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Gendered Voices | Feminist Visions (SEVENTH EDITION)

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Gendered Voices | Feminist Visions (SEVENTH EDITION) digital reader A Ms. COMPANION TO gendered voices | feminist visions (SEVENTH EDITION) EDITED BY SUSAN M. SHAW and KARON JOLNA INTRODUCED BY SUSAN M. SHAW and TRACY BUTTS TEACHING ACTIVITIES BY MARGARET LOWRY CTION: L SE SPECIA BREAKING NEWS GENDERED VOICES | FEMINIST VISIONS digital reader Contents 1 INTRODUCTION Chapter 8 SUSAN M. SHAW, Oregon State University 30 Family Systems, Family Lives Chapter 9 34 Work Inside and Outside of the Home Chapter 1 2 Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Chapter 10 38 Resisting Gender Violence Chapter 2 6 Systems of Privilege and Inequality Chapter 11 42 State, Law and Social Policy Chapter 3 10 Learning Gender Chapter 12 46 Religion and Spirituality Chapter 4 14 Inscribing Gender on the Body Chapter 13 50 Activism, Change and Feminist Futures Chapter 5 18 Media and Culture Chapter 14 54 BREAKING NEWS Chapter 6 22 Sex, Power and Intimacy Chapter 7 58 CONTRIBUTORS 26 Health and Reproductive Justice introduction BY SUSAN M. SHAW ELCOMETOTHE MS. COMPANION TO GENDERED Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings (7th edition)! Our textbook has been around a long time now, and W we’re so glad you’re using our new edition in your women’s, gender and sexuality studies class. My Oregon State colleague Dr. Janet Lee and I wrote the book with students in mind, and so we’ve tried to make it interesting, relevant, challenging and useful as a tool for learning about gender and developing skills for feminist activism. Our new partnership with Ms. Classroom gives us the opportunity to pro- vide you with up-to-the-moment readings that meld well with our textbook. The director of the Ms. Classroom program, Dr. Karon Jolna, and I have se- lected Ms. articles for you that we think address some of the important issues of the current moment. We’ve also included a number of classic Ms. pieces from the magazine’s archives that grew directly out of the women’s move- ment, as well as some groundbreaking Ms. covers and iconic “No Com- ment” pages. My colleague Dr. Tracy Butts from California State University, Chico, and I have written brief introductions to each chapter highlighting some of the important issues related to the topics. We’ve followed the outline from Gendered Lives, Feminist Visions so you’ll be able to move easily from the text- book to the reader, making connections among the themes, ideas and ques- tions raised by all the readings. Another colleague, Dr. Margaret Lowry from Texas Christian University, has written teaching activities for each chapter to help you think more deeply about what you’re reading. You don’t have to be on social media or watch the news much at all to find examples of current events that affect people differently based on gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, age, nationality and religion. Our entire 2019– 2020 academic year was turned upside down by COVID-19, and then we saw a resurgence of Black Lives Matter with the police killing of George Floyd and the widespread protests against racism and police brutality. We’ve also seen a president who tweets insults and falsehoods to stoke divisions, and we’re gearing up for a general election in the midst of all of these ten- sions and uncertainties. At this moment, we clearly need feminist lenses to help us think about what’s going on, how it’s affecting people differently and how we might act to bring about a better world. Our textbook and this companion reader are here for you: to help you be better critical thinkers, to help you be informed and develop a critical feminist lens, and to help you go out and change the world! SUSANM. SHAW, Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Oregon State University www.msintheclassroom.com gendered vOiCeS | feminiSt viSiOnS | 1 1: Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies: Perspectives and Practice ISTHISYOURFIRSTWOMEN’S, GENDERANDSEXUALITYSTUDIES pology, literature, biology and public course? If so, you might notice a few things that are different from many of health to examine how gender (and its your other courses. First of all, women’s, gender and sexuality studies courses intersections with other social identi- center the lives, voices and perspectives of groups of people you might not ties) operates in the world. normally learn about in traditional courses. Rather than assuming knowledge Fourth, women’s, gender and sexu- is something objective to be discovered, women’s, gender and sexuality studies ality studies is activist and directed to- sees knowledge as something that is created by people who have their own ward social justice. Women’s, gender biases and intentions that may be unrecognized. For example, many history and sexuality studies grew out of the books write history as a story of nations, wars and great men. What do you activist movements of the 1960s and think happens, though, if we write ’70s, and it continues to make connec- history from the perspective of tions between theory and practice, Native American women or black recognizing the ongoing need to lesbians? Those would be very make change toward justice in the different history books. In world. women’s, gender and sexuality Fifth, the women’s, gender and sex- studies, we move the lives of uality studies classroom uses feminist diverse women to the center of pedagogies. Feminist pedagogies are our research and theorizing to feminist theories of teaching and offer different perspectives on learning that focus on making the everything from history to science classroom a welcoming, inclusive and to pop culture. We also call this just place where students are empow- “decolonizing” knowledge. That ered through co-creating knowledge means women’s, gender and sexu- together with their professor. Rather ality studies challenges the domi- than seeing students as empty vessels nance of traditional Western to receive their knowledge, feminist knowledge and its claim to apply professors see students as their co- to everyone. Instead, women’s, teachers/learners in a shared enter- gender and sexuality studies prise. The feminist classroom values engages the knowledges of the experiences of students as part of indigenous people, as well as the learning process. The feminist scholarship from African, Asian, classroom is also anti-racist, anti-clas- Wonder Woman for President, first issue, July 1972 Latin American, women and sist, anti-ableist and anti-heterosexist LGBTQ thinkers. as well as anti-sexist. Second, women’s and gender studies courses use intersectionality as a key You’ll see these differences in the lens for analysis. Intersectionality looks at how various identities—gender, textbook Gendered Lives, Feminist Vi- race, class, sexuality, ability, age, nationality and religion—shape one another sions and this Ms. Companion to the within systems of power and across social institutions such as family, work, textbook. Take note of these differ- government and media. Rather than thinking of gender as something that ex- ences as you read, participate in your ists apart from the other forms of difference, women’s, gender and sexuality class and do your class assignments. studies always keeps in mind the intersections of difference. As you do, you’ll develop a new lens Third, women’s, gender and sexuality studies is a transdisciplinary discipline. by which to see the world that has I know that may sound contradictory, but women’s, gender and sexuality stud- been and is and to imagine the world ies draws from other academic fields like sociology, political science, anthro- that can be! 2 | gendered vOiCeS | feminiSt viSiOnS www.msintheclassroom.com GENDERED VOICES, FEMINIST VISIONS WOMEN’S, GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” is Dangerous Language Emily Yate-Doerr “Stay home, stay healthy” reinforces misconceptions about how many people live— with the risk of doing more harm than good. Msmedia.org, April 3, 2020 Celebrating Feminism Janell Hobson feminism has grown more popular, more relevant and more vital than ever. Fall 2016 This is What a Revolution Looks Like Jeanne K.C. Clark in 50 years, the national Organization for Women (nOW) has changed the lives of women everywhere. Summer 2016 Virtual U Michelle Vlahoulis McGibbney interacting with online women’s studies courses. Spring 2015 So You Want to Change the World? Michele Tracy Berger Women’s studies is alive and well, taught in every corner of the globe and spilling out of classrooms and into activism. Fall 2012 www.msintheclassroom.com gendered vOiCeS | feminiSt viSiOnS | 3 GENDERED VOICES, FEMINIST VISIONS WOMEN’S, GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES Learning Activities: “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” is Dangerous Language Celebrating Feminism Chapter 1 discusses the history and aims of the field of Chapter 1 provides brief histories of the field of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and teaches that a women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and the U.S. fem- key historical purpose of the field has been inist movement. Jeanne K.C. Clark’s article “This Is What a Revolution Looks Like” discusses the founda- “to integrate a perspective that would challenge tion of the National Organization for Women (NOW) previously unquestioned knowledge. This per- in June 1966 and traces NOW’s involvement in the fem- spective questioned how such knowledge reflects inist movement from its founding to the present day. In women’s lives and concerns, how it maintains doing so, Clark recounts stories of feminist advocacy on patterns of male privilege and power, and how myriad issues and argues, the consequences of such knowledge affect women and other marginalized people.” (3) “NOW and its allies have altered the face of this country and the world. In law, politics, religion, marriage, family, Emily Yates-Doerr’s article “‘Stay Home, Stay Healthy’ employment, health, police, education, media, Is Dangerous Language” provides an example of the LQBTQA rights, government, economy, immigration, ways that women’s, gender, and sexuality studies “chal- civil rights, sports, foreign relations and so much more, lenge[s] previously unquestioned knowledge.” so much has changed” (35).
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