Week Five: Reading from a Critical Position

Pussy Riot by Igor Mukhin

Established positions are like towers from which one can overlook the mediascape. As a case study, we will read several short stories and see a couple of film clips and discuss them from the point of view of a specific critical position.

Reading Assignment: Before class, read at least four of the short stories selected for this week. Several are listed and linked below. These links will also appear on the course resource page.

"Lust" (1984) by Susan Minot 

"Even the Queen" by Connie Willis

"Planet of the Amazon Women" by David Moles

"The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892)  by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"Story of an Hour" (1894) by Kate Chopin

"A Good Man is Hard to Find" (1953) by Flannery O'Connor

"Where Are You Going; Where Have You Been" (1966) by Joyce Carol Oates 

"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid


Writing Assignment for last week's reading: Please write about a female hero, a heroine,  that you have designed. What are her most important qualities and characteristics? How does she manifest her power? What about her would you like women to emulate?  How would you represent the positive aspects of her character? 

Link to Feminist Frequency videos and backgrounds on Tropes vs. Women in popular culture and video games. Excellent critical work by Anita Sarkeesian.

"More than anything, I feel that this meta-discourse, talking about the talk, is part of how it feels to be a 'woman in music' (or a 'woman in anything.' for that matter--politics, business, comedy, power). There is the music itself, and then there is the ongoing dialogue about how it feels. The two seem to be intertwined and also inescapable. To this day, because I know no other way of being or feeling, I don't know what it's like to be a woman in a bank--I have nothing else to compare it to. But I will say that I doubt in the history of rock journalism and writing any man has been asked, "Why are you in an all-male band?"
--Carrie Brownstein from Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

An important source in third wave feminism and its impact on the contemporary feminist practice of groups like Pussy Riot is the Riot Grrrl communities of the 1990s and their successors. Many of the significant firgures in these communities are still active. One aspect of the work of these activist artists is they way they move across various media, seemingly fearlessly but at least with considerable tenaciousness and not infrequently with considerable effect. Here are some links:

Don't Need You The Herstory of Riot Grrl
Excerpt from Grrl (2013) documentary
Bikini Kill "Suck My Left One" and "Rebel Girl" (1992)
Bikini Kill Washington DC 1992

Molly Crabapple with "Shell Gane" her Tryptych

Pussy Hat Project Link