Recently in Class Summaries Category

In "Feminist Education for Critical Consciousness" (in Feminism for Everybody), bell hooks argues for the need to give children access to a feminist education. Is this possible? Necessary? What would it look like? Did you have access to feminist education when you were younger? If so, what were (weren't) you taught?

On our last day, I thought I'd show you my introduction to feminist/feminist values: Free to be...You and Me.

I'm a child of the 1970s (born in 1974). When I was in elementary school in North Carolina, the entire school watched the Free to be...you and me film (Videos/VCRs didn't exist yet...yes, I'm that old) during an assembly. Everyone was really excited because it was a long film--a whole 45 minutes!--and long films meant less class time. Anyway, I don't remember much of what I thought about the film back then (I was probably 6 or so). Yet, I'm sure some of it seeped into my consciousness, helping shape how I experience the world and how I see myself and my relationship to others. 

Originally a book/album created by Marlo Thompson, with a little help from Gloria Steinem, Free to be...you and me was turned into a one hour TV special. It first aired March 11th, 1974 (3 months before I was born). You can find out more about the history of the project here. Several years later, it became a popular film to show in schools around the country (like mine in North Carolina. It was also shown in Minnesota). 

It stands as one example of feminist mass-based education. Would such a show be possible now? What sorts of feminist (or feminist-friendly) films did you see in elementary school? If we were to create a feminist resource for kids, what would/could/should it look like?

Here's one of my favorite songs from the show:

Check out Jessica Yee's tweets to our class/about our posts:

Thoughts? 

Here's some other things that I want us to think about today and next Tuesday:

• Your experiences with the process of developing and writing your feminist reflection papers
• Your thoughts about social media in the (feminist) classroom
• Favorite (and/or particularly compelling) assignments/readings/discussions
• Any discussions/readings you'd like to revisit
• Your thoughts on how to build community/connections inside/outside of classroom space
• Any questions about class/feminism
• Any "this is a feminist issue because..." posts that you want to discuss

In our last two days of class, I thought we could spend time wrapping up and reflecting on our experiences this semester. Come to class prepared to talk about:

• Your experiences with the process of developing and writing your feminist reflection papers
• Your thoughts about social media in the (feminist) classroom
• Favorite (and/or particularly compelling) assignments/readings/discussions
• Any discussions/readings you'd like to revisit
• Your thoughts on how to build community/connections inside/outside of classroom space
• Any questions about class/feminism
• Any "this is a feminist issue because..." posts that you want to discuss

"There needs to be struggle in order to lay out a path to co-existence, and that the process of being uncomfortable is essential for non-Indigenous peoples to move from being enemy, to adversary, to ally" (11).

I want to say that I don't think we need to reject feminism though -- I think we need to redefine it, find common points and common ground and involve Indigenous peoples and other com- munities of colour. As long as there is mutual respect and all of our cultural and historic realities are brought into the mix, we can create cross-cultural human movements (18).

I had started to feel significantly less invested in the endless, circular discussions about the proper way to practice feminism, the who's who list, the removal of my rough ideas on feminism from everyday life (46). 

Today we are continuing Social Media presentations. Here are a few reminders:

• Final papers (along with your writing folders) are due Thursday, December 1
• We start discussing Feminism for Real on Thursday. Read up to page 47 (through Latoya Peterson's essay) for Thursday. Finish the book for next Tuesday.

Blog/twitter AND Writing Folders are due today.

KEY TERMS:
Intersectionality (originally from Kimberle Crenshaw's "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex"

Creating Safe Spaces: Do you feel safe here?

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. See this post: The one post that has it all READ THROUGH THIS PDF CAREFULLY.
2. Post a comment on the Reproductive Justice Open Thread
3. Check out my post on different definitions of Reproductive Justice
4. REVISED READING SCHEDULE:

CLASS FOR TODAY:

• DIABLOG GROUP #3 DISCUSSION
• IF TIME, WORK WITH SOCIAL MEDIA GROUPS

CLASS BREAKDOWN:

• Announcements
• Overview of Issue + brief lecture
• Small/Big Group Discussion
• Reminders about assignments/answer questions
• Informal midterm evaluations

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Blog folders AND Informal Writing Folders are due on Nov 8 
• I will give you time in class this Thursday and next Tuesday and Thursday to plan with your social media groups. Make sure to use your time wisely.
• Any questions? Announcements?

The theme for today's class is: Reproductive Justice, a "woman's" issue? This week, we will continue to be curious about (and complicate) visions of reproductive rights and justice within feminist movement. Today's focus is on how the language used to describe and frame the issue, can be too narrow and lead to the exclusion of some folks, in this case, trans men, genderqueer folks, people who don't identify/present as women but that need and have abortions (and rely on other aspects of reproductive health too). 

One purpose of today's class is to introduce some concepts that you might not be familiar with, concepts coming out of queer and trans theories that strive to deconstruct gender and to challenge the gender binary. Another purpose is to provide us with another way to think about/apply/complicate C Enloe's idea of feminist curiosity and "taking women's lives seriously." Is a feminist curiosity just about taking women's lives seriously? And yet another purpose is to reflect on how language matters and how framing the debate in particular ways shapes who is included/excluded and limits the possible solutions that we can imagine.

DOWNLOAD NOTES FOR CLASS HERE.

1. The failure to include...
"to truly be a trans ally and achieve reproductive justice, we should all stop saying and stop thinking that abortion is a women's issue, since it's not just cis women that have abortions, but also trans men, gender queer people, and many more people who may not fit into the box of 'woman'" (from: http://feministing.com/2011/04/19/behind-the-backlash-whats-so-scary-about-deconstructing-the-gender-binary)

"There are trans men, intersex men, and a whole range of gender non-conforming folks who need access to pregnancy, abortion and birth related health care, to pap smears, to a range of procedures that we talk about in a very gendered way" (from: http://feministing.com/2011/04/21/expanding-abortion-care-and-gender-politics ).

2. ...leads to lack of access...
"Excluding everyone but women from our understanding of the group of people who have abortions is dangerous. It makes the procedure less accessible to people who already fall into the margins around health care access. It makes clinics less accessible, potentially a hostile place to male or masculine presenting folks. It makes health information less accessible because folks don't see themselves reflected in informational materials (from: http://feministing.com/2011/04/21/expanding-abortion-care-and-gender-politics).

from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey

3. ...and the reinforcing of a narrow vision of the problem.

"Because we accept that the debate lives inside the rules of the compulsory gender binary, the forcing of everyone into the boxes male and female. One very small box for people with gendered power: men, one slightly bigger for people to oppress along the lines of gender: women. And way too many of us who fall outside the acceptable rules of either of those boxes because of a whole host of intersecting systems of oppression - race, class, ability, sexuality, etc and gender identity are all reasons we're told we don't fit. This binary gender system is used to consolidate power in a few white cis male hands and to oppress cis women and everyone else. Wanting to keep abortion politics inside the narrow box of cis women, inside patriarchy's acceptable box of gender oppression, ain't the way to liberation - or even good health care" (from: http://feministing.com/2011/04/21/expanding-abortion-care-and-gender-politics)

4. We need to be curious...
"how do we begin to address trans issues, particularly trans reproductive issues, outside of transitioning itself? How do we make prochoice about more than the gender binary? How do we work with language? How do we do direct outreach, how do we make clinics and doctor's offices and family planning centers truly safe spaces? What other questions do you have" (from: http://abortiongang.org/2011/08/transgender-and-choice-can-we-start-a-conversation)?

5. and expand and complicate our understanding of the issue.
"Because my oppression is tied to your oppression. Because reproductive oppression and oppression based on gender isn't just experienced by cisgender women. Because to get at this reality we need an expanded understanding of gender oppression and an expanded politics built on solidarity among all people experiencing oppression through the same and interconnected systems" (from: http://feministing.com/2011/04/21/expanding-abortion-care-and-gender-politics)

the limits and of LANGUAGE
the difficult labor of INCLUSION and SOLIDARITY
RE-FRAMING THE ISSUE beyond "woman/women"
thinking through the meanings of REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

6. Dean Spade on language and the reinforcing of gender norms

A central endeavor of feminist, queer, and trans activists has been to dismantle the cultural ideologies, social and legal norms that say that certain body parts determine gender identity and gendered social characteristics and roles. We've fought against the idea that the presence of uteruses or ovaries or penises should be understood to determine such things as people's intelligence, proper parental roles, proper physical appearance, proper gender identity, proper labor roles, proper sexual partners and activities, and capacity to make decisions.

to ensure that we aren't reinforcing oppressive gender norms, we should:

1. talk about body parts (ovaries, penises, uteruses, vulvas) without assigning those parts a gender
2. use internal reproductive organs instead of "women's reproductive organs"
3. use "people who menstruate" "people who are pregnant" "people who produce sperm"
4. use "not trans" or "non-trans" or "cisgender" rather than biologically male/female
5. use "assigned male" or "assigned female" rather than rather than biologically male/female

If we know we're going to be talking about bodies, taking the adjectives "male" and "female" or "masculine" and "feminine" out of our vocabularies for describing body parts or systems can help us avoid alienating or offending the people we are talking to. This may help improve access to whatever we are offering for people who are often alienated from much needed health services.

terms to define:
TRANSGENDER (from Stryker. Transgender History) any and all kinds of variation from gender norms and expectations
CISGENDER (from Transgriot) cisgender means your body and the gender identity housed between your ears is comfortably aligned; opposite of transgender, used to refer to folks whose bodies align with gender identity
GENDER BINARY rigid gender system in which one is either a man or a woman

Want to know more? Check out these RESOURCES:

• Stryker, Susan. Transgender History
• Stryker, Susan. The Transgender Studies Reader
• Midwest GenderQueer: "Threats to Women's Rights Step on Trans Toes" http://midwestgenderqueer.com/index.php/2011/02/the-issue-with-saying-war-on-women
• Questioning Transphobia: http://www.questioningtransphobia.com
• Transgriot. "Cisgender isn't an insult" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2009/07/cisgender-isnt-insult.html
• Queers United. "The Cisgender Privilege Checklist" http://queersunited.blogspot.com/2008/08/cisgender-privilege-checklist.html 
• Transgender Commission at the U of M: http://glbta.umn.edu/trans (check out their terminology page: http://glbta.umn.edu/trans/terms.html)

See after jump for in-class assignment.

Reminders:

Reminder of due dates including writing process post by Oct 28

THE ASSIGNMENT: Worth 50 pts

You are required to post a blog entry (filed under the sub-category, writing process) in which you critically and creatively reflect on your writing process for your feminist paper. In this post, you should briefly discuss how your definition of feminism is/isn't changing throughout the semester (based on discussions, in-class activities, readings).You should also discuss your reactions to using twitter and the blog in the writing/revising process.You could also discuss any readings/topics that have shaped your understanding of feminism. While there's no specific word requirement for this post, you should aim for about 400-500 words.

READINGS FOR NEXT WEEK:

nov 1          Reproductive Justice a "woman's" issue? 

Readings: 

1. DIABLOG # 2 PRESENTATION
2. MORE DISCUSSION OF READINGS (if time): See Day Fourteen and below
3. MID-TERM INFORMAL EVALUATIONS

On Choice and consumerism:

In "On Language: Choice," Woods is very critical of the way that choice as become an empty, depoliticized slogan for feminist reproductive politics and feminism in general. She writes:

 

The result has been a rapid depoliticizing of the term and an often misguided application of feminist ideology to consumer imperatives, invoked not only for the right to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy but also for the right to buy all manner of products marketed to women, from cigarettes to antidepressants to frozen diet pizzas (146)

She describes this commericalizing/commodifying of choice as "the cult of choice consumerism" (147). Here's one example I found last year in a bathroom in a Chicago-area church: 

 In her further explanation of the term, Woods adds that this cult of choice consumerism

 

wills us to believe that women can get everything we want out of life, as long as we make the right choices along the way--from the cereal we eat n the morning to the moisturizer we use at night, and the universe of daily decisions, mundane and profound, that confront us in between (147)

Do you see any connections between this above passage and this commercial?

 

I want to put Wood's "cult of choice consumerism" into conversation with Andrea Smith (in this essay: "Smith, Andrea. "Beyond Pro-Choice Versus Pro-Life: Women of Color and Reproductive Justice") and her discussion of the limits of mainstream feminism's focus on choice. Smith writes:

 

the pro-choice position argues that women should have freedom to make choices rather than possess inherent rights to their bodies regardless of their class standing...[they] do not question the capitalist system--they focus solely on the decision of whether or not a woman should have an abortion without addressing the economic, political, and social conditions that put women in this position in the first place (134)

Class Breakdown:

• Reminder: Posted Open Thread on The Stepford Wives
• Reading example feedback
• Reminder of due dates including writing process post by Oct 28

• Discussion of Social Media Analysis assignment
• Overview of choice discussion + some background on reproductive rights

• Margaret Sanger and planned parenthood: strategic choices
• Eugenics movement positive: encourage the "right" people to have children and negative: discourage the "unfit" from having children, 60
• Birth control: not just a right/freedom from child bearing, but way to control and regulate populations
• Forced sterilization
• Buck v. Bell (Carrie Buck was sterilized due to "feeble-mindedness" 69)
• role of science/medical institution in controlling women's bodies
• women of color encouraged/coerced into sterilization; middle-class white women strongly discouraged

key point: "The focus on the interests of white privileged women led to a myopic vision of reproductive rights" (96)

Sayce/Perkins. "They Should Not Breed"

• Eugenics, another perspective: "aimed to rid society of the 'burden' of people who were 'inadequate'" (19).
• pressured/coerced into using birth control and not having children
• whose rights/choices are valued?
• the right to choose includes positive right to bear a child
• more information about choices should be available
• more support needed for raising children

"The right to choose whether to have a child does not necessarily mean that every choice about what sort of child to have is equally ethical" (23)

"If we frame our campaigns only in relation to the right to choose, we may risk missing other vital political dynamics, like disability discrimination and the need to take a collective stand against it" (24). 

Crews. "And So I Choose"
"Being pro-woman, being pro-choice, means being supportive of any reproductive choice a woman makes for herself....Our bodies are our own, our futures ours to mold. No one should be allowed to interfere with them. Whatever our reproductive choices, nobody can ever deny us our right to them. And this is what being pro-choice means to me" (148-149).

Wood. "On Language"

• depoliticizing of choice
• cult of choice consumerism

Ross. "The Color of Choice"

After the jump, see our in-class activity for today.

Remember that there is no class on Thursday. Use this time to catch-up on the blog or begin working on your reflection on the writing process (to be posted on blog by oct 28).

Here's a reminder of the details for the reflection on writing process assignment:
Worth 50 points
You are required to post a blog entry (filed under the sub-category, writing process) in which you critically and creatively reflect on your writing process for your feminist paper. In this post, you should briefly discuss how your definition of feminism is/isn't changing throughout the semester (based on discussions, in-class activities, readings).You should also discuss your reactions to using twitter and the blog in the writing/revising process.You could also discuss any readings/topics that have shaped your understanding of feminism. While there's no specific word requirement for this post, you should aim for about 400-500 words.

Other Announcements:

• Make sure to do all of the readings listed on the course reading page for Tuesday's (10/25) class.
• Any other questions? You can post them as comments to this entry.
• Check out: what is...the myth of feminist bra-burners? and who is...Betty Friedan?

Reactions to/Questions about Stepford Wives?

Key Themes:

• politics of housework and the "problem that has no name"
• public (men) vs. private (women) spheres
• consciousness-raising
• personal is political
• patriarchy
• nuclear family
• marriage
• ideal beauty/perfection
• control over own body and reproductive freedom
• liberal feminist vs. radical feminists/equality vs. revolution and transformation

Today we are watching the first half of Stepford Wives (1975). Here are a few announcements:

one: Your first reading example of feminism is due on Monday, October 17. It must be posted by 11PM. Here are the details (from the assignment):

Announcements:

• Watching Stepford Wives (1975) starting on Thursday
• Any questions?
• Experimental Group Activity today (you can comment on this post with your feedback on our experiment)

Announcements:

• Feminism definitions must be posted by tomorrow (friday, oct 7) by 11PM
• Reading for next Tuesday/Thursday:

oct 11  Social Media Focus: the Hollaback! App 

Hollaback!: Feminist Responses to Street Harassment from BCRW Videos on Vimeo.

Announcements:

• Your papers will be returned on Thursday
• Your first informal writing assignment is due on Friday, October 7th
• Any questions? Announcements? 
• Reports from Slutwalk?

This week we are discussing Hey, Shorty!, Sisters in Strength and Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) and the projects they developed to respond to street harassment/sexual harassment/gender violence. For today, we will begin our discussion of the book/project and on Thursday the diablog group will lead us as in further discussion.

First, here's a clip from the "Hey, Shorty!" documentary: 

There are many different ways in which we can talk about these projects. Here are some themes I'd like to think/talk about:

What is street/sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment is any unwanted behavior or attention of a sexual nature that may or may not interfere with a person's ability to participate in or benefit from a school's programs or activities (139).

• How is sexual harassment normalized? Especially in schools?
• How is power involved in who gets harassed/who harasses? What larger structures do you see shaping street/sexual harassment?
• How/why is it made invisible? Why is it not reported?
• How should schools/individuals/larger society handle the issue of street/sexual harassment? How do the members of CGE handle it?

Feminist visions and values

• The students do not claim the identity feminism. Is it necessary to do so?
• What feminist vision do they offer? 

We are sisters who are strong young women of color following the example of those who came before us to raise awareness about the issues that affect us.

We strive to deconstruct stereotypes and stigmas that plague young women. 

We are determined to create a safe space for girls to help and learn from one another. 

We are fighting for equality and learning what it means to be a female activist.

We are advancing our skills as leaders to help others have a brighter future. 

United, we create strong bonds for change and social justice. 

We weave ourselves to form a quilt of compassion and fortitude. 

Though we are young, we have a voice that deserves to be heard! (48-49)

Today we are trying an experiment. Half of the class is starting in FORD 468 and discussing the debates in small groups, while the other half is in FORD 110 with me. We will switch off at 11:40 and all come together at 12.

Here are the Notes on Slutwalk readings and Activity in the FMC.

I'm interested at looking at the online debates about Slutwalk in three different ways: a. content (what arguments are they making? what are their claims about Slutwalk?), b. approach to debate (how are they engaging in debate? tone? approach? are they fostering feminist curiosity?) and c. the role of social media (how is the online format shaping the debate? what differences does it make that the original author's word are open the debate via comments?)

Here are some notes/themes from the online debates:

on strategy 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Any questions?
• Diablog group list is online Anyone still need to sign up? IMPORTANT: all students in the class are responsible for reading the assigned material on diablog weeks. Students in the diablog group are responsible for leading all of us in a discussion of the readings
• blog/twitter tutorial refresher: a. reminder of where to find checklists b. file posts in the correct categories c. saving drafts to work on later

OVERVIEW OF ISSUE ONE: STREET HARASSMENT
For the next five classes, we will be discussing street harassment and three different sets of current feminist responses to it (Slutwalks, Hey Shorty! and Girls for Gender Equity, and the iHollaback app and campaign). In each of these responses, the feminists involved use social media and the internet to develop, promote and realize their projects. 

1. We will learn about their different strategies, assess their effectiveness and think about at what cost/whose expense these strategies are employed. 
2. We will explore how these responses/projects encourage or discourage feminist curiosity (our own and others). 
3. And we will critically/creatively reflect on how and why the issue of street harassment is the subject of debate within feminism.

framing the issue/framing the debate: How is the issue of street harassment framed (articulated/understood) within mainstream media and inside/outside of feminism? How does that framing affect what discussions take place? What strategies are used? What solutions are proposed? (How) can we frame the issue differently in order to rethink the issue?

great opportunity to assess value of social media: How has social media helped to shape these campaigns? How has it contributed to misinformation? How has it helped spread awareness? What are the benefits/drawbacks of social media for each of these projects?

what is street harassment?
1. http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/about/what-is-street-harassment
key components:

• takes place in public spaces
• perpetrated by strangers
• disrespectful/unwelcome/threatening
• motivated by gender and sexism, with specific focus on women
• a human rights issue
• varies in degree of threat and violence
• usually begins at puberty
• may happen rarely or on a daily basis

2. from iHollaback

Street harassment is a gateway crime that makes other forms of gender-based violence OK. Studies conducted show that between 80-90% of women have been harassed in public. With legal recourse to address school and workplace harassment, streets remain one of the final frontiers in addressing and affirming basic, guaranteed civil rights.

Comments range from "you'd look good on me," to groping, public masturbation, and worse. These "compliments" aren't about sex or about chivalry. They are about power. Young women are particularly vulnerable to street harassment, and at Hollaback! we've gotten stories from girls as young as twelve. Street harassment may be the social and cultural norm, but it is far from OK.

Street harassment teaches us to be silent, that taking action will only escalate the situation. While this isn't bad advice, it has led us down a dangerous road. Ultimately, perpetrators realize they won't be held accountable and continue to harass. 

and

some background for SLUTWALK

• "slut" and slut-shaming: policing women's (sexual) behaviors with anything that falls outside of realm of normal/acceptable being deemed "slutty"; using "slut" to regulate/condemn behaviors
• consequences for being deemed a slut vary, depending on status/access to power
• women and the public/private split (women are "not fit" to participate in public sphere)
• cult of true womanhood and women's proper role: how is this policed? (piety, purity, submissiveness, domesticity) 
• rape culture and victim blaming

a video on Slutwalk NYC: reactions/important ideas/what's at stake

some important passages from the readings:

from Slutwalk Toronto:

We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result. Being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work. No one should equate enjoying sex with attracting sexual assault.

How does moral judgment work here? How is it used to regulate certain behaviors?

We are tired of speeches filled with lip service and the apologies that accompany them. What we want is meaningful dialogue and we are doing something about it: WE ARE COMING TOGETHER. Not only as women, but as people from all gender expressions and orientations, all walks of life, levels of employment and education, all races, ages, abilities, and backgrounds, from all points of this city and elsewhere.

SlutWalk has become a mechanism for increased dialogue on victim-blaming, slut-shaming, misogynist and oppressive ideas that need to be challenged.

What sort of meaningful dialogue can Slutwalk encourage?
How does it enable people to "come together" in solidarity and reclaim space?

assessing three mission statements from Slutwalks in Minneapolis, NYC and DC

Announcements:

• Papers due today. Thoughts about writing these?
• Changed approval process for comments. To avoid spam, now comments have to be approved
• Tip for finding comments: control/command + f
• Posted on uses of feminist social media
• Reading for Tues/Thurs with slight change: I have cut the Holly Kearl excerpt. We start our discussion of Slutwalk. Make sure to spend a lot of time reading through the Slutwalk Toronto website (especially their About page)

Class Breakdown:

• Announcements
• Discuss Readings
• Reports on various feminist blogs

Announcements:

1. Reminder feminist reflection papers are due on thurs, sept 22
2. Revised Reading Schedule (discuss and distribute)
3. Due date list
4. Thoughts on open thread?
5.  Review diablog assignment for thursday's class--sign-up is on thurs
6. Any questions?
7. I've had some great "twitter-sations" with some authors/followers outside the class

Today's Topic: Feminisms, Mass-based Education and Social Media

Announcements:

• Readings for Tuesday's class are posted on the reading schedule. In addition to 2 online readings, you need to do the feminist blog assignment. (note: groups will be assigned today; they are the same as your small groups for your discussion on feminism. If you don't attend class today, pick any one of the blogs to browse.)
• Contingent Belongings Conference tomorrow and Saturday
• Post comment on required thread by tomorrow @ 11 PM. Make sure you post a comment directly on my post and not as a new entry. 
• Still having problems with moodle? Let me know...
• Make sure to follow me (gwssprof) on twitter so I can add you to our list
• Feminist Papers are due next Thursday (9.22). 

Small group activity: WHAT IS FEMINISM?

1. First, spend some time getting to know your other group members by answering (some or all of) the following questions:

• Why are you taking this class? 
• What are your immediate reactions to the term "feminism"? 
• How is feminism represented in the media/popular culture? 
• Would you call yourself a feminist? Why/why not? 
• What kind of impact has the feminist movement/feminist ideas had on your own life or the lives of others? On U.S./transnational culture/politics? 
• Has the feminist movement been a success? 
• Is feminism still necessary? Why? 
• What is a feminist issue? What kinds of issues should feminists be focusing on?
• What are your experiences with social media? 

Today we will continue our discussion of how to use blogs and twitter. I'll show you how to sign-up for twitter, follow me and post your first tweet and we'll talk a little bit about how/why we are using twitter and the blog. We will also discuss your blog/twitter assignments, the blog worksheet and your feminist reflection paper (and informal writing assignments).

This may seem overwhelming at the beginning, but as you get the hang of it, it should get easier. I'm spending a lot of time at the beginning of the semester discussing the blog and twitter so that once it gets going we can really experiment with using and engaging with social media.

Why this course blog? See our welcome page. 

Twitter: 

• To sign-up, go to http://twitter.com and "join today"
• After signing up, you need to set up your profile. You can add a picture and change your background. Make sure to not lock your account or we won't be able to read your tweets. Do this by clicking on "edit my profile" and then account. Scroll down to "tweet privacy" and make sure that the box is NOT checked. 
• Follow me, by going to http://twitter.com/#!/gwssprof and then clicking on the follow button (below is only a screen shot for reference):

What is twitter?

Why does twitter matter for some feminists?

For today's class, we are meeting in the Feminist Media Center (FORD 468) where I will be providing a tutorial on how to blog and use twitter. Here's a breakdown for today's class:

• Introduction to the blog, including: pages, categories, entries, tags, comments
• Introduction on how to blog: checklist and longer how-to guide
• Introduction to twitter: twitter feed on our blog, class list, @gwssprof 
• Introduction on how to tweet: checklist 
• Distribute worksheet and assignment description at the end of session

Hello and welcome to contemporary feminist debates! In addition to all of the other ways we might be using this blog this semester, I thought I would experiment with using it as a space for organizing our individual class sessions. Here's what we are doing today in class:

INTRODUCTIONS

To the Class:

• Read over the syllabus (your handout is a condensed version of the longer syllabus, posted on the course information and reading schedule pages and available for download here)
• Overview of course topics

To me: Dr. Sara Puotinen

This summer I reread the Hunger Games trilogy. I also just started Cathy Davidson's awesome book on digital literacy, social media and education, Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention will transform the way we live, work and learn. Last month I started watching Mad Men on instant netflix and I'm hooked! I definitely see an implicit (and sometimes explicit?) feminist critique in many of the episodes. I really enjoy teaching in the GWSS/GLBT department--and I especially love teaching classes on feminisms and debate! In addition to this class, I am teaching queering theory this semester. 

I have been using blogs in my classroom since Spring 2007 and I have been writing on my own blogs since 2009. I started my first blog, a research/writing blog on making/being in/staying in trouble in May of 2009 and I started another collaborative diablog in June 2010 on feminist pedagogy and blogging. Since 2009, I have written extensively about the value of blogs and blogging in feminist and queer classrooms. In addition to tweeting as gwssprof, I also tweet as undisciplined.

I am really excited to see how we can use blogs/twitter in this class to explore and experiment with what feminism is and what it can/should do. 

To you: Go around the room and do introductions + fill out questionnaire.