginated.
B. Film: Give Me Your Soul
C. Jensen, Robert (2006). “Just a Prude? Feminism, Pornography, and Men’s Responsibility.” http://aspen.conncoll.edu/politicsandculture/page.cfm?key=527
Downloaded June 27, 2007. Politics & Culture. Issue 3. Unpaginated.
9. Sexuality and Commodification – Sex Work – Week of November 6th – Papers Due
A. Brock, Deborah (1998).”Sex Regulation and Sex Work.” In Making Work, Making Trouble: Prostitution as a Social Problem. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 3-24.
B. Brennan, Denise (2003). “Selling Sex for Visas: Sex Tourism as a Stepping-stone to International Migration.” In Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy. Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russel Hochschild, editors. 154-168.
C. Kempadoo, Kamala (1998). Introduction: Globalizing Sex Workers’ Rights. Global sex workers: Rights, resistance and redefinition. Kamala Kempadoo and Jo Doezma, editors. New York: Routledge. 1-28.
10. Sexuality, Globalization, Colonialism – Week of November 13th – Papers Due
A. Boddy, Janice (1997). Womb as Oasis: The Symbolic Context of Pharoanic Circumcision in Rural Northern Sudan. 309-324. The Gender Sexuality Reader: Culture, history, political economy. Roger N. Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo, editors. New York: Routledge. 309-324.
B. Discussion: Final Essay
C. Gilman, Sander (1985). The Hottentot and the Prostitute: Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality. Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race and Madness. Ithica, New York: Cornell University Press. 76-108
11. Sexuality & Bodily Boundaries – Week of November 20th – Papers Due
A. Chase, Cheryl (1998). Hermaphrodites with Attitude: Mapping the Emergence of Intersex Political Activism. GLQ, A Journal of Lesbian and Gay studies: The Transgender Issue. 4(2) 189-203.
B. Nelson, James L. (1998). The Silence of the Bioethicists: Ethical and Political Aspects of managing Gender Dysphoria. GLQ, A Journal of Lesbian and Gay studies: The Transgender Issue. 4(2) 213-230.
C. McWhirter, K.G. and J. Weijer (1969). “The Alberta Sterilization Act: A Genetic Critique” University of Toronto Law Journal. 19 (3) 424-431.
12. Sexuality and Difference – Week of November 27th – Papers Due
A.. Gerschick, Thomas J. and Adam Stephen Miller (2001). Coming to Terms: Masculinity and Physical Disability. Men’s Lives (5th edition). Michael S. Kimmel and Michael A. Messner, editors. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. 313-326.
B. Film: Towards Intimacy
C. Zitselberger, Hilde (2005). “(In)visibility: Accounts of Embodiment of Women with Physical Disabilities and Differences.” Disability & Society. 20 (4). 389-403.
13. Sexuality, Eugenics and Reproduction – Week of December 4th – Papers Due
A. Pollit, Katha (1998). “Fetal Rights”: A New Assault on Feminism. The Politics of Women’s Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance and Behavior. Rose Weitz, editor. New York: Oxford University Press. 278-287.
B. Film: Back-alley Detroit: Abortion Before Roe v. Wade