Language and Gender/Sexuality
Words to know:
Feminism Patriarchy Misogyny
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What slurs or insults exist for women?
What patterns do you notice emerging with these insults? How offensive are these words to you? What do they actually mean? |
Female 1: Bitch. A malicious or spiteful woman, to be lewd or immoral.
Female 2: A classification of women as nothing more than dogs in heat. Female 1: Packs of bleeding wolves right for the taking. Bitch is worse than whore. Female 2: Rather be oversexualized than outspoken. Female 1: He said I have too many opinions. That my mother forgot to teach me young women must earn the right to speak them. Female 2: He said I better soften my skin until the word bitch can crack me. Female 1: Bitch is the epithet thrown at me when I don't fit into any of the boxes. Female 2: When I break the rules of being a lady. When I scare you. When I'm not in my place. Female 1: Bitch is a five letter slap to put me in my place. Female 2: A five lettered cage to keep me confined, an example to all women, beware of the bitch. Female 1: Spread your legs before opening your mouth. Female 2: Keep ideas to yourself. Female 1: Keep your body fresh meat. Female 2: Call me bitch between the sheets. Men use this word when it is convenient, when it is sexy, when it is skin tight and fitted. Female 1: Men should not act like a bitch. Bitch is timid. Female 2: Bitch is weak. Female 1: Bitch is inherently female. Female 2: Bitch can be pushed over. Female 1: Held down. Female 2: Domesticated. Female 1: Bitch is given to women as defense, a weapon we use against our own. Female 2: Retribution for the wounds it has left us with. Female 1: I've been called a bitch to destroy any strength I had left. Female 2: We give these five letters the powers of destruction. Female 1: An unclipped grenade weighing heavy on our tongues. I have never seen anger leave such a smooth cut. Female 2: A bitch knows this war cannot be won with more female bloodshed. Female 1: A bitch knows the power in this word. Female 2: The damage it can do. Female 1: The damage it has already done. Female 2: Does it make me a bitch if I am forceful? Female 1: If I'm strong, if my bark ravages worse than my bite? Female 2: If I speak before spoken to? Female 1: I have never been good at keeping my mouth shut. Female 2: I will not keep my mouth shut. Female 1: A bitch knows her voice. Female 2: Knows how to howl with a wolf pack in her throat. Female 1: A bitch is honest. Female 2: A bitch doesn't follow the rules. Female 1: Demands to know who wrote them. Female 2: Rules are weak. Female 1: Rules are prey. Female 2: I am Alfa female, I am fur on fire. Female 1: I am roaring tornado combusting misogynist mountains to dust. Female 2: Crushed bones and gutted, patriarchy carcass, we bleed to survive, you bleed to keep up. Female 1: And yes, I do kiss my mother with this mouth. Female 2: Who do you think taught me how to say no? To sharpen my teeth? Female 1: Prepared me for war? Female 2: I got binders full of bitches. Female 1: Bitches who want their 23 cents back. Female 2: Bitches with centuries of trauma being written out of our wounds. Female 1: The carnage women inherit. Female 2: Lifelines on our palms as mass graves for this massacre. Female 1: We are birthed into blood bath. Female 2: Bitches will not drown silently. Female 1: You cannot maim my flesh. Something I have already branded myself. Female 2: Women have been waiting. Female 1: Bitch is impatient. Female 2: Bitch is teeth bared and growling. Female 1: Bitch is starving. Female 2: Bitch will hunt you, outrun you. Female 1: Suck the marrow out of your bones. Female 2: Feed you to her children. Female 1: Sharpen our voices until you can hear us. Female 2: Thicken our skin when you use the word against us. Female 1: As if you can stop us. Female 2: Bitch is the leash you're losing, you're losing your grip on. Female 1: My voice does not belong to you. Female 2: My body does not belong to you. Female 1: Bitch does not belong to you. Female 2: I do not belong to you. |
Slam Poetry Discussion
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"Bitch Bad Lady" by Lupe Fiasco
Click HERE for lyrics.
Power and privilege
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Possible starting points for analysis:
- Definition of bitch. How do the definitions contribute to the objectification of women?
- To what extent do the women in Lupe Fiasco's song suffer from internalized misogyny? Click HERE for an article
- How has the media contributed to the changing connotation of the word bitch, and how might that relate to what Lupe Fiasco raps about? According to Lupe Fiasco, is the change in connotation positive or negative? Explain.
- Structure: Analyze the parallel structure used within the song. How does this type of structure contribute to the overall meaning?
- To what extent is the little boy in the video a representative figure?
- Why could the word "bitch" be damaging to young children?
- In the video, why does he use black face? For what could black face be a metaphor?
- What do you think of his use of the superlatives "bad, good, better"?
- To what extent does the outro display patriarchal ideas and reinforce gender roles?
"Learning to be Gendered"
Read and annotate the article called "Learning to be Gendered."
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Take notes in the following format:
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Men Talk (rap) by L. Lochhead
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Psychoanalytic and Gender Theory
Further readings
Further readings
- "The Meaning of the Phallus in Lacanian Theory" - published on Academia.edu
- Psychological Criticism - chapter from a textbook
- "Things Walt Disney Never Told Us" by Kay Stone (1975)
feminist_criticism.pdf | |
File Size: | 3751 kb |
File Type: |
Walt Disney: Gender and Psychoanalytic Theory
What evidence is there to suggest that Cinderella is living in a patriarchal system?
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Walt Disney's Cinderella (1950)
Questions for analysis (48:26-1:00:00)
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Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989)
Questions for analysis
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How do the female villains and the female protagonists juxtapose one another, and for what purpose?
Language and Gender: 1950s
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Based on the clip, what can you infer about the 1950s?
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Gender differences: cartoon analysis
- Big Idea: What is the cartoonist trying to say about men and women and society?
Purpose:
Audience: - Identify the techniques and structural features of a cartoon. Use the information from the PPT and the 5 extra techniques listed on the Paper 1 page.
- Choose one of the techniques. Why has the cartoonist use that technique?
Scott, J. and Borgman, J. “Unspoken Communication”. Zits. A Walk in the Words. 14 Feb. 2008.
Johnston, Lyn. Comic strip. 10 Dec. 1979. Reprinted 08 Jan.2008. For Better or For Worse. Web.
Satire
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Satire: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, often with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations or society into improvement.
Amazon reviews: BIC for Her
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