Syllabus Spring 2022
ANTH 3325: "Gender, Sexuality & the Body"
Spring 2022
The Body as Battleground and Aesthetic
Required Meeting Times: M/W 10:30-12:20
Room: AC Campus room #311
Professor: Laurie Greene
Contact: Cell- 609.214.6596 (text unless emergency)
Email: Laurie.Greene@stockton.edu
TEXTS:
(1) Weitz, Rose and Samantha Kwan. (2014). The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance and Behavior. (Oxford University Press).
(2) Greene, L. (2020) Drag Queens and Beauty Queens. (Rutgers)
(3) Articles linked on Syllabus (see below)
TOOLS:
SUBMISSION OF WORK: All written work must be submitted via email to:
LAURIE.GREENE@STOCKTON.EDU (Please make sure that you put "anth3325" in the subject line of your email. Always SAVE a copy of your original work, and the original sent email for your records. I return written work within a week. If you do not get graded work back, I did not get it. Please reach out to me asap if that is the case).
Format for Submission:
Papers should be submitted in WORD is a shared access format (so that I can edit). Please do not submit word in PDF format. This will make it difficult for you to see your feedback on assignments in a timely manner.
Summary:
In this course, we will be exploring the human body, in particular as it relates to the expression of sex, gender and sexuality. (Though there are MANY more topics we can discuss in this course)
At the conclusion of this course, the student will be able to:
Introductory Summary:
Anthropologist Mary Douglas (1978) distinguished between the natural body and the social body. Each body, she claimed, is a physical entity but also is a representation; it is a medium of expression but one that is controlled and restricted by the social system. These two bodies constitute different realms of experience; they mirror the physical into the social and cause the physical to be experienced in social terms. These categories are meaningful, because the body is a "natural symbol with which to think about nature, society and culture” (Scheper-Hughes & Lock 1987, p. 7).
- In doing so, we will examine the body as a focus for anthropological investigation. The body is a rich site upon which practices, images, meanings, norms and cosmologies are inscribed.
- Furthermore, it is through the everyday experience of lived bodies (phenomenology) that power, identity, and inequality are expressed.
- Building upon these ideas, we will explore the body not as a skin-bound bio-mechanical individual, but as a dynamic, malleable and experiential entity around which society, culture and economy intersect.
- Students will understand how the MIND has been privileged in importance over the BODY in the Western (Decartes/Cartesian Dualism) dichotomy of mind/body.
- Students will review the philosophical and social science perspectives upon which anthropologists draw.
- Students will gain an understanding of importance of the body as a focus of inquiry.
- Students will understand why the body is a marker of identity and personhood(sex, gender, sexuality).
- Students will see the importance of the body as the subject on which human culture is founded.
At the conclusion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Examine the ways in which ideas regarding the body are socially and culturally constructed.
- Think critically about the division between the mind and the body.
- Understand importance of the body as a focus of power, identity, and economy.
- Recognize the value of anthropological understandings of the body.
Readings: The syllabus below is a "working syllabus". That means I may eliminate readings or add them in order to adjust the workload in class and allow the course to reflect the interest of the group.
Anthropologist Mary Douglas (1978) distinguished between the natural body and the social body. Each body, she claimed, is a physical entity but also is a representation; it is a medium of expression but one that is controlled and restricted by the social system. These two bodies constitute different realms of experience; they mirror the physical into the social and cause the physical to be experienced in social terms. These categories are meaningful, because the body is a "natural symbol with which to think about nature, society and culture” (Scheper-Hughes & Lock 1987, p. 7).
According to Scheper-Hughes & Lock 1987, The individual body is the domain of the “lived” or embodied experiences people have of their bodies. The social body, in contrast, relates to the ways the body (including its products: blood, milk, etc.) operates as a natural symbol, as a tool at hand to think and represent social relationships such as gender, kinship, and mode of production (see Featherstone et al. 1991). A third-dimension states that power and control are embodied as well. This is the body politic: the human body as tool or weapon of domestication and discipline and of identification, "subjectification", and resistance. These three bodies also constitute three levels of experience and analysis. What mediates between them are emotions.
Thomas Csordas argues that the body is essential to anthropological study, because "It is not an object to be studied in relation to culture, but is to be considered as the subject of culture, or in other words, as the existential ground of culture." (1988, p. 5).
In addition, the body is "malleable." In all cultures, the body is never left "as-is," but is manipulated in ways which the culture deems "normative." Body modification is the norm, whether these modifications be prescribed daily (dress, hygiene, comportment), or permanent (mutilation, transformation, enhancement-scarring, tattooing, piercing, enlargement (focal range), etc.). Each of these alterations has strong cultural meaning.
We will touch on these and other theoretical understandings of the body which anthropologists believe is the subject (foundation) on which culture is enacted. This runs counter to most of Western philosophy which sees the mind as primary (the body as incidental), most poignantly articulated by Desartes and his theory of mind/body dualism.
Because this is a small class, I am going to run this course like a seminar. I am really excited about this. Instead of a traditional text(s), we will be able to read materials which I will distribute and "lend" to you. The following syllabus includes readings FROM WHICH I will choose as the course progresses. You will all be responsible for different readings and we will discuss these readings in class, and experiment with them through both "reflective" (self-inquiry) and short ethnographic (fieldwork) projects.
I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS SEMESTER AND EXPLORING THESE TOPICS WITH YOU!
Thomas Csordas argues that the body is essential to anthropological study, because "It is not an object to be studied in relation to culture, but is to be considered as the subject of culture, or in other words, as the existential ground of culture." (1988, p. 5).
In addition, the body is "malleable." In all cultures, the body is never left "as-is," but is manipulated in ways which the culture deems "normative." Body modification is the norm, whether these modifications be prescribed daily (dress, hygiene, comportment), or permanent (mutilation, transformation, enhancement-scarring, tattooing, piercing, enlargement (focal range), etc.). Each of these alterations has strong cultural meaning.
We will touch on these and other theoretical understandings of the body which anthropologists believe is the subject (foundation) on which culture is enacted. This runs counter to most of Western philosophy which sees the mind as primary (the body as incidental), most poignantly articulated by Desartes and his theory of mind/body dualism.
Because this is a small class, I am going to run this course like a seminar. I am really excited about this. Instead of a traditional text(s), we will be able to read materials which I will distribute and "lend" to you. The following syllabus includes readings FROM WHICH I will choose as the course progresses. You will all be responsible for different readings and we will discuss these readings in class, and experiment with them through both "reflective" (self-inquiry) and short ethnographic (fieldwork) projects.
I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS SEMESTER AND EXPLORING THESE TOPICS WITH YOU!
I. Sex, Gender and Local Biologies
Reading:
HERE (1/19)
- Social Theory and the Body: Mauss, Douglass, Bourdeiu and Foucault
- social construction of sex and gender
(blog notes) (1/24)
GENDER IS A PROCESS, NOT A TRAIT (watch)
Due: 2/2: Auto-ethnography "My Body, My Self" (Tuesday)
In a 5 paragraph essay, describe an important moment of embodiment in your life. This event should be one that shaped both your understanding of the meaning and the value of your body in culture and society, and also the way that you feel about your own body, and your experience in it.
GENDER IS A PROCESS, NOT A TRAIT (watch)
II. The Social Construction of Bodies
Readings: Chapters 1 & 2 in Kwan and Weitz Book (1/26)
Chapters 3 &5 in Kwan and Weitz Book (1/31)
In a 5 paragraph essay, describe an important moment of embodiment in your life. This event should be one that shaped both your understanding of the meaning and the value of your body in culture and society, and also the way that you feel about your own body, and your experience in it.
- You may write this essay in first person.
- Make sure to assess as best you can WHY this was a pivotal event, and what its impact was on you.
- Please indicate if you DO NOT want your essay shared with the class in whole or in part.
III. Reproduction and the Body
- Reproduction and identity
- Metaphors of sex and gender: the egg and the sperm
- Surrogacy: the commodification of the body and its parts
- egg and sperm donation
(2) Emily Martin, The Sperm and the Egg: A Love Story. Read Here (2/2)
(3) Black Surrogate Mothers. Read HERE (2/2)
Readings:(4) Emily Wentzell and Marcia C. Inborn. "Masculinities: The Male Reproductive
Body." (A Companion to Anthropology and Embodiment). HERE (2/7)
(5) Barbara Katz Rothman, "Laboring Now: Current Cultural Constructionism of Pregnancy, Birth, and Mothering."HERE (2/7)
(6) Rayna Rapp. ""Real-Time Fetus: the Role of the Sonogram in the Age of Monitored Reproduction." HERE (similar title from Rapp) (2/7)
(5) Barbara Katz Rothman, "Laboring Now: Current Cultural Constructionism of Pregnancy, Birth, and Mothering."HERE (2/7)
(6) Rayna Rapp. ""Real-Time Fetus: the Role of the Sonogram in the Age of Monitored Reproduction." HERE (similar title from Rapp) (2/7)
IV. Abortion
Readings:
(1) Anne Borovoy, "Beyond Choice: A New Framework for Abortion" HERE (2/9)
(2) Carolyn Sufrin "When the Punishment is Pregnancy" HERE (2/9)
(3) the NYT versus Anthropologists on Infanticide HERE (2/9)
(1) Anne Borovoy, "Beyond Choice: A New Framework for Abortion" HERE (2/9)
(2) Carolyn Sufrin "When the Punishment is Pregnancy" HERE (2/9)
(3) the NYT versus Anthropologists on Infanticide HERE (2/9)
(4) Wentz & Quan Chapter 20 (2/9)
(2) Due: Culture and Reproduction (2/16) Thursday
ZOOM Classroom Policies (in the event that we must revert to zoom or on the days we used zoom indicated on the syllabus above)
V. Athletic Bodies
Readings: (3) Breeding and Controlling the Black Male Through Sports HERE (2/21)
(4) How Gender Transitions Alter Athletic Performance" HERE (2/21)
(5) Sex Testing female Athletes HERE (2/21)
(6) #takeaknee HERE (2/21)
VI. Abnormal Bodies
- Disability
Reading:
(1) Weitz and Quan , Chapter 6 (2/23)
Film: Paris is Burning (2/28) WATCH AT HOME
(3) Due: "Politicizing the Athletic Body" (3/2)
IV. Presenting/Enacting Sexuality and Gender
(1) Big, Fat, Gay Bears HERE (3/2)
(2) gay Athletes and Body Image HERE (3/2)
(3) Body Ideals and the Health of Gay Men HERE (3/2)
(4) Heterosexual and Lesbian Bodies in Advertising HERE (3/2)
(5) Lesbian Bodies: Tombois, Tribades and Tarts HERE (3/2)
(2) gay Athletes and Body Image HERE (3/2)
(3) Body Ideals and the Health of Gay Men HERE (3/2)
(4) Heterosexual and Lesbian Bodies in Advertising HERE (3/2)
(5) Lesbian Bodies: Tombois, Tribades and Tarts HERE (3/2)
(6) Weitz and Quan, Chapter 18. Susan K Kahn, "From the Muscle Moll to the Butch Ballplayer." pp. 293-308. (3/2)
- Otherness: Marked Sex and Gender
Weitz and Quan CHAPTERS:
10 Black Women's Sexuality (3/7)11 Latina Sexuality (3/7)
12 Goth Sexuality (3/9)
19 -poverty (3/9)
SPRING BREAK 3/13-3/20
- Make up, Dress & Ornamentation (ZOOM meeting-prerecorded. Look to email for link 3/21) Link
- Watch Trailer for Modify here (3/21)
(3) Terrance Turner. "The Social Skin." HERE (3/21) ZOOM
(1) Weitz and Quan, Chapter 21 (3/21)Weitz and Quan, Chapter 13 17 Boob Jobs and Body Modification (3/21)
(2)Weitz and Quan, Chapter (3/21)
FILM: PARIS IS BURNING (3/23) WATCH AT HOME (discussion)
Assignment: Flipgrid video discussion on gender reproduction (due 3/23) HERE
- Body problems: The Politics of Appearance
(1) Weitz and Quan, Chapter 14 Hair (3/30)
(2) Weitz and Quan, Chapter 15 Race and the Body (3/30) READ-NO CLASS- Flipgrid*
(3) Weitz and Quan, Chapter 16 Colorism (3/28) READ-NO CLASS- Flipgrid*
(4) Weitz and Quan, Chapter 13 17 Boob Jobs and Body Modification (3/30)
(5) Matthew Immergut. "Manscaping: The Tangle of nature, Culture and male Body Hair." HERE and HERE (3/30)
(6) The Hair Down There HERE (3/30)
(4) Weitz and Quan, Chapter 13 17 Boob Jobs and Body Modification (3/30)
(5) Matthew Immergut. "Manscaping: The Tangle of nature, Culture and male Body Hair." HERE and HERE (3/30)
(6) The Hair Down There HERE (3/30)
*Flipgrid discussion on Race, Colorism, and the Body (due 3/28) LINK
(4) Due: Body Problems (4/8-Friday-new date)
Culture and society define specifications for desirable male and female bodies. Consider the "problems" men and women have with their bodies (hair, fat, shape, size, etc.). How do they attempt to "tame" their natural state to fit into these normative specifications? Critically consider theories about the "male gaze" and false consciousness. How much agency do men and women have over the modifications of their bodies? How much are we aware of these processes?
VIII. Transforming the Body
- Transgender identity and the Body
- two spirit-Native American
- Berdache-Plains
- Nadel-Navaho
- Tomboi -Thailand
NO CLASS -PRECEPTORIAL ADVISING 4/6
(1) Nonbinary Identity HERE (411)
(2) Is Paris Burning? Bell Hooks HERE (4/11)
(3) Against Performativity HERE (4/11)
IX. Gender Bending/Gender Trouble
- Performing gender (Butler and beyond)
- Drag: kings and queens
- Pageantry and Culture
FILM: THE QUEEN (4/13)
(1) Drag Queens and Beauty Queens Pages 1-40 (4/13)
Pages 41-126 (4/18)
FILM: PS Burn This Letter (4/20)
Pages 127-168 (4/20)
SEMESTER REVIEW (4/27)
DUE: Gender Trouble/Subversion (4/27)
Judith Butler argues that gender is a "performative citation", a reiteration of an always already derived identity that takes place within an economy of heterosexuality. So what happens when a body performs the so-called 'wrong' gender? Can we think of this as a subversive action in and of itself? (To do so Butler argues would assume, firstly, that the performer has "the ability and agency to consciously choose his/her own gender and, secondly, that the performance somehow takes place outside of the juridical regime that constrains and bounds its constituents"). In Gender Trouble Butler argues that drag is "potentially" subversive.
So when is drag subversive and when is it the reinstatement of hegemonic norms? Does it really make no difference if you're black or white, boy or girl, male or female? Is it the dance or performance itself that produces the body, the identity? Is there a "subject" which exists before the body is "gendered"? Consider drag, trans-identity and the critiques of Butler.
Final Exam: Due emailed Monday May 4
ZOOM Classroom Policies (in the event that we must revert to zoom or on the days we used zoom indicated on the syllabus above)
- Be on time.
- Turn on your camera, making sure that your first and last name are on your screen
- All course handouts, readings, and assignments can be found on the blog and in your texts.
- Students are responsible for all course content, whether or not they are in class.
- You are responsible for knowing about, and avoiding, academic dishonesty.
Grading:
(1) Preparation/Presentation 25% (responsible for preparing and presenting/leading discussion assigned articles for the week.
(2) 5 Assignments. 50% (10% each)
(3) Take Home Final Exam. 25%
TOTAL. 100%
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