UNIT 1 – POSTWAR MISOGYNY
WEEK 1 – Freudian Misogyny
2/10: Introduction
Nina Renata Aron, “What Does Misogyny Look Like?” The New York Times, March 8, 2019, sec. Style.
2/12: Freud’s Perspective on Women
Sigmund Freud, “Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction between the Sexes” (1925), in Beverly Clack, ed., Misogyny in the Western Philosophical Tradition: A Reader (Macmillan Press, 1999), 195-205.
Kendra Cherry, “Freud’s Perspective on Women,” Verywell.com, September 18, 2014.
George Dvorsky, “Why Freud Still Matters When He Was Wrong about Almost Everything,” Gizmodo August 7, 2013.
Marynia Farnham and Ferdinand Lundberg, Modern Woman: The Lost Sex (1947), excerpts.
Philip Wylie, “Common Women,” in Generation of Vipers (1942), excerpt.
Herman N. Bundesen, “The Overprotective Mother,” [reprinted from LHJ 67(March 1950), 250] in Ladd-Taylor and Umansky, ed., Bad Mothers The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America (1998), 268-270.
Optional: Jane Taylor McDonnell, “On Being the ‘Bad’ Mother of an Autistic Child,” in Ladd-Taylor and Umansky, ed., Bad Mothers The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America (1998), 220-229
Discussion Questions (so far): [1] [2] [3] [4] [post your own]
Powerpoint: Freud, Penis Envy, and Momism
WEEK 2 – Postwar Mother-blaming
2/17: Momism and the Lavender Menace
Powerpoint: Momism and the Lavender Scare
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [post your own]
2/19: Imitation of Life
Prior to today’s class, please watch the 1959 film version of Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959). A copy is on reserve at Davis Family Library.
Lucy Fischer, “Three-Way Mirror: Imitation of Life,” in Fischer, ed., Imitation of Life (Rutgers, 1991), 3-28. My apologies for the odd formatting!
“The Bad and the Beautiful” in Lucy Fischer, ed., Imitation of life, 216-218.
Marina Heung, “’What’s the Matter with Sarah Jane?’: Daughters and Mothers in Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life,” Cinema Journal, 26:3 (Spring, 1987), 21-43.
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [post your own]
UNIT 2 – SECOND-WAVE FEMINISM
WEEK 3: Theorizing and Documenting Misogyny
2/24: Second-Wave Feminists Theorize Misogyny
Andrea Dworkin, “Misogyny,” in Mankiller et al., ed., The Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History (Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
Kate Millett, “Theory of Sexual Politics” (1970), 23-58.
Redstockings Manifesto (1969).
NOW Statement of Purpose (1966).
Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (1979)
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Sections I-IV (Chapters 1-12).
Powerpoint: Radical Feminists Define Misogyny – Atwood Responds
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [post your own]
2/26: Antifeminist Contexts
From Antifeminism in America, vol. 3 (1997):
Marabel Morgan, “Excerpts from The Total Woman,” [1970], 51-73.
Anita Bryant, “Lord, Teach Me To Submit,” [1972], 73-80.
Phyllis Schlafly, “Excerpts from The Power of the Positive Woman,” [1977], 101-113.
Jerry Falwell, “The Feminist Movement,” [1980], 136-150.
Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, Sections V-VIII (Chapters 13-23).
Powerpoint: Contextualizing The Handmaid’s Tale: Antifeminist Perspectives
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [post your own]
WEEK 4: The Handmaid’s Tale and Pornography
3/2: Atwood’s Critique of Anti-Pornography Feminism
Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, Sections IX-XII, 143-255.
Robin Morgan, “Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape” (1974).
Ann Snitow, “Retrenchment vs. Transformation” (1983) — explicit version available here.
Powerpoint: Pornography and The Handmaid’s Tale
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [post your own]
3/4: Anti-censorship Feminists and Atwood’s Sexual Politics
Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, Chapters XIII-XV, Historical Notes.
Powerpoint: The Handmaid’s Tale and Storytelling
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [post your own]
UNIT 3: POST-FEMINISM
WEEK 5: Backlash
3/9: Backlash
Susan Faludi, “Introduction: Blame It on Feminism” and “Man Shortages and Barren Wombs,” in Backlash (1991).
Katha Pollitt, “’Fetal Rights’: A New Assault on Feminism,” in Ladd-Taylor and Umansky, ed., Bad Mothers: The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America (1998), 285-298.
recommended, not required: Christina Hoff Sommers, Who Stole Feminism? (1994), excerpt.
Powerpoint: Fatal Attraction, Fetal Rights
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [pick a passage]
3/11: Misogyny after the Second Wave
Kristin J. Anderson, Modern Misogyny: Anti-Feminism in a Post-Feminist Era (2015), 1-49, 74-105.
Powerpoint: Modern Misogyny, Embedded Feminism, Enlightened Sexism
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [pick a passage]
WEEKS 6 & 7: SPRING VACATION
WEEK 8: Race, Class, and the Welfare Queen
3/30: Black Women and Welfare
Patricia Hill Collins, “Get Your Freak on: Sex, Babies, and Images of Black Femininity,” Black Sexual Politics (2004), 119-148.
Premilla Nadasen, “From Widow to ‘Welfare Queen’: Welfare and the Politics of Race,” Black Women, Gender and Families, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Fall 2007), pp. 52-77.
Anonymous, “Having a Baby Inside Me Is the Only Time I’m Really Alive” (1965) in Harriet Siegerman, ed., The Columbia Documentary History of American Women Since 1941 (2007), 157-58.
Powerpoint: Images of Black Working-Class Womanhood
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [pick a passage]
4/1: Stigmatizing Poverty
Vivyan C. Adair, “Branded with Infamy: Inscriptions of Poverty and Class in the United States.” Signs 27, no. 2 (2002): 451–71.
Jennifer A. Sandlin, Jennie Stearns, Julie Garlen Maudlin, and Jake Burdick, “’Now I Ain’t Sayin’ She a Gold Digger’: Wal-Mart Shoppers, Welfare Queens, and Other Gendered Stereotypes of Poor Women in the Big Curriculum of Consumption,” Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies 11:5(2011), 464–482
George Will, “Mothers Who Don’t Know How,” [reprinted from Suddenly: The America Idea Abroad and at Home (1990)], in Ladd-Taylor and Umansky, ed., Bad Mothers, 280-282.
Powerpoint: Stigmatizing Poverty, Policing Consumption
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [pick a passage]
WEEK 9: Stigmatizing Disability / Misogyny and State Power
4/6: Targeting Disabled Women
Violence Against People with Disabilities Occurs at Alarming Rates
Examined Life Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor, Aug 27, 2011.
Powerpoint: Feminist Disability Studies Retheorizes Misogyny
Discussion Questions [1] [2] [3] [pick a passage] [ask a question]
4/8: Misogyny, Race, and State Violence
Andrea Smith, “Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide,” in Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (2005), 7-34.
Gloria Anzaldúa,”We Call Them Greasers” and “To Live in the Borderlands Means You” from Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987).
Mary Ann Tetreault, “The Sexual Politics of Abu Ghraib: Hegemony, Spectacle, and the Global War on Terror,” Feminist Formations, 18:3 (Fall 2006), 33-50.
Powerpoint: Misogyny and State Violence
Discussion Question [1] [2] [3] [4] [pick a passage]
UNIT 4: MISOGYNY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
WEEK 10: Misogynoir / Trans-misogyny / Transmisogynoir
4/13: Misogynoir
Kelly Macias, “Sisters in the Collective Struggle”: Sounds of Silence and Reflections on the Unspoken Assault on Black Females in Modern America,” Cultural Studies – Critical Methodologies 15:4 (2015), 260–264
Moya Bailey, “Misogynoir in Medical Media: On Caster Semenya and R. Kelly,” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 2:2(2016), 1-31.
Shanita Hubbard, “Opinion: Russell Simmons, R. Kelly, and Why Black Women Can’t Say #MeToo.” The New York Times, December 15, 2017.
Crunk Feminist Collection, excerpts:
Brittney C. Cooper, Susana M. Morris, and Robin Boylorn, “Introduction,” 9-12
Aisha Durham, “Do we need a body count to count? Notes on the serial murders of Black women,” 22-24
Brittney C. Cooper, “Refereeing Serena: racism, anger, and US (Women’s) tennis,” 45-47
Brittney C. Cooper, “SlutWalks vs. Ho Strolls,” 51-54
Eesha Pandit, “Reproductive injustice and the ‘War on Women,’ or an ode to the intersections,” 145-148
Aisha Durham, “Sticks, stones, and microphones: a melody of misogyny,” 178-79
Powerpoint: Misogynoir
Discussion Questions [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [pick a passage]
4/15: Trans-misogyny / Trans-misogynior
Julia Serano, Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive (2013), chapters 5-6.
Serano, “Trans Woman Manifesto,” Whipping Girl (2007).
Elías Cosenza Krell (uses they/them pronouns), “Is Transmisogyny Killing Trans Women of Color? Black Trans Feminisms and the Exigencies of White Femininity,” Transgender Studies Quarterly 4:2(May 2017), 226-242.
Powerpoint: Transmisogyny
Discussion Questions [1] [2] [3] [4] [pick a passage]
WEEK 11: Men’s Rights, Online Misogyny, and Hillary-Haters
4/20: Men’s Rights Movement / Online Misogyny
Paul Elam, “Why I don’t care what you think about my style,” January 30, 2018.
Michael Kimmel, “White men as victims: The men’s rights movement” in Angry White Men (2017).
Bailey Poland, “Misogynist Movements,” Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online (2016).
Emma Alice Jane, “‘Back to the Kitchen, Cunt’: Speaking the Unspeakable about Online Misogyny.” Continuum 28, no. 4 (July 4, 2014): 558–70.
Anita Sarkeesian, Tropes vs. Women in Video Games (online video series). Here is one example and another.
Look at misogynist hashtags on social media (e.g., #Feminazis).
Powerpoint: Men’s Rights Movement and Online Misogyny
Discussion Questions [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [pick a passage]
4/22: Misogyny and Electoral Politics
Karrin Vasby Anderson , “’Rhymes with Blunt’: Pornification and U.S. Political Culture,” Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Vol. 14, No. 2 (SUMMER 2011), pp. 327-368. [about 2008 election].
Jessica Ritchie, “Creating a Monster: Online media constructions of Hillary Clinton during the Democratic Primary Campaign, 2007–8,” Feminist Media Studies, 2013 Vol. 13, No. 1, 102–119
MSNBC Interrupts Hillary Clinton’s Speech To Complain About Her Voice
Powerpoint: Misogyny and Presidential Campaigns
Discussion Questions [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [post an example] [pick a passage]
WEEK 12 – #MeToo and Trumpism
4/27: #MeToo, Rape Culture, Intersectionality
Josephine Livingstone, “The Task Ahead for Feminism,” New Republic, November 17, 2017.
Judith Levine, “Beyond #MeToo.” New Labor Forum 27, no. 3 (September 1, 2018): 20–25.
On Tara Reade’s March 2020 allegations that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 (recommended, not required):
Joan Walsh, “The Troublesome Tara Reade Story,” The Nation, April 15, 2020.
Katie Halper, “Tara Reade Tells Her Story [interview transcript]” Current Affairs, March 31, 2020.
Powerpoint: #MeToo
Discussion Questions [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [pick a passage]
4/29: Misogyny and Rape Culture: Chanel Miller, Brock Turner, and the Politics of Campus Sexual Assault
Why Chanel Miller Decided to Come Forward and Write Her Story | NowThis (Sept. 26, 2019)
Chanel Miller and Emily Moore, “I Am With You – Chanel Miller”, September 24, 2019.
AAU Releases 2019 Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct
Powerpoint: Misogyny and Rape Culture
Discussion Questions [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [pick a passage]
Submit topics and preliminary bibliography for digital research project or final essay (4-6 pages). (See requirements page for details.)
WEEK 13 — Course Conclusion
5/4: Concluding presentation
Powerpoint: Looking Back
5/6: Optional Zoom meeting, 2:15-3:00 PM EST
Final digital project or essay due May 19.