Section outline

  • General

    Collapse all Expand all

  • Gen/Sex in the News!

    Danish Women face Conscription into Army--https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1e0094n5d3o

    The economist who followed the numbers and stopped dating men

    2023 Survey on Adolescence (and feminist identity, sexuality, education, dating, etc.)

    Scientists create functional eggs from skin cells

    World chess just placed restrictions on both trans women and trans men, August 18, 2023

  • Week 1

     

    September 2        Course Overview

    Will be ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE!  VIDEO INTRODUCTION TO THE CLASS GOING UP SHORTLY!  Please email me at bgurtler@brynmawr.edu with any specific questions.  I have been delayed returning from abroad but look forward to our session next week.

     

     

  • Week 2

    September 8      What is Gender? - What is Sexuality?

    What is Gender? 

    Read:

    What is Sexuality?

    Read:

    Due: Discuss what double binds you see and/or experience across gender identities/expressions and sexualities?  Think critically about your answers through an intersectional approach.  What do you think it means for you as a student to be self-reflexive when talking about feminist and queer issues, cultural identities, and power?

  • Week 3

    Knowing and Experiencing Bodies

    September 15   

    Historicizing Gendered Bodies

    Read: 

     

    Historicizing Sexuality

    Read:

    Due Response 2: 1 page response to Gina Metallic article—describe what “two spirit” means in your own words and how it is similar and different from identifying as gender fluid.  Why is it important to know the history of two-spirited people?  Is it possible for someone who does not identify as Indigenous to be two-spirited? Why or why not?  How does Metallic’s story add to your understanding of queer?  How does it help you think through how people live in the world as they embody and inhabit many communities?  Why is personal narrative a crucial tool for understanding how people identify?

  • Week 4

    Feminism: Waves, Disputes, and Activism

    September 22    What is Feminism?

    Read:

    • bell hooks.  “Feminist Politics: Where We Stand” (2000), 23-25.
    • Allan Johnson. “Patriarchy, The System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us” (2014), 26-34

     

    First and Second Wave Feminism: Problems of Race and Health

    Read: 

     

    Due Response 3: “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders” https://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders?language=en  Feminist scholars like Susan Faludi and bell hooks argue that Sandberg’s approach is a cooptation of feminism that undermines gender equality and female solidarity.  In your response discuss what Sandberg’s main strategies for producing more women leaders are.  Using intersectional analysis, which women do you think Sandberg is talking about and how does she propose to address structural sexism?  Why do you think hooks and Faludi say Sandberg is “coopting feminism”?  Feel free to discuss any other major figures or cases in which you see as similar trend occurring as well.

     

    In class discussion of feminist anthems and the guiding vision and definition of principles of the 2019 Women’s March on Washington.  What is feminism today?!

  • Week 5

    The Regulation of Sexuality: Feminist and Queer Critiques

    Sept. 29             Ongoing Feminist Activism: Sex Education

                Read:

    ·      “The Word Made Flesh”: Language, Authority, and Sexual Desire in Late Nineteenth-Century America (252-264.

    ·      Zimmerman, Too Hot to Handle: A Global History of Sex Education, CHAPTER FOUR A Right to Knowledge? Culture, Diversity, and Sex Education in the Age of AIDS, 1984– 2010 and Conclusion.

     

    In class documentary film viewing and discussion of: Sex(ed) How did you Learn About Sex?

    Due: Reading Response and Reflection: Respond to Zimmerman and discuss what place and form sexual education should take today.  To help have the most up to date response please explore this link to current policies on sexual education by state through the USA.   And, why SEICUS believes they most matter.  And then examine the National Sex Education Standards in the United States: Do you agree with the curriculum?  Why or why not? Please mention which 3 recommendations would be most important to implement and why.

     

     

     

     

  • Week 6

    October 6

    Feminism and Pornography: The Porn Wars and their Legacy

    Read:

    • Excerpt From Dennis Altman’s Global Sex, Chapter 7“The New Commercialization of Sex: From Forced Prostitution to Cybersex”p. 106-121 AND Chapter 9 “Squaring the Circle: The Battle for “Traditional” Morality,” p. 138-156.
    • Peggy Ornstein, Boys and Sex,“Chapter 2: If it Exists, There is a Porn of It,”p. 39-71.
    • Watch Documentary prior to class: The Money Shot: The Pornhub Story https://www.netflix.com/watch/81406118?source=imdb  Note: film includes visual images and discussions that might be offensive to some viewers.  Please be judicious about using public spaces when viewing.  It is not required but, if you would like to read the NYTimes Article, "The Children of Pornhub" mentioned in the film the link is here.  Read essay prompt due next week for questions to keep in mind while viewing.  IF YOU HAVE NETFLIX AND ARE WILLING TO HOST PLEASE SIGN UP HERE!  ALSO ADD YOUR NAME IF YOU ARE GOING TO COME AND VIEW.

     Due: Reading Summary of either Chapter 7 or 9 for all students

    In class discussion of the evolving feminist and queer critiques/acceptance of pornography, the changes within the industry and “ethical” porn.  In class resource: https://www.womenshealthmag.com/sex-and-love/a42637997/ethical-porn/

     

     



     

  • Week 7

    October 13

    FALL BREAK - NO CLASS

  • Week 8

     

    The Regulation of Sexuality: A Feminist and Queer Analysis 

    October 20         Sex, Law, and Religion in the United States

    Read:

    ·      Janet Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini, Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance, Chapter 2: What’s Wrong with Tolerance? And Ch. 5: Valuing Sex.

    ·      Dagmar Herzog, Sex in Crisis, Chapter 2.

    Due: Reading Summary of Love the Sin OR Sex in Crisis Ch 2 

    REGULATING SEX PROJECT DUE BY CLASS

     

     

  • Week 9

    October 27

    Ongoing Feminist Activism: Gender and Sexual Violence

    Read:    

    ·      Carol Smart, “Rape: Law and the Disqualification of Women’s Sexuality,” 26-49

    ·      Lila Abu-Lughod, Rema Hammami, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Laura Charney.  “Feminism and Geopolitics: A Collaborative Project on the Cunning of Gender Violence,” Feminist Studies, Volume 48, Number 3, 2022, pp. 638-654.

    ·      Beth Richie “A Black Feminist Reflection on the Antiviolence Movement” Signs 25:4 (Summer 2000).

    ·      Courtney Bailey. “A Queer #MeToo Story: Sexual Violence, Consent, and Interdependence.” 302-306.

    Optional: watch documentary film CUSP (available on prime and showtime). https://www.cuspthefilm.com/. Library unable to purchase from filmmaker.  Viewing options are: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/cusp (it is on Amazon Prime for purchase or free with Paramount subscription, on Apple TV, Roku....).  

     

     

  • Week 10

    November 3          Postcolonial Feminist Critiques, Part 1: Veiling in Islam

    Read:   

    ·      Homar Hoodfar, “The Veil in their Minds and on Our Heads: The Persistence of Colonial Images of Muslim Women” Resources for Feminist Research, Toronto Vol 22. Issue ¾, (1993).

    ·      Lailatul Fitriyah. “Can we stop talking about the ‘hijab’?: Islamic Feminism, Intersectionality, and the Indonesian Muslim Female Migrant Workers”, p. 401-405 from Intro to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Oxford (2021).

     

                            Postcolonial Feminist Critiques, Part 2: Female Circumcision

    Read:   

    ·      Fuambai Ahmadu, “Ain’t I a Woman, Too? Challenging Myths of Sexual Dysfunction in Circumcised Women,” 278-310

    ·      Michela Fusaschi, “Gendered genital modifications in critical anthropology: from discourses on FGM/C to new technologies in the sex/gender system” IJIR: Your Sexual Medicine Journal (2023) 35:6–15; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-022-00542-y

    Due: Engaged Learning Response: Find two recent articles from a major news source about Muslim women.  What words and images frame the stories (i.e. does veiling figure prominently in the story)?  What is the intended audience and purpose of the story?  Whose voices are experts in telling the story?  When framed through an Islamic feminist analysis or intersectional analysis does the story change?

    In Class Work:  As discussed in lecture and in article below, we are seeing rates of male circumcision decline markedly in the USA.

    Circumcision: the ultimate parenting dilemma

    What do you think of the argument relating so called "female circumcision" to "male circumcision"?

    In class we will watch this brief clip: 

    In class debate--what aspects of arguments over circumcision did you find most persuasive: pleasure, disease transmission, cultural, religious, aesthetic, rights/bodily integrity, etc?

     

     



     

  • Week 11

    Regulating Gender

    November 10          Intersex and the Medical Regulation of Gender

    Read:    

    ·      Anne Fausto-Sterling, “Of Gender and Genitals: The Use and Abuse of the Modern Intersexual,” 45-77.

    ·      Cheryl Chase “Hermaphrodites with Attitude: Mapping the Emergence of intersex Political Activism”

               

                            The Pervasiveness of the Gender Binary

    Read and Complete:

    ·      Christina Crosby “Masculine, Feminine, or Fourth of July (2016) from A Body Undone: Living On After Great Pain NYU Press. 387-391.

    ·      C.J. Pascoe, “Dude, You’re a Fag: Adolescent Masculinity and Fag Discourse,” 329-346

    DUE: Reading summary of EITHER Sterling or Pascoe works.

  • Week 12

    November 17            Gender codes: Transgender and Gender Nonbinary

    Watch 

      • Documentary: "The Codes of Gender: Identity and Performance in Pop Culture"  (2009). Can be found on Kanopy: https://www.kanopy.com/en/brynmawr/video/216728/41622   Note: go ahead and watch Ep 1 the unabridged version.
      • While watching fill out Questions and Reflections Doc below.     These terms will be helpful as you write your gender analysis paper.

    Read:

    ·      Kate Bornstein, Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us, xi-49

    ·      Tina Vasquez. “It’s Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women” (2014), p. 171-174. 

            

                REGULATION OF GENDER PAPER DUE by FRIDAY, Nov 20

    • REGULATION OF GENDER PAPER Assignment
      Opens: Friday, October 16, 2026, 10:49 AM
      Due: Friday, November 20, 2026, 5:00 PM

      DUE Friday Nov 20

      You are to pick a two-day period anytime in the 2 weeks prior to NOVEMBER 20 when you will note each time you become aware of how or when gender is regulated. The purpose of this assignment is for you to notice the many different ways that gender regulations manifest and to use our course texts to analyze the insidiousness of gender regulations within contemporary society.

      Instructions:

      Step 1: Select a two-day period when you will be able to take note of each time you observe gender regulations and subversions. In other words, you might notice that you are expected to wear gendered clothes, or you might notice that you subvert gender expectations through your clothing. You might notice particular spaces that regulate gender, or you might be engaged in conversations with language that reinforces normative gender ideas. You might see a television show with a character who intentionally transgresses gender, or you might watch a movie that tacitly prescribes gender norms. You might notice toys in a store that are gendered, or you might notice paperwork with questions that instill normative ideas about gender. You might notice someone, or yourself, exhibiting male privilege, or you might notice someone, or yourself, treating people of various genders differently. You do not need to do anything outside of your normal routine during this two-day period. Rather, the point is to notice when gender regulations and transgressions appear in what you read, watch, wear, discuss, in interpersonal relationships, in social norms, etc. Have a journal (or your phone—something to record things) with your from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed for each of the two days.   

      Step 2: Go over what you observed. Where did you see gender being regulated and/or subverted? What were the most common ways in which gender was regulated? Were there ways in which ideas were explicitly or implicitly instilled about how different people are supposed to behave based on their perceived gender?

      Step 3: In 4-5 double-spaced pages, present an analysis of your two days examining gender regulations. You will not be able to discuss each time gender was regulated. Rather, you will need to draw out themes and/or select a few of the most salient examples for your paper. You will need to ground your explanation in course readings so that you make clear what qualifies as the regulation of gender analytically. How does what you observed about gender fit (or not) with our course texts this semester? Using course texts to guide your analysis, what do your observations reveal about gender possibilities, or limitations, in 2026 (in Haverford/Bryn Mawr, PA)? Make a clear argument (thesis) about how gender is regulated in the present moment in your present location. You need to substantiate your analysis by citing or referencing at least three texts from the semester’s readings throughout your paper.

      *Please note: You do not need to disclose anything about your own gender or gender choices. You may do that if it fits with your argument, but it is not necessary because your paper’s analysis/argument will not focus on you. The analysis should focus on how gender is regulated broadly in the present moment. 

    • Bornstein File PDF
      9.2 MB · Uploaded 08/29/26, 02:59
    • Vasquez File PDF
      5.5 MB · Uploaded 08/29/26, 02:59
    • Codes of Gender Worksheet File DOCX
      22.1 KB · Uploaded 08/29/26, 02:59

  • Week 13

     

    Queer Families, Theory, and Feminism

    November 24          Queer Arguments about Assimilation.  

    Read:   

     

     

    Due: Reading Summary of "Normal and Normaller" OR of either "Sex Panic" or Kath Weston, "Love Makes a Family"

  • Week 14

     Love and Sex in the Digital Age

    December 1

    Read:

    • Lauren Palmer. “Dating in the Age of Tinder: Swiping for Love?”
    • Orenstein.  Boys & Sex, Chapter 3 ""Are You Experienced? Life and Love in a Hookup Culture". 
    • Yuchen Yang.  "Gender Uncoupled: Asexual people making sense of high school sex talk." Sexualities, 2023, Vol 26(3), 372-287.
    • Supplementary Reading: Dion and Dion. "Individualistic and Collectivistic Perspectives on Gender and the Cultural Context of Love and Intimacy" J. of Social Issues, Vol. 49, No 3, p. 53-69 (1993).

     

    In Class Film: Swiped: Hooking up in the digital age (https://www.amazon.com/Swiped-Hooking-Up-Digital-Age/dp/B07HGPYDH4)

    ·       Note: No reading summaries due this week

     

     

     

     

  • Week 15

    December 9    

    Queer Theory at the Crossroads: Recent Trends in the Field

    Read:  

    • Jasbir K. Puar.  Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times.  Duke, 2017.  [Available online]
      • Chapter 1: The Sexuality of Terrorism, 37-78
      • Postscript: Homonationalism in Trump Times, 223-236

    In class viewing of select parts from: "Pride Denied: Homonationalism and the Future of Queer Politics" (2016 documentary) 

     https://www.kanopy.com/en/brynmawr/video/290286 

    Note: No reading summaries due this week

    In class work time for Parenting Manual Groups

     

     

  • Week 16

     

    Week 16:

    December  14-18         FINAL PROJECT DUE: A Feminist Parenting Manual

    ·      December 15—Presentation

    ·      December 18—Parenting Manual Due (12:30pm)

     

    • 7:10-8:30pm All Groups!  Same room in Old Library

     Group Key:
    1=Age 0-4
    2= Age 5-10
    3=11-15
    4=Age16-21

     

    PARENTING MANUAL GROUPS:  please sign up here!