Women's Studies 494/Katie King/Spring 2004 UMD/class meets TTh 12:30-1:45 pm at KEY 0103
Katie’s office hours Tues 2-4pm & some TTh. mornings by apt.
2101F Woods Hall; 301.405.7294 (voice mail) email: katking@umd.edu
Katie's home page: http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/
WebCT class space: go to http://www.courses.umd.edu/ and log in using your directory ID and password

What does it mean to talk about lesbianisms around the world? The very word "lesbian" isn't accepted by all the women it might describe. The kinds of relationships that in the U.S. lesbianism might be understood to name, are not the same on other parts of the globe. How do women around the world feel about this word "lesbian," and what are the many meanings it has in different places? When do women want to use it to name themselves and why? When do they reject it and why? What other words, relationships, cultural forms are possible?

A global movement for lesbian and gay human rights is in process. To what extent do lesbians want to make common cause with gay men? with other human rights activists? What does Queer Politics mean for lesbians? These are the kinds of hard questions we'll be exploring in this class and we'll be gathering as many resources as we can to see what sorts of answers might be possible. We'll explore materials about many kinds of lesbians in the US, look on the World Wide Web for organizing literature from lesbian and LGBT groups in the US and around the world, read accounts of lesbians traveling internationally, analyze ethnographic work on sexuality. We'll listen to, tell and dream stories about women imagining and experiencing lives with women, women imagining and experiencing what it takes to make such a world.

Required Texts (also on reserve at McKeldin Library)

These are required READINGS. You do have to read them. You do not have to BUY them. I will put them on reserve at McKeldin. Borrow and share with each other. However, do not wait til the last minute (the night before) to discover one is not available on reserve, etc. Be sure you have secured access LONG before we are going to read it in class.

I have ordered all from Vertigo Books because I want to support the bookstore and help it to survive in College Park! It is on the corner between HW 1 and Knox Rd, across the street from the Cornerstone restaurant: 7346 Baltimore Avenue. The telephone number there is: 301.779.9300. But you need to note that Vertigo is a small independent bookstore and thus cannot issue refunds or accept returns in the same manner as the campus Barnes & Noble. Their small staff and limited resources simply will not allow them to do so. Supporting them, however, works to counter the large economic consolidations of the publishing industry. They do not buy back books or make refunds. Returns will receive store credit. Any returns must be made within 15 days of purchase. Returned books must be in saleable condition with proof of purchase.

Also start looking through the "Lesbian & Gay," and "Women's" section in each bookstore you go to, and consider making a trip to a great bookstore in DC: Lambda Rising (Dupont Circle Metro; 1625 Conn. Ave. NW; tel. 202.462.6969.

• Each week pick up a copy of The Washington Blade (available at Stamp Student Union) or look at it online at: http://www.washblade.com/. Look for lesbian specific local publications and bring to class to share as you locate them.

• Alison Bechdel. Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch out For. Alyson, 2003
• Chris Berry, Fran Martin, and Audrey Yue, eds. Mobile Cultures: New Media in Queer Asia. Duke, 2003
• Martha Gever. Entertaining Lesbians: Celebrity, Sexuality, and Self-Invention. Routledge, 2003
• Jennifer Robertson. 1998. Takarazuka. California
• Fran Martin. Angelwings: Contemporary Queer Fiction from Taiwan. U Hawai'i, 2003
• Joan Nestle, Riki Wilchins, and Clare Howell, eds. Genderqueer. Alyson, 2002
• video of Joshua Logan's 1958 film Sayonara, starring Marlon Brando. Available for rent at Video Americain in Takoma Park: 301.270.4464. One class copy available for class to share around.

Other Useful Texts: (many are available at McKeldin, I put some on reserve)
Monika Reinfelder, ed. 1996. Amazon to Zami. Cassell
Jennifer Terry. 1999. An American Obsession: science, medicine, and homosexuality in modern society. Chicago
Kath Weston. 1998. longslowburn: sexuality and social science. Routledge
Gilbert Herdt. 1997. Same Sex, Different Cultures. Westview
Arnaldo Cruz and Martin F. Manalansan, eds. Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism. New York & London: NYU, 2002.

LGBT Studies Program's second annual spring lecture series:
"Queer(ing) Citizenship: Before and After Lawrence." All lectures Mondays at 4 p.m. in Susquehanna 1120. Receptions to follow.

• February 23: GEORGE CHAUNCEY, "Lawrence v. Texas: Sexual Identity/Politics in the Twentieth Century." George Chauncey is professor of history at the University of Chicago and author of Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. He was also one of the lead authors of a brief filed by historians in the Lawrence case.
• March 15: DWIGHT MCBRIDE, "Straight Black Studies." Dwight McBride is associate professor of African American Studies and English at Northwestern University. He is author of Impossible Witnesses: Truth, Abolitionism, and Slave Testimony and editor of Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bi-Sexual Fiction and James Baldwin Now.
• April 5: MICHAEL WARNER. Michael Warner is professor of English at Rutgers University. He is author of Publics and Counterpublics and The Trouble with Normal and editor of Fear of a Queer Planet.
• April 26: ELIZABETH BIRCH. Elizabeth Birch is former executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT advocacy organization in the United States. She recently became a senior advisor to the presidential campaign of Governor Howard Dean.

Summary of Assignments

(1) Ad hoc weekly assignments including web site evaluations: These are given out a class or two before hand, to be typed and handed in class. These are not graded, but you do get points for them, and points will be deducted if they are late, even with a good excuse. Therefore you must always check with other students to make sure you are aware of any assignments given in class and should try to turn these in on time, or give to someone to turn in for you, if at all possible. Think of them like pop quizzes. The point of these assignments is to keep folks doing the work week by week, coming faithfully to class, and preparing well. [All together will be 25% grade] DUE: weekly as assigned.

The first one is a list of violated assumptions. (1-2 pages typed.) DUE: 3 Feb

The second one is a list of debates in lesbian communities and list of URLs . (1-2 pages typed.) DUE: 10 Feb

The third one is a reflection paper on debates in lesbian communities. (2-3 pgs typed.) DUE: 17 Feb

Others will be assigned in class on an ad hoc basis. So come to class, find out what's due, keep up with the reading!

(2) Comparison of local communities and international web sites: report on your own visit to a meeting of a local lesbian community or political group (use the Blade or the Diamondback to locate something appropriate). Compare what you learned from your analysis of local community with what you can learn from specific international web sites. This assignment can be done with a partner, although you should each write up a separate report. You can work on analysis together and should edit each other's work / 6-8 pgs. [25% grade] DUE: 9 Mar

(3) What counts as a Lesbian and to whom? Comparison U.S. lesbianisms and international ones: can include personal autobiographical information or may be specifically research oriented. Can use creative forms, such as fantasy ethnography, or speculative fiction, or utopian dream, but must also be analytic. Must be thoroughly grounded in and use course readings with footnotes and bibliography to show how materials are used. May build upon and extend assignment #2. Should figure out ways to include web-based information. / 13-15 pgs. [25% grade] DUE: 20 Apr

(4) Learning Analysis: A synthetic assignment similar to a take home exam. Requires you to describe the argument of the course, report your experience of the course week by week within that argument, compare this class to other women's studies and LGBT courses, and to analyze the materials of the course that mattered most to you. The assignment also allows you to give feedback about how well the course worked for you and ways it didn't. / 7-8 pgs. [25% grade] DUE: 11 May

Reading and Writing Assignments

Tuesday January 27--Introduction to Lesbian Communities and International Receptions

Welcome to the class! Today we will introduce ourselves, find some class buddies to share work and notes with, ponder what we hope from the class and how we each are resources in building a learning community. We'll discuss WebCT and how we will use it in class.

AFTER CLASS GO OVER TO THE STUDENT UNION AND PICK UP A COPY OF THE BLADE or look at it online: http://www.washblade.com/

Thursday January 29--Examining our Textbooks and Noting Violated Assumptions

Today we will look at all the textbooks for our course. How are they what you expected? How are they not? What surprises about choosing any of them for this class? What surprises do you encounter reading in them? If something surprises you, perhaps an assumption you didn't know you had was violated. In this class we do the hard but fascinating work of figuring out our violated assumptions. Be curious about yourself! Listing violated assumptions is one way to analyze the common sense knowledges we've believed without questioning. What associations do we have with community, lesbian community, queers, feminism and activism? What debates are current within lesbian communities?

Tuesday February 3--Dykes to Watch Out for

• Read all of Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch out For.

Muse on the similarities and differences between the lesbian communities Bechdel describes and your own life and communities. Be prepared to talk about these similarities and differences. Start off your violated assumptions list: note places where you were surprised, laughed, were made angry or disoriented, or where you expected one thing and got something different, and figure out what assumption you held was violated and provoked your reaction. You will add to this list throughout the class, and it will help you keep track of the changes you go through in it. You will need to do this kind of investigation for the final Learning Analysis.

DUE: first ad hoc assignment: a list of violated assumptions / 1 pg. TYPED

Thursday February 5--Dyke Deck: Debates in Lesbian Communities I

• Read the three introductions to GenderQueer and choose a story to read too.

Continue with violated assumptions list: what assumptions were violated by this reading? Which three violated assumptions are the most interesting? What debates in lesbian communities did you notice in this reading?

We will play with the Dyke Deck and talk about the forms of art and other forms in which lesbians conduct debates in their communities.

Tuesday February 10--Is She or isn't She?: Debates in Lesbian Communities II

• Read the first two chapters of Entertaining Lesbians.

More violated assumptions! What's curious about the new roles lesbians are playing in popular culture? What changes do you map yourself? What experiences have you had seeing these things change in your own lifetime? How do you mark these changes?

Web assignment: start searching for and linking to international sites for Ass. #2. Bring URLs to share with class.

DUE: second ad hoc assignment: list of debates in lesbian communities and list of URLs for international sites / 2 pg. TYPED

Thursday February 12--Genders on My Mind

• From GenderQueer: pick about half the stories to read in any order you like.

Be prepared to say why you chose the stories you did, and which ones connected to which other ones. Continue your violated assumptions list and reflect on changes in social power just over the course of your own life.

Tuesday February 17--It's your Gender, Stupid!

• From GenderQueer: read the rest of the stories & Epilogue (we'll read Wilchins' essays later)

How does this reading affect your understanding of at least some debates in lesbian communities today? How do these issues connect to other debates that might not seem at first glance to be connected? How can you tell?

DUE: third ad hoc assignment: reflection paper debates in lesbian communities / 2-3 pgs. TYPED

Thursday February 19--Beep-Click-Link: New Media in Queer Asia

• In New Media read the Intro & Boellstorff's "I Knew It was Me" (pp. 1-51)

This is a very academic book, so how are you going to make it connect to the things you care about? Where do these essays take you? What worlds you do glimpse? Continue your violated assumptions list!

Tuesday February 24--Why NOT a Portrait Gallery of Lesbian Celebrities?

• Psych out the book Entertaining Lesbians now that you've read the first two chapters; read the Afterword, look through the Index and check out bits that seem interesting, then choose another chapter to read, anything that looks good to you.

Be prepared to tell us why you chose that chapter in particular. And be prepared to explain why the author has decided to approach this subject in the way she has: what is at stake?

Thursday February 26--How do "Angelwings" enable Your Travels?

• In Angelwings: read the Intro & choose any two stories you like.

Martin tells us that "Angelwings" are meant not only to help their authors with emerging forms of subjectivity, but their readers as well. What does "subjectivity" mean in this context? Do you get any sense of where you fit in here? How can you imagine where Angelwings might take you? take you with others?

Thursday March 4--KATIE AT COLBY COLLEGE--INSTEAD OF CLASS, USE THE TIME TO FINISH UP YOUR PAPER

• Catch up on any reading you have missed; and reread the stuff that seems most valuable but puzzling

Tuesday March 9--Global Queering: Anime & the Net

• From New Media, read Sabucco, "Fan Fiction" & Berry & Martin, "Syncretism" (pp. 70ff & 87ff)

What do Berry & Martin tell us about the term "lesbian" and its multinational receptions? What does Sabucco tell us about the cultural assumptions we bring to the stories of anime?

DUE: PAPER: Comparison of local lesbian communities and what you can guess from looking at international web sites / 6-8 pgs.

Thursday March 11--Stones on the Shore of new public cultures of sexuality

• From Anglewings choose three more stories to read.

How are we part of and not part of these "new public cultures of sexuality"?

Tuesday March 16--Star Wars in the Liberation Movements

• Read Chaps Three & Four of Entertaining Lesbians (reread one if it's the one you've already read; be an expert!)

Here are more "new public cultures of sexuality": where do they fit into a global map, if at all?

Thursday March 18--New Screens, New Scenes

• In New Media read Offord, "Singaporean Queering" & Hjorth, "Pop and Ma" (pp. 133ff & 158ff)

Have you been touched at all by Japanese "character culture"? Why has Hello Kitty been appropriated by lesbians? How does the Internet facilitate queer sensibilities?

Tuesday March 23--SPRING BREAK--NO CLASS--HAVE A GOOD TIME!

Thursday March 25--SPRING BREAK--NO CLASS

Tuesday March 30--Technologies of Lesbian Celebrity

• Read Chaps Five & Six of Entertaining Lesbians (reread one if it's the one you've already read; be an expert!)

How does Martina Navratilova's stardom challenge heterosexual norms? For whom? Are these "unwitting collaborations with oppressive forces"? Gever has alternate explanation. What is it?

Thursday April 1--KATIE AT VANDERBILT--INSTEAD OF CLASS, USE THE TIME TO MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO VIEW MOVIE SAYONARA

Tuesday April 6--Virtual Webs of Real People

• In New Media read Roy, "Khush List" & Khoo, "Sexing the City" (pp. 180ff & 222ff)

How has terminology played a role in the use of the "Khush List"? How does the Internet alter what counts as a community?

Thursday April 8--"In a gap between two people I see purple"

• From Anglewings choose three more stories to read.

Why these? What does it take to connect? What does it take to disconnect? Why does it matter?

Tuesday April 13--Digital Drifting

• In New Media read Jacobs, "Queer Voyeurism" & Mullaly, "Good & Normal" (pp. 201ff & 115ff)

What do "heteronormals" have to do with Queer cyberporn? What sorts of strange alliances is popular culture making across subcultures?

Thursday April 15--"Just like that, I understand"?

• Finish up Anglewings.

How has this book as a whole helped us to examine "the intricate connections between sexuality and cultural location"? How far can "understanding" take us and what else do we need?

Tuesday April 20--Queerer Bodies and Cultural Systems

• In New Media read Yeu, "Rice is a System" (p. 245ff) & in GenderQueer read Four Essays on Gender by Riki Wilchins (p. 24ff)

What do Riki Wilchins and Audrey Yue have to say to each other? Whose beepers will sound off first?

DUE: PAPER: What counts as a lesbian and to whom? / 13-15 pgs.

Thursday April 22--Takarazuka I: Overview Sexual Politics and Popular Culture

• Psych out Robertson, Takarazuka : read all intro & concluding materials; esp. Epilogue, and Chapter One
• Use index entries "Homosexuality" and "Same-sex love" to analyze the place of lesbianisms in this book. Read stuff from index that interests you, at least 20+ pages.

Continue with violated assumptions list: What debates about lesbians in US have connections to this reading?

Tuesday April 27--Takarazuka II: Androgynies & Nationalisms

• Robertson, Takarazuka : read Chaps Two & Three

What connections does Robertson make between gender, sexuality and nationalism? How do you translate her observations into similar connections in US today?

For next Tuesday you need to have viewed movie Sayonara.

Thursday April 29-- Takarazuka III: Writing Fans

• Robertson, Takarazuka : read Chaps Four & Five

Why do fans matter in Robertson's analysis? How does Takarazuka play a role in queer politics and culture today?

For the next class you need to have viewed movie Sayonara.

Tuesday May 4--Takarazuka in US Pasts and Present

• We will discuss the movie Sayonara, so you must have seen it by now.
• Handout: James's Michener's book upon which the movie is based (also called Sayonara). Selections to read.
• Reread Robertson to understand movie, perhaps esp. chaps 1 & 2.
• Read on the web movie synopsis and awards, and ck out Takarazuka URLs.

Why does the movie transform the Takarazuka of the book to the Mizubiyoshi (and actually played by the Takarazuka's rivals, the Shochuku in the film)? This film is intended to be an anti-racist film that supports interracial marriage. How does it use implicit proscribed sexualities and the Takarazuka to explicitly make its political case? How is it a critique of heterosexuality while glorifying marriage? What relevance does it have to contemporary debates on homosexual marriage? How do we excavate its possible lesbianisms?

Thursday May 6--Layers of Locals and Globals, US Lesbianisms as Local

• ON RESERVE: King, "There Are No Lesbians Here"; from Cruz-Malavé, Queer Globalizations

This is an essay I wrote a while ago, trying to put together what it means to consider how lesbian both is and is not a "universal" term.

Tuesday May 11--LAST CLASS--Lesbianisms in Multinational Reception

We'll share our travels in the class today, reading from bits of our learning analyses and talking about the readings and events that mattered most to us in the class.

DUE: Learning Analysis / 7-8 pgs.