My Reasons for Taking this Course

Hi my name is Robyn. I’m just starting my second year in the Masters program for Rhetoric and Professional Communication. I decided to take this course for several reasons: (1) because I am one course behind and would like to graduate on time (in May), (2) because of my interest in cultural studies and constructions of identity, and (3) because this class will better prepare me to teach ENGL 111 in the fall with the class theme, Confronting Sexual Difference.

To address reason number two—my primary motivation for taking this course arises from a broad interest in cultural studies, and post-structural theories of identity and  “indentification” (also “disidentification”). Thus, I look to explore the various persuasive, consubstantial, and contradictory means through which gender, race, and class are mediated and (re)performed by individuals and groups (especially by women and girls).  I’m excited to delve deeper into readings by Butler, constructivist notions of “gender” and “sex”, and explore how “feminine” ideologies have historically affected both women and girls in modern and postmodern times. I look forward to studying classifications of “womanhood”   and “girlhood” to better understand the genesis of their respective typologies and oppressive reconstructions over time.

To address my second reason, I believe this class will provide me with a more reflective frame for conceptualizing forms of gender construction in Western culture. In turn, this class will help me inspire my students to look more critically at ways in which “feminine” and “masculine” ideologies are displayed and represented in culture. I hope to inspire them to reflect on the ways that gendered cultural artifacts have impacted them or someone close to them. Thus to explore how mediated images of gender and sexuality can influence our beliefs pertaining to human health, reproduction, family, marriage, beauty, legality, ect. I hope that such discussions will inspire my students to choose an interesting and meaningful topic for their documented argument paper.