Spring 2009 Issue 31
Efforts Are Underway to Add Queer Studies to Mills’ Curriculum New Initiatives & New Courses Reflect Growing Interest in Queer Studies
Issue 31
Women’s Studies Newsletter
THE MEG QUIGLEY WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM AT MILLS COLLEGE
Queer Studies is gaining momentum at academic institutions across the country. Many larger universities have established Queer Studies departments; others have interdisciplinary Queer Studies concentrations, while smaller colleges are incorporating Queer Studies as a major or minor in Women and/or Gender Studies Programs. Mills’ growing interest is reflected in several important developments that are sprouting up around Campus. Mills is currently offering its first Introduction to Queer Studies course taught by Professor Rebekah Edwards. In the course, Professor Edwards focuses on ways in which sexuality, race, gender, and nation coproduce queer bodies, sites, and movements. The definition of "queer", used as the starting point for exploring Queer Studies is "that which upsets, opposes, or subverts ideas and practices of Professor Rebekah Edwards normality particularly in relation to (by not limited to) the binary relationship of "homosexuality" and "heterosexuality" as the main axis on which human sexuality is mapped." This course compliments other queer studies courses being offered at Mills such as Queer American History taught last fall by Christine Rose, Contemporary Queer Writers of Color taught by Vivian Chin, and the Queer Poetics course Rebekah Edwards will be teaching next fall. Additionally, this spring, Mills will graduate its first College Major in
Queer Studies, Nic Weinstein (see sidebar, on next page). Although individual departments have offered courses on queer topics, Mills has not offered a Queer Studies Major or Minor. Nic was able to design a College Major by transferring courses from City College in addition to her course work at Mills. Her advisory committee includes Professors Marianne Sheldon, Elizabeth Potter and Margaret Hunter. In response to growing demand, the Women’s Studies Program has requested a full-time, tenure-track faculty member who specializes in Queer Studies. “We have applied for a new faculty position twice and will continue to do so until the college recognizes how important it is to have a tenure-track faculty member with expertise in Queer Studies. This faculty member would be a great asset to any Queer Studies program at Mills,” commented Professor Elizabeth Potter, Chair of the Women’s Studies Program. Along with several other projects, the Mills’ Diversity Committee is spearheading, a Queer Studies Initiative. It was created “to address a significant (Continued on page 2)
Inside This Issue: Nic Weinstein: Mills’ First Queer Studies Major........................... 2
Women’s Studies Faculty 2009-2010............................... 3
Dr. Margaret Hunter Researches Gender, Race & Body in Hip Hop Culture ................................................. 3
Women’s Studies Program Co-Sponsored Events for 2008-2009 ...................................................... 4
Page 1
Adding Queer Studies To Mills’ Curriculum (Continued from page 1)
gap in our curriculum” remarked Professor Julia and groundbreaking program”, said Professor Sudbury Chair of the Ethnic Studies Sudbury. Department. “Our goal is to develop a Queer Historically, Mills College has a reputation as Studies Program that is interdisciplinary, a pioneer in 21st-century education drawing on transnational and intersectional, based on new people interested in experimentation, leadership, directions in scholarship in the field and social responsibility, and creativity. committed to Mills has the added advantage of community “It has been exciting to work with being located in the dynamic and engagement.” committed faculty and students from multicultural Bay Area, where it across the campus to create the The Queer has access to the enormous variety vision for this truly interdisciplinary Studies Initiative of queer studies scholars, activists has drafted a and artists that reside there. With and groundbreaking program”, said proposal in order its resources and connections, it is Professor Sudbury. to garner support a natural fit for developing an from the entire engaging, relevant Queer Studies faculty and to identify funding requirements and program that would serve to enhance the sources. Initially, the proposal seeks to establish curriculum combining traditional liberal arts a Queer Studies minor, to introduce a with new educational initiative that recognize symposium and performance series, and to the value of cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity support faculty in developing new courses. “We as stated in its mission. are hoping there will be strong support for this “Having a Queer Studies focus at Mills would initiative across campus”, commented Professor be an incredible draw for students” says Dave Donahue who is heading up the Queer Professor Edwards, who believes that Mills, Studies Initiative Work Group. because of its reputation and location, has the “It has been exciting to work with committed potential for a cutting edge program that could faculty and students from across the campus to recruit active speakers, artists, scholars and create the vision for this truly interdisciplinary students to its campus.
This spring, Nic Weinstein will be the first student to graduate from Mills with a College Major in Queer Studies. She reflects on her experience. I began petitioning for a Queer Studies College Major during my first semester at Mills. Dr. Potter was an enormous help in actualizing this goal. She understood that examining gender through the Women’s studies department or exploring the intersections of sexuality, gender and race through an ethnic studies lens would not satisfy my intellectual curiosity. Uncovering queer history, analyzing queer literature and grappling with queer theory fueled my desire to finish college. Now that I am in my final semester at Mills I am actualizing yet another dream. I was asked to join the Queer Studies Initiative, a group of faculty and students meeting to create a permanent home Page 2
for a Queer Studies program. The plan is still in the formative stages but in its current incarnation we are looking for sources of funding and developing our vision of the curricula. QSI is dedicated to the cutting edge of its field emphasizing a transnational perspective of Queer Studies. The day my college major was approved, I rushed to class to tell Dr. Potter. She slapped me high five. I am so excited to be part of a movement seeing that hopes become a reality.
Nic Weinstein
Women’s Studies Newsletter
Women’s Studies Faculty 2008-2009 Deborah Berman-Santana Ethnic Studies JoAnne Bernstein Art Judith Bishop Women’s Studies Carlota Caulfield Modern Languages & Literature Mario Cavallari Modern Languages & Literature Carol Chetkovich Public Policy Vivian Chin Ethnic Studies Rebekah Edwards Women’s Studies Carol George Psychology Bert Gordon History Janet Holmgren President & English Margaret Hunter Sociology Carol Jarvis Library Amina Mama Ethnic Studies Ajuan Mance English Brinda Mehta Modern Languages & Literature Ann Metcalf Anthropology Melinda Micco Ethnic Studies Zhreh Niknia Economics Elizabeth Potter Women’s Studies Vanita Reddy Women’s Studies Siobhan Reilly Economics Moira Roth Art History Kirsten Saxton English Ruth Saxton English Cynthia Scheinberg English Julia Sudbury Ethnic Studies Nancy Thornborrow Economics Vanessa Wilson Physical Education Kathy Walkup Book Arts Laurie Zimet Social Science
Issue 31
Dr. Hunter Researches Gender, Race & Body in Hip Hop Culture We recently spoke with 2008-09 Quigley Fellow, Dr. Margaret Hunter about Shake It Baby, Shake It: Gender, Race And The Body In Music Videos - the working title of her current research project. Why is this interesting to you? Most of my research is on the politics of skin tone for women of color in the United States. I am interested in how light skin and dark skin lead to different rewards and how beauty is used as a form of capital in the market-place. Consequently, I am also interested in how media represent women of Professor Margaret Hunter color. I recently published an article titled, “Women of Color in Hip Hop: The Pornographic Gaze” in the journal, Race, Gender, and Class. In this article my co-author and I analyze lyrics of chart topping rap songs. We found a strong relationship between trends in rap lyrics and images in mainstream pornography. Naturally, this led to my interest in music videos. Many pundits criticize rap videos, but few scholars have actually looked at music videos systematically. How did you collect your data? I chose 34 music videos to analyze: the 15 top 2007 rap singles, the 15 top 2008 rap singles, and the 2 top rap singles from each year that were not in the top 15 songs, but were listed in the top 25 music videos of all genres (2007-08). After viewing all the videos multiple times I am now coding them for common themes. Some examples are: 1) the kind of space the video is shot in (for example: poor urban neighborhood, dance club, wealthy home/lifestyle), 2) the types of camera shots of the
women (facial close ups that show emotion, or panning the body), and 3) presentation of masculinity (style of dress, tattoos, jewelry, etc.).
What does the data reveal?
Despite the fact that hip hop has a multiracial, global audience, the actors in the music videos are overwhelming African American and almost exclusively people of color. This seems to point to the fact that what music videos are selling is an image of Blackness. Although there are notable exceptions, most videos in my sample focus on 1-2 black male rappers as the focus of the video with women and cars as props or decoration. This is clearly a formula for videos in the rap genre. This formula speaks to a prevalent male adolescent fantasy of having the sexual attention of (and power over) many beautiful women, and being able to own and drive many expensive cars. This formula is successful because the audience of rap music videos is disproportionately young. There seem to be two primary ways that women are represented in rap music videos: 1) as video “girls” often called “video hoes” by industry insiders and hip hop fans, and 2) as the girlfriend or potential love interest. The video girls are portrayed as anonymous and interchangeable with frequent shots of their bodies in revealing outfits. The girlfriends are identified by longer shots of their faces. Their faces show emotions (like sadness or joy), and they are not shown in hyper-sexualized ways, even if they are supposed to look attractive or (Continued on page 4)
Page 3
(Continued from page 3)
sexy. For example, video girls might wear a bikini and dance in a way that makes their breasts bounce for the camera, and girlfriends would be shown in a beautiful and expensive designer gown.
Why is it important to look at hip hop from a sociological perspective? Research on popular culture in general and hip hop in particular is so important because young people are inundated with images from this industry 24 hours a day. We are raising a generation of young African American and Latinos on hip hop culture. This is not a problem in and of itself, but we need to better understand what it’s about, what its strengths are and where we need to challenge it. There are many negative public health outcomes associated with music video viewing including earlier age of sexual initiation, increased infection from sexually transmitted disease, and increased levels of violence in school. If more people get into the conversation we can affect the way we produce and consume hip hop.
The Meg Quigley Women’s Studies Program at Mills College Women’s Studies Program Chair Dr. Elizabeth Potter Phone: 510-430-2233 Fax: 510-430-2167 Email: wmst@mills.edu Newsletter Editor: Jessie Heminway
For a complete listing of Women’s Studies Course Offerings go to: http://www.mills.edu/academics/ undergraduate/wmst/ and click on: Women’s Studies Fall 2009 Course Offerings
The Meg Quigley Women’s Studies Program Mills College 500 McArthur Blvd Oakland, CA 94613
Women’s Studies Program CoSponsored Events for 2008-09 • The Ethnic Studies Department Heritage Months • The Spanish & Spanish American 2009 Spring Lecture Series • Department of English Guest Lecturer: Ann K. Mellor
http://www.mills.edu/academics/undergraduate/wmst/