This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Readings

[SGS]= Buy at Amazon Ferber, Abby L., Kiimberly Holcomb, and Tre Wentling, eds. Sex, Gender, and Sexuality. Oxford, 2009, pp. 32-43. ISBN: 9780195332902.

[Transgender]= Buy at Amazon Stryker, Susan, and Stephen Whittle, eds. Transgender Studies Reader. Routledge, 2006. ISBN: 9780415947091.

[GL]= Buy at Amazon Abelove, Henry, Michele Aina Barale, and David M. Halperin, eds. The Gay and Lesbian Studies Reader. Routledge, 1993. ISBN: 9780415905190.

SES # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction to course

What is "queer"? What is "trans"? What do these terms mean? Discussion of sexual and gender identities as historically situated.

Video

Schiller, Greta. Before Stonewall. 1985.

2 Medicalization, social construction, and the "birth of the homosexual"

Jagose, Annamarie. "Introduction" and "Theorising Same-Sex Desire." Chapters 1 and 2 in Queer Theory: An Introduction. pp. 1-22.

Buy at Amazon Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. pp. 1-131. ISBN: 9780679724698.

Buy at Amazon E'milio, John. "Capitalism and Gay Identity." In Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality. Edited by Ann Snitow, Christine Stansell, and Sharan Thompson. Monthly Review Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780853456100.

3 Constructing and deconstructing gender-the "truth" of sex

Buy at Amazon Foucault, Michel. Herculine Barbin. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1980, pp. vii-xvii. ISBN: 9780394738628.

Buy at Amazon Butler, Judith. "Doing Justice to Someone." In Undoing Gender. Routledge, 2004. ISBN: 9780415969239.

Kessler, Suzanne. "The Medical Construction of Gender." Signs 16, no. 1 (1990): 3-26. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)

Kessler, Suzanne, and Wendy McKenna. "Toward a Theory of Gender." [Transgender] pp. 165-182.

Preves, Sharon. "Intersex Narratives: Sex, Gender, and Identity." In [SGS] pp. 32-43.

Reimer twins case on Dateline. [Read about the David Reimer case on Wikipedia]

4 Medical science, history, and theories of gender and sexual identity

Buy at Amazon Freud, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1976. ISBN: 9780465086061.

Halperin, David. "Is There a History of Sexuality?" [GL] pp. 416-431.

Buy at Amazon D'Emilio, John. "My Changing Sex Life." In The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics and Culture. Duke University Press, 2002, pp. 199-209. ISBN: 9780822329305.

Buy at Amazon von Krafft-Ebing, Richard. "Introduction" and "Foreword." In Psychopathia Sexualis. New York, NY: Arcade Publishing, 1998, pp. ix-xx. ISBN: 9781559704267.

Buy at Amazon ———. "General Pathology." In Psychopathia Sexualis. New York, NY: Arcade Publishing, 1998, pp. 186-194, 221-235, and 274-284. ISBN: 9781559704267.

Buy at Amazon Somerville, Siobahn. "Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body." In Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Anthology. Edited by Beemyn, and Eliason. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1996, pp. 241-261. ISBN: 9780814712580.

Martin, Emily. "The Egg and the Sperm." In [SGS] pp. 248-254.

5 Breaking binary categories of identity

Lorber, Judith. "A World Without Gender." In [SGS] pp. 537-544.

Buy at Amazon Serano, Julie. "Dismantling Cissexual Privilege." In Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. Seal Press, 2007. ISBN: 9781580051545.

Buy at Amazon Garfinkel, Harold. "Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex Status in an Intersexed Person." Studies in Ethnomethodology. Polity, 1991. ISBN: 9780745600055.

West, Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. "Doing Gender." In [SGS] pp. 43-57.

Spade, Dean. "Mutilating Gender."

Yescavage, Karen, and Jonathan Alexander. "Muddying the Waters: Constructions of Sexuality, Gender, and Sex in Cross-Cultural Perspective." [SGS] pp. 21-31.

6 The repressive hypothesis, censorship, and the Hollywood production code

Buy at Amazon Russo, Vito. "The Way We Weren't." In The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. Harper & Row, 1985. ISBN: 9780060961329.

"Hays Production Code."

Buy at Amazon Faderman, Lillian. Scotch Verdict. Columbia University Press, 1994, pp. 59-71. ISBN: 9780231084437.

Buy at Amazon Halberstam, Judith. Female Masculinity. Duke University Press, 1998, pp. 50-65. ISBN: 9780822322436.

Buy at Amazon White, Patricia. "Reading the Code(s)." In Uninvited: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability. Indiana University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780253213457.

Excerpt from The Celluloid Closet (Film).

Excerpt from Children's Hour (Film).

7 Intersections: Race, sexuality, and gender in literature Buy at Amazon Lorde, Audre. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name-A Biomythography. The Crossing Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780895941220.
8 Stonewall, marriage, and the closet

Buy at Amazon Jagose, Annamarie. "Gay Liberation." Queer Theory. NYU Press, 1997, pp. 30-43. ISBN: 9780814742341.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. "Epistemology of the Closet." [GL] pp. 45-61.

Buy at Amazon Warner, Michael. "Beyond Gay Marriage." The Trouble With Normal. Harvard University Press, 1999, pp. 81-116. ISBN: 9780674004412.

Buy at Amazon Sullivan, Andrew. Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con. Vintage, 2004. ISBN: 9781400078660.

Buy at Amazon Wharton, Greg, and Ian Phillips. I Do/I Don't: Queers on Marriage. Suspect Thoughts Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780974638874.

9 Representing bisexuality (vs. queer)

Buy at Amazon Rubin, Gayle. "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality." Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. Edited by Carole S. Vance. Pandora Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780044408673.

Buy at Amazon Klein, Fritz, Yescavage, Karen, and Jonathan Alexander. Bisexuality and Transgenderism: Intersexions of the Others. Routledge, 2004. ISBN: 9781560232872.

Capp, Rose. "Single White Female Seeking Same: The Search for Sisterhood in Kissing Jessica Stein and The Banger Sisters." Senses of Cinema 23.

Whatley, Sherri. "Kissing Jessica Stein." Off Our Backs. July/August 2002.

Mantilla, Karla, and Jennie Ruby. "Crash Landing for a Promising Lesbian Film." Off Our Backs. July/August 2002, p. 57.

Gillett, Robert. "Learning to Look Askance: Explaining Queer Through Film." Moderna Sprak XCVII, no. 2 (2003): 147-165.

Kissing Jessica Stein (Film).

10 Performativity, drag, and gender identity

Butler, Judith. "Imitation and Gender Insubordination." [GL] pp. 307-320.

Rubin, Gayle. "Of Catamites and Kings." In [Transgender].

Newton, Esther. "Mother Camp." In [Transgender].

Surkan, Kim. "Drag Kings in the New Wave: Gender Performance and Participation." The Drag King Anthology. Harrington Park Press, 2003, pp. 161-185.

Video: Dykes Do Drag.

11 Gender, sexuality and racial identities

Buy at Amazon Namaste, Ki. "Tragic Misreadings': Queer Theory's Erasure of Transgender Subjectivity." In Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Anthology. Edited by Michele Eliason, and Brett Beemyn. NYU Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780814712580.

Collins, Patricia Hill. "Prisons for Our Bodies, Closets for Our Minds." [SGS] pp. 115-135.

Naber, Nadine. "Arab American Femininities: Beyond Arab Virgin/American(ized) Whore." [SGS] pp. 186-192.

Cohen, Cathy. "Contested Membership: Black Gay Identities and the Politics of AIDS." [SGS] pp. 511-526.