LEARNING MODULE 2

Gender is a social construction; a category of difference invested with meaning.  As Simone du Beauvoir states: “one is not born a woman; one becomes a woman”.  In light of our assigned readings this week, please write (in 4 paragraphs) a mini-“gender autobiography” for yourself.  The two readings for your on-line module are larger examples of this.  Make this a personal story.  Think of your early years, how was gender inscribed by the key people and institutions in your life?  What were the primary expectations about how you were to behave, think, feel, etc.  Did you ever feel limitations or restraints (or advantages) for what you could and could not do; who you could and could not be based on dominant gender assumptions?  Then, as you have grown, how do you “do gender”; in what ways do you perform, practice, embody your gender?  What are the dominant “scripts” that influence how you “do gender”?  Where do they come from?  Do you ever challenge gender normativity or normative gender differences?  How?

Awesome article!

This article is about the first woman to ever score in Division I college football. Great story, some parts sad, but a great meaning!

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/15934616/ns/today-books/

LEARNING MODULE 1

In 3-4 paragraphs, please respond to the following questions by adding a “comment” to THIS post (rather than creating a new one)

First, please write 5 words to describe your general perspective of what Feminism is prior to reading this week’s assigned readings.  Then write 5 words to describe your perspective after reading this week’s readings.  Please write a brief reflection of how your views have or have not changed and why?  Can you identify the primary ideologies and institutions that have informed YOUR view of Feminism today. [Please speak honestly, there is no “right” or “wrong” answer]

Second, After having read the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions given at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention of 1848, and the two documents written by the National Organization for Women in the 1960s, do you think that there are any similar grievances that are still unresolved in U.S. society today?  What are they?  In other words, what are the limits on women’s rights that still need to be addressed and which resolutions have not been fully fulfilled.  In your opinion, which of these is most urgent?  Please draw from these documents directly in your answer. 

Finally, what perspective does Sojourner Truth offer to both movements?  How is her perspective different than the Seneca Falls document and why? How do you think her speech might have helped women’s rights activists?  How might it have hindered them?  Why is this important?