Sex, Violence, & Culture Fall 2005

Student Activities and Evaluation
Readings, Attendance, Quizzes & Responses: 40%
This course requires a great deal of reading, possibly more reading than you are used to. I expect you to read — you cannot pass this course if you do not keep up with the readings! Because I want you to read our course material and really explore the research I am offering you, and because I believe that our class discussions of the readings are crucial to your understanding of the material, class attendance and demonstration of reading comprehension are worth 40% of your grade. In order to get this 40% of your grade, you will need to complete Reading Notes and Required quizzes for 15 of the required readings.

• Reading notes should track the key ideas of the readings and any questions you have about the reading. You may take up one or two points that struck a nerve with you, explain these points in detail, and trace your personal relationship to the points. You will receive a letter grade for each of your responses. Notes or responses are due within one week of the reading!
• I will periodically assign a short quiz (generally short answer paragraph) — check syllabus regularly for these.

Midterm: 20%

Research or Project Work: 40%
Research or project work will make up 40% of your grade. Depending on your interests, you may either pursue traditional research based on your interests, or you may take up a community/activism project. By the middle of the semester, you will have to decide which of these you want to pursue, and you and I will draw up a contract for your research or project work.

Required Texts:

At University Book Store:

• James Gilligan Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic
• Cynthia Enloe Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives
• Marjane Satrapi Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
• Emilie Buchwald, Ed. Transforming A Rape Culture
• E-Reserve: Susan Griffin Pornography and Silence: Culture’s Revenge Against Nature "The Sacrificial Lamb"

Online:
Human Rights Watch — Women’s Page http://www.hrw.org/women/index.html
The Gender Ads Project http://www.genderads.com/
United Nations Commissioner on Refugees web site http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
"Prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence in refugee situations: Inter-agency lessons learned conference proceedings, 27-29 March 2001";
"World Refugee Day 2002 – Refugee Women";
"Note on certain aspects of sexual violence against refugee women"; "Gender-Related Persecutio Center for Disease Control "Sexual Violence Facts" http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/svfacts.htm

Requirements for Group Presentations
Your group presentations are a very big deal and will count as your 11th Response for class. I have tried very, very hard to put you in groups with people that I believe you will disagree with, but also with whom I believe, based on class discussions, that you will respect and have positive feeling for. Your group will be responsible for thoroughly reading, understanding, and "teaching" the readings scheduled for the day you present. You must know these articles inside out and guide our class discussion. You need to be ready to respond to any questions that your classmates bring up. I will speak very, very little during these presentations — you are, literally, the teachers for your designated class period. You will be evaluated on your knowledge of the material, your ability to raise points, elicit and guide/facilitiate classroom discussion, and respond knoweldgeably to questions

• You are required to meet at least once as a group outside of class
• When you meet, your group needs to define what you think the primary issues to cover in your texts are. In this process, you will inevitably encouner different interpretations/responses to the readings. Did you agree/ disagree on which points were important? What kinds of issues did your group discussion uncover (issues both from your texts and from your potentially different readings of the texts)?
• You will need to decide how you will proceed in class. Who will begin? Who will cover which points from which articles? How will you make sure that the class addresses the primary points you define?
• It would be advisable to provide an outline for the class discussion, both for your own benefit and for the class’s.
• You’ll need to make clear in some way the range of interpretative positions that your group brings to the readings — consider yourselves mirrors for the range of responses we might anticipate from the larger class.
• Your group will need to turn in to me:
  1. A Written summary of the group’s conclusions — what issues you defined, how you decided to bring those issues to the class, etc.
  2. An explanation of the group’s dynamic/process — when/ where did you meet, how did the group work together, did you have conflict, and, if so, how did you manage it?
  3. An explanation of what you took away from the process –that is, what was the emotional/intellectual experience of the group work?

Final Project Presentations:

• Your presentations should be approximately 10 minutes. I am grading these for the the formal qualities of good public speaking — be organized, make your points clearly, keep good eye contact with your audience, keep your audience engaged. These will count as a 16th reading notebook response, so, if you feel like you are a poor public speaker, this presentation will not hurt your grade. But I do want you to have the experience of organizing your thoughts on potentially difficult topics and clearly presenting your work to your peers.
• Think of your presentation as having three distinct elements:
  1. An introduction. Your introductory remarks, which should in general be 1 1/2 – 2 minutes, should briefly explain the point of your research, why you engaged in this research/project work, and what you want your audience to understand as a result of your talk.
  2. The body/substance of your talk, which for most of you will take the most time, should explain the major points/issues of your research/project. You do not have time to explain everything you wrote or thought about for this project, so choose the most important issues to explain thoroughly and clearly to your classmates.
  3. A conclusion, which moves from your research/project to make a connection to your audience. In our class discussion about how this conclusion section should work, we decided to allow students the options of asking for questions/comments at the conclusion of the presentation, or allowing students a minute or so to write down questions/comments which we would then address after all of the presentations are over. However you decide to do this, remember that the point of the conclusion section is to make a bridge between what you have just been talking/presenting about and your audience — try to get them to see what your work has to do with the rest of us and our lives.
• Depending on the nature of your project and what you need to accomplish in your presentation, you might take different amounts of time for different parts of your presentation. You may decide to do an interactive presentation which does not follow the introduction, body, conclusion formula — that would be fine, too. These ar guidelines to help you structure yourself for your talk and to make the experience of public speaking less anxiety producing, but, as always, you should throw the guidelines to the wind as soon as you have a better idea or a strong desire to proceed in another way.

Reference List

Books and Journals Henderson Library

• Feminist Studies
• Women’s Studies Quarterly
• Women’s Studies

Additional References (Available throught InterLibrary Loan)

• Susan Griffin A Chorus of Stones: A History of the Private Life of War & "Eros: The Meaning of Desire" (From Pornography and Silence)
• Anne McClintock Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest
• Arundhati Roy War Talk
• Rita Arditti Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Maya and the Disappeared Children of Argentina
• Bat-Ami Bar On The Subject of Violence: Arendtean Exercises in Understanding
• From Evelyn Accad’s Sexuality and War: Literary Masks of the Middle East
• Betty Reardon’s Sexism and the War System
• Carolyn Nordstrom and JoAnn Martin’s The Paths of Domination, Resistance, and Terror
• Carolyn Nordstrom’s A Different Kind of War Story
• Marjorie Agosin’s A Map of Hope: Women’s Writing on Human Rights/ An International Literary Anthology
• Semezdin Mehmedinovich’s Sarajevo Blues
• Lawrence Kramer After the Lovedeath: Sexual Violence and the Making of Culture
• From Inderpal Grewal & Caren Kaplan Gender in a Transnational World: An Introduction to Women’s Studies: Anna Davin "Imperialism and Motherhood" pp. 63 – 68; Frank Dilotter "Race Culture: Recent Perspectives on the History of Eugenics"
• From Nancy K. Miller and Jason Tougaw Extremities: Trauma, Testimony, and Community: "Wendy Hui Kyong Chun "Unbearable Witness: Toward a Politics of Listening" & Wayne Koestenbaum "The Aryan Boy"
• From Page duBois Torture and Truth: "Rome, 1985," "Touchstone" "Torture" "Women, the Body, and Torture"
• From Luce Irigaray: in Je, Tu, Nous: Towards a Culture of Difference "Women’s Discourse and Men’s Discourse," "The Culture of Difference," "The Cost of Words; in Philosophy of Language "He I Sought but Did Not Find"; in Psychoanalytic Criticism: A Reader "Women, the Sacred, and Money"
• Center for Disease Control "Sexual Violence Facts" http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/svfacts.htm
• United Nations Commissioner on Refugees web site, including:
  • "Prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence in refugee situations: Inter-agency lessons learned conference proceedings, 27-29 March 2001";
  • "World Refugee Day 2002 – Refugee Women"; "Note on certain aspects of sexual violence against refugee women";
  • "Gender-Related Persecution" (from http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home?page=search)
• Human Rights Watch Women’s Rights Page http://www.hrw.org/women/index.php and relevant HRW publications, including:
  • "Rape in Bosnia-Herzogovina" http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home?page=search;
  • "THE ROLE OF VIOLENT CRIME IN U.S. INCARCERATION RATES" http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa/Rcedrg00-02.htm;
• Film: The Official Story. Luis Puenzo.
• Film: Portrait of Teresa Pastor Vega.
• Dangerous Relationships : Pornography, Misogyny and Rape – Diana E H Russell (Author)
• Rethinking Violence against Women – Russell P. Dobash (Editor), Rebecca Emerson Dobash (Editor)
• Women, Violence, and Male Power: Feminist Activism, Research, and Practice – Marianne Hester (Editor), et al
• Loving to Survive: Sexual Terror, Men’s Violence, and Women’s Lives (Feminist Crosscurrents) – Edna I. Rawlings (Contributor), et al
• Remembering Conquest: Feminist/Womanist Perspectives on Religion, Colonization, and Sexual Violence – Nantawan Boonprasat-Lewis (Editor), Marie M. Fortune (Editor)
• Sexual Politics and Social Control – Frances Heidensohn
• Understanding Sexual Violence: A Study of Convicted Rapists (Perspectives on Gender, Vol 3) – Diana Scully
• Sexual Violence and American Manhood : – T. Walter Herbert (Author)
• Rape on Prime Time: Television, Masculinity, and Sexual Violence (Feminist Cultural Studies, the Media and Political Culture) – Lisa M. Cuklanz
• Sex, Power, Conflict: Evolutionary and Feminist Perspectives – David M. Buss (Editor), Neil M. Malamuth (Editor)
• Women, Sexuality And War – Philomena Goodman (Author)
• Gender, Peace and Conflict – Inger Skjelsboek (Editor), Dan Smith (Editor); Paperback
• F rontline Feminisms: Women, War, and Resistance (Gender, Culture and Global Politics) – Marguerite R. Waller (Editor), et al;
• States of Conflict: Gender, Violence and Resistance – Susie M. Jacobs (Editor), et al
• Everyday Violence: How Women and Men Experience Sexual and Physical Danger – Elizabeth Stanko
• Unhappy Families: Clinical and Research Perspectives on Family Violence – Eli H. Newberger, Richard Bourne;
• Social Change, Gender and Violence: Post-Communist and War Affected Societies (Social Indicators Research Series, V. 10) – Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic, Vesna Nikolic
• Gender Violence by Laura L. O’Toole (Editor), Jessica R. Schiffman (Editor)
• After Silence by Nancy Venable Raine
• The Batterer as Parent by Lundy Bancroft (Author), Jay G. Silverman (Author)
• Women War and Peace Syllabus http://bama.ua.edu/~emartin/genwar/crseinfo.htm
• Women and Violence Syllabus http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~mccomisk/syl263.html

Tutors Needed — Math-Reading -English
Tutors are needed to work with developmental studies’ students at Ogeechee Technical College .  Tutors must be at least in their junior year or must be graduate students.  Applicants must be majors in English or mathematics.  Education majors with an emphasis in English or math are also eligible.

Send letter of interest and a brief resume that lists qualifications to

John Groover, Director of Instruction, Ogeechee Technical College, 1 Joe Kennedy Boulevard, Statesboro , GA 30458, Phone 912.871.1617 (ask for Ms. Robbins) / Fax 912.688.6031

PARENTS’ SCHOLARSHIP:

Georgia Southern’s Parents Association is pleased to announce and make available to our students for the first time ever, the
Parents Association Founders Scholarship.

• A minimum of 4 scholarships total will be offered yearly.
• At least one scholarship will be awarded per class.
• Each Scholarship will be for a minimum of $250.
• Students must be current Georgia Southern Students to apply.
• Students must apply by January 31st at 5:00 p.m.

There is a slight difference to the criteria for Freshman\Sophomore and Junior\Senior applicants. When encouraging students to apply, PLEASE make sure they complete the appropriate application. Applications are available on the Georgia Southern Parents Website at http://students.georgiasouthern.edu/parent/

Scholarships will be awarded at the Spring Family Weekend Parents Association General Membership Meeting, March 6, 2005.

An impartial committee of 5 will be selected by the Office of Orientation and Parent Programs and will consist of faculty and staff members from across campus. This committee will meet in February to review applications.

Deadline to apply for the Parents Association Founders Scholarship is 5:00 p.m. January 31, 2005 .

Notes: Transforming a Rape Culture
Kaylie Pape
January 25, 2005
“I Thought You Didn’t Mind”
Outline

I. We must change the acceptability of sexism by acting out against it … “We will not challenge this view unless we speak up precisely and frequently and with a variety of voices that feel comfortable and appropriate in the various subcultural and socioeconomic groups in which we find ourselves” (Powell,115).
A. In order to hold men responsible for their sexist behavior we must acknowledge our disapproval be speaking up. Women must be educated on the subject and understand that this can be done in two ways:
1. Passive “polite” assertiveness: These enable us to “chip away at the underpinnings of false assumptions on which the rape culture rests. The more frequent the objections to sexism, the sooner the rape culture will be transformed” (Powell, 110).
a. personal sexual encounters: A date is persistently asking you to come up to his room, you could respond with assertiveness by saying, “No, not tonight, I don’t think that I would feel comfortable.”
b. Societal sexual encounters: A co-worker has an explicit magazine that depicts women as objects in a vulgar manner. You could show assertiveness by saying, “I really find that magazine offensive because it represents women in a negative way.”
2. Angry or confrontive assertion: “Involves more powerful, intense statements” (Powell, 113). For example: a student complains to a professor about a problem she is having with someone stalking her. In her defense, the professor suggests she talks to the authorities. When she does express her concern with the officer, he replies by saying, “No wonder he’s stalking you—look how you are dressed.” Out of disgust in his comment, the professor then approaches the officer and comments, “ I am furious that you would blame this student for someone else’s crime!” The professor then follows up by making a complaint to the officers supervisor.
B. Women’s silence does in fact contribute to men’s sexual beliefs/ speaking up can change attitudes
1. Research conducted shows that assertiveness does help change attitudes in other people. “Edward Donnerstein at the University of California studied the reactions of young men and women who watched films together, showing women being victimized in various ways” (Powell, 115).
a.When the women showed her dislike for the aggression towards the women in the film, the men responded by changing their attitudes on the subject in a positive direction
b. If the women were silent, the men assumed the women didn’t mind, which suggests that
C. Many women don’t speak up because of the fear of rejection
1. “In order to speak up about sexism, the heterosexual woman has to do something that is considered unfeminine, and therefore unlovable” (Powell, 114).
2. “The average woman has to do something that she fears may cut her off from the major relationships she has sought, perhaps all her life” (Powell, 114).

Andrea Taylor’s outline for Clarence William and Iron Mike… By M. Kimmel
From the Bedroom to the Boardroom

During the past thirty years women have entered the work force in great numbers (almost half the labor force)
Times have changed
Two incomes to support a family
Middle class cannot afford a house that is like the one they grew up in
Men are working with women so therefore their feelings/ anxiety of domination and humiliation are exposed and the targets for this are women
Sexual harassment is men’s way to put women back in their place.
The truth
Sexual harassment is about telling the truth. For men it is just telling a dirty joke but for women it is about causing the stress of being fired. Men have power and women are having the power exercised onto them (Packwood case)
The two types of power are employer vs. employee and man vs. woman
Happens when a woman is new/minority
Not a Level Field
Two thirds of men said that being propositioned by a woman at work would be a complement
Real Change
To stop it before it starts at work/college
Change the definition of masculinity
Alter the meaning a success for a man’s career
AIDS
90% of cases are men
Lots of sex partners make you a real man
Magic Johnson slept with (accommodated) 2500 women
Men who are the least secure about their masculinity turn out to be hyper masculine
This leads to gangs and homophobia…
After riots came the clone. A man in flannel shirts and blue jeans but is gay. 1 third of gay men living in urban areas are clones.
So gay men had hot sex a lot more then strait men
IV Drugs Users
Blacks/Latino are not climbing up the corporate latter so they make money by dealing drugs
Show manliness by sharing needles too.
Safety for All
Safe sex is not fun for men (oxymoron)
Straight men need to learn that safe sex is sexy, take responsibility for it, and learn how to support other men who are ill.
When a woman is safe then she will say yes to sex. Men need to know this plus that no means no.
Sexual Democracy
= Rights of pleasure for all
Respect for the life of your partner
See each other as equals

Trish Elliott
Janell Van Ness
Sex, Violence, Culture
1-24-05

In the Wake of Tailhook:
A New Order for the Navy

1. “The annual Tailhook convention, named after the hook, on carrier aircraft that catches the arresting cable on the deck of aircraft carriers had taken place for more than 20 years as a celebration of the United States Naval Aviator, considered by many to be the best in the world.” (p. 303)
2. “Like parents who spoil their favorite child, the Navy “spoiled” these aviators and failed its responsibility to the junior offices to teach leadership and to create appropriate outlets for their stress and tensions. As a result, unruly behavior, heavy drinking, and wild shenanigans become an integral part of their tradition and worse, become expected behavior among some.” (p. 303)
3. “In 1985, convention attendees’ behavior was so deplorable that the organization was investigated by the Navy inspector general.” (p. 303)
4. “When congress proposed to open tactical aviation to women, many pilots felt threatened…” (p. 303)
5. “…the sexual assault of at least 83 women…naval aviators.” (p. 303-304)
6. “Protecting their fellow officers was more important than discovering who perpetrated the assault and restoring the good reputation of their service.” (p. 304)
7. “In the wake of the Tailhook former secretary of the Navy Sean O’Keefe implementing an immediate mandatory sexual assault training for all employees…marine corps.” (p. 305)
8. “Included in the training was a section on responsible alcohol use and a discussion about values, ethics, and human respect.” (p. 305)
9. The Navy created a committee to review rules, the cultural climate, and to eliminate sexual assault. (p. 306)
10. They adopted a green, yellow, red light definition of behavior.
Green zone- these behaviors are not sexual harassment
Yellow zone- these behaviors are sexist, inappropriate, and leading to sexual harassment
Red zone- these behaviors are always considered sexual harassment
11. “The last step was to develop a compliant resolution system that clearly delineated ever individual’s responsibility…supervisors.” (p. 308)

Allison Smith  POLS 4031
No Laughing Matter pg. 310
 Notes

•Sexual harassment is very prominent in elementary and secondary schools
•Interferes with a student’s right to receive equal education
•Sexual harassment= form of sex discrimination
•Desperate dilemma is how to avoid the degrading and upsetting incidents
which have become acceptable, ordinary, and public
•Sexual harassment= kind of gender terrorism
•Schools= training grounds for the insidious cycle of domestic violence
•School authorities are not intervening therefore encouraging this
continued pattern of violence
     “It was like fighting an invisible, invincible enemy alone” (p 315)
•Bullying= antecedent to peer to peer sexual harassment
•Sexual harassment of girls seen as equivalent to the Tailhook scandal
•Need to provoke awareness that sexual harassment exists in schools
•Treat sexual harassment as systemic problem not as symptomatic
•Everyone in school system needs to become aware and trained on this issue
        “Now sexual harassment doesn’t bother me as much because it   
happens so much it almost seems normal” (p316)
•“Write a Letter to the Harasser”- way to remediate sexual harassment
developed by Dr. Mary Rowe
         3 parts: statement of the facts; describe the feelings and what
damage they think was done; short statement of what the
accuser/victim would like to have happen next
         Positive and therapeutic because its proactive
•Schools use curriculum materials that highlight the problem head on
•Effective sexual harassment policy = clear statement that states
disapproval of sexual harassment and strong commitment to eliminating it
•Concerned citizens, educators, parents, etc must press policy makers to
extend national awareness
•Must become public in order for it to be taken out of educational settings

The new issue of "Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology" (vol. 72, #6) includes a study: "Does It Matter What You Call It? The Relationship Between Labeling Unwanted Sexual Experiences and Distress" (pages 1090-1099) by Melanie Harned.
Here’s how the article begins:
"Recent national surveys have documented that sexual victimization is prevalent among women in the United States [cites] and that such unwanted sexual experiences (USEs) are associated with a variety of negative psychological and social outcomes [cites].

Research has also indicated that many women who are subjected to USEs do not label themselves as having been sexually abused, sexually assaulted, or raped [cites]. Such findings have led some to suggest that women who do not label their USEs are not true victims and should not be counted in prevalence estimates [cites]. In the present study, I address this issue by examining the relationship between women’s labeling of their USEs and negative outcomes. Specifically, using path analysis with cross-sectional data, I investigate whether the distress associated with sexual victimization stems from the USE itself, from the woman’s self-definition as a victim, or from both."

Here’s the abstract:

"Using cross-sectional data from 2 samples of women attending a university (N = 1,395), the author examined the relationship among women’s labeling of their unwanted sexual experiences (USEs) with dating partners and a variety of psychological and school-related outcomes.

Three competing path analysis models were tested to determine whether the distress associated with sexual victimization stems from the USE itself, from the woman’s self-definition as a victim, or from both. The best-fitting model indicates that labeling is irrelevant to the determination of negative outcomes and that it is the USE itself that is associated with psychological and school-related distress. These results suggest that labeling cannot be considered a valid criterion for determining who has experienced sexual victimization."

Here’s the final passage:

"The present results have significant research, policy, and clinical implications. The findings make clear that the use of a labeling approach to measuring sexual victimization vastly underestimates the extent of the problem by excluding many women from prevalence estimates who experience significant distress associated with their unlabeled experiences. Accurate prevalence estimates, in turn, are crucial in determining how to allocate resources and create public policy to combat this serious social problem [cite]. In terms of clinical work with victims, the results suggest the need for assessment techniques that are sensitive to the fact that many women do not self-identify as victims and for interventions that address potential links between symptoms and unacknowledged sexual victimization [cites]. Perhaps most important, however, the present research draws attention to the needs and suffering of women who do not label their USEs, despite the fact that they are associated with significant distress. Ultimately, it is not simply the research methods by which prevalence estimates of sexual victimization are obtained that are at stake in this debate but also the credibility and legitimacy ascribed to these hidden victims."

The author note states that reprint requests may be sent to
<mharned@brtc.psych.washington.edu>.

Gilligan Chapter 4 Notes

• No credible rational self-interest in violence (including capital punishment/ war)
• murder rate in U.S. higher than any other industrialized nation, and we imprison more people than any other nation except Russis (p. 95)
• sociopsychological relationship between culture and character
• more threatened by psychic/social threat than physical violence
• Hone and self-respect mean more to people than lives — fight for honor (92).
• Read pp. 97 – 97: theory of violence as a disease, psychopathology
• violence logical but irrational p. 102