Topics in Women's and Gender Studies: Sexual Revolutions

Lori Landay
The Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies
Boston, Massachusetts

In 1913, a popular magazine announced that the clock had struck "sex o'clock" in America, and indeed there were major changes in the "manners and morals" of masculine and feminine gender and sexuality in modern American culture. During the Jazz Age of the 1920s and again in the 1960s through the early 1970s, many Americans perceived that they were witnessing and participating in sexual revolutions. This course explores these sexual revolutions and how they were represented, repressed, and transformed in music, film, art, advertising, literature, theater, and other media.

0 Members of the class will work individually and collaboratively on projects that combine creative and critical perspectives to investigate topics such as: the Harlem Renaissance, the flapper, consumerism, jazz, the blues queens, Prohibition, silent film, and modernism in the Jazz Age; and in the 60s and 70s, the Summer of Love, Black Power, the lesbian and gay liberation movement, rock, drugs and the counterculture, women=s liberation, television, and pornography. After the units on the 20s and the 60s, the course concludes with speculation about the state of sexuality and gender our current era and into the next millennium.

Sexual Revolutions will provide a forum for you to develop the skills you will need to excel in college, and offer the opportunity to learn about the history of sexuality and gender in American culture. The courses in the First Year Program in the Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies are designed to provide a rigorous and exciting introduction to liberal arts education at Emerson. All courses in the First Year Program are writing intensive, and sharpen critical reading, writing and speaking skills. These courses also emphasize topics, course materials, and pedagogical strategies appropriate to the interdisciplinary study of the liberal arts.

Course Goals and Objectives:

  1. To provide an introduction to the interdisciplinary inquiry central to Women=s Studies, Gender Studies, the history of sexuality, and cultural history.
  2. To pursue an understanding of the past, present, and possible futures of the processes of sexual revolution.
  3. To create a collaborative learning environment that encourages you to think and work independently and share your insights cooperatively.
  4. To foster active and critical reading, writing, viewing, and thinking. To combine critical work with creative endeavors.
  5. To give you an opportunity to read, screen, discuss, and write about touchstone texts in a historical and multicultural framework.
  6. To help you make connections between your academic studies and the world in which you live.

Some questions we'll explore during the semester:

Definitions

Interpretations: Metaphors, Representations, Practices, Internalizations, Rejections

Course requirements

Group Projects

5-10 minute in-class presentation involving groups of 4-5 class members
Each group presentation must incorporate the following elements:

Textbooks

Films

WWW Links

General
The Sexual Revolution Debates
Howard Zinn on sexual revolution and Clinton/Lewinsky
Ways of Seeing
Ways of Seeing


Jazz Age
Retro magazine article on the blues
Godey's Ladies Book, 19th c magazine
Notes on the Gaze
Flapper Culture & Style
Music, art & culture of the 1920s
Bessie Smith
Media History Timeline, 1920s
Greatest Films of the 1920s
Index of sites on modernism


1960s
Dr. Strangelove continuity scrip
Psychedelic 60s
Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement
Photographs of the 1960s counterculture
Suburban Culture in the 1960s
Abbie Hoffman, Black Panthers, & other activists
Visit Haight-Ashbury in SF in the 60s
Summer of Love
Swingin' Chicks of the '60s

Reference

Film Analysis
Critical Responses

Institute Film Series

Course Policies

ATTENDANCE: Because this course is based on your active participation, attendance is mandatory. If you are late, leave early, or are disruptive in class, it will affect your grade. There are no excused or unexcused absences. If you miss more than two classes, your grade will be affected no matter what reason you have for missing class. According to College policy, more than 5 absences will result in a failing grade for the course. There will be occasional unannounced quizzes that cannot be made up. It is your responsibility to contact another student, find out what we did in class, and make sure you understand the assignment for the next class. If you have a serious problem that prevents you from coming to class or completing an assignment, such as an illness or personal emergency, talk to me before the assignment is due and we will work out a way for you to make up the work.

Note:Your final exams have been scheduled. Do not make (or have parents make) travel plans without taking your exam times and other deadlines into consideration. No exceptions!

ASSIGNMENTS: Assignments are due at the beginning of class, or by the deadline indicated on the assignment. If you hand something in late, your grade will be lowered. If you do not hand in all the assignments, you will not pass the course. Over the semester, there will be opportunities for extra credit.

CRITICAL RESPONSES: These occasional 1-2 page typed assignments should be concise, well-written, carefully focused, and well-organized. These assignments are a way for you to engage in the ideas raised by the readings. See handout on critical responses and/or http://pages.emerson.edu/Faculty/Lori_Landay/coursematerials/criticalresp.html and http://pages.emerson.edu/Faculty/Lori_Landay/coursematerials/filmanalysis.htm

GRADES: Grades will be based on your written work, projects and presentations, participation, and collaboration. All grades are final and non-negotiable. Changes will be made only in the case of computation errors.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: All work in this class is to be done on an individual basis. It is your responsibility to be aware of and abide by the rules governing plagiarism, cheating, and academic dishonesty. Any instance of plagiarism, cheating, or academic dishonesty will be turned over to the administration and dealt with in the strictest manner. Additionally, willful damage to books, videos, or any other library or departmental material used in the preparation of assignments will result in an F for the assignment and other disciplinary action.

FILMS AND OTHER OUT OF CLASS ACTIVITIES: There will be films and other activities that will take place outside of class. Several of the films for our course will be included in the Institute Film Series, which has screenings every Thursday night at 8. If you cannot make it to a film screening, it is your responsibility to see the film either at the media services center on the 3rd floor of 180 Tremont or to rent the video on your own.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: If you need accommodations due to a disability (including a learning disability), please talk to me.