The goal of class preps is to prepare you for class by training you to read for big ideas, identify the key concepts and the main argument, and identify provocative passages relevant to the main argument. Class preps are meant to measure your understanding of the main ideas in a text; therefore, there should be no personal opinion in preps. They should be approximately half a page (double spaced) and no more than 1 page in length. Submit them to the corresponding learning module in Blackboard in which your reading appears. Though your class prep will not be visible to the rest of the class, we reserve the right to ask you to share from them in class, so please be prepared to talk about them.

Please include:

1. keywords – look at the keyword listed for the day of class corresponding to your reading; explain its meaning according to the course readings (you may need to draw from the other reading listed for the same day)
2. main argument – give a short synopsis (2-3 sentences at most) of the main argument (or main ideas) of the reading
3. passage/quote – retype a short quote (be selective!) from the reading that is particularly interesting, provocative, or indicative of the main argument. Explain why you chose it.

Here is an outline of what we talked about:

With the Ivey reading, we continue our final unit, “seizing the medium to shift the message.” It is about how we can resist existing oppressive structure, re-imagine new kinds of possibility and building new futures through how we imagine these possibilities. In the last video, we imagined new possibilities through sonic layering – the example of sampling music from other justice-oriented forms of music-making and applying them to one’s own context. Today, we explore the keyword subversive, which refers to the intention to subvert – or disrupt – existing systems and institutions. In the case of this course, the intention would be to disrupt oppressive (sexist, racist, classist, ableist, heteronormative, etc.) systems and institutions.

We have two case studies here – both the group FEMEN, which uses naked protest as a strategy to subvert patriarchal norms – and the web comic Qahera, which critiques FEMEN for its Islamophobia. Though FEMEN claims to be feminist and subversive, it is not intersectional insofar as it uses anti-Muslim rhetoric and imagery in some of its protest strategies.

First, let’s take a look at FEMEN for context. We’ll watch this short video:

NEWSNIGHT: Inside the Femen boot camp:NEWSNIGHT: Inside the Femen boot camp (Links to an external site.)

[note, the video I wanted to show had been taken down/ it covered the question of how naked protest can be strategic in particular contexts.]

We need to understand the context of how FEMEN’s activism has included protests against Islam/ism for assumed oppression of women. One of the key assumptions is that the hijab is a symbol of oppression, because it forces women to cover.

To exemplify the idea of “portable seclusion,” you’ll take a look at the video: “10 Hours of Walking Through NYC as a Woman in a Hijab” in Activity 5.3.

All of this gives us some context for understanding Ivey’s argument (in your reading for today) that:

• “Qahera wears the hijab not to conceal her identity (as many superheroes do) but to project her identity. … By positioning Qahera as a Muslim/feminist superheroine, Mohamed directly combats what Spivak calls ‘epistemic violence’” (Ivey 384).

Though Femen issued a statement in defense of their protests targeting Islam, Ivey describes their protests as a form of “epistemic violence”: https://femen.org/femen-response-on-silencing-muslim-women-insinuation/ (Links to an external site.)

“Epistemic violence” is a phrase that describes how knowledge is connected to power, how knowledge is created and the authority that upholds it. In this way, “epistemic violence” can be connected to orientalism – a word that specifically described the ability to create knowledge about an entire (fabricated) region of the world, much of which is not based in the realities of the many cultures, religions, and contexts of it.

Finally, let’s look at Deena Mohammed’s response to FEMEN’s epistemic violence:

Combatting sexism/ first comic:

https://qaherathesuperhero.com/post/64031330049 (Links to an external site.)

Deena Mohammed’s Qahera comic on Femen in particular: https://qaherathesuperhero.com/post/61173083361 (Links to an external site.)

———————————————————————————————————–

Assignment 2:

We’re lucky that San Diego State University’s library holds one of the largest zine collections in the country. You may *optionally* watch this zoom video (Links to an external site.) to hear from special collections librarian Pamela Jackson about zines and about the SDSU zine collection. At the end of the video she mentions the Barnard collection. (Links to an external site.)

Though feminist zines took off in the 90s, and represent a particular moment in DIY culture, they are very much still relevant in popular culture. Many cities – San Diego and LA included – hold large, popular zinefests where zinesters can trade and sell their zines (we will look more at this in the next unit).

For the purposes of this discussion post: Watch the following short video about Riot Grrrl Activism and Zines and then complete discussion

One of the goals of our last unit is to revisit some of the keywords and concepts from earlier in the semester, both to review and build on what we have learned.

How does this video about zines and the riot grrrl movement of the 90s reference or review the keywords intersectionality, empowerment, and/or girl power? (You can choose another keyword to which to connect this video if you choose — just give a specific application of it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp-VI9KUvBw&feature=emb_title