THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY
HIS311: Problems in American
History
Spring 2002
MWF 12:30-1:20; SB206
Final Exam: Friday May 10 8:30-10:30am
Dr. Gayle V. Fischer
Office: SB 109B
Office Hours:
978/542-6399
January
15, 2002
Dear
Class,
Welcome
to HIS 311: Problems in American History: History of Sexuality. In the late
1970s, American historians began to explore the notion that sexuality was not
an unchanging biological reality or a universal, natural force, but was,
rather, a product of political, social, economic, and cultural processes.
Sexuality, that is, had a history. The primary concern of this class is
sexuality in the United States and the history of the country's obsession with
sex. Throughout the semester, we will explore the different meanings American
women and men have attached to sexuality, and the changing political, economic,
social, cultural, and ideological contexts in which those meanings have
emerged. Our journey through the history of sexuality might differ from your
previous experiences in high school and college history courses. With a little
trust and effort on your part, I’m hopeful that you will enjoy the voyage and
learn some history along the way.
I
will begin by introducing myself. I’m Gayle V. Fischer and you may call me
Gayle, Dr. Fischer, or Professor Fischer—I have no preference. However, you may
not call me Mrs. Fischer. My undergraduate degree is from the University of
Texas at Austin; I majored in Drama. My Ph.D. in US History is from Indiana
University. My book, Pantaloons and Power,
was published in spring 2001. In addition to being an historian and a professor,
I am a wife and the mother of two boys. I am hearing impaired. Because of this
impairment I wear two hearing aids. However, I also need you to speak clearly
in class, perhaps a hair louder than your usual volume, and please do not cover
your mouth when you speak. I’ve learned to live with this impairment but it can
still embarrass me. The most embarrassing thing is when I think I’ve heard
someone say something that they didn’t say and I start talking and everyone
around me is clueless about what I am talking about. If you find that I’m going
off in some weird direction please let me know, chances are I misunderstood
something someone said. It is more embarrassing for me to keep talking than to
have you correct me. Please be patient if I ask you to repeat yourself two,
three, even four times—some days it is harder to hear than others. Over the
course of the semester, I will not conceal my political views from
you—including my detestation of war and militarism, racial and sexual
inequality, the unfair distribution of the world’s wealth. However, I will
attempt to be fair to other points of view and I strongly encourage you to
disagree with me. I don’t expect my views to be your views but I want us both
to think about why we hold the views we do. That is probably enough information
for now since this letter is about our class, not about me.
The
preceding two paragraphs should have clued you in, but if you haven’t figured
it out yet, let me tell you that this class is different. It is different in a
number of ways. First, the topic of the class—sexuality—is not a topic
generally found in mainstream history classes.
Second, the
choice of readings for the class; we will be reading both primary and secondary
sources. The readings are: Kathy Peiss, Major Problems in the History of
American Sexuality; Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess, Gloria Jacobs, Re-Making
Love: The Feminization of Sex; Eve Ensler, The Vagina Monologues;
Beth L. Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in
Twentieth-Century America; Patricia Foster, ed., Minding the Body. I
know that this seems like a lot of reading but most of these books are quite
short, interesting, and fairly quick reads. The books are available at the SSC
bookstore, from your favorite bookstore, and from your favorite online
bookstore. You may want to see if the titles are available through your local
library—a cost-saving measure.
Third,
we will be writing letters to one another. I’m always looking for new ideas to
try in the classroom and an article by Toby Fulwiler, “Writing Back and Forth,”
intrigued me so much that I just had to give it a try. I tried it in my HIS 204
Fall 2001 with great success. Essentially the exercise requires weekly
letters—you write to me, I write back to you. I’ll have more details and the
logistics later in this letter. I had thought about having the class produce
zines on a regular basis. I consulted with several people in zine culture and
they did not think the assignment would work since an essential ingredient to
successful zines is passion and there is no way for me to insist that you be
passionate. So weekly letters it is.
Fourth, the
creative presentation. More details and the logistics later in this letter.
Fifth,
attendance and participation are extremely important in this class. In fact, it
is critical that you attend classes if you wish to earn a decent grade.
Finally,
you will notice that there is only one exam—the final exam.
If
you are like most of the students in my classes, one of your first concerns is
“how will I be graded?” Well, quite simply 20% of your grade is based on
attendance and participation, 20% of your grade is based on the weekly letters
you submit, 30% of your grade is based on “History 311: A Reflection” essay,
and 30% is based on the creative presentation and the final exam.
Let
me explain each of the grading criteria in the order that I presented them
above. Attendance and participation seem self-explanatory but there are a few
fine points that I want to point out. I don’t just want your body in my classroom
I want your mind there as well. That means for the fifty minutes that we’re
together put aside thoughts of lunch, the babysitter, the boyfriend or
girlfriend and think about the reading you’ve done and what your classmates are
saying. In order to participate you must do the reading—most of our class
sessions will be oriented around discussing the reading, if you haven’t done
the reading, you can’t participate, and if you can’t participate, you earn a
less than decent grade. It goes without saying that you can’t participate if
you are not in class—so Attend. There are some factors that will result
in the lowering of your participation grade, they are: coming to class late,
leaving class early, talking while I am talking, passing notes, and being disruptive.
I know this sounds picky but trust me, these things make for a disagreeable
classroom atmosphere and really irritate me. For a detailed list see the
attached “Participation and Attendance Grading Guidelines.”
Now
for the weekly letters. Each week I invite you to write a letter to me about
ideas related to our readings and class discussions. Make your letter honest,
lively, and personal, while still addressing matters of intellectual and
emotional concern to the history of sexuality. Twice you will include
your classmates as your audience—you are responsible for making copies
for the entire class (The first letter must be distributed by March 8; the
second letter must be distributed by April 26). I will write a letter back to
all of you (the whole class) each week, distributing it on Friday so that you
will have read it by Monday. In this letter I will address some, but not all of
the concerns you raise collectively in your letters to me. (In fact, I have
written this syllabus as a letter to suggest a possible model for style and
form—obviously given all the information that I have to impart to you this is a
rather long letter, yours do not have to be this long.) The weekly letters are
examples of “good-enough writing,” that is these letters are one-draft writings
that make a good enough case and don’t need to be revised, edited, and worried
to death. By now you are all wondering, “how is she going to count these
letters?” I expect a letter each week (unless the syllabus indicates
otherwise); but it’s the doing of them that counts, not their conventions,
content, form, or style. Exactly what and how you write are your business that
you write is mine. But, believe me, your reactions to the readings, class
discussion, movie projects, as well as anything else related to the course
helps me teach better. The only requirement in addition to writing the letters
is that you submit a typewritten/word-processed letter every Monday (an
occasional Wednesday) on paper. My experience is that e-mail letters differ greatly
from paper letters and I want the letters for this class to be paper letters.
Letters MUST be submitted the week that they are due; the letter due
week 6 cannot be turned in week 9 and still receive credit. I will
NOT return your letters to you; you MUST keep a copy of the letters you write
or you will not be able to complete the “History 311: A Reflection” essay.
More
on weekly letters: The letters I received last semester ran the gamut from
awesome to disappointing. Students noticed this disparity in the letters their
classmates distributed to the class. It worried some that awesome letters
counted as much as poor quality letters and suggested grading letters to give
those who took the assignment more seriously more credit. However, grading the
letters undermines the point of the letters. For those of you who take the
letter-writing assignment seriously take heart: poor quality letters produced
poor quality final essays that in turn earned poor grades.
A
further guide: you might consider these questions as you read and incorporating
them into your letters:
1)
What
is the major argument of each reading? How does the author support that
argument?
2)
Does
one reading help you understand another reading better? How?
3)
What
are the contradictions or points of tension between the various readings? Can
you explain these contradictions? (Mark passages that seem to be contradicting
other passages.)
4)
Are
there passages that are particularly interesting to you? Are there passages
that are confusing or that you think require more explanation? What are they?
(Mark them so you can find them in class.)
5)
How
familiar or foreign does the world the readings describe seem to you?
6)
What
additional questions do the readings raise for you?
7)
What
would you like to talk about in the class discussion?
One
more thing about weekly letters: I am trying to figure out a way to incorporate
effectively the letters into class discussion. If any of you have any
suggestions please suggest.
Thirty
percent of your final grade is based on “History 311: A Reflection” essay. In
the “History 311: A Reflection” essay I expect to see more focused, deliberate,
and crafted writing examining themes, patterns, and concerns of a semester’s
worth of correspondence. For this assignment, re-read all of your
letters, your classmates’ letters, and my letters, review your class and
reading notes, look for recurring themes, patterns, and concerns. “History 311:
A Reflection” reflects on what you have learned over the course of the semester
using the various class letters as primary sources. You must quote and cite
letters in your essay. Conventions, content, form, and style “count” in this
assignment; see separate grading rubric You may turn in two or three pages of a
draft of the essay on April 12 or before. I will not grade the draft but I will
make comments that should help you improve the essay. “History 311: A
Reflection” is due the last day of class, May 1, 2002.
The
remaining thirty percent of your grade is based on the creative presentation
and the final exam.
The
final exam is scheduled for Friday, May 10, 2002, 8:30-10:30 am. The final exam
question will be distributed on the last day of class and we will meet during
our designated exam period to discuss your answers. If you have taken class
from me before or have talked to others who have taken classes from me then you
know I hate exams. However, I have come up with a really great final exam that
will be interesting for me to read and for you to write—trust me. As long as
you keep up with the class, the exam will not present any problems for you and
you may even enjoy it.
The creative presentation assignment can be done
alone or in groups (no more than three members to a group).
The format: The presentations will be 10-20 minutes in length--the number
of presentations will determine length. The presentations can be in any format
you desire--lectures, power point presentations, creating a web page and
showing it to the class, putting on a "play," you are limited only by
your imagination and the requirement that the class must learn something from
your presentation. If you need special equipment for your presentation, give me
enough advance notice so that I can have it available.
The
topic: Feb. 22--Creative Presentation Topic DUE: Briefly record the topic
you are researching, list members of the group if it is a group project,
include any ideas about the form the presentation might take. The topic of the presentations is entirely up
to you. Choose a topic that interests you. The only restrictions on the topics
are that they must be historical and they must deal with sex and the United
States. Some ideas: Condom advertisements; Christian sex manuals; Gay
coming-out stories; Harlequin romance novels; Advice to teens on dating; Sex in
music lyrics; Sex laws; Pornography; Erotica; The mainstreaming of S&M;
Ethnicity and sex; Fetishism; Prostitution and the military.
Primary
sources: The presentations must be based on primary sources only--a
MINIMUM of five primary sources (per person for a group project) must be used. Primary
sources
are documents from the time being studied. Books, newspaper articles,
magazines, clothing, furniture, letters, diary entries, movies, speeches or
photographs can all be primary sources. The “Documents” sections of Major
Problems in the History of American Sexuality are examples of primary
sources.
The paper: There is no paper required for the creative
presentations. However, you must turn in an annotated bibliography of your
primary sources (one annotated bibliography for group projects). An
annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and
documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words)
descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the
annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of
the sources cited. An annotated and evaluative bibliography means that you will
list not just "bibliographic information," (author, title, source,
publisher, date etc. or url), but also write a short summary (about 100-150
words) about the book or article and what is covered as well as an evaluation
of the quality of the source.
The deadline: Creative Presentations will
be staggered throughout the semester. We will draw dates to determine the time
you are to present.
State
law requires that I include the equal access statement in my syllabus:
"Salem State College is committed to providing equal access to the
educational experience for all students in compliance with Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act and The Americans
with Disabilities Act and to providing all reasonable academic accommodations,
aids and adjustments. Any student who
has a documented disability requiring an accommodation, aid or adjustment should
speak with the instructor immediately. Students with Disabilities who have not previously done so should
provide documentation to and schedule an appointment with the Office for
Students with Disabilities and obtain appropriate services."
Rather
than placing our course schedule in paragraph form for convenience’s sake I
have listed the assignments below. All assigned reading should be completed by
Monday, unless otherwise stated. One additional note, you’ll notice that we
breeze through the first three centuries of US history in a few weeks. I made
this decision deliberately. I teach numerous surveys, classes in which I have
to cover several centuries in fifteen weeks. This semester, I wanted at least
one class in which I could meander through a century at a more leisurely
pace and this is that class. Most of our classes, readings, and films will
focus on the twentieth century and I make no apologies for making this
decision. If you wish to learn more about the earlier centuries, I encourage
you to focus your creative projects on that time period. Now on to the course
schedule:
Week
1: January
14/16/18: Introduction & write first letter to Gayle
Creative Presentation assignments
distributed
Read: Chapter 1 in Peiss, Major
Problems be prepared to discuss the chapter on Friday
Week
2: January
23/25: Sexual Cultures and Encounters in the New World
No Class Monday January 21
Read: Chapter 2 in Peiss, Major Problems
Don’t forget to give Gayle letter #2 on Wednesday
Week
3: January
28/30; February 1: Regulating Sexuality in the Anglo-American Colonies
Read: Chapter 3 in Peiss, Major Problems
Letter #3 due on Wednesday
January 28—Library Research Day—begin researching
creative presentation topics
Week
4: February
4/6/8:Love and Intimacy in Nineteenth-Century America
Read: Chapter 6 in Peiss, Major Problems
Letter #4 due on Monday February 6
Friday February 8 Library Research Day—research
creative presentation topics
Week
5: February
11/13/15: Prostitution and Working-Class Sexuality in the Early 20th Century
Read: Chapter 8 in Peiss, Major Problems
Letter #5 due on Monday
Have you written a letter to your classmates yet?
Don’t put it off too long.
Week
6: February
18/20/22: Courting
Read: Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat—ALL
including the introduction—discussion will begin on Friday
February 18: Holiday—No Class
February 20: Library Research Day—research creative
presentation topics
February 22: Hand in Creative Presentation Topic
paper.
Week
7: February
25/27 and March 1: Courting
Continue discussion of Bailey, From Front Porch
to Back Seat
Letter #6 due on Monday
Week
8: March
4/6/8: The Politics of Reproduction
Read: Read: Chapter 9 in Peiss, Major Problems
Letter #7 due on Monday
Midterm
attendance/participation forms/grades distributed
If
you have not turned in your first letter to the class you MUST do so this week
or you will NOT get full credit for the letter writing exercise
Spring Break March 11/13/15
Week
9: March
18/20/22: Heterosexual Norms and Homosexual Identities
Read: Read: Chapter 10 in Peiss, Major Problems
Letter #8 due on Monday
March 22: Creative Presentations
Week
10: March
25/27/29: Sexual Revolution(s)
Read: Read: Chapter 12 in Peiss, Major Problems
Letter #9 due on Monday (include comments on
creative presentations in your letter)
Have you written a second letter to your classmates
yet? Don’t put it off too long.
March 29: Creative Presentations
Week
11: April
1/3/5: Sexual Revolution(s)
Read: Ehrenreich, Hess, Jacobs, Re-Making Love--ALL
Letter #10 due on Monday (include comments on
creative presentations in your letter)
April 5: Creative Presentations
Week
12: April
8/10/12: Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Read: Read: Chapter 13 in Peiss, Major Problems
Letter #11 due on Monday (include comments on
creative presentations in your letter)
Optional: You may turn in 2 or 3 pages of a draft of
“History 311: A Reflection.”
April 12: Creative Presentations
Week
13: April
15/17/19: Women’s Bodies
April 15/Patriots Day/No Class
Read: Foster, ed., Minding the Body--All
Letter #12 due on Wednesday (include comments on
creative presentations in your letter)
Have you written a second letter to your classmates
yet? The semester is almost over.
April 19: Creative Presentations
Week
14: April
22/24/26: Women’s Bodies continued
Read: Foster, ed., Minding the Body; Ensler, The
Vagina Monologues--All
Letter #13 due on Monday (include comments on
creative presentations in your letter)
If you have not turned in your second letter to the
class you MUST do so this week or you will NOT get full credit for the letter
writing exercise
April 26: Creative Presentations
Week
15: April
29/May 1: Wrapping Up Loose Ends
April 29: TBA
“History 311: A Reflection” DUE May 1
Final Exam question distributed May 1
Final Exam: Friday May 10
8:30-10:30am
As
you can see, we have a full schedule for this semester.
Sincerely,
Gayle
Participation and Attendance
Grading Guidelines
Much
of the work we do in the classroom in History 311 depends upon you and your
active participation. You must:
1.
Be
prepared for class
2.
Be
on time for class
3.
Contribute
to a positive atmosphere in the classroom by including and working with others
and encouraging open discussion
4.
Participate
actively in class discussions by asking relevant questions, sharing personal
experiences, and listening to the viewpoints of others
5.
Help
maintain the focus of the class and group focus
6.
Demonstrate
an understanding of course information
7.
Take
risks in presenting personal opinions, original ideas, and asking questions
8.
Go
beyond the minimum requirements for assignments
9.
Maintain
a usable notebook containing assignments, due dates, relevant class
information, etc.
10.
Accept
and give constructive criticism
11.
Demonstrate
a respect for the physical environment of the classroom
12.
Attempt
to grow personally by demonstrating academic growth based on class learning
activities
13.
Take
personal responsibility for absenteeism—anticipating problems, making up work,
etc.
14.
Attend
and actively participate with thoughtful questions when classmates present
their creative projects
Grading: Proficiency in all….A
Proficiency in
eleven….B
Proficiency in nine….C
Proficiency in
seven….D
Creative Presentation Evaluation
Student Name: _________________________________________________
Topic:
____________________________________________________________
Date:
____________________________________________________________
Annotated Bibliography
1.
Used Primary Sources Yes No
2.
Number of Primary Sources: 15+ 15-10 10-5 1-5
3.
Annotation: Excellent Very good Adequate Weak Poor
(descriptive/evaluative)
4.
Correct Citation format: Yes Somewhat Not at all
5.
Information Accurate Excellent Very
good Adequate Weak Poor
Creative Presentation
6.Topic Relevance to
the History of Sexuality: Excellent Very good Adequate
Weak Poor
7. Ancillary Materials: Excellent Very
good Adequate Weak Poor
(visuals,
other)
8.
Format: Lecture Web page Play Other: ______
9.
Stimulates Class Response: Excellent Very good Adequate Weak Poor
10.
Displays originality Excellent Very good Adequate Weak Poor
and
creativity
11.
Observed assignment specifications Yes Somewhat Not at all
(ie., stayed within time allotted)
12. Overall Organization: Excellent Very
good Adequate Weak Poor
13. Overall quality of presentation Excellent Very
good Adequate Weak Poor
14. Prepared to present Yes No
Additional
Comments:
January
15, 2002
Dear
Gayle,
“I,
______________________________(your name), give you permission to use my name
and to quote me in the letters you write to the class. When I write passages too private for
publication I will write “not available for publication” and make it clear
which passages are not available for publication.
Introduce
yourself in the space below and please comment on why you are taking the
history of sexuality.