Women Studies

I just received my own free copies of

_Feminist Theory_, by Kolmar and Bartkowski,
and _Issues in Feminism_, by Ruth.

I'm pretty excited about teaching
a course just straight through
the material--I'll probably learn a lot
along the way . . .
Frankly, I'm getting bored with the text I've used
since Winter of 2005.
I need new material to keep me awake.

Today, we watched a film, "Rosie the Riveter" (1980),
to introduce our next sequence on
the sexual division of labor, ie. Women and Work.
The film, which is a documentary, is 65 minutes long
and made 25 years ago . . .
and most of the class stayed awake.

I wish I could make visual clips to add to this blog--
the propaganda ads during World War II were a hoot.
The sexism is blatant and undeniable.
For example, one ad showed what would happen to children
if their mothers did not give up their
high-paying factory jobs and return home:
Little Tommy played with matches and newspaper;
Middle-school Tommy pulled out a box of cigarettes
and shared with his friends. {One of my students
thought it was pot. Uh, no. Not in 1948.}
If I could ad these to my blog, perhaps you'd stay awake . . .

anyone sensing a theme here?