Teaching Women's Studies in Conservative Contexts: Considering Perspectives for an Inclusive Dialogue

182 Pages·2016·1.297 MB·English

by  Cantice Greene (editor)

Teaching Women’s Studies
in Conservative Contexts
Women’s studies is a field that inspires strong reactions, both positive and
negative, inside and outside of the classroom. The field, partly due to its
activist origins, is often associated with liberal ideology and is therefore
chided by students and others who identify as conservative. The goal of
this book is to introduce conservative perspectives into the issues of gen-
der, sexuality, race, and power that are topics of teaching and discussion
in women’s studies courses. The book also aims to provide examples of
pathways by which conservative students and scholars can engage the field
of women’s studies, not as opponents, but as contributors. Contributors,
including administrators, activists, scholar-teachers, artists, and ministers,
come together in this collection to engage in writing and responding and
to add their approaches to teaching and administering women’s studies on
their campuses.
Cantice Greene is an assistant professor of English at Clayton State University.
Routledge Research in Gender and Society
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com
19 A Philosophical Investigation 25 The Cultural Politics of Female
of Rape Sexuality in South Africa
The Making and Unmaking of the Henriette Gunkel
Feminine Self
Louise du Toit 26 Migration, Domestic Work
and Affect
20 Migrant Men A Decolonial Approach on Value
Critical Studies of and the Feminization of Labor
Masculinities and the Encarnación Gutiérrez-Rodríguez
Migration Experience
Edited by Mike Donaldson, 27 Overcoming Objectification
Raymond Hibbins, A Carnal Ethics
Richard Howson and Ann J. Cahill
Bob Pease
28 Intimate Partner Violence in
21 Theorizing Sexual LGBTQ Lives
Violence Edited by Janice L. Ristock
Edited by Renée J. Heberle
and Victoria Grace 29 Contesting the Politics of
Genocidal Rape
22 Inclusive Masculinity Affirming the Dignity of the
The Changing Nature of Vulnerable Body
Masculinities Debra B. Bergoffen
Eric Anderson
30 Transnational Migration, Media
23 Understanding and Identity of Asian Women
Non-Monogamies Diasporic Daughters
Edited by Meg Barker and Youna Kim
Darren Langdridge
31 Feminist Solidarity at the
24 Transgender Identities Crossroads
Towards a Social Analysis Intersectional Women’s Studies for
of Gender Diversity Transracial Alliance
Edited by Sally Hines and Edited by Kim Marie Vaz and
Tam Sanger Gary L. Lemons
32 Victims, Gender and Jouissance 42 Muslim Women, Transnational
Victoria Grace Feminism and the Ethics of
Pedagogy
33 Gender, Development and Contested Imaginaries in Post-9/11
Environmental Governance Cultural Practice
Theorizing Connections Edited by Lisa K. Taylor and
Seema Arora-Jonsson Jasmin Zine
34 Street Sex Workers’ Discourse 43 The Embodied Performance
Realizing Material Change of Gender
Through Agential Choice Jack Migdalek
Jill McCracken
44 Gendering Globalization on the
35 Gender, Ethnicity, and Political
Ground
Agency
The Limits of Feminized Work
South Asian Women Organizing
for Mexican Women’s
Shaminder Takhar
Empowerment
Gay Young
36 Ecofeminism and Systems
Thinking
45 New Dynamics in Female
Anne Stephens
Migration and Integration
Edited by Christiane Timmerman,
37 Queer Women in Urban China
Marco Martiniello, Andrea Rea
An Ethnography
and Johan Wets
Elisabeth L. Engebretsen
46 Masculinities and Femininities
38 Gender and Rural Migration
in Latin America’s Uneven
Realities, Conflict and Change
Development
Edited by Glenda Tibe Bonifacio
Susan Paulson
39 Gender and Neoliberalism
The All India Democratic 47 Gender, Nutrition, and
Women’s Association and the Human Right to
Globalization Politics Adequate Food
Elisabeth Armstrong Toward an Inclusive
Framework
40 Asexualities Edited by Anne C. Bellows,
Feminist and Queer Perspectives Flavio L.S. Valente,
Edited by Karli June Cerankowski Stefanie Lemke, and María
and Megan Milks Daniela Núñez Burbano
de Lara
41 Cross-Cultural Women Scholars
in Academe 48 Teaching Women’s Studies in
Intergenerational Voices Conservative Contexts
Edited by Lorri J. Santamaría, Considering Perspectives for
Gaëtane Jean-Marie, and Cosette an Inclusive Dialogue
M. Grant Edited by Cantice Greene
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Teaching Women’s Studies in
Conservative Contexts
Considering Perspectives for
an Inclusive Dialogue
Edited by Cantice Greene
First published 2016
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Greene, Cantice, editor.
Title: Teaching women’s studies in conservative contexts : considering
perspectives for an inclusive dialogue / edited by Cantice Greene.
Description: New York ; London : Routledge, 2016. | Series: Routledge
research in gender and society ; 48 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015041380 | ISBN 9781138187108 (hbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Women’s studies. | Conservatism.
Classification: LCC HQ1180 .T384 2016 | DDC 305.4—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041380
ISBN: 978-1-138-18710-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-64339-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiv
Permissions Acknowledgments xv
1 Hip Hop and the Interrogation of Privilege 1
JUDY ISAKSEN
Response: On Hip Hop, Poetry, and the Shared Journey of
Womanhood 17
AMENA BROWN
2 Making a Conservative Appeal for Reproductive Rights to
a (Mostly Catholic) Student Populace 21
CECILI CHADWICK
3 Remedying Sexual Asymmetry with Christian Feminism:
Some Orthodox Christian Reflections in Response to Erika
Bachiochi’s “Women, Sexual Asymmetry, and Catholic Teaching” 34
MARIA LASTOCHKINA
4 Negotiating Feminism When Color and
Credo Trump Gender 47
CANTICE GREENE
Response: “It don’t matter if you’re black or white!”:
Feminist Pedagogy, Isolation, and the Growth of the
Discipline 63
LE’BRIAN A. PATRICK
5 The Metaphysics of Social Justice: Coalitional Activism at
the Intersections of Sexism, Racism, and Heterosexism 69
JENNIFER MCWEENY
viii Contents
Response: Prevailing Values amidst Seasonal Activism 88
LATONA F. DISHER
6 Women’s Learning Circles in Conservative Churches 95
MONICA CAROL EVANS
Response: The Gospel of Gender: Ethically Teaching Social
Liberalism in Conservative Contexts 111
VERONICA N. GRAVELY
7 Practicing Conversation: Feminist Research on
Conservative Women 116
LIHI BEN SHITRIT
Response: Strategies for Inclusive Conversation 134
MEAGEN FARRELL
Response: The Paradox of the Feminist Religious Radical:
What kind of extremists will we be? 138
MEGAN T. WILSON-REITZ
8 Voices of Administrators 145
CANTICE GREENE WITH BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL, JULIE HARTMAN-LINCK,
STANTON JONES, AND SCOTTIE MAY
Contributors 159
Index 163
Preface
This book assumes that the relationship between women’s studies and con-
servatives is an uncomfortable one. This assumption is based partly on the
popular tropes expressed by conservative political talk show hosts, who
often include women’s studies as chief among the college majors that are
useless in the marketplace and that transmit mixed messages to students and
the public regarding sexual and platonic relationships, gender, and struc-
tural power in and beyond college. This assumption is based on the popu-
lar idea that conservative equals sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic,
Islamophobic, bigot. It is also based on the conservative women and Black
women I work with who react uncomfortably to the term feminist, and it
is based on the feminist and women’s studies journals that rarely, if ever,
publish literature that speaks to my experience as a conservative academic
engaging reproduction, sexuality, power, and gender issues in my classes.
The assumption that the relationship between women’s studies and conser-
vatives is strained is also based on my experience as a conservative who has
engaged women’s studies uncomfortably for years. In graduate school, when
I wanted to focus on women’s rhetoric and composition, I was told my area of
concentration was feminism. I resisted the term then, but when I read about
women negotiating change through literacy and about women’s early experi-
ences gaining entry and status in the classroom and the academy, the terms
under which I studied no longer mattered. In fact, at times I embrace the term,
but other times, an experience reminds me why I’ve rejected it. I was reminded
about the uncomfortable relationship between conservatism and women’s
studies when I read the responses of the anonymous reviewers of the proposal
for this book. One response reverberated in my mind. The reviewer wrote
about my chapter in this collection, “I actually questioned if the author of the
chapter ‘Negotiating Feminism When Color and Credo Trump Gender’ really
understood what feminism or women’s studies was all about.” This comment
is among those I’ve heard for years, which underscores a belief that to speak
about women’s studies, certain (liberal) ideologies have to be upheld as sacred.
Despite the questions and doubts about the book, all along the road to
completing it I found new solidarity, first with each of the contributors in the
collection, and also with those who agreed to be interviewed for the chapter