The agenda covers presenting terms like social identity and climax, an in-class writing workshop for Essay 2, and an author lecture on Leslie Feinberg who is known for forging connections between LGBT and other marginalized communities and wrote the acclaimed novel Stone Butch Blues about questioning gender identity. Homework includes reading Stone Butch Blues, finishing essay 2, a blog post discussing a passage, and studying terms.
3. Terms
O Social Identity: Social groups O .Climax: the moment in a
that people belong to regarding play, novel, short story, or
narrative poem at which the
race, gender, sex, class, age, s crisis comes to its point of
exual greatest intensity and is
orientation, religion, ability, and resolved. It is also the peak of
national origin. emotional response from a
reader or spectator, and it
usually represents the turning
O Voyeurism: when those with
point in the action.
privilege find elements of
O Essay: a short literary
entertainment in the lives of composition on a particular
people that are different or less theme or topic, usually in prose
privileged than their own; the and generally thoughtful and
act of being an onlooker to interpretative. This type of
another’s life that is less writing is devoted to the
presentation of the writer’s own
powerful without relating to it ideas and generally addresses
a particular aspect of the
subject.
4. Peer Review – ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY: Passing
On another sheet of paper, or on the back of the essay you are
reviewing, include the following information
Peer doing the evaluation:
Paper is by:
Title of paper being reviewed:
Instructions: Read all three papers aloud BEFORE WRITING. As you
are reading along, quickly mark any obvious errors or typos in the text.
Do not offer advice about how to fix the issues; just identify them for
now. After you have read all three, read silently, looking for the parts of
the essay we discussed in class. Make questions or comments on the
writing in the margins. Then, please answer the following questions as
completely as possible (on the back of the essay or on another sheet of
paper). Do not just give the paper and writer the stamp of approval, or a
“yes” or “no” answer—you will be doing your partners a disservice. When
you are done, return the essay and your comments to the writer; when
you turn in your final draft, you will also turn in the copies of your peer-
reviewed essays. You will be awarded participation points on
thoroughness of your responses
5. Get into Groups of Three
O Remember, read all three essays aloud
first!
O Answer all questions thoughtfully.
O Do not edit the papers you are reading (no
grammar or punctuation).
O We will work until about 12:40, so plan
your time accordingly.
6. Leslie Feinberg
O Leslie Feinberg came of age
as a young butch lesbian in
the factories and gay bars of
Buffalo, N.Y. in the 1960s.
Since that time, Feinberg has
been a grass roots activist and
a journalist. Ze is known in the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender movements in the
U.S. and countries around the
world. The lesbian magazine
Curve named Feinberg one of
the “15 Most Influential” in the
battle for gay and lesbian
rights.
7. Feinberg is an outspoken opponent of traditional Western
concepts about how a “real man” or “real woman” should look
and act. Feinberg supports the use of gender-neutral
pronouns such as “ze” instead of he or she, and “hir” instead
of him or her.
Feinberg is well-known for forging a strong bond between the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, and
other oppressed minorities. “Everyone who is under the gun
of reaction and economic violence is a potential ally,”
Feinberg says.
Stone Butch Blues (1993), Feinberg’s widely acclaimed first
book, is a semi-autobiographical novel about a lesbian
questioning her gender identity. It received an American
Literary Association Award for Gay and Lesbian Literature
and the Lambda Small Press Literary Award.
8. HOMEWORK
O Reading: Stone Butch Blues (150-200)
O Writing: Finish and post essay #2
O Blog Shot #7: Identify and discuss a passage
from Stone Butch Blues that moved, upset, or
touched you.
O Studying: Terms
