1

•  Tong, Introduction and Conclusion

Introductions

Discussion 

Notes

• Proceeds from the assumption that the first type of exploitation in human history was sexual exploitation of women
• Women should be in the control of means of reproduction
• Radical feminists tend to be skeptical of political action within the current system, and instead support cultural change that undermines patriarchy and associated hierarchical structures

Tong, chapter 2

• Redstockings Manifesto
• Combahee River Collective Statement . From the Black Feminist Reader.
• The SCUM Manifesto  
• interview of Mary Daly
• Andrea Dworkin, "Prostitution and Male Supremacy"
• Read 1 of the 27 poems by Adrienne Rich

Daring to be Bad, Radical Feminism in American, 1967-1975 is avaialble from Google Books

Discussion:

• Jan. 31: Tong pp.45-71

• Feb. 5: Tong pp. 105-129

• Feb. 7 Presentations

• Feb. 14

•  Radical Feminism paper due

Notes

• According to Marxist theory,  people's capacities, needs and interests are seen to be determined by the mode of production that characterises the society they inhabit.
• Marxist feminists see gender inequality as determined ultimately by the capitalist mode of production.
• Gender oppression is class oppression and women's subordination is seen as a form of class oppression.

Tong, Chpt 3

• "The Origins of the family, Private Property and the State" (read Introduction, the 2 prefaces, stages, the family)
• Choose one:
  • Kollantai "International Women's Day"
  • Emma Goldman, "The Tragedy of Women's Emancipation"
• Ehrenreich "What is Socialist Feminism?"
• Take the socialist feminist quiz

Discussion

• Feb. 12 Tong pp.94-105

• Feb. 14 Tong pp. 105-129

• Feb 19 presentations

• Feb. 26 Marxist/socialis feminism paper due

Notes

• gender is not biological but is based on the psycho-sexual development of the individual.
• gender inequality comes from early childhood experiences, which lead men to believe themselves to be masculine, and women to believe themselves feminine.
• a social system that is dominated by males, influences the individual psycho-sexual development.

• Tong, Chapter 4
•  PBS web site on Freud
• Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex (read Introduction, Preface, and 1 of the essays)
• Juliet Mitchell, "Women's Estate," 1971
• "Everybody's Mother is a Woman," 1990 review of Chodorow's Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory
• peruse Kate Millet's web site

Discussion

• Feb. 21 Tong pp. 130-154

• Feb. 26 Tong pp 154-172

• Feb. 28 Presentations

• Mar. 12 Psychoanalytic feminism paper due

Notes

• Women have become the “other” or object of men’s subjectivity. 
• Primarily due to one’s biology, women’s oppression consists of being denied transcendence and subjectivity.

• Tong: chapter 5
• Beauvoir Archive read the introduction and conclusion of Second Sex and the two interviews, 1963 and 1976.

Discussion

• Mar. 12 Tong pp. 173-189
• Mar. 14 Tong pp. 189-192

• Mar. 19 Presentations
• Mar 21 Existentialist feminism paper due

• human experience is located "inescapably within language." Power is exercised not only through direct coercion, but also through the way in which language shapes and restricts our reality.
• because language is always open to re-interpretation, it can also be used to resist this shaping and restriction, and so is a potentially fruitful site of political struggle
• Sex is not something natural, nor is it something completely determinate and definable.
• sexual difference  constrains but never completely determines what one can do with it.

• Tong: Chapter 6
• Stanford Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts. Helene Cixous
• Luce Irigary, This Sex Which is Not One, read Chapter 2
• peruse Julia Kristeva's web site

Discussion

• Mar. 21 Tong pp. 193-206
• Mar. 26 Tong pp. 206-211

• Mar. 28 Presentations
• April 2 Postmodern feminism paper due

Notes

• Multicultural feminism  focuses on the ways in which race, class, and gender intersect in women’s lives and to examine critically representations of women in  American culture .
• Postcolonial feminism argues that oppressions relating to the colonial experience, particularly racial, class, and ethnic oppressions, have marginalized women in postcolonial societies. They challenge the assumption that gender oppression is the primary force of patriarchy.

• Tong: Chapter 7
• From Gender Forum: "Key Issues in postcolonial Feminism: A Western Perspective"
• "Key concepts in Postcolonial feminism"
• peruse the Stockton Postcolonial Studies project  
• peruse: WomenWatch
• peruse African Gender Institute
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ7mmMe4klQ

Choose one:

• View at least  60 minutes of Judith Butler's videos
• Interview with Gloria Anzaldua
• Conversation with Patricia Hill Collins (video)

Discussion

• Apr. 2 Tong pp. 212-225

• Apr. 14 Tong pp.226-245

• Apr. 9 Presentations

• Apr. 11 Multicultural feminism paper due

Notes

• the oppression of women and nature as interconnected.

• Because of the close ties of nature and spirituality, goddess worship and the divine female are often tied to ecofeminism.

• Tong: Chapter 8
• Interview with Susan Griffin
• peruse: http://www.ecofem.org/
• Peruse Charlene Spretnak's webpage
• Ecofeminism Now, a video produced by Greta Gaard. a leading ecofeminist activist and scholar. Featuring interviews with many well-known ecofeminists.

Discussion