Study questions for selected readings
Simone de Beauvoir
Judith Lorber
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Combahee River Collective
Patricia Hill Collins
 

Simone de Beauvoir

1. What does de Beauvoir mean when she refers to women as "the second sex" and "The Other?"  What creates women's status as "Other?"

2. Lorber writes: "To decline to be the Other, to refuse to be a party to the deal, this would be for women to renounce all the advantages conferred upon them... Indeed, along with the ethical urge of each individual to affirm his subjective existence, there is also the temptation to forego liberty and become a thing" (p. 9).  What does this mean?  Do you agree/disagree?

3. What does she mean when she discusses men as "subject" and women as "object?"  According to her, what keeps women from attaining "subjecthood?"

4. What obstacles exist to women organizing themselves into a political group for the purpose of resisting subordination?  Do the obstacles originate in women's own thinking, or are they imposed on women from the outside?  What's de Beauvoir¹s position on this?  What's yours?

5. Based on your personal experience, does de Beauvoir¹s philosophy help explain women¹s status today?  If so, how? (If not, why not?)
 

Judith Lorber

1. What is the difference between an achieved vs an ascribed status?  What does Lorber mean when she says gender is both ascribed and achieved? (p. 23)

2. Lorber repeatedly refers to West and Zimmerman¹s concept of "doing gender" (pp. 16, 25)  What is meant by this?  Is it possible to change the way you do gender?  What are the consequences for individuals and society?

3. Under what circumstances do you/have you violate(d) prescribed gender norms or expectations, and what are/were the results?

4. Lorber writes, "Transvestites and transsexuals do not challenge the social construction of genderŠ bending gender roles and passing between genders does not erode but rather preserves gender boundaries" (p. 21). What does she mean?  Do you agree or disagree?  Why?

5. How does Lorber¹s analysis help our understanding of gender?  How is it limiting?
 

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

1. Why did lynching persist in the southeastern United States once it had disappeared from the West?  How did pro-lynching advocates justify the "unwritten law" of lynching? (Why did they say it was OK to do?)

2. Wells-Barnett writes on p. 156: "...today, under this reign of the 'unwritten law,' no colored man, no matter what his reputation, is safe from lynching if a white woman, no matter what her standing or motive, cares to charge him with insult or assault."  The same could not be said of white men and black women.  What is Wells-Barnett referring to?  What does this
situation imply for the social construction of white women's sexuality and identity in the 19th century?  How about black women¹s sexuality and identity?  White men¹s?  Black men¹s?

3. How is the public nature of lynching important?  How does the crime of lynching affect more than just its individual victims?  Whom does it affect, and how?  How does it affect different members of society differently?
 

Combahee River Collective

1. How would you summarize the collective¹s politics, commitments and goals?

2. What does the collective say about socialism, black nationalism and Lesbian separatism? (What does it find problematic/limiting about these theoretical positions/social movements?)

3. What is their critique of the white women¹s movement?

4. From their perspective, how do means relate to ends in political organizing?

5.  The collective makes a number of claims about the relationship between sex and race.  According to the collective, how does sexual identity combine w/ racial identity in the lives of African American women?  How do sexual identity and racial identity combine in your personal experience?

6. What is meant by the following quotes?
p. 193 ­ "We might use our position at the bottom to make a clear leap into revolutionary action.  If black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression."

p. 194 "Many black women have a good understanding of both sexism and racism, but because of the everyday constrictions of their lives cannot risk struggling against them both."

P. 194 "Accusations that black feminism divides the black power struggle are powerful deterrents to the growth of an autonomous black women¹s movement."
 

Patricia Hill Collins

1. According to Hill Collins, what is the purpose of Black feminist thought?

2. What is the relationship between experience and consciousness?  Why is this relationship important?

3. What does Hill Collins say about the connections among gender, race, class, sexuality and diaspora?

4. Why are Black women intellectuals' contributions crucial for Black feminist thought?

5. According to Hill Collins, what is distinctive about the relationship between self and community in Black feminist thought?

6. How does Black feminist thought connect/relate to modes of thought/activism generated by other communities?

7. How does Hill Collins' theory resonate with your experience?  (Is it similar or different?  Do you find her arguments compelling, challenging, difficult? Why?)