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WGSST8820 Topics in Power, Institutions, and Economies
Autumn 2014 Topic: “Feminists Interrogate Violence”
Mondays 2:15-5 pm., 3 cr., 286A UH
Instructor: Dr. Cathy A. Rakowski
(email is best way to reach me)
292-6447 (office)
Office: 414C Kottman Hall
Office hours: T 4-5 or by appointment
Available to meet with WGSST 8820 students before or after class
Introduction: Before 1970, there was little understanding of rape or incest and the concepts of “battered women” and “sexual harassment” simply did not exist as such in the U.S. Feminist scholars and activists changed this when they focused on forms of violence that involved, initially, gender and, later, other forms of social differentiation such as race, class, sexuality, and other. Feminists have been at the forefront of theorizing both the forms and the causes of violence. They have conducted research and developed service programs and legal/policy reforms to prevent violence against women (later, all forms of interpersonal violence, or IPV), provided and organized support systems for victims and survivors of violence, and expanded definitions of what constitutes violence. However, among feminists—scholars, activists, service providers, and individuals—these changes have contributed to competing theories and perspectives and to growing disagreement (and very public clashes) over what constitutes violence, which theoretical approaches best explain violence, and what strategies are required to prevent and respond to specific forms of violence. Conflict and dissent have come from both inside and outside anti-violence movements, programs, and the academy.
The objective of the course is to foreground debates over what constitutes violence; provide a space to assess feminist conceptualizing of certain forms of “violence,” consequences, and proposed “solutions;”and to consider new gendered lenses that do not assume men are perpetrators, women are victims, or that “violence” is about gender only. This course will introduce you to some classic and some more contemporary debates that have shaken up feminist foundational theories regarding what constitutes sexual/gendered violence and its relationship to patriarchy and other structural forms of oppression or opportunities.
This is a collaborative class; responsibility for discussions will be shared by class members and the instructor. Students will be asked to take charge of leading discussions on specific topics and students are strongly encouraged to bring their individual research interests to our discussions. We will discuss different ways in which this can be achieved.
Requirements and grading:
Class discussion weekly “comments”30%
Longer “thought pieces” [3]30%
Leading class discussion on topic of choice15%
Seminar paper & in-class discussion of25%
Readings:
Assigned readings: All readings are journal articles, book chapters, or internet sites. Itemsmarked “@” are posted to our Carmen site on the Comment page. Unless otherwise indicated, all journal articles are available through the library’s online journal service. (If accessing from off-campus, you must log in at “off campus log in” before you can accessonline journals.) I provide internet addresses for most internet items.
For students who are not familiar with the key differences among diverse feminist theoretical approaches/ traditions, I strongly recommend: Rosemarie Tong.Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction. Westview Press, 2013. Fourth Edition. THIS BOOK IS A GOOD RESOURCE TO HAVE ON YOUR SHELF. Some of the feminist traditions covered in the book include: Liberal Feminism; Radical Feminism; Marxist and Socialist Feminisms; Psychoanalytic andCare-focused Feminisms; Ecofeminism; Existentialist and Postmodern Feminisms; Women of Color feminisms.
Many of the readings that we will discuss are influenced by a particular feminist theoretical tradition or several. Some, but not all, identify their approachand the approaches are linked to the selection of strategies to combat violence. [What you do about violence depends on how you define it!] The most common approaches historically in the field of violence are the radical and liberal approaches followed by socialist and psychoanalytic; but postmodern/postcolonial/poststructural, multicultural, care-focused, and third wave are gaining importance.
Weekly Comments: A single page outlining key ideas from readings that you would like to discuss during class. The comments will help you “collect your thoughts” and you will hand it in for feedback from me.
Thought pieces: “Thought pieces” are short to medium length essays. They will be approximately 1000 words each and will present a thoughtful analysis ofa selected course theme or issue, emphasizing analysis primarily through course materials. The idea is to provide you with an opportunity to think more deeply about an idea or issueas it was presented in a reading or set of readings(from those covered up to and including the due date) that, of necessity, we discussed quickly and incompletely in class. In the thought pieces, you shouldexplore your ideas and responses to course materials and discussions more completely and in greater depth.There are 5 due date options on the syllabus for handing in the thought pieces. Choose 3 of the 5 dates (you can work them into your busy schedule). Give the word count at the end of each paper. Be sure to discuss class materials; any reference to materials or ideas drawn from outside class or the recommended readings should be of secondary importance. DATE OPTIONS ARE INDICATED ON THE SCHEDULE AS Week 3, Week 6, Week 8, Week 10, and Week 12.
Seminar paper: Students may choose any aspect of violence that interests them (this includes forms of violence or issues not discussed in class and activities whose classification as “violence” may be at issue). You are free to construct your analysis from any disciplinary perspective you choose.
There are many ways to approach the paper. For example, a conceptual paper might use readings from the class as well as outside readings to critique and/or develop a theory or model of violence, debate the evidence for or against competing feminist positions on a violence issue, etc. A research paperis likely to draw mainly on materials that discuss research that has been conducted by others or, in some cases, a research question or issue with which a student already is engaged (i.e., for a thesis). Another possibility would be a literature review and statement of future research objectives for development of a research proposal.Please let me know by Week 5 of the course what your topic will be so that I can provide feedback. Just send me an email describing what you intend to cover in your paper and if you have or need resources.
Post an abstract (no more than 1 page single spaced)for your paper on Carmen by Week 13 (the week of December 1). You will discuss your paper during our last class meeting and this way all students will have seen each other’s abstracts.
Your completed paper should be approximately 3500-4500 words, not including references. It is due the last week of class and can be handed in or submitted as an email attachment. You can use Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word (the latter with file extensions .doc or .docx only).I suggest these word counts in the interest of fairness and so that you have a reasonable “target.” This length also works for a conference paper. But length is negotiable. Talk with me.
Class participation: A significant portion of your grade is based on class participation. The participation of every person is important to the success of this class; your diverse backgrounds and perspectives will enrich discussion. But, should something arise that would interfere with your class participation, please let me know as soon as possible so that we can discuss how to handle this. We only meet once a week, so one absence is 7% of the course.
Together we will figure out how to build into class discussion each student’s specific interests. Look over the topics and readings assigned on the syllabus. If you see a way to bridge a topic with your interest, let me know. You should volunteer to “host” discussion that day.Hosting involves volunteering to lead the day’s discussion and may include bringing in outside information/materials to enhance discussion.
I also want to know if certain class topics cause you personal distress. We try to stick to an intellectual analysis of the issues (and avoid personalizing issues during discussioneven when they may be deeply personal to class members), but this does not mean that I don’t appreciate or want to help when the personal and the intellectual collide as they often can do. Tell me! I may be able to help.
Course policies:
Late papers No papers will be accepted late unless you have asked me for an extension or you have a verifiable extenuating circumstance or illness. If at all possible, students should consult with me prior to the due date or call/e-mail as soon as a problem crops up. Just talk to me about any problems or conflicts that you are having so we can work it out.
Plagiarism Any student suspected of plagiarizing written work will be referred to the pertinent university authorities. At any stage of the writing process, all academic work submitted to the teacher must be a result of a student’s own thought, research, or self-expression. When a student submits work purporting to be his or her own, but which in any way borrows organization, ideas, wording, or anything else from a source without appropriate acknowledgment of the fact, he/she is engaging in plagiarism which is both unethical and illegal.
Special needs:If you have special needs, please let me know as soon as possible and contact the Office of Disability Services. I will work with you and with Disability Services to meet your needs. Disability Services: Office phone: 292-3307 /end_of_the_skype_highlighting Email:
@ indicates that reading can be found on the Content page of the course Carmen site.
SCHEDULE
(some readings may be subject to change)
WEEK ONE Sept 8 Introduction to the course and some foundational materialsAssigned readings: (together they provide a type of introduction to debates)
Chancer, Lynn. “From pornography to sadomasochism: Reconciling feminist differences.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 571, September 2000:77-88.
Johnson, Katherine. “From gender to transgender: Thirty years of feminist debates.” Social Alternatives 24, 2, 2009:36-39.
Richie, Beth. “A black feminist reflection on the antiviolence movement.” SIGNS 25, 4, 2000:1133-37.
Rubin, Gayle. “Blood under the bridge: Reflections on ‘Thinking Sex’.” GLQ 17, 1, 2010:15-48.
@ “Feminisms and feminist thought” chart
Want more?
@Burston, Bonnie. “The radical feminist foundations.” Pp. 1-19 in Burston. Radical Feminist Therapy. Sage, 1992.
@Yeatman, Anna. “Feminism and power.” Pp. 144-57 in Reconstructing Political Theory: Feminist Perspectives, eds. M. L. Shanley and Uma Narayan. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
@Kelly, Liz. “When does the speaking profit us?: Reflections on the challenges of developing feminist perspectives on abuse and violence by women.” Pp. 34-49 in Women, Violence and Male Power, eds. M. Hester, L. Kelly and J. Radford. Open University Press, 1996.
@Jasinski, Jana. “Theoretical explanations for violence against women.” Chapter 1 in C. Renzetti, J. Edleson, R. K. Bergen, eds. Sourcebook on Violence Against Women. Sage, 2001. (a pretty good overview of different theoretical approaches but, ironically, her discussion of “feminist approaches” is woefully inadequate)
Ristock, Janice. “Taking off the gender lens in Women’s Studies: Queering violence against women.” Canadian Woman Studies 24, 2/3, 2005: 65-69.
WEEK TWO Sept 15 PornographyAssignment: View the classic radical feminist film “Not a Love Story” for discussion this week. It is available on our course playlist through the Media Library and I will schedule it for a week. It presents the classic anti-porn position taken by radical feminists. Be ready to discuss it in class.
Read before viewing the film:
@Dworkin, Andrea. “Power.” Chapter 1 (pp. 13-24 in Pornography: Men Possessing Women. Perigree,1981.
@Royalle, Candida. “Porn in the USA.” (interview with porn filmmaker) Pp. 540-50 in D. Cornell, ed. Feminism and Pornography. Oxford University Press.
McElroy, Wendy. “A feminist defense of pornography.”
Assigned readings for class discussion:
Norden, Barbara. “Campaign against pornography.” Feminist Review 35, 1990:1-8. [recounts details of the very first anti-porn campaign conference in 1989]
Shrage, Laurie. “Exposing the fallacies of anti-porn feminism.” Feminist Theory 6, 1, 2005:45-65.
Boyle, Karen. “The pornography debates: beyond cause and effect.” Women’s Studies International Forum 23, 2, 2000: 187-95.
Ciclitira, Karen. “Pornography, women and feminism: Between pleasure and politics.” Sexualities 7, 3, 2004:281-301.
Want more?:
@Russell, Diana E.H. “Pornography and rape: A causal model.” Pp. 48-93 in D. Cornell, ed. Feminism and Pornography. Oxford University Press, 2000. [Scan this. It is THE consummate anti-porn position presented by the researcher whose groundbreaking studies on violence against women are the benchmark for current statistics on violence used by the National Institute of Justice/FBI and on feminist fact sheets.]
Smith, Kevin. “Clean thoughts and dirty minds: The politics of porn.” Policy Studies Journal 27, 4, 1999:723-34.
Paasonen, Susana. “Strange bedfellows: Pornography, affect and feminist reading.” Feminist Theory 8, 1, 2007:43-57.
Andrews, David. “What soft-core can do for porn studies.” The Velvet Light Trap 59, Spring 2007:51-61.
DeVoss, Danielle. “Women’s porn sites—Spaces of fissure and eruption or ‘I’m a little bit of everything’.” Sexuality and Culture6, 3, 2002:75-94
Mackinnon, Catharine. “Pornography is oppression.” [Mackinnon, a feminist legal theorist, worked with radical feminist Andrea Dworkin on legislation to outlaw pornography]
WEEK THREE Sept 22 Sex Work HOST:______THOUGHT PIECE OPTION 1 DUE DATE (write on any topic from weeks 1-3)
Assigned readings:
Overall, Christine. “What’s wrong with prostitution? Evaluating sex work.” SIGNS 17, 4, 1992:705-24.
And read any 3 of the following:
Coy, Maddy; Josephine Wakeling; and Maria Garner. “Selling sex sells: Representations of prostitution and the sex industry in sexualized popular culture as symbolic violence. Women’s Studies International Forum34, 2011:441-48.
Jeffreys, Sheila. “Prostitution, trafficking and feminism: An update on the debate.” Women’s Studies International Forum 32, 2009:316-20.
Bernstein, Elizabeth. “The sexual politics of the ‘new abolitionism’.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 18, 3, 2007:128-51.
Limoncelli, Stephanie. “The trouble with trafficking: Conceptualizing women’s sexual labor and economic human rights.” Women’s Studies International Forum 32, 2009:261-69.
Jeffreys, Sheila. “The sex industry and business practice: An obstacle to women’s equality.” Women’s Studies International Forum 33, 2010:274-82.
Want More?
Harcourt, C. and B. Donovan. “The many faces of sex work.” Sexually Transmitted Infections 81, 2005:201-6.
Boris, Eileen, Stephanie Gilmover and Rhacel Parreñas. “Sexual labors: Interdisciplinary perspectives toward sex as work.” Sexualities 13, 2, 2010:131-37.
Farley, Melissa. “Theory versus reality: Commentary on four articles about trafficking for prostitution.” Women’s Studies International Forum 32, 2009:311-15.
Soderlund, Gretchen. “Running from the rescuers: New US crusades against sex trafficking and the rhetoric of abolition.” NWSA Journal 17, 3, 2005:64-87.
Andrijasevic, Rutvica. “Beautiful dead bodies: Gender, migration and representation in anti-trafficking campaigns.” Feminist Review 86, 2007:24-44.
Kamala Kempadoo. “Globalizing sex workers’ rights.” Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme 22, ¾, 1998:143-50.
Halley, J. et al. “From the international to the local in feminist legal responses to rape, prostitution/sex work, and sex trafficking: Four studies in contemporary governance feminism.” Harvard Journal of Law and Gender 29, 2006:335-423.
WEEK FOUR Sept 29 Sadomasochism HOST:______Assigned Readings:
Hopkins, Patrick D. “Rethinking sadomasochism: Feminism, interpretation, and simulation.”Hypatia 9, 1, 1994: 116-141.(a classic)
Ritchie, Ani and Meg Barker. “Feminist SM: A contradiction in terms or a way of challenging traditional gendered dynamics through sexual practice?” Lesbian and Gay Psychology Review 6, 3, 2005: 227-239. Online journal located at
Deckha, Maneesha. “Pain as culture: A postcolonial feminist approach to S/M and women’s agency.” Sexualities 14, 2, 2011:129-50.
Newmahr, Staci. “Rethinking kink: Sadomasochism as serious leisure.” Qualitative Sociology 33, 2010:313-31.
Review Chancer article that we read in Week 1
Want More?
Lynch, Karen. “The ‘heterosexualisation’ of sadism and masochism.” Hecate 34, 13, 2003:34-46.
Chaline, E.R. “The construction, maintenance, and evolution of gay SM sexualities and sexual identities: A preliminary description of gay SM sexual identity practices.” Sexualities 13, 3, 2010:338-356.
Newmahr, Staci. “Becoming a sadomasochist.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 37, 5, 2008:619-43.
Summary of
WEEK FIVE Oct 6 Racing Violence HOST:______Assigned Readings:Tentative
@Garfield, Gail. “Researching black women’s lives: A closer look at violence against women.” Pp.61-81 Feminism and Multiculturalism: How Do They/We Work Together?Ed. J. Warren. Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006.
@Garfield, Gail. Knowing What We Know: African American Women’s Experiences of Violence and Violation. Rutgers University Press, 2005.
@Carby, Hazel. “White woman listen! Black feminism and the boundaries of sisterhood.” Pp 110-128 in Materialist Feminism: A Reader in Class, Difference and Women’s Lives, ed. R. Hennessy and C. Ingraham. Routledge, 1997.
Want More?
Childs, Erica Chito. “Looking behind the stereotypes of the ‘angry black woman:’ An exploration of black women’s responses to interracial relationships.” Gender & Society 19, 4, 2005:544-61.
West, Carolyn M. “Black women and intimate partner violence: New directions for research.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 19, 12, 2004:1487-93.
West, Carolyn M. “Battered, black and blue: An overview of violence in the lives of black women.” Women & Therapy 25, ¾, 2002:5-27.
Buchanan, NiCole and Alayne Ormerod. “Racialized sexual harassment in the lives of African American women.” Women and Therapy 25, ¾, 2002:107-124.
@Banyard, Victoria et al. “Childhood sexual abuse in the lives of black women: Risk and resilience in a longitudinal study.” Pp. 45-58 in Battered, Black and Blue, ed. C. West. Haworth, 2002.
WEEK SIX Oct 13 Queering/Transgendering Violence HOST:______THOUGHT PIECE OPTION 2 DUE DATE (write on any topic from weeks 4-6)
Assigned Readings:(read any 4 of the following)
Mayer, Doug. “Interpreting and experiencing anti-queer violence: Race, class, and gender differences among LGBT hate crime victims.” Race, Gender & Class 15, ¾, 2008:262-82.
Jenness, Valerie and Kendal Broad. “Antiviolence activism and the (in)visibility of gender in the gay/lesbian and women’s movements.” Gender & Society 8, 3, 1994:402-23.