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AAS 455:  ORGANIZING ASIAN AMERICAN SEXUALITIES

 Official Title: AAS Sexuality, Ticket # 89548

Tentative Syllabus*

(*I reserved the right to change any part of this syllabus.)  

Below is a link to our class discussion forum. Please use it as needed:

http://hyper.vcsun.org/HyperNews/gmasequesmay/get/aas455.html

Course Description

      This upper-division course is a seminar exposing students to a social constructionist view on race, class, gender, and sexuality, with a focus on Asian American lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender issues.  Using ideas from race studies, feminist studies, and gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender studies, this course offers a critical approach to examine the matrix of domination and collective and individuals' everyday efforts of resistance by marginalized populations.  This course investigates the construction of gender/sexual knowledges and their social and political impacts.

Course Format

      The course format is a mixture of discussions and presentations (video/film, guest speakers).  The class will be run as a seminar.  Students are expected to read the assigned reading and be ready for class discussion.  Class also involves library research for a class project or work on a conference that will count as a service-learning component.

Required Books

* Leong, Russell, ed.  Asian American Sexualities: Dimensions of the Gay and Lesbian Experience.  New York: Routledge, 1996.

* Lancaster, Roger N. and Micaela di Leonardo. The Gender Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy. New York: Routledge, 1997.

* Eric C. Wat. The Making of a Gay Asian Community: An Oral History of Pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

* Handouts in class.  To be announced in class.

Course Requirements

      This course is designed for students to gain critical thinking, writing and oral communicating skills through class discussions, writing assignments, a midterm, and a final project including a paper and presentation.  [See Service Learning Project Section (next page) for alternative assignments.]

      In order to have any fruitful class discussion, students are expected to finish the assigned readings before coming to class.  Since this is a small class, your attendance is crucial for the progress of this class.  Thus, class attendance and participation is 10% of the course grade.  An absence is a deduction of two points; a tardiness is a deduction of one point.

      Students are expected to arrive in class having read the assigned readings and are ready for discussions.  A group of 2-3 students will take turn presenting a one-page note on each of the assigned readings.  Three reading notes and/or class reading discussion counts for 30% of the total grade. 

      To ensure students are roughly together on the readings, a take-home midterm exam is given on 9^th week and due on 10^th week.  This is to help reiterate the main points of the course.  Midterm exam is worth 25% of the total grade and is a review of class discussion asked in short-answer or short-essay format.  Tentatively, there will be about 5 short-answer questions or 2 short-essay questions. 

      A final paper (double-space, ~10 pages) is given early and is due on FINAL DAY. This research paper is based on either an individual or group project and students are expected to present their findings on the final day.  A separate sheet of instructions will be given for the presentation.  The final paper is worth 25% of the class grade and the final project presentation is 10% of the class grade. 

Service Learning Project:  This class offers a community service-learning optional component.  Service-learning allows students to link the academic issues and ideas we are discussing in class with service in the community.  Students who choose this option will be required to complete about 30 hours of service to help organize an API Sexuality Conference, “CrossTalk II: Embodiments of API Sexuality,” on Saturday, November 16^th, 2002.  It is highly recommended that students take this option as it allows them to learn once again issues discussed in class via practices and work with the community.  Students will have a chance to learn about the background work of organizing a conference and how this community-involved project is linked the construction and deconstruction of API sexuality knowledges.  Moreover, participation in the organizing of the conference also offers students invaluable opportunities for publication of the community resource directory and/or of the API sexuality bibliography.  Aside from helping the community in compiling these important resources, students will also serve the community by constructing a database of conference attendees. 

In lieu of the three reading notes that other students are asked to do, students in this service learning project will be asked to hand-in three journals based on questions from the instructor about their service learning experience.  In the end, students are asked to compile previous journals into a paper that summarizes their experiences, individually and collectively.  Students will also need to present their work on the final day of class.  More information will be given later in class.

Grading

Grading is based on a strict scale of 400 points: 

Chances for extra credits (up to 12 points)

You can attend a queer event or watch a queer movie and type a short two-page paper describing the film or event (what, where, when, who) and connect what you learned from it to the ideas presented in our class (short analysis). You need to check with me before you do this.

A Note on the Rules of Scholarly Discourse in the University**

In this course we will be discussing very complex issues of which all of us have strong feelings and, in most cases, unfounded attitudes. It is essential that we approach this endeavor with our minds open to evidence that may conflict with our presuppositions. Moreover, it is vital that we treat each other’s opinions and comments with courtesy even when they diverge and conflict with our own.  We must avoid personal attacks and the use of ad hominem arguments to invalidate each other’s positions. Instead, we must develop a culture of civil argumentation, wherein all positions have the right to be defended and argued against in intellectually reasoned ways.  It is this standard that everyone must accept in order to stay in this class; a standard that applies to all inquiry in the university, but whose observance is especially important in a course whose subject matter is so emotionally charged. 

[**From Professor Melvin Oliver’s Sociology 156 syllabus, Fall 1991.]

Week I, 8/28

Introduction

        * Names and expectations of students and instructor. 

        * Go over syllabus

        * Student Info Sign-In

        * Meet with Service-Learning students

I:     Theoretical Developments in Historical Contexts

Week 2, 9/4

        Towards a Critical Approach

* Barbara Smith.  “Homophobia: Why Bring it Up?”  In The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, edited by H. Abelove, M. Barale, and D. Halperin.  New York: Routledge, 1993, p. 99-102.

        * Stephen Pfohl.  “Images of Deviance and Social Control: An Introduction” In Images of Deviance and Social Control: A Sociological History, 2^nd Edition.  New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994, pp. 1-16.

* Peggy McIntosh. (1988) “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies.”  In Race, Class, Gender, 3^rd Edition, Andersen.  Wadsworth Publishing Company.

        * Lorde, Audre. "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House." In Sister Outsider, 110-13. New York: QPB, 1984.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to meet with Professor after/before class to devise work schedule and confirm tasks for conference organizing work.

Week 3, 9/11

Research Paper Option:  A Tour to the Oviatt Library and introduction to how to do Library Research at Oviatt Library Lab B with Angela Lew. We will meet at the lab with Ms. Lew from 5 PM to 6:30 PM.

OR

Service Learning Option:        Students to meet with Professor to go over expectations and tasks for conference organizing work.

Week 4, 9/18

Where are Asian Americans in the history of Queer USA and the History of Asian America?

        * Film “Out Rage ‘69” by Arthur Dong.

        * Eric C. Wat. “Chapter 1: Before the Beginning.”  In The Making of a Gay Asian Community: An Oral History of Pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

        * Gil Mangaoang. “From the 1970s to the 1990s: Perspectives of a Gay Filipino American Activist.”  In Asian American Sexualities, pages 101-112.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to meet with Professor after/before class to devise work schedule and confirm tasks for conference organizing work.

Week 5. 9/25

Sociohistorical Context of (Homo)sexuality

        * David F. Greenberg. “Transformations of Homosexuality-Based Classifications.” In Gender Sexuality Reader, pages 179-193.

        * John D’Emilio. “Capitalism and Gay Identity.”  In Gender Sexuality Reader, pages 169-178.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to meet with Professor after class to devise work schedule and confirm tasks for conference organizing work.

Week 6, 10/2

The Others’ Views

        * Film “Bombay Eunuch”

        * Took Took Thongthiraj.  “Toward a Struggle against Invisibility: Love Between Women in Thailand. In Asian American Sexualities, pages 163-174.

        * Arvind Kumar. “Hijras: Challenging Gender Dichotomies.”  In A Lotus of Another Color: An Unfolding of the South Asian Gay and Lesbian Experience, edited by Rakesh Ratti.  Boston: Alyson Publications, Inc., 1993, pp. 85-91.

Recommended

        * Siobhan Somerville. “Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body.” In Gender Sexuality Reader, pages 37-52.

        * Ellen Ross and Rayna Rapp.  “Sex and Society.”  In Gender Sexuality Reader, page 153-168.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to meet with Professor after/before class to follow-up on assigned tasks for conference organizing work.

Week 7, 10/9

Deconstructing Ideological Categories of Sex, Gender, Sexuality

        * Anne Fausto-Sterling. “How to Build a Man.”  In Gender Sexuality Reader, pages 244-248.

        * Natalie Angier.  “Intersexual Healing: An Anomaly Finds A Group.” New York Times Sunday, February 4, 1996, pp. 14-15.

        * Monique Wittig.  “The Category of Sex” & “One Is Not Born a Woman.” In The Straight Mind.  Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1992, pp. 1-20.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to meet with Professor after class to follow-up on assigned tasks for conference organizing work.

Week 8, 10/16

Doing Gender and Sexuality

* Guest Speaker Bryan

* Gagne, Patricia, and Richard Tewksbury. 1998. “Conformity Pressures and Gender Resistance Among Transgendered Individuals.” Social Problems 45:81-101.

* Kinsey, A., Pomeroy, W. B., & Martin, E. E.  (1953). “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male”, p. 1-12,  and “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female”, p. 12-15. In W. B. Rubenstein (Ed.), Lesbians, Gay Men, and the Law.  New York: The New Press.

*Van Leuven, Linda. 1998. “"I Need a Screw": Workplace Sexualization as an Interactional Achievement.” Pp. 73-96 in Everyday Inequalities, edited by J. O'Brien and J. A. Howard. Oxford: Blackwell.

Recommended

        * Judith Butler. “Exerpt from ‘Introduction’ to Bodies That Matter.”  Page 531-542.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to meet with Professor after class to follow-up on assigned tasks for conference organizing work.

Week 9, 10/23

Undoing Binaries and Permanence

        HAND-OUT MIDTERM QUESTIONS

        * Film “Wedding Banquet”

        * Kamini Chaudhary. “Some Thoughts on Bisexuality.”   In A Lotus of Another Color: An Unfolding of the South Asian Gay and Lesbian Experience, edited by Rakesh Ratti.  Boston: Alyson Publications, Inc., 1993, pp. 54-58.

Week 10, 10/30

***MIDTERM EXAM DUE***

II:    Current Issues in Asian America

Challenges to Reconstructing Families and Communities

Film “Love, Ltd.” (20 min.) by Jennifer Phang.

        * Eric C. Wat.  “Preserving the Paradox: Stories from a Gay-Loh.”  In Asian American Sexualities, pages 71-80.

        * Alice Y. Hom.  “Stories from the Homefront: Asian American Parents with Lesbian Daughters and Gay Sons.”  In Asian American Sexualities, pages 37-50.

        * Eric C. Wat. “Chapters 4: The Call from Morris Knight” and “Chapter 5: Old Scars on a New Body.”  In The Making of a Gay Asian Community. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to meet with Professor after class to follow-up on assigned tasks for conference organizing work.

Week 11, 11/6

Media Images and Their Impacts

        Film “Celluloid Closet”

* Fung, Richard. 1998. “Looking for My Penis: The Eroticized Asian in Gay Video Porn.” In Asian American Sexualities, pages 181-198.

* Eric C. Wat. “Chapter 3: A Fascism of Desire.”  In The Making of a Gay Asian Community: An Oral History of Pre-AIDS Los Angeles. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to meet with Professor after class to follow-up on assigned tasks for conference organizing work. 

Week 12, 11/13 – NO CLASS but EVENT required on 11/16 Saturday

In lieu of class, all students must attend at least one workshop and Plenary II meeting.  In addition to one workshop and Plenary II attendance requirement, students involved in the Service Learning Component must attend one-fourth of the conference in form of organizing the conference.  Students in Service Learning Component must meet with professor to finalize tasks on 11/13 during class time.

Week 12, 11/16 Saturday, CrossTalk II: Embodiments of API Sexuality Conference, CSUN

Week 13, 11/20

Redefining Gender Roles

        Film “Big Brain, Small Genitalia”

        * “Guy Talk” In A. Magazine, Feb/March 1997, p. 26-33, 68.

        * Renee Tajima. “Lotus Blossoms Don’t Bleed: Images of Asian Women.” In Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and about Asian American Women, Asian Women United of California.. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989, p. 308-317.

        * Gina Masequesmay.  “Queering Vietnamese America.” Forthcoming in Amerasia Journal.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to hand in evaluation of conference attended. 

Week 14, 11/27

New Hopes and Challenges

* Karin Aguilar-San Juan. “Linking the Issues: From Identity to Activism.”  In The State of Asian America, 1994, pp.1-15.

        * Eric C. Wat. “Chapter 6: The Next Generation.”  In The Making of a Gay Asian Community. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

* Gayle S. Rubin.  “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality.”  In The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, edited by H. Abelove, M. Barale, and D. Halperin.  NY: Routledge, 1993, pp. 3-44.

Service Learning Option:                        Students to compile conference materials for class presentation. 

Week 15, 12/4

Wrap-Up

        * Research Project Check-In

        * Service Learning Option: Students to finalize their report and evaluation of conference.

Final Week, 12/9 to 12/14

Wednesday, December 11, 5:20 to 6:50 PM

Learning from Each Other

        * Final Paper Due

        * CLASS PRESENTATION & Refreshment.

RESOURCES

QUESTIONS FOR WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Here are some general questions to help you with reading articles and viewing films critically.  More specific questions on films will be given in class.  This page serves as a general guide for the rest of this semester.

READING CRITICALLY

Questions to Answer:

1.     What is the larger context of why this article was written?  To what is the author responding?

        I hope that you will begin to ask this question for everything you read.  All perspectives are partial and you need to not only know where the article is situated in the larger sociopolitical debate but also what it is saying and not saying or implying about a specific issue. This question may best be answered last after you understand the author's main argument. This question is about the larger debate that the author is engaged in or the implication of his/her work given his/her thesis.  [The article is about “lazy welfare mothers” and thus it contributes to the debate for welfare reform.]

2.     What is the author's main argument?

        Search the reading for the thesis statement and either quote or paraphrase it with citation (page number, and location in page).  Explain clearly what is the main argument of the author.  [The main argument by the author is that welfare mothers are lazy and just abusing taxpayers’ generosity.]

3.     What are the evidences the author used to support his/her argument?

        Good scholarly work requires a thesis and supporting evidence. What kind of evidence does the author have to support the thesis? How was the data compiled? Elaborate on at least three points the author makes to support his/her thesis.  [Is the evidence based on personal anecdotes or scholarly national survey research or limited sample?]

4.     Are the arguments compelling?

        This question is meant to remind you to question authority rather than blindly accept what is dished out or packaged to you.  Sometimes people have facts that don't support their argument.  So, you need to make sure their facts back the argument the author makes. Just because something is written, doesn't mean it's true. [Despite the fact that the author may have support for his/her argument, can that evidence be generalized to the larger population?  What is the reliability (duplication) and validity (operationalization) of this work?]

5.     What questions arose for you from reading this article?

        This is to urge you to reflect on what you read and become an active reader instead of a passive recipient of information. This is to help you apply what you just learn.

6.     Any other reactions you have from reading this article?  Relates to some other issues?  Personal reaction?  

        Does the information challenge your original thoughts and assumptions?  Do you find yourself resistant to the information?  Why do you think that is so?  These are good questions to think for yourself as you become more reflexive of the information around you, those that you readily accept and those that challenge the foundation of your values.

VIEWING FILMS CRITICALLY

General Questions to Answer for Extra Credit Assignment on Films:

1.     What is this film about?  (What is the setting?  Who are involved?  What happened or how did this end?)

2.     What do you think is the point/or message of this film?

3.     What do you think is the larger context to which this film is responding?

4.     How does this film fit into this class on Asian American issues?

 

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