Download Response Essay for Essay #2

Response for Essay #2
The Response is typed, but can still be informal. That is, the focus should be on getting some ideas down on paper. You are focusing
on content, on what you want to say, rather than on how you are saying it (that will be the next step).
Re-read the journal entries that you produced after reading each essay. Is there anything from those responses that you would like to
develop further? Can you use one entirely, or can you use some of one, or can you connect some ideas from a few of them? If so,
then spend some time re-organizing your thoughts and re-formulating your ideas that you want to pursue or work with more
thoroughly.
If there is nothing in your initial responses that strikes you, then start thinking about the essays that we have read in class. How are
they discussing gender, gender roles, gender issues that are interesting to you? Are there any that you strongly disagree with? Which
ones, and why? Are there any that you agree with? Which ones, and why? Be specific!
Don't forget that for this assignment you choose one of the essays to quote directly from. You must quote at least three times from
one of the readings.
Some topics to consider:
1. What are the gender issues in Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self"? How is
beauty associated with the female? How are women taught to value their appearances over other
attributes, such as intellect? How is violence and abuse represented by Walker? Is it gendered?
2. How is the feminist movement defined and portrayed by Sojourner Truth? Do you think the feminist
movement still exists in the 21st Century? Do you think that it needs to exist? Do you think that it
should exist? Do you think that men and women should have or do have equal opportunity in today's
society?
3. In "Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls," Katha Pollitt implies that gender is artificially constructed by
social influences, including parents, other family members, friends, educators, and the media. She
insists that we impose messages about gender on our children whether we want to or not. She asks us to
consider what those messages should be. What do you think? Do you think that gender is artificially
constructed or do you think that children naturally behave according to gender, naturally desire certain
things according to gender, and naturally possess certain character traits according to gender?
4. In "Throwing Like a Girl," James Fallows considers how men's and women's athletics have developed
over the years. He explores how the term "throwing like a girl" is used and what it means, that someone
is throwing incorrectly. He argues that there is actually no scientific reason why men and women throw
balls differently and, like Pollitt, insists that gender roles are artificially constructed by social
perceptions of gender difference and of ability based on gender. Do you think that men and women can
and ought to compete in athletics? How does the media encourage or insist upon gender differences in
sports? How does the audience for sports effect gender differences in sports?
5. Scott Russell Sanders provides a critique of the feminist movement in his essay, "The Men We Carry in
Our Minds." He brings economic class into the discussion and points out that women do not want
merely opportunities. He claims that he wants the same thing that the women want, access to those
professional, high paying corporate occupations. In his youth, he envied women because in the working
class environment they seemed to have an easier life than the men that he witnessed physically laboring
in the mines. How do you see economic class intersecting with the feminist movement? Do you think
that gender roles change according to economic situation?
6. Maxine Hong Kingston discusses gender differences based on issues of biology, such as pregnancy, in
"No Name Woman." She demonstrates how women are assigned specific gender roles in her native
Chinese culture because of the woman's ability to carry an embryo and give birth. She explores the
concept of myth and fairytale as instruments of female education designed to contain female sexuality.
She also speculates on the potential abuse of sex as power and rape. How do issues of menstruation,
pregnancy, and motherhood effect a woman's ability to function in a male dominated public world--of
careers? of military? of politics?