Phanatical said:
You'll notice that the overwhelming majority of the subjects in this particular Major study are still focused on women, with the exception of WMST2009. Considering that WMST2009 is only 8cp out of the 64cp required for a major in Gender Studies, it suggests to me the bias remains.
Phanatical here's a course descriptor of some of the subjects from the insitutute of women's studies at macquarie university (Handbook 2004). Theres A LOT more to it than that mate
WST110 -
Gender Issues in the Contemporary Context
Gender Issues in the Contemporary Context offers an introductory look at Women's studies and Gender Studies. Lecturers from departments throughout Macquarie contribute to this interdisciplinary unit: from Anthropology, Critical and Cultural Studies, Education, History (Ancient and Modern), Human Goegraphy, Law, Media, Philosophy and Politics, as well as from the Institute for Women's Studies itself. Lecturers focus on a particular aspect of the study of gender in their own discipline. Topics convered include differences between first, second and third wave feminisms; the politics of the body and appearance; legal regulations of transgender people; psychological and philosophical meanings of oppression; contemporary forms of masculinity and queer theory; cultural analysis of misogny and rape, female genital mutilation, war and peace, representations of gender in first world war propaganda and in more recent conflicts; gender relations in ancient Athens; gender, space and the lure of suburbia, recent conflicts and exchanges between aboriginal women and white feminists, and more
WST210 Reading Gender in Everyday Life
This unit examines how gender functions in our lives, by examining a range of cultural texts and practices that reproduce ideas of masculinity and feminity. We look closely at different theoretical discussions of how we become a gendered subject in the West, and how our sexually differentiated identities may be played out or performed in work and play. While we consider everyday topics like shopping, eating, thinking about getting married, a particular focus in this uni is on building theories of gender in response to the writing of Freud and Foucault.
WST310 The Popular Culture of Resistance
The popular Culture of Resistance offers a study of notions of resistance, opposition and sexual differences from a range of philosophical and political perspectives. Examples are taken from contemporary popular culture in Australia.
We look at men and women in Australian prisons; the Pauline Hanson movement and the gun lobby in Australia; the apparent decline of unionism and the rise of new anti-capitalist protests; the changing dynamics of home and work; the evolution of youth subcultures and counterculutres; the gendered resistance of young urban Aborigines; as well as questions of incorporation and resistance in relation to mainstream commodities such as Barbie dolls and computer games.
An intellectual focus throughout the unit is on symbolic oppositions and the possibility of their transformation. We consider the conceptual frameworks of Marxist dialectics, semiotics, deconstructio, feminist and queer theory for ways of thinking about this possibility.