Final room schedule

Weekday class: Our final is Monday, 6/9 1:30pm-3:30pm in M330

Friday class: Our final is Friday, 6/6 6:30pm-8:30pm in our regular class room

Both classes must BRING SHARPENED, #2 PENCILS since we will be utilizing scantrons.

Note on tardiness:
Being late to the final exam will not be tolerated. If you are more than 15 minutes late, you may forfeit your right to take the exam.

Weekday class: I need your scantrons!

If you have not yet given me your scantron, I need it! Your grade will say '0' on Blackboard until I have your score.

Also, if you missed the second half of the exam, you need to make it up Monday.

"Motherhood Manifesto" Study guide

Is here.

In lieu of the incident at UC Santa Barbara

If you did not hear about the incident at UC Santa Barbara, please read about it here. Also:

Rape Myths and Facts - Read this

When Women Refuse...-Glance through this


Think about the world we live in, and how it must feel to be a woman in this world. Think about privilege and patriarchy, and what you can do to change it.

Final exam

Friday class will also need to study this guide for their final exam.

Review:
Transnational Feminism
Chimamanda Adiche
Koedt
Sex Positive Feminism 101
Bechdel Test
Carol Queen (handout from class)
Andrea Dworkin (handout from class)
Rape culture
"Motherhood Manifesto"
sexuality

Weekday class ONLY

Please bring your scantrons to class on Thursday! I misplaced the grade sheet I wrote your scores on. I need to see the actual scantrons to give you the right grade.

HW #10

Weekday class: Due Tuesday 5/20
Friday class: Due 5/21

Part 1:
“Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” Homework Questions

Read this essay and answer the following questions.

1.  What is “the myth” of the vaginal orgasm?  Who “created” this myth and what was the reasoning behind it?

2.  Do a little bit of research on Dr. Freud and his attitudes toward women.  Summarize your findings in 6-8 sentences (remember to cite any direct quotations!).

3.  Explain women’s role in keeping this myth “alive”.   Why do they do it?  What is at risk if this myth is perpetuated?

4.  Do you consider this essay “radical” in nature?  How do you think it was received when it was written?  What was going on the U.S. when this essay was published, (don’t know when it was published?  Find out!)

Part 2:
Please read: "Towards my personal Sex-Positive Feminist 101". 

Think about the following examples from the article.  Does the article "Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm" have any of the examples?  How? 

1) Desire is complicated, and people are different.

2)  Historically, sex has usually been defined in terms of two things: (a) reproduction, and (b) the sexual pleasure of stereotypical men.

3) Women are expected to trade sex to men in exchange for support or romance.

4) Since stereotypical men have historically been much freer to explore their sexuality than people of other genders, the desires of stereotypical men have formed the pattern for “liberated sexuality”.

5).  What do YOU think of "sex positive feminism"?

Weekday class only: short exam review

Please bring a #2 pencil(s) to class, already sharpened!

Review the following:
"Tough Guise"
Gloria Steinem's "Supremacy Crimes"
Power/Control Wheel / Healthy Relationships
Issues with satire (Leslie Jones, Richard Pryor, etc)

My response to all of this tummy-tuck nonsense

NYT "The Baremidriff" article

Muffin Top
My muffin top is all that
Whole grain, low fat
I know you wanna piece of that
But I just wanna dance

Ch-checking out my sweet hips
My sugar coated berry lips
I know you wanna get with this
But I'm just here to dance

So back up off of me
You're weirding me out

Everyone knows the most delicious
Part of the muffin is the top

My muffin top is all that
Whole grain, low fat
I know you wanna piece of that
But I just wanna dance

Ch-checking out my sweet hips
My sugar coated berry lips
I know you wanna get with this
But I'm just here to dance

So back up off of me
You're weirding me out

I'm an independent lady
So do not try to play me
I run a tidy bakery
The boys all want my cake for free
But if you can't shake your fakery
Then kiss my muffin top

Checking out my sweet hips
My sugar coated berry lips
I know you wanna get with this
But I'm just here to dance
Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/30-rock/muffintop-lyrics/#iTxyz4lxfWxaW3Rp.99

Final exam schedule

Weekday class: Monday 6/9; 1:30pm-3:30pm
Room: TBA

Friday class: Friday 6/6; 6:30pm-8:30pm
Regular classroom

Wish your moms, grandmamas, mothers of your children a Happy Mother's Day!

Professor Valle and her mamma.

HW #9-Reading and Discussion only, you will not need to turn this in

Weekday class: Due Monday, 5/12
Friday class: Due 5/16

Transnational Feminism

Read the following website on Transnational Feminism. Please be sure to watch the videos as well, because it will help put the website into context.

Now read about the controversial Russian activist group, Pussy Riot here and here and why their protest is so important.

Be prepared do discuss the following questions in class:

1. Define "transnational feminism"? Why is it so important?

2. How can we apply Transnational Feminism to Pussy Riot's struggles? What do you think of how the Russian government has dealt with Pussy Riot's activism? Would an organization like Pussy Riot be incarcerated for their actions here in the United States? Why or why not?

3. What other global issues should we examine through a Transnational lens?

We will read the following essay, "Critical Transnational Feminist Praxis" by M. Jaqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, in class, but take a look at it beforehand and become acquainted with it.

HW #8

Weekday class due 5/8
Friday: TBA

Read the following excerpt about feminist standpoint theory (below). And watch this video on Sarah Baartman

Set a timer and write for 10 minutes without stopping. Explain how any or all of these pieces affected you (Sarah Baartman piece, the Leslie Jones piece, the Russian woman piece, the Richard Pryor and the Archie Bunker piece).


Feminist Standpoint theory
Feminist standpoint theorists make three principal claims: (1) Knowledge is socially situated. (2) Marginalized groups are socially situated in ways that make it more possible for them to be aware of things and ask questions than it is for the non-marginalized. (3) Research, particularly that focused on power relations, should begin with the lives of the marginalized. Feminist standpoint theory, then, makes a contribution to epistemology, to methodological debates in the social and natural sciences, to philosophy of science, and to political activism. It has been one of the most influential and debated theories to emerge from second-wave feminist thinking. Feminist standpoint theories place relations between political and social power and knowledge center-stage. These theories are both descriptive and normative, describing and analyzing the causal effects of power structures on knowledge while also advocating a specific route for enquiry, a route that begins from standpoints emerging from shared political struggle within marginalized lives. Feminist standpoint theories emerged in the 1970s, in the first instance from Marxist feminist and feminist critical theoretical approaches within a range of social scientific disciplines. They thereby offer epistemological and methodological approaches that are specific to a variety of disciplinary frameworks, but share a commitment to acknowledging, analyzing and drawing on power/knowledge relationships, and on bringing about change which results in more just societies. Feminist scholars working within a number of disciplines—such as Dorothy Smith, Nancy Hartsock, Hilary Rose, Sandra Harding, Patricia Hill Collins, Alison Jaggar and Donna Haraway—have advocated taking women’s lived experiences, particularly experiences of (caring) work, as the beginning of scientific enquiry. Central to all these standpoint theories are feminist analyses and critiques of relations between material experience, power, and epistemology, and of the effects of power relations on the production of knowledge.

Oooooohhh boy! Let's talk about this in class.

Weekday class: for Tuesday 5/6
Friday class: for 5/9

Read this article on SNL's subversive act in the 1970s, and read the text of the Richard Pryor/Chevy Chase sketch. Here is a link to the actual sketch.

Also, if you didn't read/watch this already, be sure to look at Leslie Jones' Weekend Update appearance on SNL. Also think about the Russian character. There is a lot happening in the first 8 minutes of this sketch.

Please read this article and be prepared to discuss in our next class

In Turkey, Women Shame Male Passengers With 'Close Your Legs' Twitter Campaign

Women around the world groaned in recognition when a Twitter campaign against men who violate women's personal space on public transport took off in Turkey last week.

The 'Close Your Legs' campaign was an initiative of the Istanbul Feminist Collective (IFK) to highlight harassment in public places. In response, countless women shared photos of leg-spreading offenders on buses and trains and the hashtags #bacaklarinitopla (“Close Your Legs”) and #yerimisgaletme (“Don’t Occupy My Space”) started trending on Twitter, according to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.

The New York Times noted that the campaign poster uses a picture from the New York subway, highlighting that men who spread out in public live everywhere. In fact, there's a whole "Men Taking Up Too Much Space On The Subway" Tumblr account documenting worldwide offenders.

While some of the women participating in the campaign described harassers deliberately violating their personal space, sociologists note that even on a subconscious level, gender stereotypes impact men and women's body language in public places.

As one Turkish activist from IFK told the website Bianet: "This situation is just men ignoring women and believing they own all public spaces. Trying to have the majority space is completely related to desire of power."

The outpouring of "Close Your Legs" tweets last week also served as a pointed reminder of the futility of Turkish Prime Minster Tayyip Erdogan's efforts to block Twitter in the country. After briefly disrupting the service last month, a Turkish court ordered it back online on April 3, saying the ban breached constitutional guarantees on free speech.