Questions and Topics We Can Help to Answer
Paper Instructions;

1. Do you agree with Jeanne Flavin’s argument about the cultural stereotyping of black women and paternalism underlying US policies on poverty and female reproduction? What do you make of the example she mentions regarding the punitive measures taken in some states against women who take illegal substances during pregnancy? Do you see such measures as culturally biased against poor black women or color-blind?
   
   2. What do you think of Kathleen Gerson’s description of involved fatherhood and egalitarian households? Are you currently in such a family situation? Did you come from a background in which involved fatherhood and egalitarian domestic arrangements were the norm or considered unconventional? Do you think that contemporary post-recessionary attitudes have changed for the better towards involved fatherhood and what is your opinion of the term “house hubbies”?
   
   3. E. J. Graff uses a very illuminating metaphor for the institution of marriage: “Marriage has been a kind of Jerusalem, an archaeological site on which the present is constantly building over the past, so that history’s many layers twist and tilt into today’s walls and floors. Many people believe theirs is the one true claim to this holy ground. But marriage has always been a battleground, owned and defined first by one group and then another” (349-50).
   
   This metaphor of an archaeological site is particularly useful for illustrating the various different cultural meanings attached to the institution of marriage over the course of human history. It is useful for showing that marriage has not always conformed to the traditional 20th and 21st-century Western notions of the union and legal sanctification of a man and woman in love. Until fairly recently, marriage was not for love, but rather for the exchange of property and financial negotiations between the two families of the married couple. Marriage prior to the nineteenth century was largely a lifelong business transaction between two families, and love and intimacy between the betrothed would be a fortunate consequence of this transaction.
   
   Graff was writing this article at a time when gay and lesbian marriages had not yet been ratified by the Supreme Court, and thus she argues in it that civil marriage must be a right of same-sex couples. Without the rights conferred by marriage, same-sex couples would not be able to have their bond “be marked and recognizable for the institutions around them” (349). Today, we are lucky that the groundbreaking Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that all states must allow same-sex marriage, thereby ensuring that gays and lesbians will be able to enjoy the same rights and recognitions as heterosexual married couples.
   
   Did Graff’s explanation of the historical variability of the cultural meanings of marriage expand your understanding of marriage? What do you make of her interpretation of contemporary marriage as the civil union of two people in love, regardless of their sexuality, who are then able to be recognized by key institutions (IRS, the state, hospitals, employers, health and life insurers, banks, pension programs, etc.).
   
   4. What type of feminism (liberal, radical, or socialist) are you most in agreement with and why? Does the description of the three strains of feminism in our Weekly Sessions enhance your understanding of what feminism means? How does your new understanding of feminism compare to your previous understanding?
   
   
   5. Do you agree with Rosalind Gill that much of our contemporary media culture is characterized by an emphasis on femininity as a bodily property? Do you think that women are subject to more cultural pressures to have a “sexy” body than men? What do you make of cultural standards of the “sexy” body—do they conform to a narrow vision of attractiveness or do you think there is room for diverse body types?
   
   6. Do you think that the pay gap between men and women, as well as childless women and mothers is evidence that US society is in need of additional reforms in favor of gender equality? Have you experienced gender discrimination in the workplace or observed it among people you know, and if so, how has it been manifested?
   
   7. What are your thoughts on the rise of neoliberalism and the decline of public services in the US? Do you think that the government should be more involved in regulating employers’ discrimination against parents? Do you believe the Scandinavian model of state-funded family programs to be better than the more neoliberal policies of the US?