Introduction

This course focuses on gender as an organizing principle of societies, from the individual through families, groups, and social institutions, and especially how gender is interconnected with race, class, and sexuality. We will pay particular attention on the historical and cultural development of gender; the impact of gender polarization on relationships, the workplace, crime, and prostitution; and how hegemonic masculinity and compulsory heterosexuality are deployed through religion, education, the state, and the mass media. 

Prerequisites

Textbooks

• Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. Doubleday, 1995.

• Laurel R. Davis, The Swimsuit Issue and Sport: Hegemonic Masculinity and Sports Illustrated. SUNY Press, 1997.  

• Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues (Alyson, 2004).

• Roger N. Lancaster & Michaela de Leonardo, The Gender/Sexuality Reader.  Routledge, 1997.

• Richard G. Majors & Janet M. Billson, Cool Pose: The Dilemmas of Black Manhood in America. Simon & Schuster, 1993.

• Riki Anne Wilchins, Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender. Firebrand Books, 1997

Course Requirements

Ten brief based on readings, class presentations, or individual sociological research, usually due on Friday of each week. Essays must be approximately 500 words long, typed, double spaced, with citations where appropriate.  50 points each, 50% of final grade.

The research paper should be at least ten pages long and involve  one of the standard sociological research methods (interviews, participant observation, content analysis, or survey).  You are encouraged to meet with the professor several as often as possible to discuss your progress, and to share your findings with the rest of the class.  An ungraded hypothesis, literature review, and rough draft will be required during the semester.  500 points, 50% of final grade. Projects may be completed alone or in groups of  two to four persons.  You may conduct traditional sociological research (ethnographic interviews, content analysis, participant observation, survey) or a creative project (film, play, comic strip, short story, visual art).  Link to Writing Guide

50% of final grade.

Course Outline

Week #1:  The Biology and Physiology of Gender

Male, female, and intermediate biology and physiology.  The role of physiology in the production of sociological gender.

 Read: Steinberg, Stone Butch Blues.

 Essay #1:  Given that biological sex is irrelevant to social interactions in modern societies, why is gender polarization so ubiquitous?

Week #2: The Anthropology of Gender

Men, women, and third/fourth genders in worldwide perspective.  Changing genders.

Read Lutz & Collins, “The Color of Sex” (Gender/ Sexuality Reader #20)

Essay #2: How do modern Euro-American drag queens differ from the third genders of tribal societies?

Week #3: The Sociology of Gender

Gender as a social institution. Intersections with class, race, sexual orientation, and religion.  Some essential concepts: hegemony, hegemonic masculinity, compulsory heterosexuality, polarization, androgyny.

Read: Somerville, “Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body” (Gender/Sexuality Reader #2); Read: Abu-Lughod, “Movie Stars and Islamic Moralism in Egypt” (Gender/Sexuality Reader #33)

Essay #3: Content analysis.  Watch two hours of daytime or evening television, and count the instances of gender polarization.  Determine if men or women seem to be more affected, and explain why.

Week #4: Gender Polarization in Childhood

Childhood socialization into gender expectations. Main agents of socialization: parents, schools, peers.  The role of nuclear and extended families in reproducing gender. 

Read: Collier et al., “Is There a Family?” (Gender/ Sexuality Reader #4); Stacey, “The Neo-Family Values Campaign” (Gender/ Sexuality Reader #30)

Essay #4: Ethnography. Recall a gender transgressive act or behavior that you engaged in during middle childhood (ages 5-11).  Discuss the reactions of parents, peers, and teachers.  

Week #5: Gender Polarization in Adolescence

Increasing androgyny in adolescence coupled with extensive reinforcement of compulsory heterosexuality.  Main agents of socialization: peers, teachers, mass media, sports.

 Read: Davis, The Swimsuit Issue and Sport (Ch. 1-5)

Essay #5: Participant observation.  Spend thirty minutes observing a site where college students of both sexes congregate (library, student union, dorm lounge, etc.)  Attempt to determine solely by visual cues the dyads involved in a romantic relationship.  Discuss the types of cues you noted, and how easy or difficult it was to make the assessments.  

Week #6: Gender in the Public Sphere

Heterosexism and the creation of the public sphere. Male/female coded academic majors and jobs.  Office culture.                                               

Read: Wilchins, Read My Lips (pp. 27-88, 159-184)

Submit 1-page proposal and valid hypothesis for research paper.  (You may change topics later)

Week #7: Gender in the Private Sphere

Gender polarization in home and kin.  Expressive and instrumental relationships.  Household maintenance and child rearing.

Read: Patton, “From Nation to Family” (Gender/Sexuality Reader #19)

Essay #6: Survey.  Ask five men and five women to estimate how much time they spend weekly on the following household maintenance tasks: cooking, shopping for groceries, cleaning, laundry, yardwork.  Calculate the means for men and for women, and discuss any significant differences.  

Week #8: Intersection of Gender and Race 

How gendered and racial discourses are linked.  Possible responses to failure to meet the conventions of hegemonic masculinity or conventional femininity.

Read: Majors and Billson, Cool Pose (entire book)

Submit one-page literature review for research paper, including at least five scholarly sources.

Week #9: Intersection of Gender and Sexuality

How discourses concerning gender and sexual orientation are linked.  Womens’ and gay movements.  Gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities.

Read: d’Emilio, “Capitalism and Gay Identity” (Gender/ Sexuality Reader #11); Stein, “Sisters and Queers” (Gender/ Sexuality Reader #25).

Essay #7: Ethnography. Interview a college student who is gay or lesbian to determine the extent to which he/she is complicit with dominant discourses concerning physical attractiveness.  Ask about current and past relationships, the sort of person he/she finds most attractive, favorite movie actors/actresses.  

Week #10: Intersection of Gender and Religion

Religion as social institution and private sphere activity.  The paradoxical feminization of religious devotion by a masculine power elite. 

Read: Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire (pp. 91-200).

Essay #8: Participant observation. Attend a service of a Christian denomination or religion other than your own. Determine the extent of male/female participation and leadership. 

Week #11: Gender and Crime

Why is crime primarily a male activity?  Violent and property crimes.  Rape and domestic violence. Explanations for criminal activity.

Read: di Leonardo, “White Lies, Black Myths” (Gender/ Sexuality Reader #3); Heise, “Violence, Sexuality, and Women’s Lives” (Gender/Sexuality Reader #27)

Submit a typed, double spaced rough draft of your research paper.

Week #12: Prostitution

Theories of prostitution.  Prostitute subcultures.

Essay #9: About 70% of all prostitutes are women, and most of the rest are transgendered persons or young boys.  Why do adult men rarely become prostitutes?

Week #13: Pornography

Defining pornography.  Pornography and erotica.  Pornography and crime. Internet porn.

Read: Allen Ginsberg, Howl.

Essay #10: Select either the Seinfeld episode or the Ginsberg poem, and determine why it is (or is not) pornographic.

Week #14: The Macrosociology of Gender

Read: Heng & Devan, “State Fatherhood” (Gender/ Sexuality Reader #7); Harden, “The Enterprise of Empire” (Gender/ Sexuality Reader #32)