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Crosslistings: WMST 278 |
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Crosslistings: WMST 278 |
This course focuses on issues at the intersection of feminist theory, practical ethics, public policy and feminist activism. We will be exploring a number of contemporary issues that are important within feminist scholarship and practical ethics generally. It is my hope that exposures to these issues will help provide students with a starting point from which to pursue these topics in greater depth. Throughout the course we will be paying attention to the ways in which feminist theorizing attends to racial, cultural, and sexual difference. While there is no single feminist perspective promoted in this course, our focus will be on the many ways that gendered and racialized social structures have produced inaccurate understandings of ethical problems and their solutions. During the beginning of the course we will examine how gender is constructed, both biologically and socially. We will then explore the nature of equality. Does equality require equal treatment? Equal Opportunity? Equal access to resources and power? Can equality be achieved while important differences are preserved? We will see that there are a number of answers to these questions and different answers to these questions affect the way particular policy issues are addressed. For the remainder of the course we will explore the controversies that have emerged among feminists, and between feminists and non-feminists, over such issues as sexual harrassment, prostitution and other forms of sex work, pornography, hate speech, and additional topics that are important to the class.
COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA PHIL Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-30-2006
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459