Questions for September 22

from WIAS
  1. Explain the concept of androgyny. Compare and contrast to masculinity and femininity.
  2. Give a synopsis of where the research currently stands on cognitive skills and any differences there may be between females and males.
  3. Why is it better to look at the gender basis of human characteristics in the context of specific social settings, rather than looking at them out of context, for example in specific, tightly controlled experiments?
  4. Be sure you understand the 5 different individual-level appraoches Sapiro offers for explaining the situation of American women. Make yourself a chart: how are they different? The same? What is the defining characteristic of each?
  5. On which side of the nature—nurture debate does Freud fall? Give an example to prove your answer.
  6. Give a brief summary of the responses to Freud outlined by Freud. Is he totally debunked by his critics, or is there something we can take and learn from him?
  7. Explain the difference between penis envy and womb envy.
  8. How do Cignitive-Developmental theories help to explain the phenomenon of the tomboy?
  9. Explain how modern sexism is different from traditional sexism.
from FTMC
  1. How does hooks define "authentic feminist movement"?
  2. Explain the concept of hierarchy of oppression. What is hooks' position on this concept?
  3. Why does hooks believe that all forms of oppression in our society are linked? Give an example that shows this linkage.
  4. Be sure you understand her discussion of the family, how and why "the feminist movement" has often critiqued it, and her reaction to this critique
from FT
  1. According to Engels, why did mother right have to be overthrown?
  2. Outline Stanton's critique of verses 26-28 of Genesis from the Bible, and the way in which these passages have been interpreted by others.
  3. What is the main idea of the Gilman piece? See if you can pinpoint her thesis statement.
  4. According to Goldman, what is the cause of the trade in women (prostitution et al)?
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