This course will explore the development of U.S. feminist thought from the
publication of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex to the present. We will
focus on feminist attempts to reveal, unravel, and remedy the conceptual,
psychological, and economic dimensions of the oppression of women. Readings
will explore the major feminist positions on the nature and scope of women's
oppression, how it gets perpetuated, and possible solutions. We will also
cover the relationship of sexism to racism, to heterosexism, to imperialism,
and to class societies, and we will look at debates among feminists on
pornography and abortion. We will look at the feminist arguments about how
femininity, as it is currently practiced and understood, is a psychological
form of sexist social conditioning. The focus of the course will be on the
variety of possible positions and debates within feminism.

Book orders: needless to say, please get the cheapest paperbacks available:

1. Simone De Beauvoir, The Second Sex (Vintage, 1989).
ISBN-10: 0679724516
ISBN-13: 978-0679724513

2. Suzanne Pharr, Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism (Chardon Press, expanded edition, (August 1997).
ISBN-10: 1890759015
ISBN-13: 978-1890759018

3. Marilyn Frye, The Politics of Reality (Crossing Press, May 1983).
ISBN-10: 089594099X
ISBN-13: 978-0895940995

4. Krista Jacob, ed., Abortion Under Attack: Women on the Challenges Facing Choice
(Seal Press, 2006)
ISBN (10) 1-58005-185-9
ISBN (13) 978-1-58005-185-9

5. Joy James, ed., The Angela Davis Reader (Wiley-Blackwell 1998).
ISBN-10: 0631203613
ISBN-13: 978-0631203612