Organizing for the Remainder of the Semester

I too agree with the concern about how many movies we have, especially having them so clumped together. While movies allow for the opportunity to multitask a specific chunk of time still has to be set aside for them, and that can be difficult to coordinate. Readings feel far more flexible to me, but print is also a medium that I personally can consume in far greater quantities than film, so this might be a personal bias and not relevant to the class. I feel like we should cut either The Undefeated or Game Change out-- maybe Game Change since The Undefeated is on Netflix Instant, but on the other hand The Undefeated is also 2 hours long which might actually make it less convenient than Game Change. They are both probably very good to watch together, but the solid chunk of movies makes me very uncomfortable.

May interested parties start things that resemble supplemental material lists/suggestions for days? I think that would give us a venue to discuss more specific topics than we might miss in class, and also just be very interesting.

Otherwise the syllabus seems acceptable. The transitions are, as mentioned already, fairly smooth. Let's roll.

The rest of the syllabus looks wonderful. Although we didn't get to include all of the topics that the class is interested in, I think that what we have now, especially given how easy it is to draw connections between all of the topics mentioned, will allow room to informally incorporate everyone's interests. I find myself surprisingly excited to discuss "Game Change". I can't say that I've made an effort to look beyond the mocking media portrayals of Sarah Palin so I anticipate a fruitful discussion of her presence in the 2008 election. Thinking about how much I haven't thought about her reminds me of a an icebreaker we did early in the semester.We had to describe the person sitting next to us, and at the end, it seemed that everyone had stuck to a 'safe'-no-chance-of-being-offensive description. So the question came up, and I think it's relevant in discussing women in the public sphere, of how do women look at each other? When women judge other women, is it less/more/just as problematic as when men are employing the gaze?

I think the selections represent very well the topics that we wanted to explore. My particular favorites are bell hooks and "Half the Sky"--I think those selections will help us to hear some feminist voices that we haven't encountered yet. I really like the Gender Workbook and think it will help shape our discussions for the remainder of the semester. As far as the concerns over the movies, I don't think it will be too much of a problem to watch both "Game Change" and "The Undefeated" for the same class; I think since the movies have the same subject it would be good to discuss them together. The one thing I see as potentially problematic is only spending one day on sex work, just because it seemed to be something that many people wanted to look at. I would consider choosing either sex work or "controversial" women (Sarah Palin) to spend Days 21 and 22 on, but that poses problems as well because we have so much that we want to discuss.

I love the idea of reading Kate Bornstein's My Gender Workbook as a beginning to our continued exploration of feminism. I feel like it is a great start and an informative beginning to the continuation of our journey. After researching the Half the Sky Movement I would love to learn more about it and think it will create great discussions in class. We will have the opportunity to discuss women, women's role in feminism, and a feminist's role in change. What is our duty? Our responsibility? 

I love the idea of watching more documentaries/movies, but going along with Amophrast's concern, do we have enough time to watch two movies for the 5th? Also, including April 3rd's assignment of Live Nude Girls Unite, we would be watching 3 movies in a row. Is this too much? Is there a want/reason to split these up to be sepearated by some readings?  

As a side note, Live Nude Girls Unite as well as The Undefeated are on Instant Watch on Netflix.

The rest of the materials for the course feel like they have a good flow to them. I feel like the current material on the syllabus transition well for each week. I am particularly looking forward to Horowitz's work on the beginnings of women's colleges.

Overall, I like this syllabus a lot and am looking forward to what discussions may arise from it!