Rhetoric 3108: Gender and Ethnicity & the Rhetoric of Science and Technology

Final Reading Assignments:

2006-04-24T14:00:13Z

Here are final reading assignments for the rest of the semester:

Monday, April 24: No reading due
Wednesday, April 26 : Roberts, "From Norplant to the Contraceptive Vaccine," Download file
Friday, April 28: Ordover, p59-82
Monday, May 1: Ordover, p83-124
Wednesday, May 3: Peer Review: Midterm II Essay (in class)

Kansas Report on the Kallikak Case

2006-04-20T18:21:14Z

Read this brief report for Friday, April 21 (tomorrow).

Download file

Be preprared to talk about how this represents the eugenics movement, how science is used/misused, and how the Kallikak's are represented.

Midterm Two Essay: Nature v/s Nurture

2006-03-22T16:16:41Z

Remember I will not be in class on Friday, March 25, because I will be at a conference in Chicago. You WILL still have class, and you will be in charge. You should bring at least ONE copy of your draft of midterm essay two, so that you can have another class member peer review it. I have given each of you three copies of the peer review sheet (today). Bring these to class with you on Friday.

Midterm Essay:

Task:
Write a formal academic essay of 5-7 pages that addresses/answers the following question. Be sure to make meaningful use of the following texts in your essay: Colapinto’s As Nature Made Him, Fausto-Sterling’s “The Five Sexes�? & “The Five Sexes, Revisited�? as well as the Nova special on the Reimer case and our in-class discussions on sex/gender/sexuality.

Question:
Both Colapinto’s book and the PBS Nova special seek to sift through the famous “twins case�? in order to understand the validity and legitimacy of the various and competing scientific claims made about biological sex, cultural gender, and sexuality. Ultimately, what does the Brenda/David Reimer case “teach us�? about sex, gender, and sexuality in relation to the larger nature v/s nurture debate? Does the case offer insights into all three areas of sex, gender, and sexuality? What greater cultural/social significance does this scientific case, like Fausto-Sterling’s two essays, have on the way we, as humans, understand our sex, our gender, and our sexuality?

Format:
Your essay should adhere to the following conventions of academic writing (in the Humanities):

• A meaningful introduction that sets up the subject of the essay
• A clear thesis statement (in one sentence or a few) that states the point of the argument and how that argument will be proven.
• A well-organized essay that is designed to prove the argument as well as make evident your knowledge of the course texts (and issues).
• Sufficient evidence, taken from course texts, that clearly and fully explains and elaborates on your points, your proof.
• Brief summaries of the sources you use, in order to make evident your comprehension of the texts.
• An appropriate use of texts (through quotation, paraphrase, and summary) that bears witness to your ability to “cite�? without a hint of plagiarism.
• An appropriate use of either an APA or an MLA citation style for both in-text and bibliographical references.

Slides:
Here are the slides we used in class to discuss the major texts and issues of this unit:

1) Colapinto's As Nature Made Him: Download file

2) Fausto-Sterling's essays and the sex/gender/sexuality system: Download file

Fausto-Sterling Essays: Finding Them Online

2006-02-23T19:40:51Z

Here are the directions for finding the Fausto-Sterling essays for Friday (tomorrow) and Monday:

1. Got to the Library home page (www.lib.umn.edu)
2. Click on “indexes�? under the word “welcome�?
3. Under the “browse indexes by type�? column, click on the “full-text indexes�?
4. Click on “Academic Search Premier�? (which should be the first link in the list)
5. In the find/search engine, type in Fausto-Sterling, Anne and choose AU Author in the default field box. Do not hit Search yet.
6. Under this, type in Five Sexes and choose TI Title in the default field box.
Hit Search.
7. Two (or three) articles should come up. Click on the PDF Full Text link for the ones titled “The Five Sexes�? and “The Five Sexes, Revisted.�?
8. Read "The Five Sexes" for Friday, and read "The Five Sexes, Revisted" for Monday

Midterm Essay One: Question, Tips, and Samples

2006-02-21T15:32:36Z

Midterm Essay One

Task:
Write a formal academic essay of 5-7 pages that addresses/answers the following question. Be sure to make meaningful use of the following texts in your essay: Nature’s Body, Miss Ever’s Boys, as well as the essays by Ann Fausto-Sterling, James Jones, Michael Root, and N. R. Kleinfield (and perhaps the Martha Rosler video -- "Vital Statistists of a Cotozen, Simply Obtained").

Question:
Science is often characterized as a heroic (and often masculine) quest for truth, a noble endeavor to shine the light of knowledge on the ignorance of nature. Obviously this search for truth is complicated by the very methods through which this truth is sought: collect, ordering, selecting out what is different from the “norm.�? Keeping in mind what we have read in this first unit, how might we understand science to be a science of difference? How has science used and misused the concept of difference, both racial/ethnic and gendered difference? And to what end?

Format:
Your essay should adhere to the following conventions of academic writing (in the Humanities):

Essay Writing Tips: Slides
Here are the slides from class on Monday as well as two sample papers that I wrote. The slides are meant to give you some idea of the how to craft a thesis and how to incorporate the summaries into the essay you are writing. Read these slides BEFORE you take a look at the sample essays.

Writing Arguments:Download file

Essay Samples:
The sample essays come from an 8000-level art history course. Obviously, the subject matter and the level of academic discourse is very different from your 3000-level rhetoric of scienc, gender, and ethnicity course. I provide them as examples of how I completed a very similar assignment. Notice my thesis and my use of the sources. I do not use all of my sources equally, but I do use them meaningfully (I hope), and I briefly summarize them all. Use these samples only if they are helpful.

An essay on heroism in art history:
Download file

An essay on transcending the body through art:
Download file

Anna responding to Schiebinger

2006-02-01T05:20:30Z

1.) The Schiebinger book addresses the ideals of gender and racial classification from that era. Along with the concept of natural Science and new discoveries, she ties them together while analyzing how conclusions were made explaing the womans body and racial differences.
2.) At the time she discusses "science" it is more of an artistic natural science. Where plants were married or seen to be pervocative, the science was to explain common ideals and morals. She utimately depicts why gender differences revolutionized the way science was viewed. By starting with opening up a womans body on a operation tabe in front of many spectators, to examining her maternal assets, women became more valued and apperciated, virsus "the monster" of men. Then race was an issue in the "great chain of being." It was about who was less worthy or less beautiful. Thus people of Aferican decent were low on the chain, and not seen as even the same genetically. There was the culteral question of who resembled primates. The Alpha Male ape who was in control and skilled, was clossely compared to human males. As well as the maternal, modest female ape, she may have passed for a human female(?). Then finally Schiebinger brings in the concept of genetic differences virsus enviernmental differences. People may really all be equal, it is their enviernment that is responible for their head shape, height, and even possible, their skin color.

Response to Schiebinger

2006-01-31T18:00:10Z

Schiebinger’s book Nature’s Body ultimately states that science has always been affected by gender, race and culture. She does this by pointing out times in history when differences among people played a big role in the classification of plants and animals. Science has always been biased, so to speak, and Schiebinger brings out facts of inclusion and exclusion in the science world which helped to shape the foundation for modern science.

Jenny's response #2

2006-01-31T17:46:52Z

Race, gender, culture and science are all ideas that deeply affected each other in 18th century. Schiebingers’s expose of the 18th century sciences and its history linked race and gender with culture and culture with science. Schiebinger’s ultimate message was to make awareness that science is constantly being shaped by culture, thus science’s past will affect current science. Schiebinger’s exposure of 18th century science seems like an ideology in crisis, because she led us to see how confused society was and how power hungry these scientists and naturalists were: “ European medical men centered their studies of race on males because […] new justifications were required for slavery and for the continued disenfranchisement of males of different skin color but often of equal property holdings […] In like manner, medical men focused their scrutiny of sexual difference on Europeans because the greatest political challenge came from their own countrywomen (183).�?
Scientists and Naturalists pretended to base their social critique on natural science and they have had to force the facts to fit their theories. We were able to review 18th century scientists and naturalists’ scientific works, in it their massive exaggerations of sexual flowers, mammaes, apes, and Hottentot’s apron, all historical examples affected by racist and sexist culture of this time. The author allows us to examine science as nurtured and not natured: “The point is to appreciate how knowledge has been molded historically […] what I have tried to show is that knowledge was shaped by patterns if inclusion and exclusion from the scientific community and, more importantly, by the social an political struggles shaping those patterns […] the investigation of sexual and racial difference a priority of the medical sciences, cannot be blamed on the shortsightedness of a few individuals alone, but rather can be traced to broader social trends of which sciences was a part (210)�? I believe that Schiebinger is saying that the origin to this sexist and racists culture by power hunger is embedded in our history, our culture and our sciences and it affects everyone to this day and will continue until we seek the justifications of asking why and rebuild our values.

what does Schiebinger’s book offer us? Response

2006-01-31T17:38:51Z

Schiebinger's Nature's Body dives into the historical debate of male vs female and white vs not white. Her historical accounts provide evidence of the developement of modern stereotypes. The conclusions made by her book help set a possible base into future readings for the course. The main one being, when documenting history it is almost impossible for the author to keep his/her ideals and preconcieved notions out of their text. The main idea out of the book is how things are classified. Plants have many characteristics and so do people, but trying to classify plants the same as people creates many problems because there become forced guidelines on how a plant is to be recorded, like for instance if it is a male plant of female plant. People were the same way, creating an order as to which people ranked higher based on what was deemed civilized brought more ideals into classification than actual science. Through these raw classifications, this class can understand more about where ideas of gender and race came from and help bridge the gap between those and some of its own judgments.

Patti's answer to question 1

2006-01-31T17:28:27Z

Schiebinger’s Nature’s Body offers us explanation and insight to the beginnings of natural science, and shows us how the ideas of the early scientists shaped society’s views of gender and race, some of which persist today. Rather than forming hypotheses based on scientific observation, early anatomists used their existing ideas to shape their observations. In categorizing species, races and genders, ranks were imposed, putting the practitioners of natural science in the highest and most privileged categories of nature and the subjects of it in the lowest categories, with variations of each in between. Examples of the manipulation of natural science to bolster the supremacy of the European males who practiced it are evidenced in the taxonomy and study of races, simians, and even plant life.

Plants were not only gendered and taxonomized; they were also anthropomorphized to reflect the “appropriate�? roles of their respective genders. Plants courted, fell in love, and married, after which the male plant embraced “…his beloved bride and offered her his gifts.�? (23). Why did scientists use such metaphors? Again, science was used to justify the views of the scientists. At that time, to write about plants mating without implying that they were somehow “married “ would have seemed improper and pornographic. It also implied the place of the female as secondary; she should be thankful to the male for giving to her “his gifts.�?

One could argue that female simians were studied more often than were the males to demonstrate the closeness of human females to beasts. Comparisons were made between female simian and human sexual anatomy and breasts. Images of simians often reflected female characteristics, as does Gesner’s Historiae animalium (92). Le Cat’s image of a simian couple on page 77 depict each in their appropriate human role; the male n the forefront, active with spread limbs, and the female sitting quietly with closed limbs covering her genital region, looking with downcast eyes.

Today some scientific writing still reflects the gender biases that were imposed in early scientific study. Menstruation is gross, erection is virile. Emily Martin’s
The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles, examines the ways in which science is still affected by the ideas of the scientists.

Daniels Response to Schiebinger

2006-01-31T16:18:58Z

When looking at Schiebingers book it offers us an unbiased history of science and gender. It explores the question, using these, of whether science influenced gender or the other way around. There is a notion that science is fact, the constant of natural law. Throughout the book it tests this idea by displaying the role culture had on science and the controversey surrounding it. The great discoveries of time have been shaped by politics. Most importantly we get to look at where our current ideologies about race, gender, science and culture come from. Socialization of western ideas led many in the 18th century to false conclusions. Classification became dependant on rank, demeaning some and praising others. The book offers us a vocabulary to articulate our thoughts on science, race, gender and culture in modern day. To participate in this discourse we need to understand the language used, the history. Thats what this book was about for me, it was a vocabulary. It has set up a construct to discuss these issues. Shiebinger shows us that the discoveries made by one or a few within the 18th century are not as influential as general social trends in shaping the way we view science today.

Efe's Response to Schiebinger's book

2006-01-31T15:16:28Z

1) Keeping in mind the nature of this course, what does Schiebinger’s book offer us?

(2) What does she ultimately say about science, gender, race, and culture?

1. Keeping in mind the nature of this course, Schiebingers book offers her readers this new perspective in understanding the discourse in the representation that language and gender have had in shaping and influencing science. Schiebinger initially invites her reader to understand the early ideas and philosophies that were used to define and interpret man’s place in the universe and with God. Using the rhetoric of religion, while incorporating egocentric idealism, one begins to see the how the present commonality in language and the connotation of such words are ill-represented, but yet are the major constructs that influenced culture and shaped society. In addition, Schiebinger’s book also offers the reader to reconsider the bigotry and discrimination that science has used to validate white men’s actions of the times. Moreover, it forces the readers to come to grips with acknowledgement that eliminating or blaming a certain individuals throughout history for their malice intent, does not really address, nor examine the real root of the problem in language and science, and how that it has impacted gender and ethnicity.

2. Schiebinger makes many points about science, race, gender and culture, but ultimately what I believe she is attempting to convey to her audience is how science became “privatized�? by males in particular, white males. She illustrates this gradual shift in where nature and natural become blended into reasoning, justification and permission for certain individuals, race’s and gender to act a certain way. She also begins to expose the gradual shift in exclusionary tactics, and subordinated ideology that retard and kept women and blacks on the periphery and spectator to the renaissance of science during this time, and up to present day. She illustrates how western ideology and euro-centrism shape the perception and ideology of what we considered civil, medicine, distinct, unique, primary, secondary… the list goes on. I feel that Schiebinger forces her readers to reconsider their perspective on racism and sexism, and the deep rooted-ness of the language and science we use in our daily lives.

Anthony's Response to Schiebinger Question

2006-01-31T15:08:57Z

What Schiebinger ultimately says about science, gender, race and culture includes several different points. One of the main points Schiebinger made was the idea that despite how science is supposed to be free of rhetorical thinking or biased notions, but show only true and un-abashed facts, culture has had a major impact on not only how science was practiced but what science was practiced. Schiebinger mentioned the claim that it doesn’t matter who practices science Newton’s law would be the same whether men or women perceive it (pg. 210), but she retorts this idea by talking about a couple of ideas. One was would the scientists have spent as much time questioning the idea that Africans are related to apes if they had to discuss their findings and reasons behind the studies with Africans, she also hints that there probably wouldn’t have been as much time and energy spent on the question “are women capable of intelligent thought?�? if some of the scientists conducting the experiments were women. She also made a point that we are still only just beginning to understand how much of an effect gender and racial prejudices have had not only on how we understand science but on the very course of science. She mentions that many that there were many texts by learned women and non-European men that was lost forever instead of being safely kept for science like most texts written by European men.

Kristy's response to Schiebinger

2006-01-31T04:37:11Z

I believe that Schiebinger’s book offers us an understanding of the history of the development of science. Although some of the topics in her book refer to some absurd theories of gender and race, she tries to help the reader comprehend how science came about and how the philosophers of the eighteenth century thought. She offers us an insight to the minds of Linneaus and other philosophers famous for their findings in science. Throughout her book, Schiebinger gives background information for how these “fathers�? of science came up with their ideas, and in many cases, offers counter arguments to explain science in an alternate way. After reading her book, a new understanding of the complexity of science and how difficult it is for many intelligent men to agree upon how to classify race and gender in an appropriate manner. This book leaves the reader with many questions as to finding an acceptable way to classify gender and race. Is there a real way to classify such complex and controversial subjects? Learning how these philosophers had such different perspectives on science really makes one try to come up with a way to figure out whose theory to adopt and whose theory to reject. Are females and African Americans still inferior to the white male? Although it is in our constitution that all men are created equal…is that how our society really is? After reading this book I have come to question if things have really changed, and if they have, how much? In the eighteenth century, women did not have a voice in science; now they do. If women were able to voice an opinion in the eighteenth century, would the theories of the philosophers be any different? Schiebinger’s book has raised a lot of questions that will probably go unanswered. After reading her book, my appreciation of science has increased. I had no idea there were so many different ideas on gender and race. Her book gives good insight into the lives of the eighteenth century philosophers and how the evolution of science began.

Complete Slides of Questions: Schiebinger's Book

2006-01-30T16:17:35Z

Here are all of the questions we looked at in class while reading Schiebinger's Nature's Body:

Download file

In order to do well on the first midterm, you should be able to answer all of these questions (while using her text as support -- of course).