| Analysis papers: This semester you’ll write three analysis
papers. These papers should be concise, focused essays in which you
take the concepts we are discussing to a new level, or apply them to new
material. You need to articulate a strong central point or argument
and support it with evidence. I expect these papers to analyze, not
simply to describe or summarize. Think of yourself as a women’s studies
cultural critic; you can be a critic speaking from the vantage point of
the third wave, or a critic of the third wave. As always, if you
use loaded terms like “feminine” or “beauty,” be sure to explain what you
mean and bring in (or refer to) relevant readings from the class.
Think about the underlying implications or the social/political ramifications
of the points you make. A good analysis paper will give the reader
a clear idea of why you as the writer find this topic worth writing about
and discussing. You don’t need to say, “I am writing about this topic
because…”, but your conviction of the importance of the topic should come
through in what you have to say about it.
Here are some sample topics:
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Examine third wave websites and write a paper analyzing one or more.
(Some possible sites: www.bigbadchinesemama.com, www.io.com/~wwwave/,
www.people.vanderbilt.edu/~michelle.a.penaloza, grrrlzines.net, www.gurl.com,
and look around—you’ll find tons of sites.)
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Take one of the personal essays from To Be Real or Listen Up
as your model, and write an essay that explores the political significance
of a personal experience. Be sure not simply to describe the experience
but also to analyze it.
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Analyze the generational changes between your mother’s life and your own.
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Examine third wave magazines such as Bust or Bitch.
You could analyze them on their own terms, or compare them to an “older”
feminist magazine like Ms., or a more mainstream women’s magazine
like Cosmopolitan.
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Compare other second wave and third wave cultural productions (some of
the readings from Dear Sisters with readings from Listen Up,
Bitch, etc.)
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You’re also entirely free to come up with your own topics.
In evaluating your analysis papers, I will examine the following aspects:
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1. Fulfillment of the assignment: how effective is the paper
at fulfilling every aspect of the assignment?
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2. Basics: does the writing (such as grammar, spelling, and
style) support rather than hinder the paper’s analysis? (If a paper
misspells an author’s name, then it isn’t really encouraging the reader
to believe the analysis it offers.)
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3. Subject matter: does the writer demonstrate a mastery of
the relevant material that we’ve covered so far?
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4. Ambition: how in-depth is the paper? Is the writer
pushing her/his points as far as they can go? Does the writer offer
original insights?
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5. Argumentation: does the writer make a clear claim, offer
specific evidence to support the claim, and then interpret the evidence
so that its relationship to the claim is clear?
All papers should be 5-6 pages long, typed, double-spaced, and stapled,
with numbered pages and a title.
Theory responses: Over the course of the semester, you’ll
write three theory responses. These are brief (1-2 page), informal
papers in which you engage with a particular theoretical concept from our
readings or discussions that is interesting to you. These papers
may be the seeds of analysis papers, or they may simply be ideas that you’d
like to grapple with but don’t feel like writing a long paper about.
They do need to be typed, double-spaced, but other than that they can be
completely informal—thoughts, questions, stream-of-consciousness ramblings,
etc, are all acceptable. These won’t be graded, but your conscientious
fulfillment of this assignment will factor into your participation grade.
Please space these papers out; if I get all three at once at the end of
the semester, that will negatively impact your participation grade.
Independent project: I’m leaving this pretty vague because
I want this to be something you come up with that’s meaningful to you,
but a number of possibilities spring to mind:
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You could design and carry out some sort of creative activist project that
would allow you to enact your third wave feminism. You could bring
the issues we’re discussing this semester to the larger campus community
and/or address some of the problems we’ve examined.
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You could do a material culture research project, documenting the stuff
that surrounds (or perhaps constitutes) third wave feminism. For
instance, I’ve long been fascinated with the GRRL brand lip gloss that
Target markets to pre-teens: you could collect and document ways
in which the media coopts empowering third wave slogans for shallow capitalist
purposes.
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You could do a larger creative project that connects to third wave ideas:
an autobiography, a collection of your poetry or songs, or a visual or
performed art piece.
Final exam: You will have a take-home final that will
ask you to discuss and engage with key concepts from the semester, not
the little minutia of names, dates, etc.
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