GST 2300 Reading Questions   

Questions for Tues. 28 Oct.

1.  What does Robert Lewis claim are the 4 "barriers" to emotional intimacy among men?

2.  Describe the "typical" friendship networks of lesbians and gay men.  Explain why they look so different from each other.

3.  What is the "feminization of love," and what are the consequences for our ways of thinking about men's and women's friendships?

4.  Cathy Greenblat found that men married for 10 years of more often had doubts about whether they sill loved their wives (although they were confident that their wives loved them).  Wives married for 10 years of more were confident they still loved their husbands, but often doubted their husbands loved them.  how do we explain this difference?

Questions for Thurs. 30 Oct.

1.  What is the "feminization of love?"

2.  Describe "masculine" and "feminine" styles of loving.

3.  How do the differences between men's and women's styles of love reinforce men's power over women?  How does the feminization of love contribute to impersonal, exploitative relationships in the workplace and in the community?

Questions for Thurs. 6 Nov.

1.  Smith-Rosenberg argues, "The twentieth-century tendency to view human love and sexuality within a dichotomized universe of deviance and normality, genitality and platonic love, is alien to the emotions and attitudes of the nineteenth century and fundamentally distorts that nature of these women's emotional interaction" (34)  What does she mean by this? 

2.  Why did nineteenth-century Americans organize love, friendship, and sexuality differently than we do?  What social and cultural factors played a part in the existence of these "romantic friendships" between women that are no longer true for our era?

3.  Chauncey argues that "the determining criterion in labeling a man as 'straight' (their term) or "queer' was not the extent of his homosexual activity, but the gender role he assumed" (75).  What does he mean by this?

4.  What do scholars mean by the turn-of-the-century "invention of the homosexual?"  How did it change how we think about sexual behavior and sexual identity? 

Questions for Tues. 11 Nov.

1.  Kimmel says, "Anorexics and obsessive bodybuilders are no psychological misfits or deviants; they are overconformists to gender norms to which all of us, to some degree, are subject" (281).  What does he mean by this?  What is at stake for men and women in shaping their bodies in these ways?

2.  What is the "masculinization of sex?"  Why has it occurred?

3.  What is the sexual double standard?  What effect does it have on our sexuality? How is it (re)created by gender inequality?

4.  List some of the differences in men's and women's sexual attitudes and behavior.  Why has this gender gap in sexual attitudes and behavior been shrinking in recent years?

5.  Kimmel argues that "gay men and lesbians are true gender conformists."  What does he mean by this?

Questions for Thurs. 13 Nov.

1.  What's a "hook-up"?  Define the term.

2.  England et al suggest that hooking up is gendered in 3 ways.  What are they?   Is this what sexual liberation looks like?  Why do think so / think not? 

3.  Does the dating scene at UTD look like this?  Does UTD HAVE a dating scene?  If so, how does it operate?  If not, why not? 

4.  What's the feminist critique of pornography?  What are the three levels of harm critics invoke?

5.  Kimmel argues that "Men's consumption of pornography, is, in part, fed by this strange combination of lust and rage" (420).  What does he men by this?  What's the lust?  What's the rage?  How are they combined? 

6.  Kimmel compares pornography to bodybuilding, wrestling, and boxing.  How is it like/unlike each of these?

Questions for Tues. 18 Nov.

1.  What are some of the themes anthropologists have associated with interpersonal and intersocietal violence?  List as many as you can.

2.  Young American men are the most violent group of people in the industrialized world.  Why?  Give as many reasons as you can.

3.  Kimmel says that rape has to do with a powerful mix of "powerlessness and entitlement, impotence and a right to feel in control" (281).  Explain what this means.

4.  What is "indirect aggression," and why are girls more likely to display it than boys are?

5.  Kimmel sees terrorism as a result of male displacement and male entitlement.  Give one example that illustrates how each might contribute to terrorist acts.

Questions for Tues. 25 Nov.

1.  How do defense intellectuals use gender as a symbolic system in their analyses of nuclear and national security issues?  Give as many examples as you can.  What are the consequences of this?

2.  What is the "unitary masculine actor problem," and why is Cohn concerned about it--that is, what effect does she see it having on the thinking of defense intellectuals?

3.  Is contemporary rhetoric about the war in Iraq or the war in Afghanistan marked by the same kinds of gendered rhetoric?  Why do you think so (or think not)?  Give examples to support your position.

Questions for Tues. 2 Dec.

1.  Why are so many researchers convinced of the sexual symmetry of marital violence?  Why might the data be misleading?  List as many reasons as you can. 

2.  How are the circumstances of the typical violent woman different from the circumstances of the typical violent man?  How do you explain the differences?

3.  What have you learned about domestic violence from school or the media in the past?  Did this article challenge any of those ideas?  Why or why not?  Give specific examples. 

Questions for Thurs. 4 Dec.

1.  Write a page about the 2-3 most interesting, compelling, or important things you learned this semester about gender.  Why are they important to you?  What impact will this knowledge have on your ways of thinking/behaving? 

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