GST 2300 Reading Questions    

SYLLABUS CHANGE:  WE WILL SCREEN "TOUGH GUISE" IN CLASS ON THURS. 11/18 -- CLASS WILL MEET ON 11/18

Questions for Thurs. 21 Oct.

1.  Why are occupations still so segregated by sex?  What are the effects of this?

2.  What is a "glass ceiling," and what contributes to its existence?

3.  What is a "token," and how is this position experienced differently by men and women?  Why?

4.  What are the two kinds of sexual harassment?  Why do women in male-dominated professions more often encounter it?

5.  How are organizations (esp. business organizations) implicitly gendered?  What are the consequences of this?

Questions for Tues. 26 Oct.

1.  What is the "glass escalator" effect?  List as many factors as you can contributing to this effect.

2.  What are the �glass barriers� that interfere with black men�s success in nursing?  Why is their experience difference from white men in �women�s professions�?

3.  How have men and women historically named/understood sexual harassment differently?  Why? 

4.  What is disempathy, and what role does it play in �girl watching�?  How/why do anti-sexual harassment training programs fail to address this? 

Questions for Thurs. 28 Oct.

1.  What does Robert Lewis claim are the 4 "barriers" to emotional intimacy among men?

2.  Describe the "typical" friendship networks of lesbians and gay men.  Explain why they look so different from each other.

3.  What is the "feminization of love," and what are the consequences for our ways of thinking about men's and women's friendships?

4.  Cathy Greenblat found that men married for 10 years of more often had doubts about whether they sill loved their wives (although they were confident that their wives loved them).  Wives married for 10 years of more were confident they still loved their husbands, but often doubted their husbands loved them.  How do we explain this difference?

Questions for Tues. 2 Nov.

1.  What is the "feminization of love?"

2.  How do the differences between men's and women's styles of love reinforce men's power over women?  How does the feminization of love contribute to impersonal, exploitative relationships in the workplace and in the community?

3.  What is �hooking up�?  Is it evidence of a sexually liberated culture for men and women?  Why or why not?

4.  Is dating culture at UTD like that described in England et al�s article?  Why do you think so/think not? 

Questions for Thurs. 4 Nov.

1.  Smith-Rosenberg argues, "The twentieth-century tendency to view human love and sexuality within a dichotomized universe of deviance and normality, genitality and platonic love, is alien to the emotions and attitudes of the nineteenth century and fundamentally distorts that nature of these women's emotional interaction" (34)  What does she mean by this? 

2.  Why did nineteenth-century Americans organize love, friendship, and sexuality differently than we do?  What social and cultural factors played a part in the existence of these "romantic friendships" between women that are no longer true for our era?

3.  Chauncey argues that "the determining criterion in labeling a man as 'straight' (their term) or "queer' was not the extent of his homosexual activity, but the gender role he assumed" (75).  What does he mean by this?

4.  What do scholars mean by the turn-of-the-century "invention of the homosexual?"  How did it change how we think about sexual behavior and sexual identity? 

Questions for Tues. 9 Nov.

1.  Kimmel says, "Anorexics and obsessive bodybuilders are no psychological misfits or deviants; they are overconformists to gender norms to which all of us, to some degree, are subject" (344).  What does he mean by this?  What is at stake for men and women in shaping their bodies in these ways?

2.  What is the "masculinization of sex?"  Why has it occurred?

3.  What is the sexual double standard?  What effect does it have on our sexuality? How is it (re)created by gender inequality?

4.  List some of the differences in men's and women's sexual attitudes and behavior.  Why has this gender gap in sexual attitudes and behavior been shrinking in recent years?

5.  Kimmel argues that "gay men and lesbians are true gender conformists."  What does he mean by this?

Questions for Thurs. 11 Nov.

1.  Bordo argues that women are spending more and more time �improving� and �disciplining� their bodies.  How?  What is the effect of this on women and on the larger culture?

2.  Bordo analyzes hysteria, agoraphobia, and anorexia nervosa in her essay, calling them �gender-related and historically localized disorders� (504).  What does she mean by this?  How is each one related to femininity (or one historically and culturally specific variant of it)? 

3.  How might anorexia be a form of �unconscious feminist protest� (509)?  How is it a �solution� to some of the dilemmas facing modern young women?

4.  Why should we care about this analysis�i.e. what does Bordo think we should do differently as a consequence of having read her essay?  Why did she bother writing and talking about these disorders?

Questions for Tues. 16 Nov.

1.  What are some of the themes anthropologists have associated with interpersonal and intersocietal violence?  List as many as you can.

2.  Young American men are the most violent group of people in the industrialized world.  Why?  Give as many reasons as you can.

3.  Kimmel says that rape has to do with a powerful mix of "powerlessness and entitlement, impotence and a right to feel in control" (401).  Explain what this means.

4.  What is "indirect aggression," and why are girls more likely to display it than boys are?

5.  Kimmel sees terrorism as a result of male displacement and male entitlement.  Give one example that illustrates how each might contribute to terrorist acts.

Questions for Tues. 23 Nov.

1.  How do defense intellectuals use gender as a symbolic system in their analyses of nuclear and national security issues?  Give as many examples as you can.  What are the consequences of this?

2.  What is the "unitary masculine actor problem," and why is Cohn concerned about it--that is, what effect does she see it having on the thinking of defense intellectuals?

3.  Is contemporary rhetoric about the war in Iraq marked by the same kinds of gendered rhetoric?  Why do you think so (or think not)?  Give examples to support your position.

4.  What is a �rape-prone� campus culture?  What characteristics do they share?

5.  What kinds of changes might make campuses and fraternities �rape-free� (or at least less rape-prone)? 

Questions for Tues. 30 Nov.

1.  Why are so many researchers convinced of the sexual symmetry of marital violence?  Why might the data be misleading?  List as many reasons as you can. 

2.  How are the circumstances of the typical violent woman different from the circumstances of the typical violent man?  How do you explain the differences?

Questions for Thurs. 2 Dec.

1.  Write a page about the 2-3 most interesting, compelling, or important things you learned this semester about gender.  Why are they important to you?  What impact will this knowledge have on your ways of thinking/behaving? 

GST 2300 Review Paper Handout