Spring 2012 Courses

Detailed Course Outline

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Race, Gender & Society - Full Semester

In this course students will learn about the social power of sex and romance; how gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity are officially constructed, institutionalized, performed, subverted and changed; and, perhaps most importantly how a person's physical body (i.e., their skin color, hair texture, eye shape, memories, feelings, imaginations, emotions, secrets, lies and dreams) dramatically effects the ways they live and love. They will learn about the life and times of boxer Jack Johnson and baseball player Hank Greenberg, as well as aviators Amelia Earhart & Bessie Coleman, (among other iconic figures), who, since the early 1900s, have come to represent the modern American woman and man; as well as how these representations have been used by different communities and organizations to challenge specific laws and policies, which restrict people to earn an income, become educated, vote, raise a family or marry. And finally, they will learn how to document and tell their own sociological stories about how race and gender shapes and effects their own everyday life and time.

1

We start this course by exploring how American women possess or lose social power based upon a single physical characteristic: her weight. However, importantly, it is not actual, real weight (or fat) we explore here but prosthetic weight, i.e., fake weight. We then consider the Hollywood trend in the late 1990s, early 2000s, of very thin actresses performing the role of overweight or obese women by wearing fat suits and compare this trend with the minstrel show, which was a very popular form of theatrical entertainment in the United States from the end of the Civil War until around the early 1950s. Video clips from the film Great Expectations (1998) and Shallow Hal (2002) featuring actress Gywneth Paltrow will be screened in class, along side a montage of clips documenting various vaudeville, cinematic and televised minstrel show. In preparation for class next week, students will start to think about the social construction of parody and humor, how it changes over time and what they personally think is funny -- or not.  *During the Spring 2010 Semester, this list of materials exceeded the usual 120 page/minute limit to make-up for some missed class time


2

We build upon our analysis of the sociology of humor by articulating a formal sociological of definition oppression, differentiating between institutional oppression, systematic oppression, internalized oppression and simultaneous oppression. Philosopher Marilyn Frye's birdcage metaphor is introduced and we start to consider why it is that oppressed people often get pitted against and are mean and even violent towards one another. Brief film clips from Real Women Have Curves (2002) and Eddie Murphy's Raw (1987) are screened.


3

This week we exploring three very distinct narrative forms, pop cultural comedy, narrative fiction and real life, televised court cases, to figure out when, when and how Americans talk or avoid talking about race and racism, as well as sex and sexism (with a specific emphasis on domestic violence). A large part of the new narrative documentary on Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird, Hey Boo! (2010) will be screened in class, alongside select courtroom clips from the cinematic version of To Kill A Mockingbird (1963) and the O. J. Simpson Trial (1995). We will also start to compile a list of important institutional shifts in American law since 1960 to combat systematic racism and sexism. In preparation for next week, students start thinking about Susan Faludi's concept of backlash, as well as the very specific ways in which African American men and poor, white women in the United States have achieved economic and social status through organized sports.


4

We compare the childhood, growing up and success of O.J. Simpson to William Gates and Arthur Agee, as well as explore the socio-geographic history of Cabrini Green, the Chicago public housing project where Gates and Agee were born and grew up.  A sociological study and television show set in Cabrini Green are presented and discussed -- Harvey Zorbaugh's 1929 ethnographic community study The Gold Coast and the Slum and the early 1970s situation comedy Good Times.  We also start to think about the ways that talent, skill and competition are organized, practiced and celebrated in the United States.  Most of the narrative documentary Spellbound (2002) will be screened.  Following class this week, students will take a closer look at Zorbaugh's Gold Coast.  In preparation for next week they will (re)familiarize themselves with the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan scandal and the world of competitive figure skating.


5

Our discussion of competitive figure skating helps us figure out the ways people's physical bodies become gendered and sexualized this week. We then expand this discussion to include the sport of boxing. Some basic definitions of violence and domestic violence are introduced and short film clips of Olympic figure skating competitions will be screened, as well as some opening scenes from the film Girl Fight (2002). In preparation for next week, students will dig a little deeper (and a little more literally) into the question of what makes a male body male and a female body female, as well as how a person's physical body provides them with the literal and figurative foundation to resist systematic oppression.


6

The U.S. Census defines people's ethnicity and race in categorical terms. The U.S. Government Printing Office defines gender honorifics (i.e., Mr., Mrs., Ms.) in the same way. Poet and literary critic Gloria Anzaldúa, on the other hand, challenges us to think about ethnicity, race and gender without categories using the identity marker of language as her guide. She also suggests defining people not in terms of the ways their bodies and imaginations are marked, but rather the homes they make and, sometimes, unmake over the course of their lives. This discussion of home will significantly expand our understanding of the domestic or private sphere, which we first started to think about in the context of domestic violence, see Lecture summary directly above. The very opening scenes of the narrative film Lone Star (1996), which is set in the same southwestern borderlands Anzaldúa writes about will also be screened. In preparation for next week, start thinking about the category Asian American in relationship to Latino and how an understanding of home can enhance your understanding.