Course Description: This course assumes that sexuality is embedded in social structures and interconnected with various forms of structural injustice. Keeping in focus that lesbian women are a very diverse people, we review historical trends, consider issues of definition, and study relationships, family, and community, including a unit on lesbianism and religion.

Course Prerequisites: WS 110 or WS 150, or AACS 150, AACS 155

Course Objectives:
a. To work toward a definition of lesbian, with understanding of the biological, psychological, and political issues involved in the task of definition.
b. To understand the complexities of the question of whether sexuality is inborn or socially constructed.
c. To learn the history of lesbian women in the U.S. from the late 19th century to the 1990s, including awareness of historical change in notions of gender and sexuality.
d. To understand how cultural, social, and political changes in twentieth-century U.S. affected the lives of lesbian women.
e. To understand how gender, race, ethnicity, class, physical ability, and age interstructure with sexuality.
f. To gain knowledge of the institutionalization of heterosexism in the U.S. society; the dynamics of homophobia; the interconnection with sexism, racism, and other forms of structural injustice.
g. To learn about negative and positive attitudes towards sexuality in organized religion (particularly current work in Christianity, Judaism, and paganism), and theological efforts to integrate sexuality and spirituality.

Student Outcomes:
a. To develop a working definition of lesbian.

b. To understand the biological, psychological, and political issues informing the question of whether sexuality is inborn or socially constructed.

c. To learn the history of lesbian women form the late 19th century to the present, particularly how cultural, social, and political changes affected their lives.

d. To learn how the social location (race, ethnicity, class, etc.) of lesbian women has affected their experience and their politics.

e. To gain knowledge about the institutionalization of heterosexism in the U.S. society; the dynamics of homophobia; the interconnection with sexism, racism, and other forms of social injustice.

f. To learn about developing efforts in theology (Christianity, Judaism, paganism) to integrate sexuality and spirituality.

Topical Outline of the Course Content:
a. Definitions of lesbian: psychological and political perspectives on the task of definition.

b. Definitions of sexuality; e.g., narrowly genital definitions of early sexuality research in the 1940s; broader definitions in current research, including sociological dimensions; notions of the erotic in contemporary womanist and theological literature.

c. The causes of sexuality. Current biological research, including the search for gay gene; debates between gay white male biologists and feminist women biologists; political and scientific issues in this research.

d. The history of the psychological study of sexuality and lesbianism. A critique of the Kinsey Heterosexual/Homosexual Rating Scale, its advantages and disadvantages.

e. The cultural history of lesbian women. Topics include romantic friendships of the late 19th century; the pathologizing of lesbianism at the turn of the century; the gay world of Harlem in the 1920s; butch/femme roles and issues in mid-century and in the 1980s; lesbians in the Armed Services and in the McCarthy era; the Stonewall Rebellion (1969) and gay liberation. Changes in notions of gender and sexuality during these historical events.

f. Bisexuality, transgender, and intersex issues. Definitions, issues in current research. Similarities and tensions between lesbians, bisexual, transgendered, and intersex persons.

g. The institutionalization of heterosexism in the U.S. society. The dynamics of homophobia.

h. Differences and similarities among lesbians according to social location (race, ethnicity, class, etc.).

i. Current theological efforts to integrate sexuality and spirituality.

Guideline Suggestions for Teaching Methods and Student Learning Activities:
a. Discussion in large groups, small groups, and dyads.

b. Short lectures.

c. Films.

d. Guest Speakers.

e. Student presentations.

Guideline Suggestions for Methods of Student Assessment:
a. Weekly journals, including response to assigned reading.

b. Short papers.

c. Oral reports on research projects.

Suggested Readings, Texts:
Faderman, L. Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Penguin, 1991.
Lorde, A. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984.
Pharr, S. Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism. Inverness, CA: Chardon Press, 1988.
Zimmerman, B., & T.A.H. McNaron, eds. The New Lesbian Studies: Into the Twenty-First Century. New York: The Feminist Press, 1996.

Bibliography of Supportive Texts:
Altman, D.C. Vance, et at., eds. We Are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Beck, E.T., ed. Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology. Watertown, MA: Perspephone, 1982.
Blasius, M., & S. Phelan, eds. We Are Everywhere: A Historical Source book of Gay and Lesbian Politics. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Bohan, J.S. Psychology and Sexual Orientation: Coming to Terms. New York: Routledge, 1996.
The Boston Lesbian Psychologies Collective, eds. Lesbian Psychologies: Explorations and Challenges. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987.
Butler, J. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Denny, D., ed. Current Concepts of Transgender Identity. New York: Garland, 1998.
Douglas, K.B. Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999.
Faderman, L. Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present. New York: William Morrow, 1981.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. The Myths of Gender: Revised and updated edition.
Feinberg, L. Transgender Warriors. Boston: Beacon, 1996.
Greene, B., G.M. Herek. Lesbian and Gay Psychology: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994.
Gunn, P.A. The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Boston, MA: Beacon, 1986.
Kessler, S.J. Lessons from the Intersexed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.
Kitzinger, C. The Social Construction of Lesbianism. London: Sage, 1987.
Martin, D., & P. Lyon. Lesbian/Woman. Twentieth anniversary edition, updated. Volcano, CA: Volcano Press, 1991.
Moraga, C., & G. Anzaldua, eds. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. New York: Kitchen Table Women of Color Press, 1981.
Ramos, J., ed. Comaneros: Latina Lesbians. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Scanzoni, L.D., & v.r. Mollenkott. Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? A Positive Christian Response. Revised and updated edition. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1994.
Williams, W.L. The Sprit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Boston: Beacon, 1986.

Preparers' Name and Date:

Original Departmental Approval Date:

Reviser's Name and Date:

Departmental Revision Approval Date: