This is an update of the feminist and queer pedagogies slide shows.

1. Feminist &
Queer Pedagogies
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University

2. Feminist Theory
✴ Feminist Theory - Critically Examining Male
Domination
✴ History of patriarchy
✴ Knowledge construction
✴ Objectivity
✴ Objectification of nature
✴ Rugged individualism
✴ Embedded in language
✴ Masculinity Studies
✴ Gender Construction/Expression
✴ Sexuality Studies

3. Social Construction
of “Manhood”
• Competitive
• Rugged
• Individualistic, unattached
• Unemotional/Stoic
• “Strong”
• Tendency towards violence
• Not good with children
• Speaks infrequently
• Obsessive about sports
• Loves cars and power tools
• Eats a lot
• Dirty, smelly
• Not a “thinker”, but is a “doer”
• Endures physical pain
What are the ways that mainstream society
constructs the concept of being a “man?”

4. “Manhood” and the
Construction of aViolent Mind
• Men commit:
• 85% of murders
• 90% of assault
• 95% of domestic violence
• 95% of dating violence
• 95% of child abuse
• 99.8% of rape
• 1 in 4 men will be violent towards
another woman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vJRq3cQnEE

5. SEXISM AS ENTERTAINMENT

6. A LITTLE HISTORY:
FIRST WAVE FEMINISM
Began in late 1700‘s, but gains
increasing attention in the late
1800’s in U.S. and Western
Europe
Women’s suffrage
Men controlling women in the
home
Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) A
Vindication ofWomen’s Rights

7. A LITTLE HISTORY:
SECOND WAVE FEMINISM
1950’s-1980’s in U.S. and Western
Europe
“Body politics,” or what’s private is
public/political
Equal pay for equal work
Largely responsible the levels of
societal practices that exist today
White women’s agenda

8. A LITTLE HISTORY:
SECOND WAVE FEMINISM
Simone de Beauvoir (1945) Second
Sex
(a) Becomes a woman, (b) Women
are “mysterious” so men don’t
have to understand them.
Betty Friedan (1963) Feminine
Mystique
(a) Women should pursue rigorous
education, (b) Not forced into
domestic roles, (c) Sexual
liberation

9. A LITTLE HISTORY:
BACKLASH
As a response to the civil rights
movements from the
1950’s-1970’s, conservatives,
men, and the ideology of the
“rugged individual” became
dominant in popular culture
and politics
Starting in the 1980’s in the
U.S., strong patriarchal figures
gained popularity and provided
a discourse against the civil
rights movements of the
previous twenty years

10. EXAMPLES OF BACKLASH
Ronald Reagan
George H.W. Bush
WWE
Rush Limbaugh
Rambo
Sarah Palin
Tea Party
Andrew “Dice” Clay

11. Backlash

12. THE “LOVABLE WOMANIZER”
1.Sam from Cheers
2.Joey from Friends
3.Charlie from Two and a
Half Men
4.Mike from Growing Pains
5.Uncle Jessy from Full
House
6.Fonzie from Happy Days
7.Al Bundy from Married
with Children
8.Christian from Nip/Tuck
9.Barney from How I Met
Your Mother
10. Entire cast from Mad
Men
11. Sawyer from Lost
12. Ryan from The O.C.
13. Mark from Grey’s
Anatomy
14. House,Taub & Chase
from House
15. Luka from ER
16. Moe from The Simpsons
Is there a female equivalent?
!
Why is this not only allowable,
but also popular
entertainment?

13. A “RETURN TO FEMININITY”
Take this pink ribbon off my eyes
I'm exposed
And it's no big surprise
Don't you think I know
Exactly where I stand
This world is forcing me
To hold your hand
'Cause I'm just a girl, little 'ol me
Don't let me out of your sight
I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite
So don't let me have any rights
!
Oh...I've had it up to here!
The moment that I step outside
So many reasons
For me to run and hide
I can't do the little things I hold so dear
'Cause it's all those little things
That I fear
'Cause I'm just a girl
I'd rather not be
'Cause they won't let me drive
Late at night I'm just a girl,
Guess I'm some kind of freak
'Cause they all sit and stare
With their eyes
!
I'm just a girl,
Take a good look at me
Just your typical prototype
!
Oh...I've had it up to here!
Oh...am I making myself clear?
I'm just a girl
I'm just a girl in the world...
That's all that you'll let me be!
I'm just a girl, living in captivity
Your rule of thumb
Makes me worry some
I'm just a girl, what's my destiny?
What I've succumbed to
Is making me numb
I'm just a girl, my apologies
What I've become is so burdensome
I'm just a girl, lucky me
Twiddle-dum there's no comparison
!
Oh...I've had it up to!
Oh...I've had it up to!!
Oh...I've had it up to here!
“Just a Girl”

14. A “RETURN TO FEMININITY”
The demand that women “return to femininity” is a demand that the cultural gears
shift into reverse, that we back up to a fabled time when everyone was richer,
younger, more powerful. The “feminine” woman is forever static and childlike. She
is like the ballerina in an old-fashioned music box, her unchanging features tiny and
girlish, her voice tinkly, her body stuck on a pin, rotating in a spiral that will never
grow.
From Backlash by Susan Faludi (p. 70, 1991)

15. THE WILD WOMAN
"She is the life/death/life force, she
is the incubator. She is intuition, she
is far-seer, she is deep listener, she is
loyal heart. She encourages humans
to remain multi-lingual; fluent in
the languages of dreams, passion,
and poetry. She whispers from night
dreams, she leaves behind on the
terrain of a woman’s soul a coarse
hair and muddy footprints. These
fill women with longing to find her,
free her, and love her."
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with
Wolves
Ecstasy II by Ines Honfi

16. THE WILD WOMAN
'When women tap into their forbidden wild
side again, mountains will move. Before that
happens a huge explosion of anger needs to
be danced with and embraced; and when we
dare to tap into this pool of wild rage, we
discover it contains our raw fire power, our
wild, untamed, creative Shakti.
!
Our primal, feminine essence of the Red River
is wild, passionate, fiercely protective,
fearless, magnetic, alluring, sensual and
playful. WILD means not living in captivity –
allowing ALL of yourself to be truly free, to be
sensual, to be fearlessly seen and without any
shame. This opens the primal, deep,
passionate ‘she-wolf’ at the core of your
Womb.'
!
'Pilgrimage into the Womb: Awakening the Holy Grail' from Fountain of Life
(fountainoflife.org)
Feminine Mystery III by Ines Honfi

17. THE WILD WOMAN
Truly, we know that we cannot really subsist on
little sips of life. The wild force in a woman’s
soul demands that she have access to it all.
!
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Flamenco Dancer by Fabian Perez

18. THIRD WAVE FEMINISM
1990’s - Present globally
Intersectional analysis of race, gender, class,
sexuality, and geopolitical location
Patricia Hill Collins wrote Black Sexual
Thought (1990)
Collins argued that because Black women in
the U.S. have a unique history, they have
created understandings of themselves and the
world out of a need to be self-defined.This
allows for them to have a tendency towards
social justice.
Collins argued that looking through
intersectional analyses of Black women allows
for initial understandings of other peoples.

19. INTERSECTIONALITY &
KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION
Feminist theorists have provided the most rigorous
forms of analysis because, especially since the inception
of “third wave” feminism, gender is not seen as separate
from race, class, religion, globalization, capitialism, etc.
Intersectionality is a lens of analysis that shows how
different identities articulate with one another, not
separately from one another.
Knowledge itself is a construction of intersections of
cultures and social locations/positions

20. CRITIQUE OF THE “WAVES”
Critique: These “waves” are from the perspective of White,
middle class women in the U.S. and in Western Europe. Black
females in the U.S. argued that they have been working on all
three “waves” since the late 1800’s. Furthermore,White
females often instituted racist conditions against Black
women during the first and second waves.

21. DIFFERENT LEVELS OF
PATRIARCHY
Daily Living - Most visible
(Car dealerships, media, service people, church, pay
scales, etc.)
Research & Construction of Knowledge - Less
Visible
(Carol Gilligan, heart attacks, Puerto Rico)
Social Construction of Reality - LeastVisible
(Language, scientific philosophy, worldviews, ideologies)

22. PATRIARCHY & RACISM
IN SCIENCE RESEARCH
Tuskegee Trials (Syphilis purposeful not cured in 600 Black men)
Looked for an “extra leg muscle” in Black men that made them run faster
Infected healthy mentally disabled people in Norwich and Middletown, Conn with
hepatitis
NewYork prisoners forced to swallow excrement with deadly stomach flu
Throughout the mid-20th century, at least half of the US states allowed scientists
to experiment on healthy prisoners. Scientistis infected them with: avian flu,
malaria, and gonorrhea.
Mentally retarded students in Staten Island were intentionally infected with
hepatitis
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_16029/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=5iL7RrKi

23. WHERE ARE WE?
Sandra Harding’s “Strong Objectivity”
Bring in as many different peoples into scientific
research which can strengthen “objectivity.”
Donna Haraway’s “Situated Knowledge”
Researchers need to bring in their positions(i.e.
race, history, culture, gender, location, class, etc.)
into their work because knowledge is always
constructed through who we are.

24. STANDPOINT THEORY
The acknowledgement that we can never be neutrally
located.With that, we need to always be aware of
how social, historical, and cultural processes are
constructing us, our thoughts, and our knowledge
production processes such as research.
Our knowledge is always produced from someone’s
or a group’s “standpoint.”

25. Feminist Pedagogy

26. Classroom Practices
1.Invitational Rhetoric
2.Empowerment
3.Building Community
4.Voice
5.Diverse Experiences
6.Challenge Traditional Views
(Webb, 2002)

27. Classroom Practices

28. Invitational Rhetoric
Does not try to change or control
students
Validates various perspectives
Creates safety, value & freedom

29. Invitational Rhetoric
bell hooks states that she does not intend to
create a classroom space that is comfortable.
It is turbulent, frank, (fiery) and full of emotional
disequilibrium
That is the space that allows for us to get to what
is real, honest, and authentic
It should be done with great care and support,
though.

30. Cooperative Learning
Moving away from a top-down lecture
At the college level:
Small group discussions
Papers that incorporated personal
living experiences and reflective
thinking

31. Empowerment
Education is not neutral
“Practice of freedom” - critically
questioning reality so that we may be
able to transform our world

32. Voice
Path for learning
Being heard
Sharing voice in community
Exercising one’s agency -
empowerment
Affirming personal
experiences

33. Building Community
Sharing of power or “power-with”
Shifting from individualism to
cooperative mindsets
Service learning projects

34. Building Community
Nel Noddings states that classroom spaces become
sites of working on issues and concerns that students
care about
Learning (in the school setting) becomes a process
that students can genuinely care about
Students support and encourage one another in their
learning experiences
Daring to “Care”

35. Challenge Traditional Views
Education is not neutral
Questioning traditional
views & practices of
gender
Questioning traditional
content and presentations
of “knowledge”

36. Ways of Knowing
What are the different ways that we come to
know information and construct knowledge?
Observation
Experience
Intuition
Spiritually
Relationships
Historically
Intergenerationally
Emotionally
Measurement
Power Relations
Media
Senses

37. The Earth
Western Science:
The Earth is a collection of materials, minerals, and
chemicals in systems.
Which “ways of knowing” construct this
knowledge?
Which “ways of knowing” are excluded?
What is missing from this description of the Earth?

38. Ways of Knowing
Western Science:
The Earth is a collection of materials, minerals, and
chemicals in systems.
Observation
Experience
Intuition
Spiritually
Relationships
Historically
Intergenerationally
Emotionally
Measurement
Power Relations
Media
Senses

39. The Earth
Indigenous Science:
The Earth is an integrated, interdependent,
interconnected, nurturing and spiritual being that
reciprocates life through balance and sustainability.
Which “ways of knowing” construct this knowledge?
Which “ways of knowing” are excluded?
What is missing from this description of the Earth?

40. Ways of Knowing
Indigenous Science:
The Earth is an integrated, interdependent, interconnected,
nurturing and spiritual being that reciprocates life through
balance and sustainability.
Observation
Experience
Intuition
Spiritually
Relationships
Historically
Intergenerationally
Emotionally
Measurement
Power Relations
Media
Senses

41. Queer Theory

42. What is Queer?
• The word “queer” connotes:
• Different
• Unacceptable
• Un-normed

43. Queer Theory
• Started with looking at un-normed
sexualities with relationships to sex and
gender
• Looked at what else is “queered” or un-
normed

44. Sex
• Sex is oftentimes emphasizing biological characteristics or
phenotype based on genatalia
• Genotypic Spectrum
• “Super Male” = xyy chromosomes
• Male = xy chromosomes
• “Hermaphodite” = xxy chromosomes (Klinefelter’s Syndrome)
• Female = xo chromosomes (Turner’s Syndrome)
• Female = xx chromosomes
• Female = xxx chromosomes (tend towards more “masculine
bodies)

45. Gender
• Gender is a social construction (i.e. how a society
thinks men and women should act)
• Gender Spectrum (not a binary)
• Men
• Transgender
• Transsexual
• Women

46. Gender Expression
Gender is a performance or an act

47. Gender Expression
Gender is a performance or an act

48. Sex & Gender
• Is someone who is biologically a male automatically
going to be a “man?”
• Is someone who is biologically a female
automatically going to be a “woman?”
• Sex and gender are both along spectra
• A person could have an xy chromosome (male - biological
construction) but feel more comfortable as a woman
(gender construction)
Transgender

49. Gender Expression
• Seth will be so proud!!!
• okay - that's one for the wedding
reception slide show!!!
• You can totally use this picture for
blackmail later. Smart of you to
grab your camera
• Lucky you got up there before
they put on makeup too!
• this will be the ultimate revenge
some day
• What happens when it's too quiet
upstairs!!

50. Sexualities
• Heterosexual or “Straight”
• Homosexual or “Gay,” “Lesbian”
• Bisexual
• Asexual
• Polyamorous

51. Sex, Gender & Sexuality
• A male identifying as a woman who
partners with a male also identifies as being
straight
• A female identifying as a man who partners
with a man also identifies as being gay

52. Born Gay?
• Arguments of sexuality being a choice or
being “genetic”
• People know by no later than 4th grade
• Born gay = Disease to be treated

53. Norming Sexuality &
Gender
• Gender Norm = Hegemonically fitting
everyone’s gender into the binary of male/
female
• Sexuality Norm = Hegemonically making
everyone as heterosexuals
• Homophobia used as a tool to hegemonically
reinforce the norms of sexuality

54. What/Who Does the
Queering?
• People in the dominating roles (i.e. those
who adhere to and profit from the norms)
• Contexts

55. Sites of Hegemony
• Religions
• Public Spaces
• Family
• Schools
• Media
• Laws

56. Straight Teacher?
• Why should a straight teacher care about
issues of sexuality?
• It’s like asking,“Why should a white teacher
care about racial issues?”

57. Supporting Students
• Being present for the student
• Not claiming to know any answers
• What does the student need from you?
• Working with counselors and school
psychologist to ensure that student is
supported

58. Gay-Straight Alliance
(GSA)
• Extracurricular clubs where students meet
to be active in supporting peoples of all
sexualities and genders
• New Britain High School has the largest
GSA of any high school in the United
States.

60. Being Queered
• Being queered means that the person/
group, knowledge, or practice is not only
un-normed, but it is also unacceptable
and subordinated.
• Uncomfortable
• “Weird”

61. What Else is Queered?
• Queering groups of people
• Queering knowledge
• Queering practices

62. What/Who Else is Queered?
• A person speaking Arabic in the
U.S.
• A person speaking Ebonics
• A Black woman in a suit with
braids
• Conscientious objectors
• Politicians who do not follow the
narrow discursive norms of their
party (i.e. Dennis Kucinich, Ron
Paul)
• Homeless people
• Wiccans/Witches/Pagans
• Indigenous Ecological Knowledge
• Voodoo
• Feminists
• Intuition
• Female Scientists like Rosalind
Franklin, Barbara McClintock,
and Jane Goodall

63. Queer Pedagogy

64. In a Lesson
• As with any transformative pedagogy, it’s
not about having the “right” method...
• It’s about developing the “right” question.
• Meaningful, thought-provoking, connected
to real world issues

65. In a Lesson
• Investigating “queered” relationships in the content
• Investigating “queered” knowledges
• Combining with aesthetic (fine arts, performing arts,
Theatre of the Oppressed) to provide divergent
thinking and experiential processes
• Purposely “othering” knowledge so that students
can respond by calling out “othering”
• Investigating how a community produces “queering”

66. In a Lesson
• How was Boo Radley “queered” in To Kill a
Mockingbird?
• How was the Ugly Duckling “queered”?
• How did Harvey Milk and his supporters fight being
politically “queered”?
• Forum Theater on how queering happens in your
school/classroom
• How do boys “queer” each other based on
definitions of masculinity?

67. References
!
Britzman, D. P. (1995). "Is there a queer pedagogy? Or stop reading straight".
Educational Theory, 45(2), 151-165. !
Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble. New York: Routledge.!
Butler, J. (2004). Undoing gender. New York: Routledge.!
hooks, b. (1989). Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking Black. Boston: South End
Press.!
hooks, b. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. New York City:
Routledge.!
Noddings, N. (1992). The challenge to care in schools: An alternative approach to
education. New York: Teachers College Press.!
Noddings, N. (2008). All our students thinking. Educational Leadership, 65(5), 8-13.!
Sumara, D. J., & Davis, B. (1999). Interrupting heteronormativity: Toward a queer
curriculum theory. Curriculum Inquiry, 29(2), 191-208.!
Talbert, S., & Steinberg, S. R. (Eds.). (2000). Thinking queer: Sexuality, culture and
education. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.!
Webb, L. M., Allen, M. W., & Walker, K. L. (2002). Feminist pedagogy: Identifying
basic principles. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 6(1), 67-72.!