§ Quizzes (100 points): There will be short closed-book quizzes on the readings during the first 15 minutes of each class EVERY WEEK STARTING ON 9/9. If you are more than 15 minutes late to class you will miss the quiz. There will be no make-up quizzes.

§ Active Participation (100 points): There will be several forums for participating in discussion, including: group activities, free-writing, informal oral reports, etc. Active participation means coming to class prepared to discuss your responses, questions, and thoughts about the day’s topic.
* Note on class discussions: Everyone should feel comfortable contributing to class discussion. Diversity of opinion is encouraged and disagreements are to be expected. However, please ensure that discussions are conducted with respect and civility.
§ Two Exams (250 points each):
§ Gender in the Media Project (300 points): This project consists of three parts 1) a journal of your observations of gender in the media 2) a short presentation of your findings; and 3) An essay analyzing the major themes and issues from your observations of gender in the media.

Grading:
Scale: 96-100 A; 91-95 A-; 86-90 B+; 81-85 B; 76-80 B-; 71-75 C+; 66-70 C; 61-65 C-; 56-60 D; equal or below 55 F.

Course Schedule:

Week One: What is Gender?
9/2 Introduction to Class

Week Two: How is Gender Socially Constructed?
9/9 Read: Lorber, “The Social Construction of Gender,” (Disch). Cofer “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria,” handout; also online at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/hdh9/e-reserves/Cofer_-_The_myth_of_the_Latin_women_PDF.pdf .
Kellner, “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture” handout, also online at http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/9375_016783Ch1.pdf WEEKLY QUIZZES START TODAY

Week Three: How Does Gender Shape Our Identities?
9/16 Read: McIntosh, “White Privilege.” (Disch). Espada, “The Puerto Rican Dummy and the Merciful Son,” (Disch); Ulen, “Tapping Our Strength” (Disch); Pascoe, “Dude, You’re a Fag,” handout, also online via the journal Sexualities, in the NJCU library. (Class may also attend part of Convocation: awaiting more information.)

Week Four: How Does Gender Shape Communications and Media?
9/23 Read: Tannen, “You Just Don’t Understand,” (handout; online at http://www.sheltonstate.edu/userfiles/File/faculty/a%20wible/scan0001.pdf); Petrie, “Real Men Don’t Cry…and Other “Uncool Myths,” (Disch); Zimmerman, “Where Are the Women? The Strange Case of the Missing Feminists” (Disch and at http://www.wellesley.edu/Womensreview/archive/2003/10/highlt.html (scroll down)); Steinem, “A Modest Proposal” (handout, and at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gloria-steinem/a-modest-proposal_3_b_55772.html).

Week Five: In What Ways Are Our Bodies Gendered?
9/30 Read: Sheila Jeffreys, “Making Up Is Hard to Do” (Disch); Staples, “Just Walk on By” (Disch); Haubegger, “I’m Not Fat, I’m Latina,” (Disch); Coventry, “The Tyranny of the Aesthetic,” (Disch); Nelson, “Who’s the Fairest of Them All?” (Disch)
MEDIA JOURNALS (THREE SEPARATE ENTRIES) DUE TODAY

Week Six: What Makes a Body “Disabled?”
10/7 Read: Wendell, “The Social Construction of Disability” (handout); Kriegel, “Taking It,” (Disch); Bednarska, “Passing Last Summer” (Disch) Chapters 1 and 2 (Johnson)

Week Seven: What Other Systems Are Gender Relations Part of? What’s Our Responsibility?
10/14 Read: Chapters 3-7 (Johnson)

Week Eight:
10/21 MID-TERM EXAM

Week Nine: How Are Gender and Sex Related?
10/28 Read: Tanenbaum, “Slut!” (handout); Dines, “King Kong and the White Woman” (handout); Byrd, “Claiming Jezebel: Black Female Subjectivity and Sexual Expressions in Hip Hop” (Disch).

Week Ten: What Defines a Family?
11/4 Read: Graff, “What is Marriage For?” (Disch) Read: Collins, “Blood-Mothers, Other Mothers, and Woman Centered Networks, (Disch); Rubin, “The Transformation of Family Life,” (handout); Blackmore, “Raising Men” (handout).

Week Eleven: How Does Gender Affect Your Work?
11/11: Read: Crittenden, “Sixty Cents to a Man’s Dollar,” (Disch) Gerson, “Dilemmas of Involved Fatherhood,” (Disch); Barres, “Does Gender Matter?” Ehrenreich and Hochschild, “Global Woman,” (Disch); Douglas and Michaels, “The New Momism”
MEDIA JOURNALS (FOUR NEW SEPARATE ENTRIES) DUE TODAY

Week Twelve: Is Gender Part of the Curriculum?
11/18: Read: Sadker and Sadker, “Missing in Interaction,” (Disch); Barnett and Rivers, “Men and Women Are from Earth,” (Disch) Kimmel, “What About the Boys? (Disch); Avicolli, “He Defies You Still,” (Disch).


Week Thirteen:
11/25 Reading TBA. This class does not meet.

Week Fourteen: Are Men More Violent Than Women?
12/2 Read: Kaye/Kantrowitz, “Women, Violence, and Resistance,” (Disch). Read: Ybarra, “I Am a Man,” (Disch); Kupers, “Homophobia in Straight Men” (Disch)


Week Fifteen: What Does Gender Have to Do With Security?
12/9 Read: Enloe, “Wielding Masculinity Inside Abu Ghraib” (Disch); Benedict, “The Private War of Women Soldiers” (Disch)
MEDIA JOURNALS (FOUR NEW SEPARATE ENTRIES) DUE TODAY

Week Sixteen: How/Why Should We Change Gender? How Should We Change the World?
12/11 Read: Svirsky, “The Women’s Peace Movement in Israel (Disch), Arditti, “Women’s Human Rights: It’s About Time!” (Disch). Chapters 8 and 9: “Getting Off the Hook,” and “What Can We Do?” (Johnson)

GENDER IN THE MEDIA PROJECT ESSAYS DUE TODAY

12/16 8am FINAL EXAM scheduled

Policies:
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. You are permitted Two absences throughout the semester. More than two absences will affect your final grade. It is possible to fail this class on the basis of absences. I will pass around an attendance sheet for every class. You are responsible for signing in. Arriving late to class and leaving early will also be penalized (two late arrivals and/or early departures equals one absence). Because of the length of the class, we will have a break halfway through class. Students will be expected to be back in classroom promptly after the break. Leaving after break will count as an absence.
Deadlines: Deadlines for assignments will be clearly printed on the assignment sheet handouts and on the syllabus. If you have an emergency that means you will be unable to meet assignment deadlines, please notify me BEFORE the assignment is due. Otherwise, late papers will be deducted two points for every day past the deadline. Keep a hard copy of every assignment you turn in.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the turning in for credit of work that is not your own. It is intellectually dishonest and a violation of University policy. (See Gothic Guide: The Student Handbook, p.28). Plagiarism includes: a) quoting sources without proper citation b) using other students’ work without acknowledgement c) submitting work from one course to fulfill the requirements of another d) papers copied – directly or in part -- from term paper web-sites or other internet sources. If you have questions about plagiarism, please ask before you turn in your papers. Any plagiarized work will result in an automatic F grade for the course (not just for the paper). Papers will be submitted via Turnitin.com .
Etiquette: Many of the issues in Women’s and Gender Studies are controversial, and discussion can sometimes be heated and passionate. At the same time, we all will be held to a high standard of respect for others in our class discussions. After all, if you can’t take apart an argument without putting down the person presenting it, how can you expect to live in a democratic society let alone change the world? Perhaps more importantly, the classroom is a place of learning, and you can’t learn without risking being wrong sometimes.
Cell Phones: No text-messaging during class, please! It is rude to your classmates and to the teacher. Turn off your cell phone. If you have pressing reasons to receive a call during class, keep your phone on vibrate, and quietly check your phone. If an emergency, step out of the classroom to answer your phone or call back, causing as little distraction as possible.