Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Junior Seminar: Ideas!


Hi Juniors!

Please use the comment function to throw out some of your ideas for the final project.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

A Prom Divided?

Last week, the New York Times profiled the Montgomery County District in Georgia, that still holds segregated proms. Earlier in the course, we spoke about this briefly. Check out the article.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Laramie Project: Day 2


Choose TWO of the following. Be sure to read and respond to your classmates' comments.

Many people in the play/movie express a personal guilt over what happened to Matt--and wonder if they could have somehow stopped this crime from happening. Why did these people not step in to stop a crime based on prejudice, discrimination, and hate? What is each person's social and moral responsiblility to stop acts of hate when they see them occur?

The murders Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson are introduced in this act more fully. What are the different perceptions of these men in the community?

Why do you think the issue of AIDS is brought up in this act? How do we as a society think of AIDS today? Does this stigmatize this crime?

Monday, May 18, 2009

The Laramie Project--Questions to ponder from Act I


Answer one of the following. Please make sure to READ each other's comments and respond to them in your comments.

1.) Why do you think the interviewers/actors from the Tectonic Theater Company decided to include themselves as actual characters in the play? How does this change the story being told? Why didn't they just include comments from the actual residents of Laramie?

2.) Why do you think the graphic description of finding Matthew tied to a fence and struggling for life is included in this play? Why don't you think they did not choose to have a character playing Matthew in the play so we could see and understand the actual circumstances of his death?

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Gender and Sexual Orientation. . .

Before we spend the next few classes talking about the struggle for gay and lesbian civil rights, I would like you to read an excerpt from Eric Marcuses' anthology of oral histories, "Making History". Please read the excerpt below about Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen's struggle to get the American Psychological Association's hesitation to drop homosexuality from its list of of mental disorders.

Interview Making History

Please read article and post thoughtful comments below.

Also, for those who are interested: here is the article (Gay Teenager Stirs a Storm) I spoke briefly about in class today.

Seniors: Final Project! Juniors: 4th Quarter Project!

RG Toolbox

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

More from Jenny Finney Boylan



Jenny Finney Boylan, The author of "She's Not There" wrote an op-ed in this Sunday's New York Times that addresses the question of whether or not she was in a gay marriage in the state of Maine. This was the EXACT question that was brought up in our class: what happens if a transgendered person stays in their marriage? does it become a "gay" marriage? is it legal? does the state recognize it?

Please read the article, Is My Marriage Gay?. I look forward to reading your comments!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Biology and Culture

This is your assignment for MONDAY. Your participation on the blog will count as your attendance for class. To clarify, you do not need to go to class on Monday. For you not to be marked absent, you complete and post the following assignment by Monday night/Tuesday morning.

In the following viewpoint, Deborah Blum contends that while biological differences play a part in forming gender roles, those differences are amplified by cultural and environmental influences. She maintains that certain biological disparities, such as testosterone's part in making men more aggressive, do influence personality. However, Blum argues, these biological differences are tempered by factors such as a person's upbringing and work environment. Blum is a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the author of Sex on the Brain: The Biological Differences Between Men and Women.

As you read, consider the following questions. You will be expected to post your reflections on all THREE of the questions.

1. According to statistics cited by Blum, in conflicts in which a woman killed a man, how often did the man start the fight?
2. In the author's view, at what age will a child who is raised in a less traditional family develop a traditional sense of gender roles?
3. What happens to the testosterone level of a person who loses a game, according to Blum?


Please click on the box in the upper right hand side of the article to enlarge.
Biology and Culture Article

Thursday, May 7, 2009

She's Not There. . .


"She's Not There" is a remarkable memoir about Jennifer Finney Boylan's decision to change genders.

For HW this weekend, I would like you to read an excerpt of the book. You may also explore Boylan's website to see photos and read more. In your comments please include the usual what strikes you, etc as well as what does this piece of a memoir teach us about gender identity?

In class, I will make an important announcement about your assignment for Monday, as class will be canceled.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The role of nature/nurture in reinforcing gender?


Please read Max Beck's "My Life as an Intersexual" for homework tonight. 
In your comments, I would like you focus on our continuing nature/nurture debate in realation to gender identity. Please tie Max's story into what you saw today in "Sex Unknown".

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Back to Science. . .


As you are becoming increasingly aware, Physical gender is not always just a matter of XX or XY, girl or boy. In approximately one out of every 100 births, seemingly tiny errors occur during the various stages of fetal sex differentiation, causing a baby's body to develop abnormally. Problems in the formation of chromosomes, gonads, or external genitals can lead to a range of intersex conditions.

In order to prep for our next case study, I need you to do some background analysis about how sex is determined . The sex of an egg cell is set as soon as it is fertilized, but what happens to that cell and the cells it divides into to make a baby boy or a baby girl? Please click here to find out.

In addition, there are a variety of conditions that may lead "intersex" births. Please read about conditions on the intersex continuum. You do not need to post tonight, but you will be held responsible for the reading in a class discussion tomorrow.

Monday, May 4, 2009

When She Graduates as He. . . .

Thank you for your thoughtful comments dealing with gender preferences in children. For tonight's discussion, we are going to shift to talk about gender identity in college students.

For HW, please read "When She Graduates as He", an interesting look at the lives of a handful of Smith and Mount Holoyoke students who decided to transition to the male gender while attending historically all-female colleges. Obviously, this complicates matters on campus.

In your comments, I would like to focus on your thoughts about how this challenges (positively or negatively) the purpose of all women colleges and universities.

If you are interested in this topic, the New York Times also examined this issue. However, the student profiled switched colleges (From Barnard to Columbia).

*In a episode of the Simpsons that aired in 2003, Lisa was visited by a ghost from each of the "Seven Sister" colleges.

Weekly Calendar 5-4

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