{"id":11657,"date":"2025-04-14T17:51:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T21:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=11657"},"modified":"2025-04-15T13:02:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T17:02:36","slug":"scifiapril15","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/scifi2025\/scifiapril15\/","title":{"rendered":"April 15th: The Dispossessed (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Plan for the Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>American Culture\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=D6QUsx68DCA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ukraine Invasion Sponsored by Applebee\u2019s<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gender\/Sexuality Discussion\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Default, ignored, expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ursula K. LeGuin (1929-2018) Background<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Dispossessed<\/em>&nbsp;(1974)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I recently came across a very interesting biological studies discussion calling into question gender as binary:&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.degruyter.com\/document\/doi\/10.1515\/medgen-2023-2039\/html?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cIs sex still binary?\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>It&#8217;s Just a Song&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In case some of you were worried that I though all country music was problematic, I\u2019ve found a song that demonstrates a high level of critical thinking and disrupts my discussion from Monday: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/Oliver-anthony-music-rich-men-north-of-richmond-lyrics\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/Oliver-anthony-music-rich-men-north-of-richmond-lyrics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond.&#8221;<\/a><\/strong> Of course, my point is to get you to think deeply and critically, and, sometimes, that requires me to provoke your thinking. <span style=\"color:white\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/l4EK_XrSkMU?t=66<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Gloria Steinem\u2019s&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>\u201cWhy Younger Women are More Conservative\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Gloria Steinem (1934-) focuses her attention in this article (no, it wasn\u2019t assigned) on young women. She tells us that young women are more conservative\u2013more likely to go along with the status quo\u2013because they are \u201cin the stage most valued by male-dominant cultures\u201d (230). In this essay, Steinem seems to be reflecting on the promise of the late-1960s when she envisioned revolution and activism to be essential to campus life. Steinem graduated from <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gloria_Steinem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Smith College<\/a><\/strong> in 1956. While you\u2019re free to disagree with her argument, let\u2019s try to point to areas where young, conventionally beautiful women appear in the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some specific points about Steinem\u2019s article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>p. 230: \u201cAs students, women are probably treated with more equality than we ever will be again. For one thing, we\u2019re consumers.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>p. 230: Young women \u201chave [their] full potential as workers, wives, sex partners, and childbearers.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>p. 232: Women \u201cworrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career\u201d while college students.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>p. 232: Women \u201care still brainwashed into assuming that [they] are dependent on men for [their] basic identities.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>p. 233: \u201cSociety tries hard to convert women into \u2018man junkies\u2019; that is, into people who are&nbsp;<strong>addicted<\/strong>&nbsp;to male-approval and presence.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>p. 233: Young women may \u201crefrain from identifying themselves as \u2018feminist.&#8217;\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Steinem, Gloria. \u201cWhy Young Women are More Conservative.\u201d <em>Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions<\/em>, 2nd ed. Henry Holt, 1995, pp. 229-237. [Originally published in&nbsp;<em>Ms. Magazine<\/em>&nbsp;as \u201cThe Good News Is: These Are Not the Best Years of Your Life,\u201d Sept. 1979, 64.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Gender\/Sexuality<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I have a goal for this topic related to language. Although Le Guin\u2019s book is pretty radical about sexuality, it\u2019s not beyond critique for its heteronormative portrayals. At the SAMLA 95 conference in November 2023, the phrase&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abct.org\/fact-sheets\/sexual-and-gender-minority-populations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201csexual minorities\u201d<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;came up. The phrase has been around for a while, but it\u2019s, in my cisgender\/hetero\/male opinion, not the best phrase. It\u2019s not a terrible phrase, but it subjects individuals to an identity related to sexual attraction and different from the heterosexual norm. Let\u2019s unpack this through Judith Butler\u2019s argument on language constituting an identity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u2026heterosexual privilege operates in many ways, and two ways in which it operates include naturalizing itself and rendering itself as the original and the norm. Butler, Judith.&nbsp;<em>Bodies that Matter, On the Discursive Limits of \u201cSex.\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;Routledge, 2011: 85.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Butler\u2019s Lacanian analysis on how subjects symbolically identify their gender and sexuality:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Lacan insists that the body as a visual projection or imaginary formation cannot be sustained except through submitting to\u2026the law of sexual differentiation. In \u201cThe Mirror Stage,\u201d Lacan remarks that the ego is produced \u201cin a fictional direction,\u201d that its contouring and projection are psychic works of fiction; this fictional directionality is arrested and immobilized through the emergence of a symbolic order that legitimates sexually differentiated fictions as \u201cpositions.\u201d As a visual fiction, the ego is inevitably a site of&nbsp;<em>m\u00e9connaissance<\/em>; the sexing of the ego by the symbolic seeks to subdue this instability of the ego, understood as an imaginary formation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here it seems crucial to ask where and how language emerges to effect this stabilizing function, particularly for the fixing of sexed positions. The capacity of language to fix such positions, that is, to enact its symbolic effects, depends upon the permanence and fixity of the symbolic domain itself, the domain of signifiability or intelligibility\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The phallus functions as a synecdoche, for insofar as it is a figure of the penis, it constitutes an idealization and isolation of a body part and, further, the investment of that part with the force of symbolic law\u2026.According to the symbolic, then, the assumption of sex takes place through an approximation of this synecdochal reduction. This is the means by which a body assumes sexed integrity as masculine or feminine: the sexed integrity of the body is paradoxically achieved through an identification with its reduction into idealized synecdoche (\u201chaving\u201d or \u201cbeing\u201d the phallus).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Butler, Judith.&nbsp;<em>Bodies that Matter, On the Discursive Limits of \u201cSex.\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;Routledge, 2011: 96.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Very straightforward explanation, right? Let\u2019s define a couple terms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em><strong>m\u00e9connaissance<\/strong><\/em>: fancy French term for misrecognition, but it\u2019s often not translated when quoting Jacques Lacan.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>synecdoche:<\/strong>&nbsp;in rhetorical theory, this refers to a part that represents the whole<br><em>Fonzie, those are cool threads<\/em>&nbsp;uses a part of the clothing to refer to Fonzie\u2019s entire outfit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\u201cThe Mirror Stage\u201d<\/strong>: from psychoanalysis, this is when infants recognize their subjectivity\u2013they look outside themselves and develop their sense of \u201cI\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\u201cThe Symbolic\u201d<\/strong>: the unconscious ordering of the self; \u201cthe pact which links\u2026subjects together in one action. The human action&nbsp;<em>par excellence<\/em>&nbsp;is originally founded on the existence of the world of the symbol, namely on laws and contracts\u201d (Freud\u2019s Papers 230)<br>Lacan, Jacques.&nbsp;<em>Freud\u2019s Papers on Technique 1953-1954<\/em>. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book 1. Trans. John Forrester. Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller. Norton, 1991.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a free summer, I suggest reading Freud and Lacan to really immerse yourself in psychoanalysis\u2026For today, let\u2019s consider the argument that we construct our identities through language, a socially constructed medium. And we agree (or have been made to agree) what the words mean in order to construct identities that \u201cmake sense\u201d to others in a culture. Also, we (re)construct the identities of others with words\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It might be helpful to look at Louis Althusser\u2019s definitions of State Apparatuses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u2026we can for the moment regard the following institutions as Ideological State Apparatuses (the order in which I have listed them has no particular significance):<br>the religious ISA (the system of the different churches),<br>the educational ISA (the system of the different public and private \u2018schools\u2019),<br>the family ISA,<br>the legal ISA,<br>the political ISA (the political system, including the different parties),<br>the trade union ISA,<br>the communications ISA (press, radio and television, etc.),<br>the cultural ISA (literature, the arts, sport, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Althusser, Louis. <em>On the Reproduction of Capitalism: Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses<\/em>. Trans. G. M. Goshgarian. Verso, 2014.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>The Dispossessed<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ursula_K._Le_Guin#Family\" target=\"_blank\">Ursula K. Le Guin\u2019s<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;novel takes a radical view of gender\/ed roles and makes you think about why we have such things as absolute. Our goal isn\u2019t necessarily to try to find out why society has prescribed roles for men and women and attributes associated with masculinity and femininity; instead, we need to identify how those roles affect subjects in society. The first step is identifying them and recognizing that they\u2013gender roles\u2013are all part of the cultural menu that we \u201cfreely\u201d pick and choose from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Le Guin on Science Fiction and Gender<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Le Guin refers to her science fiction writing as \u201cquestion-asking: reversals of an habitual way of thinking, metaphors for what our language has no words for as yet,&nbsp;<strong>experiments in imagination<\/strong>\u201d (163, emphasis added). She also writes, \u201cThey are questions, not answers; process, not stasis\u201d (163), so you probably know why I assign her work. Le Guin\u2019s work envisions (until I explain why it doesn\u2019t) radical rethinking of gender roles. When discussing&nbsp;<em>The Left Hand of Darkness<\/em>&nbsp;(1969), a novel about a planet of ambisexual inhabitants, she explains, \u201cTo me the \u2018female principle\u2019 is, or at least historically has been, basically anarchic. It values order without constraint, rule by custom not by force. It has been the male who enforces order, who constructs power-structures, who makes, enforces, and breaks laws\u201d (165). While this is&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Essentialism\" target=\"_blank\">essentialist<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;thinking to some extent, Le Guin should be credited with pushing the envelop. Compared to&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mary_Wollstonecraft\" target=\"_blank\">Mary Wollstonecraft<\/a><\/strong>, she\u2019s quite radical, and she\u2019s radical for contemporary times where neofascism seeks to re-entrench gender\/ed roles.<br>Le Guin, Ursula K. \u201cIs Gender Necessary?\u201d&nbsp;<em>The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction.<\/em>&nbsp;Ed. Susan Wood and Ursula K. Le Guin. HarperCollins, 1976. 161-169.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Define these words<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Extreme<\/strong>: attitudes, beliefs, practices, behaviors, etc. that are consider far outside of the mainstream or \u201cmiddle of the road\u201d thinkers\/citizens<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Radical<\/strong>: complete or an attempt to completely rethink the situation; radical views on culture advocate total rethinking or restructuring of the system<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the author isn\u2019t the sole arbiter of meaning, I think it\u2019s important to consider that this novel is dedicated as, \u201cFor the Partner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Le Guin\u2019s \u201cA Left-Handed Commencement Address\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ursulakleguin.com\/lefthand-mills-college\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this commencement address<\/a><\/strong>, LeGuin raises the issue of a woman\u2019s \u201cplace\u201d in society. Sure, the address is from 1983, but I think we can continue to point to contemporary situations where\u00a0women\u2019s roles are defined in relation to men: think hegemony and patriarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>para 2: \u201cIntellectual tradition is male\u201d; therefore, men are the standard in academic circles and their modes of discourse are seen as the norm.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>para 3: If you want kids, have them\u2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>para 4: \u201cSuccess is somebody else\u2019s failure.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>para 5: \u201cYou\u2019ll work for possessions and then find they possess you.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>para 7: View of society\u2013\u201cThe so-called man\u2019s world of institutionalized competition, aggression, violence, authority, and power.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>para 7 &amp; 8: What\u2019s her issue with&nbsp;<strong>Machoman<\/strong>?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>para 9: To live in a world \u201cwithout the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>How might we read Le Guin\u2019s address as a text that addresses&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Compulsory_Heterosexuality_and_Lesbian_Existence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">compulsory heterosexuality<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Compulsory_Heterosexuality_and_Lesbian_Existence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Compulsory Heterosexuality<\/a><\/strong>: (Adrienne Rich) \u201cwomen may not have a preference toward heterosexuality, but may find it imposed, managed, organized, propagandized, and maintained by society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Topics to Consider<\/strong>\u2013time permitting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Because this is a two-part discussion on the novel, I\u2019m going to go against LeGuin\u2019s attempt to get us to think nonlinearly and try to focus on the first half or so of the book and ground us in some important topics. I know this is a long book, so, if you\u2019re not completely done, that\u2019s fine, but don\u2019t expect us to give away the ending today! You\u2019ll need to keep reading. We\u2019ll try to cover Revolution and Time in Thursday\u2019s class. As mentioned above, there are lots of topics to consider. Let\u2019s start by identifying the key characters and their missions or goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anarresti<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shevek, Sabul, Takver, Odo<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Urrasti<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Atro, Oiie, Chifoilisk<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Novel of Ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This work is considered a&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Philosophical_fiction\" target=\"_blank\">novel of ideas<\/a>, which means it deals with questions usually covered by philosophy and attempts to reconcile, uncover, and challenge readers\u2019 ways of thinking about culture and society. What does it mean to be a man or a woman? What does it mean to live in a Capitalist society? What does it mean to be free? All of those are questions that a cultural studies lens (the approach we use to interpret the readings) assists readers in exploring. If you were hoping I\u2019d have written \u201cassists readers in answering,\u201d you\u2019ve missed a few classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LeGuin gives readers two worlds to explore from a social science fiction point of view: Anarres and Urras. This work was published in 1974, so, from a historical point of view, we\u2019ll have to consider what was going on in America at that time, specifically, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the distrust of the government. Other topics we should consider are below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Walls: \u201call in all we\u2019re just another brick in the Wall\u201d\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Subtitle: an ambiguous utopia<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThe Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere. It is for all, or it is nothing. If it is seen as having any end, it will never truly begin\u201d (296).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Economy\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Money, demand, privilege<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Education\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Student<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Teacher<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Institution<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The State\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Egalitarianism<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Power<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ownership<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Law<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gender Roles: Family, Society<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Philosophy\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Suffering<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Revolution<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Time (General Temporal Theory and chronosophy, the study of time)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Although I often warn against the intentional fallacy, Le Guin commented quite a bit on her writing. There&#8217;s a great essay anthologized in several collections where Le Guin claims that Anarras offers a &#8220;potential permanent source of renewal of thought and perception&#8221; (&#8220;A Response, by Ansible, from Tau Ceti&#8221;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Le Guin, Ursula K. &#8220;A Response, by Ansible, from Tau Ceti.&#8221; <em>Words Are My Matter: Writings about Life and Books, 2000-2016<\/em>. Small Beers P, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Next Class<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re going to finish discussing all these wonderful topics on&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan for the Day I recently came across a very interesting biological studies discussion calling into question gender as binary:&nbsp;\u201cIs sex still binary?\u201d It&#8217;s Just a Song&#8230; In case some of you were worried that I though all country music was problematic, I\u2019ve found a song that demonstrates a high level of critical thinking and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":11366,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11657","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-321","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11657"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11661,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11657\/revisions\/11661"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}