Week 1: Introduction, Syllabus, Orientation to Class Content, Stonewall(1995)

WMST 6601,090/MALS6000,A90 Fall 2013Katherine Stephenson
Theoretical Approaches to SexualityCOED 441, 687-8751
W 5:30-8:15, COED 202Office Hours: 4:50-5:20 TWR

& by appt.

last revision: Oct. 31, 2013

Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction, Syllabus, orientation to class content, Stonewall(1995)

Aug. 21

Week 2: Postmodernism and Theorizing the Social Construction ofSexuality(Moodle2):

Aug. 28 Seidman et al. New Sexuality Studies,Contents (v-ix), General Introduction (xi-xiii), Part 1: Sex as a social fact (1-2), Ch. 1 "Theoretical Perspectives (31-35)

Flax, Thinking Fragments, Ch. 1 “Something is Happening” (3-13), Ch. 2 “Transitional Thinking” (14-15, 28-29)

Scott, "The Evidence of Experience" (773-97)

Wilshire “The Uses of Myth, Image, and the Female Body in Re-Visioning Knowledge”

Grosz “Towards a Corporeal Feminism”

[Grosz “Bodies and Knowledges: Feminism and the Crisis of Reason”]

Piontek Queering, Introduction (1-6), Ch. 1 “Forget Stonewall: MakingGay History Perfectly Queer” (7-29)

Last day to add, drop, change grade type to audit or pass/fail, and for graduate students to apply for Dec. 2013 graduation and file candidacy forms for Dec. 2013 degree

Week 3: Feminist Theorizing ofSexuality I:

Sept. 4Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body, Preface, Ch. 1 “Dueling Dualisms” (1-29), Ch. 2 “’That Sexe Which Prevaileth’” (30-44), Ch. 3 “Of Gender and Genitals: The Use and Abuse of the Modern Intersexual” (45-77), Ch. 4 “Should There Be Only Two Sexes?” (78-114)

Week 4: Feminist Theorizing ofSexuality II:

Sept. 11 Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body, Ch. 5 “Sexing the Brain” (115-45), Ch. 6 “Sex Glands, Hormones, and Gender Chemistry” (146-69), Ch. 7 “Do Sex Hormones Really Exist? (Gender Becomes Chemical)” (170-94), Ch. 8 “The Rodent’s Tale” (195-232), Ch. 9 “Gender Systems: Toward a Theory of Human Sexuality” (233-55)

Week 5: Queer Theory I:

Sept. 18 Hall, Queer Theories, xi-50

Baumgardner Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics Introduction (3-10), Ch. 2 “What is Bisexuality?” (39-68) (Moodle2)

Mills Michel Foucault Introduction “Why Foucault?” (1-7), Ch. 4 “Power/knowledge” (67-79), Ch. 5 “The body and sexuality” (81-95) (Moodle2)

Questions for Week 5 readings

Paperproposal due

Week 6: Queer Theory II: Race

Sept. 25 Hall, Queer Theories, 51-85

hooks “Cultural Criticism and Transformation” Part 1: “Why StudyPopular Culture?” [YouTube “Pts. 1 &2”] at:

9:23 8:41

End, Part 1: “Enlightened Witness,” Beginning, Part 2: “Doing Cultural Criticism: Constructed Narrative” [YouTube “Pt. 3”] at: 6:36

Part 2: “Doing CulturalCriticism: Spike Lee, Hollywood’s Fall-Guy” [YouTube “Pt. 6”] at:

6:07

hooks Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, Ch. 4 ”Seduction and Betrayal: The Crying Game Meets The Bodyguard” (53-62), Ch. 6 “Talking Sex: Beyond the Patriarchal Phallic Imaginary” (73-81), Ch. 10 “Seduced By Violence No More” (109-113) (Moodle2)

Questions for Week 6 readings

Week 7: Queer Theory III:

Oct. 2 Hall, Queer Theories, 86-111

Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic Critical race theory: an introduction, Introduction (1-14), Ch. 1 (15-34) at:

Critical Race Theory

Collins Black Sexual Politics,Introduction "No Turning Back" (1-21), Ch. 1 "Why Black Sexual Politics?" (25-52) (Moodle2)

Sullivan A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory, Ch. 4 “Queer Race” (57-80) (Moodle2)

Film: M. Butterfly (David Cronenberg 1993)

Questions for Week 7 readings

Week 8: TransgenderHistory and Theory I:

Oct. 9Rudacille The Riddle of Gender Introduction and Chs. 1-4 (xi-150)

Readings in Moodle2:

Bloodsworth-Lugo In-Between Bodies: Sexual Difference, Race, and Sexuality, Ch. 6 “The Trouble With ‘Queer’” (83-94)

Stryker Transgender History Prologue (vii-ix), Ch. 1 “An Introduction to Transgender Terms and Concepts” (1-29)

Teich, Transgender 101Ch. 1 “What Does It Mean to be Transgender?” (1-13), “Milestones in American Transgenderism” (68-69), Glossary (129-136)

Transgender Theory in The Transgender Studies Reader:

Whittle, Foreword (xi-xvi)

Stryker, “(De)Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies” (1-17)

Questions for Week 8 readings

Week 9: TransgenderHistory and Theory II:Performativity

Oct. 16 Rudacille The Riddle of Gender Chs. 5-8 and Afterword (151-306)

Salih The Judith Butler Reader, Introduction (1-17), Introduction “Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions (1990)” (90-94), Preface [to second edition of Gender Trouble] (94-103)

ButlerGender TroublePreface (pp. ix-xiv), Ch. 1 “Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire” (1-9), Ch. 3 “Subversive Bodily Acts”: “iv. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions” (128-141), Conclusion “From Parody to Politics” (142-49)

Salih The Judith Butler Reader, Introduction [to excerpt from Bodies That Matter] (138- 143)

ButlerBodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex, Preface (ix-xii), Introduction (1-23), Ch. 4 “Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion” (121-40)

Film: Parisis Burning (Jennie Livingston 1990) [Paris is Burning trailer #2, YouTube interview with director and cast, History of The Harlem Drag Ball Scene]

Questions for Week 9 readings

Oct. 22:OUTspoken Lecture by Bishop Yvette Flunder (bio:

The presentation will be at 7:00 p.m. in McKnight Hall, free and open to the public,followed by a book signing and dessert reception in the Lucas Room.

Week 10: Politics of Sexuality I

Oct. 23McWhorter, Bodies & Pleasures, Introduction (xii-xx), Chs. 1 & 2 (1-61)

Abstract, outline, and annotated bibliography of paper due (final deadline Oct. 26)

Oct. 28:Last day to withdraw from a class with a "W"

Week 11: Politics of Sexuality II

Oct. 30 McWhorter, Bodies & Pleasures, Chs. 3-4 (62-135)

Edwards, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, “Sedgwick Status in LGBTI Studies and Queer Theory” (13-15), “Queer Taxonomies” (62-76)

Sedgwick, Tendencies, Foreword: “T Times” (xi-xvi), “Queer and Now” (1-20)

Week 12Politics of Sexuality III

Nov. 6:McWhorter, Bodies & Pleasures, Chs. 5-7, Inconclusion (136-229)

Bartky, “Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power” (103-118)

Week 13: Contemporary Sexologies

Nov. 13Fahs, Performing Sex,

Partial draft of paper due (as late as Nov. 20)

Week 14: Contemporary Sexologies

Nov. 20Fahs, Performing Sex,

Nov. 27:Thanksgiving Break

Week 15: Contemporary Sexologies

Dec. 4

Paper dueby 5:00p.m. Dec. 9

Week 16 Dec. 11: Final Essay Exam5:00-7:30