Women

homework 4/16: Read the essay about the Kitty Genovese murder in New York. This happened in 1964, a time of great upheaval. Be thinking, as you read, about what the essay suggests about the state of American culture, about law and order, about society’s reaction to women (and violence against women), etc. In your blue books, summarize what you read and react using some of the questions above. Write at least a page. Remember that I am collecting the blue books tomorrow.

4/16 classwork (collected and graded): Choose 2 quotes from each speech (Bella Abzug's and Gloria Steinem's). Copy down each quote on white lined paper and for each, react (why did you choose the quote, what does it say to yu, how does it inform/challenge your thinking, how does it connect to what we've read/seen/talked about, etc.). Each reaction should be about a half page long. Do Abzug's speech on one side and Steinem's on the other.

4/14: Between now and Wednesday, please read Bella Abzug’s “A New Kind of Southern Strategy” speech and Gloria Steinem’s statement in support of the equal rights amendment. As you read, underline ideas that particularly speak to you. I will ask you on Wednesday to pull out two such ideas from each piece to write about in class (making connections to the poems we read and listened to and to the excerpt from The Makers that you watched (this will be a process grade). On Thursday, I will collect the blue books. You should have in your blue books: “Where is the Voice Coming From?”, James Baldwin response, reflections on Melba Pattilo Beals and Liliian Smith, Southern Justice, Alice Walker response, Betty Friedan response, “Wants,” plus anything we do in class this week.

4/11: Watch the excerpt from The Makers. Fast forward to 28:53 and watch to the end. You'll see the women's movement's various components and ideas (as we talked about in class, there is tension between the old guard, represented by NOW and the new guard, represented by the Women's Libbers, and tension between black and white women). Please watch this weekend. As you watch, bullet notes in your blue book about what you see and hear. For Wednesday, I am going to ask you to turn in a notecard. On the front of the notecard, write about one person's story or one idea that you did not know much about before that you found interesting and tell me why. On the back of the notecard, reflect on the varied points of view from the different elements of the women's movement, from the different voices you heard, and make connections too the poems and the readings we've done in class. Fill both sides of the card.

Just for fun: Kim reminded me that there is a terrific sendup of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" that illustrates the suffrage movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. You can find it here.

4/1: Reading "Wants": Read "Wants" by Grace Paley with an eye to what Betty Friedan had to say about women's changing lives in "The Problem That Has No Name" in The Feminine Mystique. Mark up the text as you read, then (when you are finished) reread your blue book entry from Friedan's chapter. In a new entry, make connections between that and "Wants." Fill a page.

Here's a quick introduction to Gloria Steinem.