Our ideas about gender – about women, men masculinity, and femininity – as well as our ideas about sexuality – about sexual activities, whom should have sex with whom – organize our social life in important ways that we often do not even notice. These ideas are either invisible to us (such that we take them for granted as “normal”) or are explained away (such that they seem like the “natural” way life works). In this course we investigate and expose those aspects of social life that often go unquestioned. We will critically examine the ways in which gender and sexuality inform and are informed by the social work in which we live; we will identify the gender and sexual hierarchies in US society; and we will look at attempts to destabilize these hierarchies.
Prerequisite: At least 6 credit hours in SOC.