Justice, Gender, Sexuality: Fall 2018

One of the biggest comforts as a human being is knowing others are like you and relating to people. At one time or another in our lives I am sure we have all felt what it is like to feel alone. One way we relate to others is through our history. We value teaching history in school not only because it is informational and relevant, but also because it is how we learn that we are alike as humans. There are people we look up to throughout history because of the leaps and bounds they have made for our freedom. So why don’t we learn about Marsha P. Johnson, Harvey Milk, Ellen DeGeneres or Alan Turing in school? Or if we learn about Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman why don’t we learn about all parts of their identity as we do other famous writers or people in history?              We can all agree that we talk about civil rights in high school. Although sometimes limited, most schools cover the civil rights movement, women’s movement to s...

Queer Immersions/Excursions-Byron Hurt and Masculinity  I attended Byron Hurt’s talk on masculinity last week in the chapel. I was looking forward to it and surprised to hear that he was a student of Jackson Katz whose work we read a lot about in Women and Gender Studies. He used a gender box as an example to illustrate the ways in which we are pushed by society to act in alignment with our gender. He then had people give examples of words men are called when they act outside their gender box. I had done this exercise before in other classes, but I thought it was especially powerful to do it in a large group setting. It was also powerful because there were many more men in the audience than in any classes where I have done this exercise. He at first only wanted examples from the men in the audience but then opened it up to the rest saying that women also understand the male gender box likely because they are pressured by it in certain ways as well. I thought the talk was very ...

Before class on Tuesday, please post a comment that explores and/or explains the question you'll be answering in your major blog post that is due on Thursday. As you share with us the direction you'll be moving in, include at least two quotations or examples (with citations) from our course reading that you think will help you anchor your major blog post in evidence. Aim for 250 words. I look forward to seeing how your major blog post is evolving.

For today's comments, I'd like you to do two things:  First, take some time to reach each other's major blog posts (the ones that were due on Sunday evening) and get to know what your classmates are thinking and writing about when it comes to our course material.  Respond to two of your classmates.  Your first comment should be for the writer that posted their blog right after yours (and the student who posted last can comment on the very first post).  The second comment can be on any student's post. When you comment, please identify the idea or point or perspective that you find the most interesting, engaging, thoughtful, or unique.  Tell the writer why you think so.  Then, end your comment with a question that their post raises for you. Second, in preparation for Thursday's class, identify a topic or issue from this week's reading (one that connects both texts) that you find interesting or important, and tell us what that issue is and why you think...

The first time I ever understood the power that words can have for marginalized people was when I learned the concept of Negritude, developed by French thinkers like Aime Cesaire. Negritude was the product of black writers and philosophers coming together to proclaim their cultural identity through French, rather than conforming to the black stereotype and only speaking pidgin. The concept that one could Weaponized their identity with language was completely foreign to me. My faith in the concept of negritude leads me to believe that queer can and should be openly used in the LGBTQIA+ community as well. In the introduction of his book “Queer Theories”, Hall explains why slurs exist. He says, “slurs and pejoratives were marshaled to ‘put people in their place’ and make sure that they understood the degraded nature of that place.” This reasoning only makes me believe in reclaiming words that were meant for destruction all the more. By normalizing and reclaiming the wor...