Precarious, Performative, Playful, Potential...Perspectives!

Hi. I am a sophomore at Haverford. I'm majoring in Art History and am pretty sure that I will be a Gender and Sexuality Studies concentrator. This is my first class that is officially focused on gender and sexuality although it has always been something that interests me. I am really excited about this class and the potential discussions we will have in the future. 

In class we were discussing some global progress (or lack thereof) on not only women's rights but gender rights in general. When I was in high school we had a Maasai warrior who was a tribal leader visit. He brought his sword and demonstrated how he would hide in the bushes and jump out to kill the lions and how those hunts were a traditional right of passage for young boys becoming men. His reason for coming to the U.S. was to spread the word about female genital mutation. For young girls that is their right of passage before they get married. Often it is done in large groups and the blade are not cleaned in between, and nothing is sterilized. He spoke to us about the importance of cultural tradition to the Maasai but also his understanding of the health risks to female.

Hi--this is Kaye Edwards, who along with my friend and colleague, Anne Dalke, will be the other co-teacher/learner for P5 this fall.  Anne and I began our brainstorming for this version of the class knowing that Judith Butler would be giving the Flexner Lectures at Bryn Mawr this semester and wanting to feature her work on precarity and performativity.  However, I felt constrained by those categories and wanted to expand our sights to include lighter/brighter dimensions that could focus our attention on new opportunities for social justice.  Loving alliteration, I suggested "play" (to which Anne immediately agreed) and "potential."  As a natural scientist (my academic training is in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology), I have long loved the concept of "po