Feminism in English 101

[cyranothe2nd]

  For my English 101 classes, I'm thinking of doing the entire class or a unit on feminism. Mostly because a lot of my students are science/engineers, so they won't be taking women's studies classes. And also because the furor of sexism in atheist circles has reminded me that, unfair as it is, it's my duty as a teacher to help to make my students '

Comments

[skittish_derby]

I read both articles.. and I guess I just don't get it. in my english 101 class, the "issue" we talked and wrote extensively about was the food industry and fast food.. a little less heated I think. and like your coworkers said, a bit less resistance.

I didn't really like either article and I am not sure how well it will go over with your students.

but, you know, half of them won't care either way.

[bill_sheehan]

I think the high keening sound of axes being ground would make me very, very nervous.

Certainly gender has a role in writing, but is it appropriate to make gender politics the emphasis in English 101?

Adams is not a very good writer and his po' po' pitiful me essay has nothing to recommend except as a bad example. Frye's article is better, but might not your students see it as something from the olden days when women burned their bras? The essay is twenty-eight years old, practically Victorian. They'll see it as history, not current events.

What do you want your students to take away from this class? Is it the ability to read and understand, to write and be understood? If not, are you teaching the right course?

[cyranothe2nd]

Typically, we teach rhetorical awareness in writing, which includes critical thinking. I was thinking of using these articles (well, maybe not Frye) as a way to teach the process of revision--literally, re-visioning their paper when new ideas are presented/found, rather than revising surface errors. I think I could also fit in some sexism stuff in analysis of visual rhetoric...IDK, I don't want to get into feminist theory too heavily. More, I wanted to use sexism as a theme of the class but I don't know how I can do that without having them read some theory, which is going to result in some resistance.

[lumenara]

Hey, I found you via Sherlock fandom, but I think this is an awesome idea. Not sure about the horrible Scott Adams essay, but focusing on sexism as a unit theme sounds like an excellent idea to me, as a person who considered myself aware, but ended up self-educating about most of this stuff after college.

What readings are required? What other essays do you have access to? I'd suggest basics like Finally, A Feminism 101 blog; other selections from Shakesville, and maybe "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack". I'd be happy to discuss this with you here or via email. I think it's wonderful that you're willing to put the extra time into doing something like this.

[cyranothe2nd]

Cool. I like 'Knapsack' but I don't want to get into racism (there will be a LOT of pushback on that) so I don't know that I would use it. Maybe 'privilege is driving a smooth road' or something...I wanted to use some of Shakesville as well and read a bunch of it again yesterday but it's not academic enough...I did find one on women and their portrayals in the media. That's where we are starting....

[lumenara]

Oh, also, Tiger Beatdown is amazing and hilarious, but if Shakesville's not academic enough... hmm. The problem I'm seeing is that more academic sources are liable to use a lot of terms that we're conditioned to automatically dismiss as "hysterical right-wing femi-nazi" (etc.). Bringing up the patriarchy (kyriarchy's probably overdoing it, yeah? *g*) is one of those things.

My thinking is that a text that inherently also has a sense of humor is more likely to catch the reader-- particularly the reluctant student reader-- off-guard, disarming the knee-jerk dismissal response.

[cyranothe2nd]

lol, I LOVE 'kyriarchy'. I just discovered it and want to mention it all the time, grad-school style =D

I emailed Melissa at Shakesville and asked if I could adapt an essay of hers to use, so that I can cut some of the ranty stuff and use the more academic stuff. She graciously accepted, so that's cool. I also found some other cool readings.

One of my other ideas is to have them research "What should university campuses do about rape/sexual assault?" They would have to research our campus's resources, develop a thesis/plan and then talk about how that plan might be put into action. I don't expect that I'll get *great* ideas but it would get them thinking, at least...IDK though.