Paper Assignment
In our first unit beyond the summer reading, we've been examining the role of bodies in constructing gender, as well as the role of gender expectations in constructing our bodies.
Basing your argument primarily on materials from our class, but supplementing with outside research as necessary, respond to one of the following two questions:
1. To what extent do our bodies determine our gender?
2. To what degree can we socially define our bodies? Put another way, how malleable are our bodies to our control?
- How does the sense of what is "typical" or normal affect our attitudes toward our bodies?
Aristotle, excerpted in The Less Noble Sex
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Guest speaker, Dr. Michelle Harris
Guest speaker, Dr. Ellen Rome
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, excerpts
Transgeneration, excerpts (TV)
Joan Jacobs Brumberg, The Body Project, excerpts
As with the Half the Sky assignment, you have the choice to respond to one of these questions in either a creative or a critical mode. Regardless, however, please include a Works Cited page in MLA format in which you credit the sources that inspired your piece.
- a 2-4 page critical essay
-a short piece of creative non-fiction, fiction, drama or poetry
-a video, sculpture, painting or drawing
-another format of your devising (approved by me)
Over the course of the 3-4 assessments this fall (time permitting), you will need to produce at least one critical response and at least one creative response. Each time, though, the choice will be up to you.
You may also wish to consult the links on the course website, genderculturepower.weebly.com, in the "Bodies" section, for more information about transgender issues and about eating disorders.
