Answer the three questions below regarding Lorde’s ideas about raising a son, about masculinity and “manhood”: Attached to files.
1. What are your impressions about how Audre Lorde and her partner, Frances, have raised Jonathan, who is 14 at the time she wrote this essay? Be specific in your response, referring to Lorde’s essay.
2. First explain in your own words and then comment on either of these two statements that Lorde makes about bringing up her son:
“I feel the living perspective that having lesbian parents has brought to Jonathan is a valuable addition to his human sensitivity.”
OR
“I wish to raise a Black man who will recognize that the legitimate objects of his hostility are not women, but the particulars of a structure that programs him to fear and despise women as well as his own Black self.”
3. From reading this article, how do you think Audre Lorde defines strength? How does her question about what strength is apply to an examination of male supremacy or domination? (See page 76.) What does she emphasize about men and their expression of a full range of human feelings? (See page 74.)
Answer the number of questions specified. Number your responses to match the number of each question to which you are responding. Each one of your responses should be at least 100 words that show that you have read the assigned texts with understanding.
Answer the four questions below.
1) What does Valenti say to support her idea that the whole notion of what constitutes “sex”–in terms of a young woman “losing” her virginity–is a social construction? (To refresh: a social construction is an idea that our culture has invented to establish a “norm” that is not true to real life but is accepted as “natural” and not questioned though often loaded with gender, race, and/or class bias.)
2) Why is the “purity myth” a problem? That is, what consequences does the “virginity myth” impose on the lives of real women?
3) Can you relate to what Valenti writes? Or do you have observations from life different from what she argues here about virginity and what constitutes “sex” (wrongly put forth from a heteronormative perspective)?
4) Offer one comment about how the short trailer to Valenti’s book and the video “Don’t be a Slut, be a Lady” expose the social construction of virginity and so-called “purity” imposed on women.
Answer the number of questions specified. Number your responses to match the number of each question to which you are responding. Each one of your responses should be at least 100 words that show that you have read the assigned texts with understanding.
“The Purity Myth” by Jessica Valenti https://rampages.us/univ200sp2015boaz/wp-content/uploads/sites/4763/2015/01/Valenti-The-Cult-of-Virginity.pdf
WATCH the trailer to the longer film about “The Purity Myth” (3 min.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSIPeSj_Xkk
WATCH: “Don’t be a Slut. Be a Lady They Said” (3 min.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSv8ipUeMXQ&feature=youtu.be