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

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

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.

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

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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".

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.

Gender Preferences?

Last May, National Public Radio reported on two stories about transgendered children. The reports were centered around the two families' decisions about how to cope with their children's gender preferences. Both families seek out professionals for advice.

In Part I, the family is working on "drastically changing" their parenting so that their son, "Bradley" will no longer be allowed to play with girlish toys or even female friends.

Part II: After a diagnosis of "Gender Identity Disorder", "Armando's" family decided pursue a new, controversial treatment for preteen kids with gender identity issues. The treatment allows kids to postpone puberty and avoid developing the physical attributes of the sex they were born with.

Over the weekend, please read (or listen! the link is at the top of each page) to BOTH stories. When you are finished, please post thoughts, comments, and reflections. We will be discussing these cases in class on Monday.

Ma Vie En Rose and X: Upcoming Discussion

After we have finished viewing "Ma Vie En Rose", we will be having a discussion that will tie together both the themes of the film and the story of baby x.

In preparation for the discussion, please reflect on the following in the comments section:

Both pieces, Ma Vie En Rose and X hint at the question of whether gender identity & our understanding of our own gender identity is biological or if it is socially constructed. Discuss how each piece examines this debate and what your perception is/was of this question.

Limbo

Twilight: Los Angeles ends with the words of Twilight Bey, a young activist:

So a lot of times when I've brought up ideas to my homeboys
they say Twilight
that's before your time
that's something that you can't do now
when I talked about the truce back in 1988
that was something they considered before its time
yet in 1992
we made it
realistic
so to me it's like I'm stuck in limbo
like the sun is stuck between night and day
in the twilight hours
you know
I'm in an area not many people exist
Night time to me
is like a lack of sun
and I don't affiliate darkness with anything negative
I affiliate
darkness of what was first
because it was first
and then relative to my complexion
I am a dark individual
and with me stuck in limbo
I see darkness as myself
I see the light as knowledge and the wisdom of the world and
understanding others
and in order for me to be a true human being
I can't forever dwell in the darkness
I can't forever dwell in the idea
just identifying with people like me and understanding me and mine
So twilight
is
that time
between day and night
limbo
I call it limbo

How would you describe Twilight's limbo? do you think others experience this limbo? How is this limbo manifested in people's actions?

What is your own personal limbo?

Twilight: LA

Twilight Los Angeles forces us to look at a situation from multiple perspectives.

When have you been asked to see something from a perspective other than your own? Was it hard? If so, why? Why is it helpful to view a situation from other perspectives? Were you able to actually do so? Please answer as honestly as possible in the comment section below.

Let me know if you have questions!

Twilight: Los Angeles

This week, we are embarking on our study of Los Angeles in 1992. On class 2 of this week, we will begin viewing: "Twilight Los Angeles". You will be responsible for taking notes using the discussion guide as a way to prepare for the graded discussion that will happen when we finish studying this play.

For homework tonight, please read the packet including the readings "Conflict in the Promised Land" and "Riots Then and Now". You do not need to post a response, but you will be responsible for all of the content.

Here is a link if you are interested in learning more about Twilight.

Cassius Clay to Muhammed Ali

By the time he won the gold medal
for boxing at the 1960 Olympics,Cassius Clay was already a larger-than-life figure. Clay was not only a gifted
fighter, but also handsome, unapologetic, and provocative. Clay climbedthe boxing world’s ladder in a series of spectacular fights, an ascent that climaxed with his victory over heavy-weight champion Sonny Liston on February 25, 1964. The next morn-ing, Clay held a press conference inwhich a reporter asked, “Are you a card-carrying member of the BlackMuslims?” to which Clay responded,
“Card-carrying; what does that mean?

I believe in Allah and in peace.”Reflecting back on his conversion, he explained how he became
interested in the Nation of Islam:

The first time I heard about Elijah Muhammad was at a Golden Gloves Tournament in Chicago [in 1959]. Then, before I went to the Olympics, I looked at a copy of the Nation of Islam newspaper, Muhammad Speaks. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but lots of things were working on my mind. When I was growing up, a colored boy named Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. Emmett Till was the same age as me, and even though they caught the men who did it, nothing happened to them. Things like that went on all the time. And in my own life, there were places I couldn’t go, places I couldn’t eat. I won a gold medal representing the United States at the Olympic Games, and when I came home to Louisville [Kentucky], I still got treated like a nigger. There were restaurants I couldn’t get served in. Some people kept calling me “boy.” Then in Miami [in 1961], I was training for a fight, and met a follower of Elijah Muhammad named Captain Sam. He invited me to a meeting, and after that my life changed.

Clay later announced that Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, had given him a
new name. From then on, Clay refused to be called anything but Muhammad Ali. Later Ali
explained, “changing my name was one of the most important things that happened to me in my
life.”

What did his name change symbolize for Ali (who was originally named after Cassius Marcellus Clay, a nineteenth-century abolitionist)? Why do you think some of Clay’s supporters lashed out against him after he converted to the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali? Why did many people refuse to call Ali by his new name?

* From Facing History and Ourselves/Eyes on the Prize Study Guide

HW: Tuesday, February 10th

On a separate piece of paper, please answer the following question. This will be collected and graded tomorrow:

Why do you think Delpit tells her daughter that “in many ways now is a more confusing time to live”? In what sense is it more confusing today? In her view, how does that confusion shape the way the young African Americans she knows view their identity?

Recitatif Redux and tonight's HW assignment

*UPDATE* [FOR THOSE WHO COULDN'T UPLOAD THE VIDEO YOU CAN READ THE TRANSCRIPT] Look below the slide show. This should help you with the prompt

A recitatif is a style of music that hovers between song and speech episodes. This story is essentially Twyla's episode.

I was impressed with your discussion of stereotypes of perceived differences of the characters in Recitatif, mainly race, class, and disability in class today. While the characters and text give us clues to the differences, it is impossible to tell which character is white and which is African-American.

For tonight's homework, I would like you to spend some time thinking a bit more about personal racial identity on the "Race: The Power of an Illusion" website section called "Me, My Race and I: What's Race got to do with it?"

Please click on the slideshow menu to learn more how race plays a role in your daily life. Please watch the four "slides" Your comments in class and on the blog have been really honest thus far, please continue the hard work!

When you are finished, please answer the following in the comment section below:

So if Race affects everyone, why is it so hard to talk about? How/Why do people transcend racial categories?

As always, let me know if you have questions!

What do we do with a difference?

Our standards of beauty, ideas about difference, even notions of what is “normal” are shaped to a large extent by culture—the attitudes, values, and beliefs of a society. Where do those attitudes, values, and beliefs come from, and how were they molded? And what role do experts and people in positions of authority play in determining societal standards around beauty and what is considered “normal?”

In viewing "eye of the beholder", you told me who in Janet Tyler's society determines what is normal. Your homework blog prompt is:

So, how did YOU or how do YOU learn HOW a difference matters?

This should be a personal, reflective response.

Please post your answer in the "comments" section below. You should have a login name by now that I can recognize. Please complete this prompt by class on Monday.

Have a GREAT weekend!