Week 6
Describe the connection among discourse, knowledge and power as conceived by Michel Foucault. Give one example of a 'normalizing discourse' with regard to gender. Give an example of a counter-discourse.
Give two examples of how a popular discourse about femininity or masculinity can be harmful to individuals.
Describe the discourses around rape and the Tabit rape case in Morocco. How are the victims portrayed as responsible? How are the perpetrators of rape excused? How do cultural conceptions or ideologies of women's sexuality common in many parts of male-dominated South Asia and the Middle East influence these discourses? What parallels can we draw to discourses about women, sexuality, and rape in our own culture?
Emily Martin gives many examples of how North American social constructions of gender influence the ways in which male vs. female reproductive physiology and processes have been described in medical textbooks. Describe two of these depictions.
According to Emily Martin, how has the metaphor of the factory been used to describe human reproductive processes? How do these metaphors reinforce certain gender stereotypes? Give an example of an alternative, positive description of the same process.
According to Martin, how has the stereotypical femme fatale image figured in more recent 'scientific' descriptions of fertilization? What does this say about the objectivity of scientific discourse? How does Martin's analysis support Foucault's ideas regarding language and discourse?
What is Martin's argument with regard to the 'circular reasoning' involved in anthropomorphizing biological processes?
Why does Martin caution against the ‘pushing back’ of fetal images closer and closer to the moment of fertilization?
Briefly explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. How does Cohn's analysis of technostrategic language support the basic idea of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? Give one example.
Give four examples of the ways in which 'technostrategic' language is gendered or sexualized.
According to Cohn, how does using technostrategic language change the way that one thinks about war? Describe how the language itself influences one's thinking. How is it both enabling and limiting? What happened to Cohn after being immersed in it for several weeks? Why is it seductive (what makes it pleasurable)? What are the implications for foreign policy?
Why does Cohn say that defense intellectuals' claims to rational objectivity are not valid? What does she say lies below the surface of their abstract, technical, decontextualized discourse?
What is a metanarrative? Give one example of a metanarrative.
According to Boon, cultural metanarratives were on the decline in the U.S. during the last part of the 20th century. How and why did the events of September 11, 2001 change that? Who were elevated as heroes? Given the situation today, would you say that these metanarratives are being sustained, or are they again on the decline? Why? Support your argument with one example.
According to Boon, although the hero figure benefits a culture as a whole, "it is injurious at the level of individualized masculine identity." How does the metanarrative of the hero put men in a bind?
According to Boon, the hero figure, although paradoxical, is a part of masculine identity. How might it explain, according to him, the tendency of many men to retain emotional distance at the expense of their personal relationships?
According to Boon, why were some writers vilified for drawing attention to the human foibles of some firefighters, police, and crews involved in the cleanup after 9/11? In other words, what did it have to do with the contradictions between the abstract domain of masculinity and the mundane domain of masculinity? How does he apply this to news reporting about Iraq?
Give three examples of the glorification of 'hyper-masculinity' in our culture. Give one example of how it has affected you.