Office Hours: MWF 2-4 and by Appointment

WMNS 330

Feminist Theory

Fall 2006

Laurie Finke

Wing 202

Office Hours: MWF 2-4 and by appointment

PBX: 5829

Email:

Course Objectives:

This course will have as its major objective the consideration of only one question: What are the mechanisms by which social changes occur? To answer this question we will consider a series of feminist "frameworks" which suggest how gender relations have in the past been and currently are unequal and oppressive and offer suggestions on how to make them more equal. We will consider the explanatory power of various feminist theories in terms of how they account not only for oppressive social relations, but for liberatory social change as well. Class work will focus on placing each of these frameworks within their specific historical contexts.

Please bear in mind that theory is difficult. You may not understand every word you read. Please try not to become too frustrated by this. Put forth your best effort to understand these various theories in terms of where you are. I do understand that you will not necessarily master every concept in the class. I will try to evaluate your work based on the progress you make from where you start.

This class satisfies a requirement for the Women's and Gender Studies concentration. For more information contact Laurie Finke at

Class Format:

It is my desire that the class be student driven rather than instructor driven. We are here, finally, to answer your questions not mine; so that you might better understand the debates in feminist theory. There is no coverage requirement in this course; there will be no tests. You will learn from me but also from each other and from rigorously engaging the material; the objective of the course is for us to construct knowledge collaboratively. Therefore, lectures by the instructor will be kept to a minimum. This means that if you have a question and you want a lecture, the responsibility is yours to ask for it. Otherwise, the class will focus on discussion of materials, small group discussions, writing and the sharing of writing, and group presentations of material.

Study Guides: The primary means by which we will construct knowledge is the study guide. We will put one together for every class using the segue class site (segue.kenyon.edu). Every class three people will be assigned to a different piece of the study guide for that class. You will enter your own piece into the appropriate place on segue and when complete it will be available to every student in the class. A schedule of assignments and instructions are forthcoming once enrollment has stabilized.

Required Texts:

Kolmar and Bartkowski, Feminist Theory: A Reader

Echols, Daring to Be Bad

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland

Pateman, The Disorder of Women

Brown, States of Injury

Lanham, Revising Prose

Other reading on reserve or electronic links as assigned

Tentative Course Schedule

Please bear in mind that a student driven class may require changes in this schedule from time to time so keep yourself up to date about daily reading assignments. If you miss class you are responsible for any changes in the syllabus announced during that class.

What is Theory and How do We Study It?

29-Aug Introduction, What is Theory, Learning about Theory

31-Aug Heuristics and current debates: Readings "Lexicon of the Debates" (FT 42-58); Jeffrey Williams; Treichler and Kramarae (7), Walker (11), hooks (36);

5-Sept Ellen Messer-Davidow, “Know-How”(handout), Pateman, Introduction

Question #1: Is the current relationship between the public and private spheres the only possible way to structure social relations or are there alternatives?

Liberal Feminism: Feminism and the State, Part I

7-Sept First Wave: Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mills, Harriett Taylor

12-Sept The American First Wave: Stanton "Seneca Falls" "Destructive Male,” “The Solitude of the Self,” “Woman Suffrage” FT 71, Soujourner Truth 79, Pateman 3-4

14-Sept The Second and Third Waves: Betty Friedan, FT 198, NOW FT 211; Bethune 140; Kennedy 169; Riott Grrrls, 532; Baumgardner and Richards 568, Pateman 6 and 8

Sept 18 Paper on Early Feminist Thinker Due

Existential Feminism

19-Sept Simone de Beauvoir, FT 175 and The Second Sex; Pateman 9

Socialist/Marxist Feminism

21-Sept Classic statements: Gilman, Herland, Marx, Communist Manifesto Engles, FT 100; Kollontai, FT 126: Alternative: Woolf, “Three Guineas” and Queenie Leavis, “Caterpillars of the Commonwealth Unite”

25-Sept Midterm Exam due

26-Sept Hartman, “Uneasy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism,” 356

Question #2: Should feminism think of the differences between the sexes as being somehow “essential” or are they socially constructed, or something between the two things?

Radical Feminism

28-Sept Echols, 1-2; from Notes From the First Year Koedt, Gabree; Millett FT 218; Firestone, FT 224, on transnational liberation movements (TBA)

1-Oct Film Screening: Battle of Algiers

3-Oct Echols 3-5; Solanis, SCUM Manifesto, Joreen, Bitch Manifesto(213), Redstocking Manifesto FT 220

5-Oct Echols 5-6; Radicallesbians FT 239, Koedt, 227, Murray 232, Mary Ann Weathers, Mirta Vidal

6-Oct Proposal and Bibliography for Social Change Paper Due

Oct. 9-10 October Reading Days

Cultural Feminism

12-Oct Ortner 243; Lakoff 262, MacKinnon 475, Chodorow 322, Gilligan 368

Question #3: How does feminism recognize the differences among women –of race, class, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, age, abilities—without hypostasizing them into separate identities?

This Bridge Called My Back and Its Legacy: Intersection Theory

17-Oct Readings from This Bridge We Call Home

19-Oct Readings from BWCH

24-Oct Readings from BWCH

23 Oct Short Paper due on This Bridge Called My Back

Question #4: Who is the subject of feminism? How is that subject constructed by the discourses of feminist theory? Are there individuals who cannot be the subject of feminism?

Introduction to Structuralism and Post-Structuralism

26-Oct Gayle Rubin, “Traffic in Women”

Structuration Theory: How to Do Things with PoMo

31-Oct Anthony Giddens (Handout)

2-Nov. Anthony Giddens

Required Attendance at Founders’ Day

6-Nov Founders’ Day Essay Due

PostStructuralism

7-Nov. Freud and Lacan

9-Nov. Derrida and Foucault

14-Nov Queer Theory

16-Nov. Cultural Studies

18-Nov. -27 Nov. Thanksgiving Break

Rough Draft for Social Change Paper Due either before or after, your choice

28-Nov. Science: Barad

Question #5: Can we make values judgments about cultural differences and, if so, how do we do it without imposing Eurocentric values on those cultures?

30-Nov. Transnational Feminism

5-Dec. Transnational Feminism

Feminism and the State, Part II

7-Dec. Brown, States of Injury

12-Dec. Brown, States of Injury

Day of Final Exam: Final Social Change Paper Due

Course Requirements:

You will not pass this course unless all required work has been and turned in. These include:

Quizzes

Study Guides

3 Short Papers

Midterm

Social Change Paper

For help in the research process, in locating information, evaluating, making effective use of, and citing that information please consult the Five Colleges of Ohio Information Literacy Tutorial.

For a discussion of the evaluative criteria used for grading papers in this course, click here.

For a list of common grammatical errors, click here.