Return to top Professor: Dr. Marian Mollin
Office: 415 Major Williams Hall
Phone: 231-8367 E-mail: mmollin@vt.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3:30-4:30; Thursdays, 11-12; and by appointment
Course Description
This class will explore the ways in which the meaning and place of sexuality in American life have changed from the colonial era through the present. Our questions will span a range of concerns. How have ideas about physical contact and emotional intimacy changed over the past 400 years? What were the Puritans really like in private? How Victorian were the Victorians? How wild were the flappers? We will also explore more political issues. How and why have different authorities in American society regulated sexual behavior and beliefs? What makes for periods of sexual reform and revolution? How have the realities of gender, race and class influenced ideas about sexuality, morality, and power?
We will work to answer these questions through regular reading assignments, short papers, a final portfolio project, and active in-class discussions. Come prepared to grapple with provocative material and to polish your skills as historians. By the end of the semester, you will be more familiar with the kinds of evidence historians use to reconstruct the past and with how to reconstruct the history of something that most of us think of as an unchanging and ahistorical given.
Required Readings
All books are available from the University Bookstore, Volume Two Bookstore, and the Tech Bookstore. Many are also available from online booksellers. All books (except for Major Problems) are also on reserve at Newman Library.
∙ Kathy Peiss, ed., Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality
∙ Albert Hurtado, Intimate Frontiers: Sex, Gender, and Culture in Old California
∙ Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple
∙ Linda Brent (aka Harriet Jacobs), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
∙ George Chauncy, Gay New York
∙ Beth Bailey, Sex in the Heartland
∙ Handouts – distributed in class
Course Requirements
Attendance and Participation
The primary format for this course will be student-centered discussion of course readings. Your active and informed participation is therefore crucial to the success of this class. It is especially important that you carefully read and review the designated readings before the class meetings for which they are assigned. Read the books, articles, and documents carefully beforehand and take notes if you feel that’s necessary to help you remember key points. Make sure to keep track of any questions that the readings raise for you as you go along, and be sure to bring the assigned readings with you to class so that you can refer to them during discussion.
Your Written Reflections on the readings (see below) will give you the opportunity to think about and reflect on the assigned material before you come to class, and thus help you become a more informed and active participant. You are required to hand in eight of these Reflections over the course of the semester. You may also find it helpful to take notes on the readings even if you’re not preparing a Written Reflection for that week since the act of writing will help you gather and clarify your thoughts.
Finally, here are a few ground rules for discussion. We will be talking about what many people may consider to be “sensitive” topics. The beauty of studying history is that we can think and talk about things like sexuality without having to divulge personal information. I expect that we will have some lively and heated debates about how Americans in the past viewed this core aspect of personal identity and meaning. But as we grapple with the difficult questions that will surely arise, we will all need to make an effort to treat each other, and each others’ contributions to class discussions, with respect.
Discussion Leaders
Each of you will be expected to co-lead (or lead, depending on the final size of the class) the classroom discussion once this semester. Class sessions will generally alternate between instructor-led and student-led discussions. Discussion leaders are expected to be especially familiar with the readings for the day, and should meet with each other beforehand to compose a brief set of questions and to identify key themes to guide our discussions.
The available dates and topics of discussion are:
Thurs, Feb 2 – Sexuality in the British Colonies
Thurs, Feb 9 – Gender Conflict and Sexual Reform
Tues, Feb 14 – Sexuality and Slavery
Thurs, Feb 23 – Power and Intimacy on the Frontier
Tues, Feb 28 – Love and Intimacy in 19th-Century America
Thurs, Mar 16 – Birth Control and the Politics of Reproduction
Thurs, Mar 23 – Working-Class Women and Modern Sexuality
Thurs, Mar 30 – The Making of the Gay Male World
Thurs, Apr 13 – Sexual Dissent in an Age of Conformity
Thurs, Apr 20 – A Revolutionary Shift?
Thurs, Apr 27 – Expanding Sexual Boundaries
Written Reflections
To help you articulate your ideas both in class and out, you will each be required to turn in 8 short (2-3 pages, double-spaced) Written Reflections on the reading over the course of the semester. These Written Reflections will provide an opportunity for you to think critically about the readings for each week – and to come to terms with the significance and meaning of the readings. Simple summaries of the books or articles will not suffice. Nor will emotional or gut-level responses (although your personal perspective will certainly inform your analysis). Instead, use these papers to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the week’s readings, to respond to the major arguments made by the different authors, to critically examine the theoretical and methodological frameworks of the reading assignments, and/or to relate these readings to items read earlier in the semester.
You will have 12 opportunities to submit Written Reflections (see Course Schedule), but you only need to turn in 8, which can be turned in any weeks that you choose, but not after the assigned due date. Pace yourself wisely – don’t leave them all for the end! The papers are due at the beginning of class on the dates designated and should address some aspect of the assigned readings for that particular week (not day). Papers should be concise, well-written, and carefully proofread. No late papers will be accepted.
Final Portfolio
Make sure to save electronic and hard copies of all of your papers because ... at the end of the semester, you will compile your written work into a Final Portfolio that will include
• five (5) of your favorite Written Reflections from the class
• and (more important) a 4-5 page summary/analysis of the material that you discussed in the above assignments.
Your completed Final Portfolio will be due by 10:00 am, Thursday, May 9th – the time and date designated by the university for your final exam. The Final Portfolio MUST be completed in order for you to receive a passing grade in the class.
Communication
I will communicate with you periodically via e-mail. If you check your e-mail through an account other than your Virginia Tech account (ie: Hotmail or Yahoo), make sure you configure your Virginia Tech e-mail account to forward your mail. Otherwise you will miss out on important announcements.
If you wish to communicate with me via e-mail, please be sure to type “Hist 2984” in the subject header line. Otherwise, I may delete the message without reading it since I get too much spam and virus-laden e-mails these days to open up messages that I don’t immediately recognize.
Finally, some things are best discussed in person rather than electronically. If you have a complicated or sensitive problem to discuss, please feel free to come and introduce yourself to me. I am always available during my office hours as well as after class.
Honor Code
Students are expected to familiarize themselves with and adhere to the Virginia Tech Honor Code on all assignments for this course, particularly those aspects of the Honor Code related to plagiarism. http://www.honorsystem.vt.edu
As the Virginia Tech Department of History explains on its website – http://www.history.vt.edu/UDGHowToWriteEss.htm – plagiarism is “the use of the writing and/or ideas of another without proper acknowledgment.”
• If you use the exact words of another person, no matter how long or short the quote, you must put those words into quotation marks and include a citation to indicate their source.
• If you use someone else’s ideas or paraphrase someone’s words, you must cite that as well.
Failure to do any of the above constitutes plagiarism and will result in the filing of a report to the Virginia Tech Honor Court. If you’re unsure about whether an idea or words are yours or somebody else’s, ere on the side of caution and include a citation.
Be forewarned: I read published book reviews (both online and in printed format) and am quite adept with online search tools. Please don’t become one of the several people that I report each semester to the University for Honor Code violations.
Grades:
Grades for the course will be based on the following formula:
| Classroom Participation | 20% |
| Co-Leading Discussion | 10% |
| Written Reflections (8 of 12) | 55% |
| Final Portfolio | 15% |
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| TOTAL | 100% |
COURSE SCHEDULE
(subject to change and revision)
Week 1: Does Sexuality Have a History?
Jan 17 Sex, Gender and Sexuality: An Introduction to the Course
Jan 19 Theoretical Foundations and Vocabulary
Major Problems, pp. 1-9
Week 2: From Theory to Practice
Jan 24 Social Constructionism, Essentialism, and Evidence of Sexuality
Major Problems, pp. 10-25
Handout: “Love That Dare Not Squeak Its Name”
Assignment Due: Evidence of sexuality in the early 21st century
Jan 26 Sexuality and Native American Life at the Dawn of Colonial Contact
Major Problems, Chap 2 (pp. 26-68)
Written Reflection #1 Due
Week 3: Sexuality and Colonialism
Jan 31 Sexuality in the Spanish Colonies of North America
Hurtado, Intimate Frontiers (1-44)
Feb 2 Sexuality in the British Colonies
Major Problems, Chap 3 (pp. 70-105)
Handout: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “The Serpent Beguiled Me,” from Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750 (New York: Vintage Books, 1980), pp. 89-105
Written Reflection #2 Due
Week 4: Sexual Standards and Gender Conflict in the Early 19th Century
Feb 7 The Sexual Mores of Antebellum Life
Charlotte Temple, entire book
Feb 9 Gender Conflict and Sexual Reform
Major Problems, Chap 4 (pp. 107-141)
Handout: Caroll Smith-Rosenberg, “Beauty, the Beast, and the Militant Woman” from American Quarterly 23 (1971): 562-584.
Written Reflection #3 Due
Week 5: Sex, Race and Power
Feb 14 Sexuality and Slavery
Major Problems, Chap 5 (142-153, 158-186)
Feb 16 Sexuality and Race
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, entire book
Written Reflection #4 Due
Week 6: Life on the Sexual Frontier
Feb 21 Crossing Borders
Hurtado, Intimate Frontiers, pp. 45-113
Feb 23 Power and Intimacy on the Frontier
Hurtado, Intimate Frontiers, pp. 115-141
Written Reflection #5 Due
Week 7: Sexuality and the Victorian Ideal
Feb 28 Love and Intimacy in 19th-Century America
Major Problems, Chap 6 (pp. 187-237)
March 2 Sexuality and White Supremacy after the Civil War
Major Problems, selections from Chap 5 (153-158)
Handout: Jaquelyn Dowd Hall, “‘The Mind That Burns in Each Body’: Women, Rape, and Racial Violence,” from Ann Snitow, Christine Stansell, and Sharon Thompson, eds., Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983)
Birth of a Nation – in-class video (excerpts)
Written Reflection #6 Due
Spring Break
Week 8: The Politics of Bodily Self-Determination
March 14 Free Love and Censorship in Late Victorian America
Major Problems, Chap 7 (pp. 238-271)
Handout: Helen Horowitz, “Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock, and Conflict over Sex in the United States in the 1870s,” Journal of American History 87.2 (Sep 2000), 403-434
March 16 Birth Control and the Politics of Reproduction
Handout: Linda Gordon, “Voluntary Motherhood: The Beginnings of the Birth-Control Movement,” from Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: Birth Control in America (1976. New York, Penguin Books, 1990), 93-113
Major Problems, Chap 9 (pp. 308-336)
Written Reflection #7 Due
Week 9: Heterosexuality and the Modern Age
March 21 Sex Appeal and Modernity
Major Problems, selections from Chap 10 (348-356)
It – in-class video
March 23 Working-Class Women and Modern Sexuality
Major Problems, Chap 8 (pp. 273-307)
Handout: Hazel Carby, “Policing the Black Woman’s Body in an Urban Context,” Critical Inquiry 18 (Summer 1992), 738-755)
Written Reflection #8 Due
Week 10: Sexual Identities: Complicating the Picture
March 28 Homosexual Identities
Gay New York, Part I (pp. 33-127)
March 30 The Making of the Gay Male World
Gay New York, Part II (pp. 131-267)
Week 11: Gay Sexuality and Culture
April 4 Gay Identities and Cultural Subterfuge
The Celluloid Closet – in-class video
Written Reflection #9 due
April 6 TBA
Week 12: Sexuality and the Cold War
April 11 Sexual Containment
Handout: Elaine May, “Explosive Issues: Sex, Women, and the Bomb,” from Lary May, ed., Recasting America: Culture and Politics in the Age of Cold War (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1989), 154-170)
April 13 Sexual Dissent in the Age of Conformity
Major Problems, Chap 11 (pp. 367-403)
Written Reflection #10 Due
Week 13: The Sexual Revolution
April 18 The Calm Before the Storm
Sex in the Heartland, Intro, Chaps 1-4 (pp. 1-135)
April 20 A Revolutionary Shift?
Sex in the Heartland, Chaps 5-Epilogue (pp. 136-218)
Written Reflection #11 Due
Week 14: Contemporary Sexual Issues
April 25 Popular Culture and Sexual Representaion(s)
The Celluloid Closet – in-class video
April 27 Expanding Sexual Boundaries
Major Problems, Chap 14 (pp. 484-515)
Written Reflection #12 Due
Week 15: Coming to Terms With the History of American Sexuality
May 2 Sexual Politics and the Politics of Sexuality
Final Portfolio: due in Prof. Mollin’s office, Tuesday, May 9th, 10:00 am