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

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    Archived Versions

    Readings

    Required Texts

    Amazon logo Foucault, Michel. History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Vol. 1. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1990. ISBN: 9780679724698.

    Amazon logo Jagose, Annamarie. Queer Theory: An Introduction. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780814742341.

    Amazon logo Stryker, Susan, and Stephen Whittle. The Transgender Studies Reader. New York, NY: Routledge, 2006. ISBN: 9780415947084. (TG Reader)

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

    Recommended Text

    Amazon logo Abelove, Henry, Michele Aina Barale, and David M. Halperin. The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. New York, NY: Routledge, 1993. ISBN: 9780415905190. (LGBT Reader)

    Readings by Session

    WEEK # 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 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.

    Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. pp. 1-131.

    Stryker, Suan. "(De)Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies." Introduction in TG Reader. pp. 1-17.
    3 Medical Science, History, and Theories of Gender and Sexual Identity

    Halperin, David. "Is There a History of Sexuality?" In LGBT Reader. pp. 416-431.

    D'Emilio, John. "Capitalism and Gay Identity." In LGBT Reader. pp. 467-476.

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

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

    Amazon logo 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.
    4 Constructing and Deconstructing Gender - the "Truth" of Sex

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

    Hirschfeld, Magnus. "Selections from The Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress." In TG Reader. pp. 28-39.

    Cauldwell, David O. "Psychopathia Transexualis." In TG Reader. pp. 40-44.

    Benjamin, Harry. "Transsexualism and Transvestism as Psycho-Somatic and Somato-Psychic Syndromes." In TG Reader. pp. 45-52.

    Stoller, Robert. "Biological Substrates of Sexual Behavior." In TG Reader. pp. 53-57.

    Garfinkel, Harold. "Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex Status in an 'Intersexed' Person." In TG Reader. pp. 58-93.

    Spade, Dean. "Mutilating Gender." In TG Reader. pp. 315-332.
    5 Psychoanalysis, Desire, and Sexual and Gender Identities

    Amazon logo Turner, William B. "I Am the Very Model of the Modern Homosexual." In A Genealogy of Queer Theory. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2000, pp. 62-82. ISBN: 9781566397872.

    Freud, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.

    Abelove, Henry. "Freud, Male Homosexuality, and the Americans." In LGBT Reader. pp. 381-393.

    Shepardson, Charles. "The Role of Gender and the Imperative of Sex." In TG Reader. pp. 94-102.

    Valentine, David. "'I Went to Bed with My Own Kind Once': The Erasure of Desire in the Name of Identity." In TG Reader. pp. 407-419.
    6 The Invert, Third Sex, and Lesbians in History

    Wittig, Monique. "One is Not Born a Woman." In LGBT Reader. pp. 103-109.

    Hale, Jacob. "Are Lesbians Women?" In TG Reader. pp. 281-299.

    Boyd, Nan Alamilla. "Bodies in Motion: Lesbian and Transsexual Histories." In TG Reader. pp. 420-421.

    Rubin, Henry. "The Logic of Treatment." In TG Reader. pp. 82-498.

    Vinicus, Martha. "'They Wonder to Which Sex I Belong': The Historical Roots of the Modern Lesbian Identity." In LGBT Reader. pp. 432-452.

    Newton, Esther. "Just One of The Boys: Lesbians in Cherry Grove, 1960-1988." In LGBT Reader. pp. 528-541.
    7 Performativity, Drag, and Gender Identity

    Butler, Judith. "Imitation and Gender Insubordination." In LGBT Reader. pp. 307-320.

    Rubin, Gayle. "Of Catamites and Kings." In TG Reader. pp. 471-481.

    Newton, Esther. "Selection from Mother Camp." In TG Reader. pp. 121-130.

    Amazon logo Namaste, Ki. "'Tragic Misreadings: Queer Theory's Erasure of Transgender Subjectivity." In Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Anthology. Edited by Beemyn and Eliason. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1996, pp. 183-203. ISBN: 9780814712580.

    Amazon logo Surkan, Kim. "Drag Kings in the New Wave: Gender Performance and Participation." In The Drag King Anthology. Edited by Donna Troka, Kathleen Lebesco, and Jean Noble. New York, NY: Harrington Park Press, 2003, pp. 161-185. ISBN: 9781560233084.

    Video

    Livingston, Jennie. Paris Is Burning. 1990.

    Taylor, Amanda, and Kim Brown. Dykes Do Drag. 2003.
    8 Stonewall, Marriage, and the Closet

    Jagose, Annemarie. "Gay Liberation." In Queer Theory: An Introduction. pp. 30-43.

    Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. "Epistemology of the Closet." In LGBT Reader. pp. 45-61.

    Amazon logo Warner, Michael. "Beyond Gay Marriage." In The Trouble with Normal. New York, NY: Free Press, 1999, pp. 81-116, and 117-147. ISBN: 9780684865294.

    Amazon logo D'Emilio, John. "My Changing Sex Life." In The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002, pp. 199-209. ISBN: 9780822330233.

    Willse, Craig, and Dean Spade. "Freedom in a Regulatory State?: Lawrence, Marriage and Biopolitics." Widener Law Review 11, no. 2 (2005): 309.

    Lawrence v. Texas
    9 Local and Global Movements

    Feinberg, Leslie. "Transgender Liberation." In TG Reader. pp. 205-220.

    Chase, Cheryl. "Hermaphrodites With Attitude." In TG Reader. pp. 300-314.

    Nanda, Serena. "Hijras as Neither Man Nor Woman." In LGBT Reader. pp. 542-552.

    Roen, Katarina. "Transgender Theory and Embodiment." In TG Reader. pp. 656-665.

    Towle, Evan B., and Lynn M. Morgan. "Rethinking the Use of the 'Third Gender' Concept." In TG Reader. pp. 666-684.
    10 Lesbian Feminism and the Trans Debate

    Frye, Marilyn. "Some Reflections on Separatism and Power." In LGBT Reader. pp. 91-98.

    Raymond, Janice G. "Sappho by Surgery." In TG Reader. pp. 131-143.

    Riddell, Carol. "Divided Sisterhood." In TG Reader. pp. 144-158.

    Sullivan, Lour. "A Transvestite Answers a Feminist." In TG Reader. pp. 159-164.

    Koyama, Emi. "Whose Feminism Is It Anyway?: The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate." In TG Reader. pp. 698-705.
    11 Visibility/Invisibility: Queering Gender and Sexuality

    Rubin, Gayle. "Thinking Sex." In LGBT Reader. pp. 3-44.

    Kessler, Suzanne J., and Wendy McKenna. "Toward a Theory of Gender." In TG Reader. pp. 165-182.

    Stone, Sandy. "The Empire Strikes Back." In TG Reader. pp. 221-235.

    Green, Jamison "Look! No, Don't: The Visibility Dilemma for Transsexual Men." In TG Reader. pp. 499-508.

    Prosser, Jay. "Judith Butler: Queer Feminism, Transgender, and the Transubstantiation of Sex." In TG Reader. pp. 257-280.
    12 Regulating Gender and Sexuality: Masculinity, Violence, and Public Space

    Namaste, Viviane K. "Genderbashing." In TG Reader. pp. 584-600.

    Brown, George R. "Transsexuals in the Military: Flight into Hypermasculinity." In TG Reader. pp. 537-544.

    Amazon logo Dibbell, Julian. "A Rape in Cyberspace." Chapter 1 in My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1999. ISBN: 9780805036268. Originally published in somewhat different form in The Village Voice.

    Amazon logo Surkan, Kim. "More Gender, Less Presumption: Cybersex as an Alternative to a Culture of Violent Sexuality." In Transforming a Rape Culture. Revised edition. Edited by Buchwald, Emilie, Pamela R. Fletcher, and Martha Roth. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2005 [1993]. ISBN: 9781571312693.

    France, David. "An Inconvenient Woman." New York Times Magazine. May 28, 2000.
    13 Contemporary and Futuristic Portrayals of Gender and Sexuality

    Halberstam. "Skinflick." In TG Reader. pp. 574-583.

    Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto." In TG Reader. pp. 103-118.

    Amazon logo Melzer, Patricia. Excerpt from Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780292713079.

    Surkan, Kim. "'I Want to Be a Real Boy': A. I. Robots, Cyborgs, and Mutants as Passing Figures in Science Fiction Film." Femspec 5, no. 1.

    Singer. "From the Medical Gaze to Sublime Mutations." In TG Reader. pp. 601-620.