SPC 635: FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON COMMUNICATION COURSE OUTLINE
". . . the feminist perspective is a way of being, knowing, and acting that intends empowerment rather than oppression by power; validation of race, class, and gender dynamics that create valued difference but not oppressive hierarchy; and recognition of the meritorious complexities of various ideologies. In addition our feminist perspective honors the personal as a way of knowing, giving credence to thought, feelings, and experience as purveyors of knowledge."
--Judith Bowker and Pamela Dunkin in Constructing and Reconstructing Gender.

I. INTRODUCTION TO COURSE
"In subjecting some of the big questions and concepts to critical scrutiny, these feminist writers are not taking leave of their senses but rather are asking questions about how we learn, how we think, and write. This has the effect of realigning the disciplines, rearranging the furniture of intellectual life. It allows for a certain interdisciplinary license." -- Angela McRobbie

Why a course in feminist perspectives on communication? What can it add to my understanding of communication?

  1. Overview of course
  2. Chronology, key events, issues
  3. Terms and Concepts

Required Reading
COMS 635 Reader: Introductory articles
Glaspell, "A Jury of Her Peers"
Lorde, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House"
Wood, "Dominant and Muted Discourse in Popular Representations of Feminism."
Foss, Foss, and Griffin, " Feminist Perspectives in Rhetorical Studies"

II. CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS
" I am convinced that 'there are ways of thinking that we don't yet know about.' I take those words to mean that women are even now thinking in ways which traditional intellection denies, decries, or is unable to grasp. Thinking is an active, fluid, expanding process; intellection, 'knowing' are recapitulations of past processes." --Adrienne Rich

What do we know? How do we know? What assumptions operated in our thinking? How do we define what we study? Who determines what is "acceptable" in the academy?

Required Reading
hooks, Teaching to Transgress
COMS 635 Reader:
Dow, " Feminism, Cultural Studies and Rhetorical Studies"
Johnson, "Loosing the Boundaries of Communication Study: Lessons for the Academy From Women's Studies"
Blair, Brown, and Baxter, " Disciplining the Feminine"
Belenky, et al. "Introduction to the Other Side of Silence"
Spender, "Theorizing About Theorizing"
Lugones and Spelman, "Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism, and Demand for Women's Voice"
Foss and Foss, "Personal Experience as Evidence in Feminist Scholarship"

III. FEMINISMS and CONTEXTS
"What I most treasure about feminist thought, then, is that although it has a beginning, it has no end, and because it has no predetermined end, feminist thought permits each woman to think her own thoughts. Apparently, not the truth but the truths are setting women free." -- Rosemarie Tong

What are the "feminisms" which guide contemporary feminist thinking? What concepts guide our thinking about identity? How do the claims of difference and equality affect feminist perspectives? What can be accepted in feminist theories? What must be discarded and what needs to be reconstructed? What current tensions exist in feminist thought?

Required Reading
Tong, Feminist Thought Chapters 1,2,3,4,7,8
COMS 635 Reader: Houston,"The Politics of Difference: Race, Class and Women's Communication" Ganguly, "Accounting for Others: Feminism and Representation Flores, "Creating Discursive Space Through a Rhetoric of Difference: Chicana Feminists Craft a Homeland" Bunch, "Not For Lesbians Only" Collins, "The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought"

IV. A MODEL FOR EXAMINING WOMEN'S RHETORIC
"For how we assume language functions, more than anything else, determines how we read and write the cultural as well as the textual." -- Krista Ratcliffe

Who is (not) speaking? Who is (not) listening and what is (not) being heard? What is the relationship of Woman and Man to language within the symbolic? How can feminist theories of rhetoric be extrapolated from feminist texts?

Required Reading
Ratcliffe, Anglo-American Feminist Challenges to the Rhetorical Traditions

V. AREAS OF INQUIRY -- WOMEN MAKING MEANING
"The critical perspective of feminisms, with its refusal of dominant meanings, provides ways to both study and change the gendered social order." -- Mary Crawford

What are the connections among contexts, content, means, and practices of communication? How is gender constructed through communication and how does gender inform communication? How have feminists made language a site of struggle over meaning?

Required Reading
COMS 635 Reader:
Cameron, "Introduction: Why is Language a Feminist Issue?"
Crawford," Toward a Feminist Theory of Gender and Communication"
Penelope, "The Patriarchal Universe of Discourse"
Sutton," Bitches, and Skanky Hobags"
Trinh Minh-ha, " Difference:'A Special Third World Women Issue'"
Biesecker, "Toward a Transactional View of Rhetorical and Feminist Theory: Rereading Helen Cixous's ÔThe Laugh of the Medusa' "
Hall, "Lip Service on the Fantasy Line"

VI. FEMINIST PRACTICE AND POSTRUCTURALIST THEORY
"Sexual politics and the transformation of patriarchy in all its forms remain the defining objectives of feminism. Feminist postructuralism offers useful and important tools in the struggle for change." --Chris Weedon

How might we use poststructualism to theorize gender, identity, and experience in patriarchal societies? How is power exercised within discourses?How can postmodern theories help us understand those social and cultural practices which constitute, reproduce and contest gender power relations?

Required Reading Tong, Chapter 6
Weedon, Feminist Practice and Postructualist Theory
COMS 635 Reader:
McRobbie,"Feminism, Postmodernism and the ÔReal Me'"
Fensham, " Transvestophilia and Gynemimesis: Performative Strategies and Feminist Theory
Tseelon, "Postmodernism and Clothed Meaning"
Bordo, " ÔMaterial Girl':The Effacement of Postmodern Culture"

VII. APPLICATION OF FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES TO COMMUNICATION STUDIES
"When applied to communication research, the feminist perspective involves the asking of questions about the construction of our gender system through communication and about how gender informs communication. In communication inquiry, a feminist scholar seeks to discover how to change the conception of gender that is constructed and maintained through communication." -- Carter and Spitzack

How can knowledge of feminisms inform communication research? What topics have received little attention in communication research? What methods are useful in applying feminist perspectives to communication research?

Required Reading
Women's Studies in Communication, vol 21, Number 2, Fall, 1998 COMS 635 Reader:
Avoiding Sexism in Communication Research
Campbell, "The Rhetoric of Women's Liberation: An Oxymoron"
Kramarae, "Shaking the Conventions of Higher Education or Appropriate and Appropriated Technology"
Stewart, "Declaration of Independence:The Female Rock and Roller Comes of Age"
Raymond, "Putting the Politics Back into Lesbianism"
Francisco, "Gender, Power and Practice: Or Putting Your Money (And Your Research) Where Your Mouth Is"
Lee, "In the Names of Chinese Women"

VIII.FUTURE DIRECTIONS
"The challenge of where we go from here is to be able to create a new feminist theory that is inclusive, that changes how people think and act. Courageous and daring, this theory necessarily evokes practice on multiple levels. It will need to be constantly rewritten because our lives are constantly changing. There is no static blueprint - feminist thinkers must remain at the drawing board if feminist theory is to retain a meaningful critical edge." -- bell hooks

How will feminists reconcile their differences in order to bring about positive social change? What future directions will feminist research take in the field of communication? What is your personal commitment to the feminist project?

Required Reading
COMS 635 Reader:
hooks and McKinnon, "Sisterhood: Beyond Public and Private"


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