EXWR 112-01

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, & TRANSGENDER ISSUES IN WRITING

 2 September 1999

Paper 1: First Words

How did you first learn the language of sexual orientation labeling? If we're going to examine the relationship between language and sexuality, a good place to begin is by looking closely at how we personally learned a language to name sexuality.

Begin by listing the first 3-5 words you learned as a child that you now recognize as ways of identifying a person's sexual orientation (although you may not have know that's what they were then). Tell us more about your earliest impression of the language of sexuality. Describe the conditions under which you first heard those words. Who said them? What was the context in which they were spoken? What kind of social interaction was taking place? How might race or class or gender dynamics in the situation have affected what happened? What did you think the words meant then? What impression did they first make on you?

Then tell us what you think of those words now. Would you be likely to use them in discussion in this class? If so or not, why?

The first draft of this paper is due as an Word-RTF formatted attachment to an email message sent to Jan.Cooper@oberlin.edu by 6 pm on Monday, September 6. Please type it, double-spacing and leaving one inch of margin on all sides of your writing so that we have room to write comments. See Instructions if you need help figuring out how to submit your paper electronically. If that document isn't enough help, see the Computer Consultants in Mudd or email me.

At the end of the paper, please add a note telling me what you think of this draft--what in it you like, what you might have had problems with, what you'd like help improving.