Academic Minimalism

I’m teaching one of my favorite courses this semester: Gender and Health. I’ve taught this course many times and several years ago I started using a chapter from Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness to start the class. The chapter I use is called “A Question of Sex” and it is meant to represent an anthropologist’s field notes from a first contact with another world where there is no gender. Or at least the people of this world have a neutral gender until they go into estrus and then can take on either male or female reproductive organs.

The chapter has helped me introduce the concept and structure of gender in our own world. It is still extremely hard for us to conceive of a world without gender and sometimes equally hard for us to see where we, ourselves, are still “gendering” the world and its subjects/objects. Science fiction, especially speculative fiction, is an excellent vehicle for asking questions we can’t really answer in our world or time or space. Authors, like LeGuin, who ask these questions provide us with an opportunity to explore our own assumptions and biases.

I have a doctoral student who is writing her dissertation on the use of science fiction in the classroom. Her work has revolved around Young Adult (YA) novels and reading her proposal pushed me to go further in my own classroom. However I did not go as far as my student. I did not pick a novel or set of novels in which to hinge the entire course (although one day I might). Instead I introduced three “book club” assignments that used science fiction to focus on an aspect of gender and health. The first book club covered the LeGuin chapter I’ve used before. I introduced the class discussion by having everyone read a fabulous essay LeGuin wrote (Is Gender Necessary, Redux) about twenty years after the novel was published. This essay updates an earlier version (written approximately 10 years post-publication). Instead of revising the essay she keeps it intact and provides italicized “explanations” of her original explanations of the role of gender in the novel. It is a fascinating look at how both our individual and our societal constructions of gender change over time. It made for a very lively discussion.

Last night we had a discussion around our second reading. This was a YA novel (suggested by my doctoral student) called 5 to 1 by Holly Bodger. It fits the current genre of YA dystopian literature and I am sure it is the first book of an eventual trilogy (a trend I am quickly tiring of). It takes place in a world where son preference has permanently altered the ratio of men to women and the solution was to form a matriarchal society where eligible young men must compete for a bride. To introduce the discussion I showed the trailer of the documentary “It’s A Girl” as well as had them read a description of the unexpected consequences of China’s One Child Policy. Another lively discussion ensued and many points were made that related directly back to my lesson plan on reproductive justice.

Our last reading will be Octavia Butler’s short story, Bloodchild, and it will be paired with the class on childbirth. So far I am really pleased with the depth that science fiction has brought to our explorations of the intersection of gender and health. I am currently reading a great science fiction novel by Nnedi Okorafor, called Who Fears Death. It explores the issues of race, gender, and the use of rape as a tactic of war. I could certainly see incorporating this, and other novels, into the course but considering my reduced teaching load as chair I’m not sure when (or if) I’ll teach this class again.

I’m looking forward to seeing my student’s dissertation results and would certainly encourage other instructors to embrace the world of science fiction to bring to light many of the challenges facing us in the world today.