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

 

Readings

LEC # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction to the Course  
2 Issues of the Course Delmar, Rosalind. "What is Feminism?" In What is Feminism? Edited by Juliet Mitchell, and Ann Oakley. Pp. 8-33.

Cott, Nancy F. "Feminist Theory and Feminist Movements: The Past Before Us." In Ibid. Pp. 49-62

Beauvoir, Simone de. "Introduction." In The Second Sex. 1949. Pp. xv-xxxiv.

Rhode, Deborah L. "Media Images/Feminist Issues." In Feminism, Media & the Law. Edited by Martha A. Fineman, and Martha T. McCluskey. New York, 1997. Pp. 8-21.

"Doing Theory." In Making Face. Pp. 335-45, 370-75 and 377-402.
3 Thoughts on Methods Dodson, Lisa. Don't Call Us Out of Name. Pp. vii-13.

Narayan, Kirin. "How Native is a 'Native' Anthropologist?" In Situated Lives. Edited by Lamphere et al. Pp. 23-41.

"Still Trembles Our Rage," and "If You would be My Ally." In Making Face. Pp. 3-4, 20-41, 46-54 and 297-325.

Collins, Patricia Hill. "Mammies, Matriarchs and Other Controlling Images." In Black Feminist Thought. Pp. 67-90.

Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. "African-American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race." Signs 17, no. 2 (1992): 251-74.

Poovey, Mary. "The Ideological Work of Gender." In Uneven Developments. 1988. Pp. 1-2.
4 "Femaleness" and the Body Martin, Emily. "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles." In Situated Lives. Pp. 85-98.
 
Simmonds, Felly Nkweto. "My Body, Myself: How Does a Black Woman Do Sociology," Helen Marshall. "Our Bodies, Ourselves: Why We Should Add Old-Fashioned Empirical Phenomenology to the New Theories of the Body," and Evelynn M. Hammonds. "Toward a Genealogy of Black Female Sexuality: The Problematic of Silence." In Feminist Theory and the Body. Edited by Janet Price, and Margrit Shildrick. New York, 1999. Pp. 50-75 and 93-104.

Ginzburg, Faye. "The Body Politic: The Defense of Sexual Restriction by Anti-Abortion Activists." In Pleasure and Danger. Edited by Carole S. Vance. 1984. Pp. 173-88.

———. "The 'Word-Made' Flesh: The Disembodiment of Gender in the Abortion Debate." In Situated Lives. Pp. 142-56.

Poovey, Mary. "The Abortion Question and the Death of Man." In Feminists Theorize the Political. Edited by Judith Butler, and Joan Scott. 1992. Pp. 239-56.
5 The Work of Family Dodson. Don't Call Us. Pp. 14-49.

Lewin, Ellen. "'This Permanent Roommate,'" Beatriz M. Pesquera. "In the Beginning He Wouldn't Lift a Spoon," and Matthew Guttman. "The Meanings of Macho." Situated Lives. Pp. 192-34.

Rollins, Judith. "Invisibility, Consciousness of the Other, Ressentiment," and Leslie Salzinger. "A Maid by Any Other Name: The Transformation of 'Dirty Work' by Central American Immigrants." In Situated Lives. Pp. 255-91.

Folbre, Nancy. "The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in Nineteenth-Century Economic Thought." In History and Theory. Edited by Barbara Laslett et al. 1997. Pp. 42-63.
6 Gender and Sexuality Dodson. Don't Call Us. Pp. 50-82.

Ross, Ellen, and Rayna Rapp. "Sex and Society." In Powers of Desire. Edited by Ann Snitow et al. Pp. 51-73.
 
Rubin, Gayle. "The Traffic in Women." In Toward an Anthropology of Women. Edited by Rayna R. Reiter. 1975. Pp. 157-77. [Optional pp. 178-210].

Peiss, Kathy. "Charity Girls and City Pleasures," Rennie Simson. "The Afro-American Female," and Amber Hollibaugh, and Cherrie Moraga. "What We're Rollin Around in Bed With: Sexual Silences in Feminism," and Joan Nestle. "My Mother Liked to Fuck." In Powers of Desire. Pp. 73-88, 229-35, 394-405 and 468-70.

"The Nature of the Beast: What is a Lesbian?" Pp. 29-49.

Clausen, Jan. "My Interesting Condition." Out/Look (Winter 1990): 11-21.
7 Pornography, Rape, and the Politics of Consent Pateman, Carole. "Women and Consent." In The Disorder of Women. Pp. 71-89.

Marcus, Sharon. "Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention." In Feminists Theorize the Political. Edited by Judith Butler, and Joan W. Scott. Pp. 385-403.

Benedict, Helen. "Blindfolded: Rape and the Press's Fear of Feminism." In  Feminism, Media. Edited by Fineman, and McCluskey. Pp. 267-72.

Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd. "The Mind That Burns in Each Body: Women, Rape and Racial Violence," and Ann Barr Snitow. "Mass Market Romance: Pornography for Women is Different." in Powers of Desire. In The Politics of Sex. Pp. 329-333, 245-63.

Cuklanz, Lisa M. Rape on Trial: How the Mass Media Construct Legal Reform and Social Change. (1996): 1-32.
8 Gender and Mothering Dodson. Don't Call Us. Pp. 83-113.

Ashe, Marie. "'Bad Mothers' and Welfare Reform in Massachusetts: The Case of Claribel Ventura." In Feminism, Media. Edited by Fineman, and McCluskey. Pp. 203-16.

Pollitt, Kathe. "'Fetal Rights': A New Assault on Feminism," and Annette R. Appell. "On Fixing 'Bad' Mothers and Saving Their Children." In "Bad Mothers": The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America. Edited by Molly Ladd-Taylor, and Lauri Umansky. 1998. Pp. 285-98 and 356-80.

Ragone, Helena. "Chasing the Blood Tie: Surrogate Mothers, Adoptive Mothers, and Fathers," and Lopez, Iris. "Agency and Constraint: Sterilization and Reproductive Freedom Among Puerto Rican Women in New York City." Situated Lives. Pp. 110-27 and 157-171.
9 The Welfare State Dodson. Don't Call Us. Pp. 114-46.

Fraser, Nancy, and Linda Gordon. "'Dependency' Demystified:  Inscriptions of Power in a Keyword of the Welfare State." Social Politics 1, 1 (Spring 1994): 4-31.

Lubiano, Wahneema. "Black Ladies, Welfare Queens, and State Minstrels: Ideological War by Narrative Means." In Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power. Edited by Toni Morrison. 1992. Pp. 323-63.

Mink, Gwendolyn. "The Lady and the Tramp: Gender, Race, and the Origins of the American Welfare State." In Women, the State, and Welfare. Edited by Linda Gordon. 1990. Pp. 92-122.

"Welfare: Facts and Fictions," Ms. (May/June 1995): 93, and  "Welfare." Ms. (July/Aug. 1995): 50-61.
10 The Political Sphere Dodson. Don't Call Us. Pp. 147-85.

Duke, Lois Lovelace, ed. Women in Politics: Outsiders or Insiders? Prentice Hall, 1996. Pp. 33-44, 78-99, 127-143, 175-186, 199-214, 295-313 and 322-337.
11 Militarism and Gender Cohn, Carol. "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals." In Feminist Theory in Practice and Process. Edited by Micheline R. Malson et al. Pp. 107-138.

Pohl, Frances K. "Ritual and Sacrifice at Tailhook '91: A Documentary Exhibition and Political Action." In Women Transforming the Political. Edited by Cathy J. Cohen et al. 1997. Pp. 238-55.

Enloe, Cynthia. Maneuvers. Pp. 1-34 and 108-52.
12 International Politics Stoler, Ann L. "Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in Twentieth-Century Colonial Cultures," Jean Comaroff. "The Empire's Old Clothes," Faye V. Harrison. "The Gender Politics and Violence of Structural Adjustment: A View from Jamaica." Pena, Devon G. "The Mirror of Exploitation." In Situated Lives. Pp. 373-419 and 451-85.

Enloe. Maneuvers. Pp. 49-53, 68-79 and 235-87.
13 Concluding Thoughts and Student Presentations Dodson. Don't Call Us. Pp. 186-221.

Enloe. Maneuvers. Pp. 103-7 and 288-300.