THE POLITICS OF SEX, Spring 2013

THE POLITICS OF SEX, Spring 2013
POLS 120 section meets TTH 10:00-11:15am, in Lafayette L302
WGST 125 section meets TTH 1:00-2:15, in Lafayette L200
Professor Andersen, Old Mill 525
E-mail: [email protected] (note the spelling!)
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:30-12:45 and 2:30-3:30; Thursdays 11:30-12:45
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Course Description and Goals
Same-sex marriage. Abortion. Sex education. Teen sexuality. Many of today's most divisive political
battlegrounds concern sex and sexuality. While particular issues come and go, sex and sexuality have
always been the subjects of cultural and legal policing. This course uses an interdisciplinary approach to
explore the evolution of sexual politics within the United States. Among the questions we will consider
are the following: How has sex and sexuality been regulated in American history, and by whom? Why,
when, and how do particular aspects of sex and sexuality become the subjects of contention? How are
issues of sex and sexuality affected by gender, race, and class? And to what extent are battles over sex
and sexuality today similar to or different from earlier battles? By the end of this course, you should be
able to:
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demonstrate substantial knowledge and understanding of the ways in which culture, law and
politics interact to regulate sex and sexuality;
recognize and articulate the ways that current battles over sex and sexuality are part of a moving
stream of attempts to contain and channel sex;
demonstrate substantial knowledge and understanding of why the subjects of sex and sexuality
can provoke such profound cultural fear and anxiety; and
demonstrate substantial knowledge and understanding of how cultural changes can create new
avenues for sexual expression and can also inspire new battles to channel sex and sexuality into
'appropriate' venues.
Important Note #1
It is crucial that you understand that this is a course about the political, cultural, and legal struggles in
America surrounding sex. Inevitably, that means we will be talking about sex in this class. A lot.
Moreover, our conversations may well implicate the deep-seated beliefs we all hold about sex,
sexuality, religion, and morality. Disagreement is a good thing in a classroom. Conformity is boring.
But the only way this class will work is if we treat each other with respect and recognize that we are
treading on delicate ground here. That doesn't mean that you can't express your disagreement with
another person's position. It does mean that you must recognize that other people hold their positions as
sincerely as you hold yours, and you must respond politely and avoid engaging in personal attacks.
One other thing: the reading materials in this class deal with sex and sexuality. Some of them deal
much more bluntly with the subject than others. You may be offended by some of the arguments made
and/or the language used. That said, I'm assigning them for a reason: I think they have important
insights to offer about the subject at hand.
If you don’t think you can handle the subject matter, please reconsider taking this course!
Spring 2013, Politics of Sex Syllabus p. 2
Important Note #2
The reading load in this course is substantial. You should expect to read between 60-80 pages a week
(sometimes less, occasionally more). I hope you’ll find the material intrinsically interesting, and I have
done my best to select readings that are particularly well-written. However, if you can’t commit the
time to keeping up with the reading, you should seriously consider dropping this class and picking up
another one.
Required Texts
D'Emilio, John and Estelle Freedman. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in the United States. 2nd
ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Print.
Various articles, available on Blackboard.
Grading Elements
1) Exams. There will be two exams covering materials from the readings, lectures, and discussions
(dates are listed in the daily schedule.) Exams will have a mix of multiple-choice, short-answer, and
long-answer questions. The midterm is worth 20% of your grade and the final is worth 30%.
2) Quizzes. You should be prepared to take a quiz before every class. Most quizzes will be posted on
Blackboard, but I will also give in-class quizzes. While I will not draft quizzes for every class
period, I will give at least one quiz every two weeks—more frequently if I feel that the class is
slacking off on the assigned reading. Blackboard quizzes will be announced; you will generally
have a 24 hour period before class to take the quiz. Blackboard quizzes will be shut down 30
minutes before the start of class so that I can review the scores and adjust my teaching plans as
necessary to help you better comprehend the material. I will drop your two lowest quiz grades
when calculating your final grade. The quizzes are worth 25% of your course grade.
3) Paper. During the third week of class, we will read a tremendously influential article by Gayle
Rubin titled “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.” You will write
a paper that draws on one or more of Rubin’s arguments to explore a specific topic in the field of
sexuality and politics. I will post a list of acceptable topics on Blackboard. Each topic will include a
list of required readings; those readings will form the baseline for your exploration. The final paper
must be at least ten (10) full pages long, excluding the bibliography and title page. Additional
information about paper requirements will be forthcoming in the first few weeks of class. The paper
is worth 25% of your grade and is due in class on April 16th.
General Policies and Guidelines (make sure you read this)
Make-ups and late papers: If you miss the midterm, you may take a make-up during the final exam
period. You may not make up missed quizzes (but remember that I drop the two lowest quiz grades.)
The paper will be penalized by one-third grade for every date that it is late, with the clock starting
immediately.
Absences: If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find another student in the class to loan you
notes and tell you what happened in class.
Spring 2013, Politics of Sex Syllabus p. 3
Academic dishonesty: You are responsible for adhering to the university's guidelines on academic
misconduct. You can access the official university policy at:
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmppg/ppg/student/acadintegrity.pdf All the policies therein apply in this class.
The policies that apply most directly to our course may be summarized as don't cheat and don't
copy—or to express it more positively, do your own work and acknowledge the relationship of your
own work to others’ work. Penalties for academic dishonesty will almost certainly include failing a
particular exam or assignment and may well include failing the entire class.
Students with disabilities: I will make every attempt to accommodate students with disabilities.
Please see the official university policy in the Cat’s Tale Student Handbook,
http://www.uvm.edu/~dosa/handbook/?Page=Disability.html. Please give me the relevant paperwork
from the ACCESS office as soon as possible, and no later than the end of the third full week of classes
so that we can make any logistical arrangements needed. If your accommodation needs change during
the semester, please notify me as soon as possible.
Email Communications: I will be communicating with you via email over the course of the semester
and will use the university’s email list to send out this information. It is your responsibility to monitor
your university e-mail account regularly.
Classroom protocol: The Department of Political Science requires that this classroom protocol,
defining minimum standards of conduct, be included in all syllabi of political science classes.
1. Students are expected to attend and be prepared for ALL regularly scheduled classes.
2. Students are expected to arrive on time and stay in class until the class period ends. If a student
knows in advance that s/he will need to leave early, s/he should notify the instructor before the
class period begins.
3. Students are expected to treat faculty and fellow students with respect. For example, students
must not disrupt class by leaving and reentering during class, must not distract class by making
noise, and must be attentive to comments being made by the instructors and by peers.
Penalties for failing to observe this classroom protocol may range from being asked to leave class to
having your semester attendance and participation grade significantly lowered.
Computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. You are welcome to use computers and
other note-taking devices for note-taking purposes only. All other electronic device (cell phones, iPods,
etc.) must be either turned off or to vibrate and stowed away during class time. Students who are unable
to observe this requirement will be asked to leave class.
Spring 2013, Politics of Sex Syllabus p. 4
INITIAL DAILY SCHEDULE *
Part I: Introduction
Date
Topic
Jan. 15
Introduction
Jan. 17
Defining Sex
Steele, Tracey. “’Doing It’: The Social Construction of S-E-X.” Ed. Tracey L. Steele.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pres, 2005. 11-21.
Carpenter, Laura M. “The Ambiguity of ‘Having Sex’: The Subjective Experience of
Virginity Loss in the United States.” The Journal of Sex Research 38.2 (2001) : 127-39.
Jan. 22
Class topic and readings TBA
Jan. 24
Class topic and readings TBA
Jan 29–31
Constructing Sexuality
Rubin, Gayle. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.”
Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. Ed. Carole S. Vance. Boston:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984. 267-319.
Part II: The Politics of Sex in America through WWI
Feb. 5
Sex and Procreation in the 17th and 18th Centuries
D’Emilio and Freedman, chs. 1-3
Feb. 7
Sex, Marriage, and Reproduction in the 19th Century
D’Emilio and Freedman, ch. 4
Cott, Nancy F. “Passionlessness: An Interpretation of Victorian Sexual Ideology, 17901850.”
Feb. 12
The Politicization of Abortion
Luker, Kristin. “Medicine and Morality in the Nineteenth Century.” Abortion and the
Politics of Motherhood. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. 11-39.
Roosevelt, Theodore. “On Motherhood.”
Spring 2013, Politics of Sex Syllabus p. 5
Feb. 14
Race, Sex, and Social Control in the 19th Century, pt. 1: Slavery and Reconstruction
D’Emilio and Freedman, ch. 5; ch. 9 (pp. 215-21).
Hodes, Martha. “The Sexualization of Reconstruction Politics: White Women and Black
Men in the South after the Civil War.” Journal of the History of Sexuality, Special Issue:
African American Culture and Sexuality 3.3 (1993) : 402-17.
Feb. 19
Race, Sex, and Social Control in the 19th Century, pt. 2: Rape
Dunlap, Leslie K. “The Reform of Rape Law and the Problems of White Men: Age-ofConsent Campaigns in the South, 1885-1910.” Sex, Love Race: Crossing Boundaries in
North American History. Ed. Martha Hodes. New York: New York University Press.
352-72.
Feb. 21
Prostitution and the Social Hygiene Movement
D’Emilio and Freedman, ch. 6 (pp.130-138); ch. 7 (stop at p.156); ch. 9 (pp. 202-215)
Luker, Kristin. “Sex, Social Hygiene, and the State: The Double-Edged Sword of Social
Reform,” Theory and Society, 27.5 (1998) : 601-34.
Feb. 26
The Shifting Meaning of Marriage and Motherhood
Cott, Nancy. “Giving Character to out Whole Civil Polity: Marriage and the Public
Order in the Late Nineteenth Century.” US History as Women’s History: New Feminist
Essays
Mar. 28
Midterm Exam
Mar. 5-7
Spring Break
Mar. 12
The Invention of the Homosexual
D’Emilio and Freedman, ch. 6 (pp. 121-30); ch. 10 (pp. 222-29)
Eskridge, William. “From the Sodomite to the Homosexual, 1881-1935. Dishonorable
Passions: Sodomy Laws in America, 1861-2003. Boston: Harvard University Press,
2008. 39-72.
Final Exam Times
POLS120 (10am class): Thursday, May 9th, 1:30-4:15 pm
WGST125 (1pm class): Friday, May 3rd, 10:30-1:15 pm