Part A: Short Answer
Choose 2 of 6 options. 20 marks: 10 marks per item
*300 words max per answer – approx. 1 page, double-spaced, 12-point times new roman font, 1-inch margins*
Choose one of the terms/phrases listed below then address the following:
- Define the term/phrase, including by naming the relevant author
- Explain the term/phrase in relation to at least one course reading, using examples to illustrate
- Connect the term/phrase to another term, concept, issue, or trend from the course readings. Be sure to define this new term. Explain why you want to connect these two ideas together (e.g., are they similar in an important way? Are they different in an important way? How do they help us better understand issues we’ve discussed in class?)
When you are done, choose another term/phrase from the list below and repeat the steps above for a total of 2 answers of 300 words each.
- “Disability studies critiques medicalization whilst maintaining that everyone deserves life-affirming healthcare”
- “What I wish to analyze is specifically the production of the ‘Third World Woman’
as a singular monolithic subject in some recent (Western) feminist texts…” - Compulsory heterosexuality
- Cultural Appropriation*
- Subjugated knowledge
- “Between my appearance and my papers, I tend to arouse suspicion at international borders, through which I travel frequently for both work and play—and it’s anyone’s guess whether I will be stopped for being a man traveling with a woman’s documents, for being brown-skinned, or simply for having Arabic writing in my passport”
*Yes, the source this concept comes from counts as a course text.
Part B: Essay Answer
Choose 1 of 2 options. 20 marks.
*800 words max per answer – approx. 2.5 pages, double-spaced, 12-point times new roman font, 1-inch margins*
Using proper essay format (introduction with thesis; arguments; conclusion) answer only ONE of the following questions. Without repeating any of the readings you used in Part A above, your Essay answer should make direct and well-developed reference to at least THREE course readings in GSWS 1020E this term that are relevant to the question. Feel welcome to include material from tutorials, class discussions, films, and/or posted notes – but if so, please use these only to supplement (not replace) discussion of the course readings.
Option 1: Solidarity
Slater and Liddiard argue that disability scholars and trans activists are natural allies in the fight against ableism and transmisogyny. Alternately, Patricia Hill Collins argues that “Black female spheres of influence” (that is, spaces for Black people to gather with one another) could offer a sanctuary for Black men and women so that they can be nurtured and empowered to confront and resist racist oppression. Take a position on these strategies: What role do you think allyship or solidarity should play in the pursuit for social change? What might be lost with an allied approach to social change? How might those losses be reconciled or mitigated through allyship?
Be sure to be specific in your answer: identify the arguments each author offers for how change might be pursued in the area of their work (intersex activism, media representation, Black Feminist Thought, homophobia, global feminism, or other issues and fields of your choosing), and why other authors offering arguments for change in their own areas might align (or not) with those suggestions. Use at least three course readings from Term 1 to support your answer (you may, but do not have to, use Slater and Liddiard and/or Collins in your answer).
Option 2: Politicizing Gender
Riki Wilchins states that “Being abnormal—that is, not being the norm—technically just means being different. But when gender and sexuality are rigidly enforced, even minor variations are highly politicized, and—since at least the 1950s—are also medicalized and/or pathologized.”
Briefly identify some of the expectations that constitute the “norms” of gender and sexuality, and then indicate the degree to which these norms are politicized. In other words, how are discussions of gender, gender norms, and gender socialization also discussions about power and hierarchies? (Hint: think about the way these norms are taught and enforced, and the consequences for violating these norms). You must expand your answer beyond gender/sexuality: race, dis/ability, class, religion, nationality, or…. are certainly part of these power structures as well.
Use at least three course readings from Term 1
to support your answer (you may, but do not have to, use Wilchins in your answer).