Week 9-10 Questions

On the Ehrenreich reading, which was 1. the Ehrenreich reading on Welcome to Cancerland focuses on her personal experiences after and during breast cancer diagnosis. During her ordeal she mentions how AIDS begs for researching finance, tuberculosis has no support but yet breast cancer has the support of most stores like Revlon, Pier 1, Avon...etc. Do you think that Breast Cancer has been a marketing tool for corporate America? How does this help or cripple the attention of other diseases?

From the Nikki Stewart reading which was: Women's studies has proven vital in academia, but can the issues of gender, sex, feminism, social constructs etc, be made as a pre-requisite in all majors, or should it only count for the social sciences? What makes a degree in Women Studies not as prestige among other majors?


By Mike

Week 9-10 Question

In the articles by Doezema and Smith, authors both talk about women’s reproductive and human rights.In the topics of prostitution and abortion rights, what are the "forces" that are creating the dichotomy among these issues (ex. white supremacy..etc)?

Week 8 DIs Questions

1. Did President Bush promote marriage only to heterosexuals in order to stress his opinion of traditional marriage or because he knew that the divorce rate was rising and "multiple marriages mean multiple expenditures?" Additionally, if this is true, and his intention was to bring more economic flow into the country, then why did he not promote gay marriage when same-sex weddings "translates into such huge revenues?"

2. Why would the nation exclude other groups of people, such as the homosexuals and multiracial people from fully integrating into the country as shown by Morrison and Lewis? What would be the benefit of doing so through the excluder's eyes?

Week 8 Discussion Questions

1. Steinem talks about how many of the murder crimes committed are because one needs to feel more dominant or prove their identity. What do you think Messner who wrote the "100% Straight" piece would say in relation to the Steinem piece?

2. Do you think that the militarized sex industry that Nagel talks about is one that should be fought against? Explain. If yes, how is it different to any of the other domestic sex based institutions? for example, strip clubs or the Las Vegas sex industry.

Week 7 Presentation

1. According to Bose and Whaley there research suggests that there is segregation between women and men in the work force, and that when women are hired into the top pyrimad  it is usually because the job has changed in some way? Looking at successful women today, to what extent do you think this is true?

2. Mink speaks on feminist politics and single poor mothers. The author discusses how child-caring has lost its "economic" value to our society, since we value wages and income so much. Working in the labor market is considered liberating and receiving welfare or staying at home looked down up on. Do you think it's socially fair that the new welfare law forces woman benefiting from it to work outside of the home? Why?

Presentation Question Week 5

How have women of any race, class, sexuality, and physicality been shaped by society's norm of: " 'true' womanhood" as Bank's appraises; the "culture of thinness" as Thompson proposes; and the conception that "loose lips sink ships" as firmly stated by Davis?

presentation question week 5

What is it about our culture that has led mainly women to the belief that our physical appearance and attributes are more important than anything else in many cases? Women go to great lengths to have plastic surgery because our society tells them that bags under eyes and wrinkles on their face are defining pieces of who they are. As Debra Gimlin talks about in her article, women are supposed to be independent and support change and advancement for themselves, yet at the same time still are held to the standard that appearance is more important than anything. Why is our society still at this point?

Food for Thought

Do you think that Rupp's main thesis of women loving women is somewhat contradictory in nature? If she gives examples about biological females who take on the male role and choose to live their lives as men, then is it incorrect for her to categorize them as a gender that they do not identify with?

Presentation Question-Janette

What sexual boundaries does society enforce upon women and their ability to express their sexual desires and how does this differ from the way men are able to freely express their sexual desires in society? Does being open about their sexuality degrade women in society?

Week 4 Discussion Question

If queer activism continues its dichotomic form of only pertaining to hetero/queer categorization, then how could a queer politically relate to those who identify with same-sex identities but hold different racial and class identities?

Another thing I want to bring forth is the term queer. I've always found it to be derogatory, and it's interesting to me that they would use the term queer politics for their political agenda.

Discussion question week 3

How would society react and interact if each person was stripped of their sexual identity as a straight/lesbian/gay/transsexual?

Discussion question

How can the merging of biology and culture, or the idea of humans being 100% nature and 100% nurture, bring a change in the world around us?

Week 3 Discussion Question

Lorber says that it is society that ultimately defines gender, which is why an XY infant with ambiguous genitalia could be assigned to be a female. However, how do transsexuals help to support this theory when humans who are treated as females and males their whole lives go against society's gender conditioning? If society around the infant creates gender, why do people become transexuals?

key words & conference tomorrow

Hi Section 1D:

Great presentations and discussion today. Next section we will have time to go over some key words-- so if as you are reading for next week you happen upon concepts, words, ideas that you don't understand (e.g. discourse, postmodernism, ideology, etc.) please write them down and bring them to section so that we can define them together. Also, my office hours are every Thursday after section from 4-5 pm so drop by if you have additional questions or to have a conversation.

Take care & enjoy the weekend,
Freda

Here's the information for the keynote panel tomorrow for the LA Queer Studies Conference:
Friday | Otober 9 | Royce 314

4:00-5:30

Plenary Panel
Moderator: Robert Diaz

“The Travels of Disaffection: Care Labor, Affect, and the Filipino Queer Diaspora”
Martin F. Manalansan IV, Anthropology, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign

"The Part That Nas No Part"
Elizabeth Povinelli, Anthropology & Gender Studies, Columbia University

“Against Survival: Queerness in a Time That’s Out of Joint”
Lee Edelman, English, Tufts University

check out the full program here:
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/lgbts/events/LAQSC2009.html

what exactly is the definition of feminist?

i've attended lecture and i'm confused. Sometimes i feel as though the professor asks more questions rather than provide answers.

Discussion Question

How do you identify yourself? How does this make you different from others who share your race, class gender, and/or sexuality?

Discussion Question

How have the pluralities and struggles within the feminist movement both strengthened and weakened the movement throughout its history?

DIscussion Question

Is the white community actually making a positive difference with problems such as domestic violence with minorities, despite the fact that, as Crenshaw states, they seem to enhance already established negative stereotypes of the minorities’ cultures? Can emphasizing these stereotypes help just by making people aware of the problem?

Experiment?

I'm so intrigued by the Transgeneration video!

Welcome to our section blog

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the blog discussion forum for our WS10 section. I will use the forum to send messages to you all and you will use it as a discussion board to post your presentation questions and other resources you want to share with the class that you come across links to music videos, news, music, etc. that articulate issues that we're discussing in the class.

Everyone should check the discussion board/blog before class each Thursday to read over the discussion questions generated by the presenters. I will send you all an email if I post something new letting you know that you should check our blog for updated information.

See you all on Thursday.

Freda