“Women’s Politics in the USSR and Russia”
• The authors never/rarely use the word “sexism” but consistently refer to “patriarchy” and women’s “secondary status.” What kind of work does this do for their article? What might be the underlying politics of this choice in language?
• On page 208, the authors write “The challenge of liberalism to Russian patriarchal institutions and attitudes, however, forced revolutionaries to pay closer attention to the incorporation of women into the state.” What were/was the assumption made about patriarchy and liberal economics that promoted the “woman question”?
• What are the shifts in the images of women since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917?
• The authors use a lengthy quotation from Mikhail Gorbachev on page 211. In this quotation, what image of woman is presented? How is it similar to other images that are prevalent in other regions/time periods that we have read about?
• How does the Association of Small Towns differ in its values and approaches from the other organizations described? How is it similar?
“Gay and Lesbian History in Britain”
• Throughout the descriptions of the Stonewall Riots, the author describes the ways in which it was the first mobilization of gay and lesbian activists. What are the hints that the author is erasing a significant aspect of this history? What is being erased/marginalized?
• On the bottom of page 172, the authors look at linguistic distinctions between the Committee for Homosexual Equality and the Gay Liberation Front. What is that distinction and the reasons behind it? How is the same/similar issue present today, at least within the United States?
• How did Marxism, and therefore class politics inform the formation of the Gay Liberation Front? Are class politics still central to GLBT organizations? Which ones?
• How does women’s separation from the Gay Liberation Front exemplify the intersections between gender and sexuality?