Women's Studies 1020E Study Guide - Final Guide: Ivan Coyote, Gender Binary, Bell Hooks
11 May 2018
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WOMENS STUDIES 1020E FULL COURSE NOTES – READINGS + LECTURES
*TERM ONE READINGS (MIDTERM)*
WEEK 1 READING
1 - Bell hooks, Come Closer to Feminism
• Hooks definition of feminism: Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist
exploitation, and oppression
• Misconceptions of feminism: A bunch of angry women wanting to be like men,
evil feminism, women who hate men, feminists are all lesbians and want to go
against god/nature
• Representation in the media: Does not display what feminism is really about,
portrays those misconceptions about feminists
• Pressures that men feel to keep patriarchy in tact
• Different types of feminism
• Sisterhood to combat patriarchy
• People need to be more educated about feminism
• Feminism would benefit from being a united effort
• Feminist politics has lost momentum due to unclear definition & motive
• Not just men but women can be sexist too
• Feminist movement is polarized
• Feminist movement has also experienced discrimination,
Gender and Feminism:
• Men and women have been socialized to accept sexism as the norm.
• Institutional inequality: the assumptions we hold about gender are built into the
fabric of society in such a way that they form the basis of our institutions
• Patriarchy (institutionalized sexism) operates as a way for us to make sense of the
world and limits how we should act within it
Feminism is for Everyone:
• Hooks follows the argument that patriarchy is bad for all of us
• Speaks directly to the criticisms of feminism as anti-male, and/or promoting female
supremacy
• In fact, men can be, and are, very vocal feminist allies
WEEK 2 READINGS
1 - Lois Gould, X: A Fabulous Childs Story
• This story is about a child who is raised genderless and is referred to as Baby X
• Gender policing and gender performance are the main topics focussed on in this
story
• Gender Policing: the imposition/enforcement of normative gender expressions on
an individual who is perceived as not adequately performing, through appearance
or behavior, the sex that was assigned to them at birth
• Gender is influenced by parents and institutions, culture currently has an obsession
with gender, identity is linked to gender, highlighted the impact of barriers, gender
roles restrict potential/growth
• Within this story, Baby X faces societal challenges – ex. which bathroom to use at
school, negative judgement from parents of other children, etc.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
2 - (oliday Simmons and Fresh! White, Our Many Selves
• This article focuses on how theyre many ways one can represent themselves within
the trans community (because transgender is an umbrella term, and the fact that
society puts the trans community into a binary labelling everyone as purely trans,
and not recognizing other subcategories they ay fall into)
• Transgender: Those who transition to another gender
• Gender Non-conforming: Signifies that there are numerous identities within the
transgender communities
• Gender Identity: Our inner sense of being male, female, both or neither
• Sex: Biological and physical characteristics at birth
• Gender: Socially constructed - related to our social interactions and the roles we
take on
• Sexuality Misconceptions: (1) all either gay or lesbian (2) gender and sexuality are
separate things
• Sexual Orientation: Used to describe the gender/genders of whom we are
attracted to
• Nonbinary: Not fitting those gender binaries, therefore nonbinary
• Not one way to be trans -
o We each have our own unique ways of understanding and relating to our
genders
o We define and redefine ourselves, because definitions are constantly
changing
3 - )van Coyote, )magine a Pair of Boots
• Gender and pronouns are used in very constricting ways and cause significant
distress for people who do not conform to what society sees as normal.
• )dentity is not a matter for public attention, sense of entitlement to ones gender
identity which is not always reciprocated
• Gender ambiguity is received as an insult by people that Coyote encountered
• Coyotes Analogy:
o Gender is like a pair of boots; boots come in any shapes and styles - one pair
of boots isnt going to fit everybody, and one style is not going to be to
everyones liking.
▪ Essentially saying that gender is not simply male and female, gender
comes in many forms and not everyone is going to fit into the binary
that society has created.
WEEK 3 READINGS
1 - Laurel Richardson, Gender Stereotyping in the English Language
• Everyone in our society is exposed to the same language, the language of the
dominant culture
• Analysis of verbal language can tell us a great deal about a people's fears, prejudices,
anxieties, and interests
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find more resources at oneclass.com
• Women are part of men → ex. he is in the word she and man is in the word
woman → people visualize men instead of women, resulting in men feeling like
they have a dominance over women
• In actual practice, our pronoun usage perpetuates different personality attributes
and career aspirations for men and women → ex. Nurses are associated with being
nurturing, caring, kind: society deems these to be characteristic of a woman, it
would be out of the norm for a man to have this occupation. Ex 2. Lawyers are
smart, cunning, and dominant/powerful: society gives these characteristics to a
man. Ex 3. Even athletic teams are not immune. In one college, the men's teams are
called the Bearcats and the women's teams the Bears Kittens
• Linguistic practice defines females as immature, incompetent, and incapable and
males as mature, complete, and competent
• Not only are men infrequently labeled gentlemen, but they are infrequently labeled
boys, whereas women of all ages may be called girls. Grown females play bridge
with the girls and indulge in girl talk. They are encouraged to remain childlike,
and the implication is that they are basically immature and without power →
reinforcing the notion that girls are incompetent
2 - Kimberle Crenshaw, Excerpt from Demarginalizing the )ntersection of Race and
Sex: A Black
• Focus on the most privileged group member excludes and marginalizes other
members of the group
• Because black women have experiences from both racism and sexism their
experience (intersectionality!!!) cannot coincide with one or the other but the
intersection of both
• Ex. the court case
o Black women were not hired to work at GM
o Black: Could not prove discrimination because black men worked there
o Women: could not prove discrimination because women worked there
• Intersectionality: a concept which describes the ways in which oppressive
institutions (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia,
classism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one
another experiencing discrimination for multiple reasons
WEEK 4 READINGS
1 - S. Bear Bergman, Today, ) am a Man and other Perorations of a Tranny Jewboy
• Explains how Jewish boys can (culturally accepted) cry, compared to boys of other
religions/ethnicities who are harshly judged for showing emotions/crying
• )f boys cry, they are NOT rewarded but instead referred to as sissys or faggots
• This story explains uses the analogy very Jewish to explain that we cant
categorize things such as gender
2 - Robert Allen and Paul Kivel, Men Changing Men
• Oakland Men's Project (OMP) – non-profit, multiracial organization of men and
women, devoted to community education and eradicating male violence, racism, and
homophobia. The group has worked with thousands of boys and men. Its workshops
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Womens studies 1020e full course notes readings + lectures. Gender and feminism: men and women have been socialized to accept sexism as the norm. Feminism is for everyone: hooks follows the argument that patriarchy is bad for all of us, speaks directly to the criticisms of feminism as anti-male, and/or promoting female supremacy. In fact, men can be, and are, very vocal feminist allies. Nurses are associated with being would be (cid:498)out of the norm(cid:499) for a man to have this occupation. Lawyers are boys, whereas women of all ages may be called girls. Grown females (cid:498)play bridge with the girl(cid:495)s (cid:498) and indulge in (cid:498)girl talk(cid:499). They are encouraged to remain childlike, and the implication is that they are basically immature and without power reinforcing the notion that girls are (cid:498)incompetent(cid:499) smart, cunning, and dominant/powerful: society gives these characteristics to a man. In one college, the men"s teams are called the bearcats and the women"s teams the bears kittens.
