Class Participation: Attendance and Discussion

Third Wave Feminisms: WMST 300-001 Fall 2004 Syllabus Subject to change

THURS. 4:30-7:10 – ROBINSON A101 Instructor: Rebecca Walter [email protected], 993-2896 Co-Instructor: Jen Barnard [email protected], 993-1220

Office Hours: by appointment Women’s Studies Research and Resource Center, JC #240K

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will address the major themes and issues of third wave feminisms: sex workers rights, activism, transgender issues, racism, music, and globalization (to name a few). This course assumes the position that issues of race, class, gender and sexuality are not separate add- ons to our discussions, but rather is at the center of third wave issues. Because this class is feminist, it also assumes that women are at the center of our discussions.

We will address such questions as:  Are there really waves of feminism?  How is the Third Wave similar and/or different from previous waves of feminism?  What are some of Third Waves strengths and weaknesses?

COURSE GOALS

The goals of this course are to:  Define, examine, and explore “Third Wave” Feminisms  Examine the literature, culture and issues pertinent to “Third Wave” Feminisms

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS

This is a discussion-based course that will include lectures, class discussions, small group discussions, creation of a ‘zine, experiential work and reflective paper, in-class and at-home writing, oral presentations, and a research paper. COURSE TEXTS

 Kaufman, Cynthia. Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change. Cambridge: South End Press, 2003.  Labaton, Vivian and Dawn Lundy Martin. The Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New Feminism. New York: Anchor Books, 2004.  Tea, Michelle. Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class. Emeryville, Seal Press, 2003.  Various articles available on cd (purchase for $5 in class).

1 ASSIGNMENTS: See attached Addendum for remainder of assignments and in-class activities

Research Papers

Your research papers will be no less than 8 and no more than 10 pages double-spaced. It will include a works cited page and parenthetical citations in MLA style. You should cite a minimum of 8 sources, five or more of which must be scholarly. The research paper is an opportunity to explore a topic that interests you, as well as to improve your research and writing skills. You will be expected to have a preliminary research topic by week 4 of class. The final draft will be due the last day of class, when you will orally present your findings to the class.

Preliminary Research Question Due week 4. What topic or pertinent third wave issue will you address in your research paper? What kinds of sources might you use? Where can you find those sources? Although a draft is not required, we strongly encourage you to meet with us to discuss your paper.

Make sure to cite all ideas and information that are not your own - not just direct quotations- in MLA style. Be sure to include a works cited page at the end of your paper that includes every source you cite in the paper and consult for information. Proofread!!!! Grammar, spelling and organization count toward your grade and affect your ability to communicate your ideas effectively.

Oral Presentation You will be presenting your research findings to the class on the last day of class in a short oral presentation. Presentations should be 5-8 minutes long.

COURSE EVALUATION Class Participation: attendance and discussion 100 points Your day to lead discussion/facilitate exercise 100 points Response Papers (8 @ 25 points each) 200 points Community/Volunteer Work 200 points Research Paper 200 points Activism Sharing 50 points Creation of student ‘zine 150 points (100 zine/50 group paper) TOTAL 1000 points

COURSE POLICIES

2 Late Papers/Exams Policy Unless a student takes responsibility for working out details with instructors, failure to complete assignments or turn in papers on the due date will result in a grade of 0 for that paper. In class writing and activities cannot be made up.

Workload This is a 300-level class, and there is a lot of reading. Please be realistic about the demands on your time.

Class Participation Class Participation refers not merely to the amount that you talk, but to the quality of your contributions during discussions. Seminaring will be an important component of this class as we examine various texts. In evaluating your participation in seminar discussions, we will look at your effectiveness in posing insightful questions, relating readings to your thinking, your feelings, and experiences. You will be expected to be able to answer information questions about the materials assigned, to pose analytical questions about those materials or related issues, and to examine with classmates all aspects of the “meaning” of what we read, see, and do.*

We don’t assess participation every day, (though we will usually take attendance) but we will assign a total at the end of the semester. This is necessarily a subjective evaluation. Highest points go to people who attend regularly, contribute consistently, and make useful contributions. About equal points go to those who come regularly and say little (in content, not quantity) and those who don’t attend regularly but who do contribute significantly when present. Obviously, if you miss a lot you can’t contribute much and you’ll earn few participation points.*

Attendance is especially important in a class that meets only once a week. Being on time and staying until the end of the class count toward you attendance grade. Being more than 30 minutes tardy or leaving more than 30 minutes early is equivalent to an absence. Students who have a borderline grade will receive the lower grade if they have excessive absences. Excessive absence means missing more than 2 classes. *Thanks to Professor Anita Taylor for these guidelines.

Class Participation Principles

It is important that you read the syllabus carefully and understand what is expected of you before beginning this course. Throughout the semester, we will discuss both abstract, theoretical ideas and concrete, practical information about a variety of issues pertaining to the experiences of women. We hope that these materials will challenge you intellectually and personally. However, when discussing certain topics about gender, race, sexual orientation, sex work, etc. we may at times touch on some issues that are socially and/or personally sensitive. Because of this, any one of us may feel uncomfortable. To help the diversity of our voices lead to opportunities to learn in such situations we propose the following ground rules together with the Guidelines for Class Participation.

3 1. Acknowledge that we are all co-educators with something to learn as well as something to teach. 2. Acknowledge that all of us have learned misinformation about some groups in society, whether we belong to an advantaged or disadvantaged group. 3. Agree not to blame ourselves or others for the misinformation we have learned in the past. 4. Accept responsibility for not repeating misinformation after we have learned otherwise. 5. Assume that people--both those we study and those in this class--make and have made choices that seemed appropriate to them at the time. 6. Acknowledge that prejudice and discrimination based on gender, race, ethnic and national background, social class, sexual preference, religion, physical appearance, and abilities exist. 7. Never demean, devalue, or in any way "put down" people for their experiences, backgrounds, or statements. This does not mean that you can't disagree, only that you must do so respectfully.

*Thanks to Professor Lynn Weber for these principles.

Honor Code GMU's Honor Code is available at http://www.gmu.edu/catalog/acadpol.html#Honor. The honor code prohibits cheating, attempted cheating, plagiarism, lying and stealing.

Plagiarism According to the GMU handbook, Plagiarism is "presenting as one's own the words, the work, or the opinions of someone else without proper acknowledgment" OR, "Borrowing the sequence of ideas, the arrangement of material, or the pattern of thought of someone else without proper acknowledgment."

In this class, you will be using MLA style to cite others' work. You must provide a citation if you use the exact words, ideas, facts or opinions of others in your writing. Plagiarism is the academic equivalent of theft and is a very serious matter. If you have any questions about what plagiarism is or when to use citations, please see us.

Disability Support Services Any student with documented learning disabilities or other conditions that may affect their performance in the class should make sure that documentation is on file with the Office of Disability Support Services (993-2474) and talk with us to discuss reasonable accommodations.

WRITING RESOURCES The New Century College Online Writing Guide for Integrative Studies Students, located at http://classweb.gmu.edu/nccwg/, offers resources that may be helpful to you. The website offers tips on taking exams, writing papers etc. The Writing Center also offers assistance to students who want to improve their writing skills. The Writing Center Website is http://writingcenter.gmu.edu.

4 CLASS SCHEDULE

INTRODUCTION Week 1 9/2/04  Icebreaker activity – Exercise #1  Syllabus/Announcements  For next week: Decide which week you will facilitate/lead class discussion  Film during class: People Like Us

FROM THIRD WORLD TO THIRD WAVE – HISTORIES: Whose liberation is this? Week 2 9/9/04 Suggested reading order  Cynthia Kaufman Ch. 1 & Ch. 6 of Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change  Manifesta, timeline (pp. 323-337)  Leslie Heywood Introduction to Third Wave Agenda (pages 1-15)  Audrey Lorde. The Master’s Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master’s House in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color.  Audrey Lorde. An Open Letter to Mary Daly in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color.  Barbara/Beverly Smith. Third World Women: Tokenism or Leadership. This Bridge…  Cherrie Moraga. La Guera. This Bridge…  Jo Carillo. And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You. This Bridge…  Pat Parker. Revolution: It’s Not Quick or Pretty. This Bridge…  Alix Kates Shulman. Emma Goldman: A Feminist Reappraisal in Red Emma Speaks  Tara Hardy. Dirty Girl in Without a Net  Labaton & Martin. Introduction in The Fire This Time  Naomi Klein. Preface in Fences and Windows

“BUT SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE ______” OR ALTERNATIVELY, “BUT I DON’T SEE COLOR” OR CLASS, GENDER, RACE

Week 3 9/16/04 Suggested reading order  Kaufman, Ch. 5  Riki Wilchins Why Identity Politics Really, Really Sucks in Read My Lips  Taigi Smith, What Happens When Your Hood is the Last Stop on the White Flight Express? in Colonize This!  bell hooks, Race & Gender (ch. 10) in Feminism is for Everybody  Susan Muaddi Darraj, It’s Not an Oxymoron: The Search for an Arab Feminism in Colonize This!  Helen Zia. For Richer, For Poorer in Asian American Dreams  Maria Rivera. Waiting in Without a Net  Joy Castro. Farm Use in Without a Net  Siobhan Brooks. The Prison We Called Home in Without a Net

5  Wendy Thompson. The Lower-Work-Class Narrative of a Black Chinese American Girl in Without a Net

THE BEST MAN FOR THE JOB: SPOTLIGHT ON MICHELLE TEA Week 4 9/23/04 Suggested reading order  Kaufman Chs. 2 & 3  Michelle Tea. Introduction in Without a Net  bell hooks. Feminist Class Struggle (Ch. 7) & Women & Work (Ch. 7) in Feminism is for Everybody  Daisy Hernandez. My Father’s Hands in Without a Net  Meliza Banales. The Poet and the Pauper in Without a Net  Tatiana de la Tierra. Wings in Without a Net  Shell Feijo. There are Holes in my Mandarin Dog Biscuit in Without a Net  Cassie Peterson. Blueprints & Hardwires in Without a Net  Eileen Myles. The Sound of Poverty in Without a Net  Frances Varian. Getting Out in Without a Net  Sister Space in DC: a local case study

AUTHOR & ACTIVIST: MICHAEL MESSNER– JC CINEMA, 4:00 p.m. Week 5 9/30/04 Suggested reading order  Kaufman, Chapter 8  Michael Messner. Maculinities and Globalization in Men’s Lives  Michael Messner. Becoming 100% Straight? in Men’s Lives  Ricky Lee. For Those Who Like to Dig in Without a Net

REGULATION REGULAR: Nations, Bodies, Prisons, Education, Sex Work Week 6 10/07/04 Suggested reading order  Kaufman, Ch. 9  Riki Wilchins. Imaginary Bodies, Imaginary Minds in Read My Lips.  National Sexualities, Craig Willise  Terry Everton. “Christian Angst” in Anarchy: A Desire Armed, Spring 2004.  Emma Goldman. The Child and Its Enemies.  Emma Goldman. The Social Importance of the Modern School.  Emma Goldman. Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure.  Nomy Lamm, It’s a Big Fat Revolution in Listen Up  Max Airborne, The Fat Truth in A Girl’s Guide to Taking Over the World  Sirena Riley, The Black Beauty Myth in Colonize This!  Leslie Heywood, The Importance of Being Lester in Jane Sexes It Up  Laura Antoniou, Anti-Venom for the Soul in Pomosexuals  Eva Pendleton, Love For Sale: Queering Heterosexuality in Whores And Other Feminists  Priscilla Alexander, Feminism, Sex Workers & Human Rights in Whores and Other Feminists

6  Trojan Whores: Regulation and Self-Organization in the AIDS Epidemic in Whores…  Nikki Levine. My Mother Was a Whore in Without a Net

FIGHTING OVER CRUMBS: Still Fighting the Gender Binary, the Realness of Our Reps. Week 7 10/14/04 Suggested reading order  Wilchins, Riki, The Menace in Michigan in Read My Lips.  Wilchins, Riki, Sex is a Verb in Read My Lips.  Lani Montreal. Who’s Been Killing the Kings and Queens  Judith Halberstam, Transgender Butch in Feminine Masculinity  Pat Califia, Trashing the Clinic and Burning Down the Beauty Parlor: Activism Transmutes Pitiable Patients into Feisty Gender Radicals from Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism  Lisa Miya-Jervis, “A Fest in Distress” from Bitch: The Pink Issue (No. 17)  Ally in Kate Bornstein’s My Gender Workbook

THE NO SPIN ZONE: Weapons of Mass Distraction Week 8 10/21/04 Suggested reading order  Kaufman, Ch. 10  Joshua Breitbart and Ana Noguerira. An Independent Media Center of One’s Own: A Feminist Alternative to Corporate Media in The Fire This Time  Elisha Maria Miranda. A Baptism By Fire: Vieques, Puerto Rico in The Fire This Time  Meet muckraker, Greg Palast  George Gerbner and Cultivation Analysis discussion  Corporate Media discussion

PERFORMING OPPRESSION: JOBISM, RANKISM, STATISISM, ELITISM AND PERFORMING TRANSGRESSION: RIOT GRRRL, MUSIC, POETRY, & ‘ZINES Week 9 10/28/04  Guest speakers: Erica Atienza & Eryca Kasse  Film during class: Don’t Need You Suggested reading order  Judith Halberstam, Drag Kings in Feminine Masculinity  Emily White, Revolution Girl Style Now from Rock She Wrote  Katia Dunn, “Rap Sheet” in Bitch: The Pink Issue (No. 17)  Lori Twersky, Why Bitch? in Rock She Wrote  Ayana Byrd, Claiming Jezebel: Black Female Subjectivity and Sexual Expression in Hip Hop in The Fire This Time  Jennifer Bleyer, Cut-and-Paste Revolution: Notes from the Girl Zine Explosion in The Fire This Time

7  Shireen Lee, The New Girls Network: Women, Technology and Feminism in The Fire This Time  Colleen McKee. My Season of Paper Dresses in Without a Net  Sailor Holladay. Filling in Without a Net  Liliana Hernandez. Dinner Talk in Without a Net  Tina Fakrid-Deen. Ghetto Fabulous in Without a Net  Polyestra. The Just-Add-Water Kennedys and Barbecue Bread Violence in Without a Net  Bee Lavendar. Fighting in Without a Net  Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Scholarship Baby in Without a Net  Shawna Kennedy. Something From Nothing in Without a Net

OURS FOR THE TAKING

Week 10 11/4/02  Film during class: The Seattle Syndrome

Suggested Reading Order  Kaufman, Ch. 7  Temple, Kathryn, Exporting Violence: The School of the Americas, U.S. Intervention in Latin America, and Resistance in The Fire This Time  Naomi Klein. Democratizing the Movement in Fences and Windows  Naomi Klein. The NAFTA Track Record in Fences and Windows  Ai-Jen Poo and Eric Tang. Domestic Workers Organize in the Global City in The Fire This Time  Duane Elgin. From Voluntary Simplicity

OURS FOR THE TAKING PART II Week 11 11/11/04

 Film during class: No Logo  Guest Speaker: Adrienne Shaw

Suggested reading order  Kaufman, Ch. 4  Syd Lindsley. Bearing the Blame: Gender, Immigration, Reproduction, and the Environment in The Fire This Time  bell hooks. Global Feminism (ch. 8) in Feminism is for Everybody,  Miriam Ching Yoon Louie. Listen to the Women: The Real Experts in Sweatshop Warriors  Miriam Ching Yoon Louie. Holding Up Half the Sky: Chinese Immigrant Women Workers in Sweatshop Warriors

ACTIVISM & REVOLUTION: Enough about you, let’s talk about me and what I’ve done for you… Week 12 11/18/04 Suggested reading order

8  Kaufman, Ch. 11  Miriam Ching Yoon Louie. Just-in-Time: Immigrant Workers’ Centers in Sweatshop Warriors  Labaton & Martin. (Afterword) Looking Ahead: Building a Feminist Future in The Fire This Time  Naomi Klein. The Limits of Political Parties in Fences and Windows  Emma Goldman. What We Did About the Slaughter at Homestead.

Week 13 11/25/04  NO CLASS: Native American History Day

ACTIVISM CASE STUDIES Week 14 12/2/04  Anna Kirkland. When Transgendered People Sue and Win: Feminist Reflections on Strategy, Activism, and the Legal Process in The Fire This Time  Robin Templeton. She Who Believes in Freedom: Young Women Defy the Prison Industrial Complex in The Fire This Time  Pamela Grossman. “Mr. Lady Records” in Ms. Magazine, October/November 2001  “Mayor with a Mission” in New York Times Magazine, March 28, 2004  Kristina Cheryl Wong A Big Bad Prank: Broadening the Definition of Asian American Feminist Activism in Yell-Oh Girls  Mattie Weiss Wellstone’s Secret Weapons in How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office

Week 15 12/9/04

 Present Activism Work  Hand in ‘zines and share with the class  Class Par-TAY

Exam Date: 12/16/04  Final Research Papers Due  Student Presentation of Research Papers  Hand out bibliography/For Future Reading List

This syllabus created by Rebecca Walter and Tara Ellison, summer 2002. Updated and modified by Rebecca Walter and Jen Barnard, summer 2004.