The History of Sexuality in Canada

HIST 210 – Winter 2011

Department of History, Queen’s University

Mondays, 2:30-5:30, Kingston Hall 201

Instructor: Steven Maynard

Office: Watson 127

Office Hours: Mondays, 1:00-2:00; Tuesdays, 10:00-11:00; or by appointment

Email: steven.maynard@queensu.ca (Do not submit assignments via email.)

WebCT: This will be a vital component of the course. Check it frequently for class announcements, particularly regarding background reading for lectures and instructions related to assignments.

Course Description

From First Nations to Queer Nation, this course is an introduction to Canada’s sexual past. We will explore the diverse history of sexualities in the nation we now call Canada, from “berdache” and buggery in Nouvelle France to lesbian bars and the birth control pill in the postwar period. We begin with several classes on how to think about sexuality as historical – as the basis for identities and communities, as a form of regulation, and as a hotly contested terrain of politics. Subsequent lectures explore central themes and developments in Canada’s sexual past.

We will approach sexuality as a prism through which to view the operations of power in the past, both in its pleasurable modes and in its more dangerous manifestations. Drawing on Foucauldian, feminist, and post-colonial thought, we will investigate sexuality’s intimate connections to a wide range of variables, including gender, race, age, class, colonialism and nation.

In terms of format, this is a lecture course. Lectures will provide broad overviews and interpretations of Canada’s sexual past. The course adopts both a chronological and thematic approach with an emphasis on transformations between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Lectures will be supplemented by recent writing on the history of sexuality in Canada, films/videos, and web resources.

Throughout the course, one of our central questions will be: what difference does sexuality make, what leverage can it give us, in the project of rethinking Canada, both in the past and in the ‘historical present’?

Required Texts (Available at the Campus Bookstore)

Cameron Duder, Awfully Devoted Women: Lesbian Lives in Canada, 1900-65 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010)

Paul Jackson, One of the Boys: Homosexuality in the Military during World War II (Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2^nd Edition, 2010)

Assignments and Evaluation

10% -- Assignment #1: “Sex History on the Web”

50% (25% x 2) – Assignments #2 and #3: “Are We Being Queer Yet?: Critiquing Recent Writing on the History of Sexuality in Canada”

40% -- Final Exam

“Sex History on the Web”

Sex is everywhere on the Internet. In addition to all the porn and hook-up sites, there are also websites dedicated to the history of sexuality. And yet there is next to no critical literature assessing how the sexual past is represented on the Web, a domain with the potential to reach a much bigger audience than most academic books. In this assignment, you are to choose a website and write a critical review of how the site represents the history of sexuality. A list of the possible websites will be posted on WebCT. Delving beneath the specific subject matter of your chosen site and demonstrating your understanding of the concepts we’ve discussed in class (essentialism, social constructionism, etc.), how would you characterize the type of history being presented? What use is sex history put to, that is, what are the website’s historical/educational/political goals? What, if any, is the connection between community and academic historians, and what does it matter? Use examples from the website in your paper to back up the claims you make. Your review should be 3-4 typed, double-spaced pages (750-1000 words) in length.

“Are We Being Queer Yet?: Critiquing Recent Writing on the History of Sexuality in Canada”

In these assignments, you will be critiquing two recent books on the history of sexuality in Canada. In each critique, you will be doing two interrelated things. First, recall that in class we have discussed the concept of ‘queer’ – not as a personal sexual identity, but as a critical position that anyone can occupy, regardless of their sexual identity. The first thing you will be doing in these reviews is developing your own queer critical practice. Is this something about how you as the critic approaches the work and, if so, what are its components? Is it about the author’s standpoint? Is it something located in the actual history covered by the book under consideration? Is it a combination of these things? Second, you are developing this queer critical position in order to review/critique the books. To develop your critique – and you should have a specific argument you want to make – and set the book in an appropriate historiographical context, your essay will incorporate at least two to three carefully chosen secondary sources – this means not simply the first references that pop up on a Google or database search. Dig deep for pertinent sources that help you flesh out your particular argument. They must be both historical and Canadian. Also keep in mind the distinction between a book report/review and a critique. Do not write a banal book review in which you simply summarize the contents of the book. Instead, craft a paper in which you offer an argument about the book and a meditation on the meaning of queer critique. Each of the two reviews will be 8 double-spaced pages and follow a footnoting/endnoting format recognized in the discipline of history.

Final Exam

A final exam will be scheduled in the official exam period. The exam will cover the entire course, including film/videos, Web content, and readings, but will be based heavily on the material explored in the lectures. A portion of the final class will be devoted to reviewing and preparing for the exam.

Overall, a few things to keep in mind about assignments and evaluation:

· In all of your written work, spelling, grammar, organization and style are of paramount importance. If you know you have difficulty in any of these areas, consult a writing/style guide, visit the Writing Centre on campus, or see your teaching assistant or me.

· You will find that your mark reflects the amount of effort (for instance, the extent of your research), the depth of thoughtfulness, and the degree of engagement demonstrated in your work.

· Extensions and Late Papers: Extensions will not be given in this course except on verifiable grounds of medical emergency or serious family crisis. Late papers will be penalized 2% per day.

· Always keep a copy of all written assignments and notes until a final grade has been received for the course.

· Academic Integrity: Queen’s values and takes seriously academic integrity. Any departures from the principles of academic honesty and propriety will be pursued through the appropriate channels. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the pertinent policies. See: www.queensu.ca/academicintegrity and www.queensu.ca/artsci/integrity/student

Course Schedule

10 January 2010

Introduction: “Why Sex, Why History?”

17 January

Lecture: “How to Do the History of Sexuality”

24 January

Lecture: “My Canada Includes Sodomy, or the ‘Utterly Confused Category’ in Canadian History”

31 January ****Assignment 1 due beginning of lecture****

Lecture: “First Nations, Two-Spirits, Three Genders – Race and Colonialism”

7 February

Lecture: “The ‘Malthusian Couple’”

14 February

Lecture: “The ‘Hysterical Woman,’ Part I”

21 February

Reading Week – No Class – Research and Writing of Book Reviews!

28 February ****Assignment #2 due at beginning of lecture****

Lecture: “The ‘Hysterical Woman,’ Part II”

7 March

Lecture: “The ‘Perverse Adult,’ Part I”

14 March

Lecture: “The ‘Perverse Adult,’ Part II”

21 March

Lecture: “The ‘Masturbating Child,’ Part I”

28 March ****Assignment #3 due at beginning of lecture***

Lecture: “The ‘Masturbating Child, Part II”

4 April

Lecture: “The Historical Present and the Future of Sex in Canada”

Course Wrap-Up and Review for Final Exam