Women,Gender,Sexuality Studies 393B - S-FromBerdaches/BathroomBills

This course critically examines instances of non-normative gender expression as they have occurred since the early encounters of European colonists with indigenes up to the present day in America. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we will delve into and probe texts from history, literature, the law, film and the media as we come to understand how the maintenance of the gender binary is critical to the grasp of power by the state and how third and fourth gender, transgender and gender non-conforming people threaten the stability of the traditional sex/gender system. We will examine the historic alliance between church and state to reveal how they have worked together to impose and maintain hegemonic heteronormativity on the American people; in turn, we will come to realize the very real danger those who transgress gender pose to the extant hierarchical power structure and those few who direct it from the top. In coming to understand that transgender goals are feminist goals in that both seek to end sexist oppression (here we use transgender as catch-all term to include all who have transgressed Western gender norms) we will inquire into the strange alliance of trans-exclusionary radical feminists with patriarchal neo-liberals who seek to eradicate the very notion of gender identity and those so embodied. We will probe the radical feminist argument that all trans people simply endorse the gender binary through their conformity to stereotypical gender roles and consider the response to it. Finally, we will critically examine the contemporary plethora of legislation known as "bathroom bills" that are intended to eradicate not only trans identities but also the very notion of gender as a social construction.