First Day of Class

Posted: Wed, Jan 21, 2026

Today

• Welcome! :-)
  • About us: Ding (they/she) and Ry (he/him)
  • Please form small groups of 3–4, introduce yourselves, and exchange contact info
  • Course website: https://diotima.dingherself.com
• A philosophy class on love/gender/sex?!
• Advice from previous students
• Course logistics
• Questions? & Plans for next week

A philosophy class on love/gender/sex?!

A quick word about materials & interactions in our class

• Many of our readings and discussions will be difficult for a lot of students; we’re here if you need to talk.
• Philosophy is full of disagreements, but you can disagree without being a prick—let’s take care of each other!
• When I or your TA challenges you with follow-up questions, it means we are interested in what you are saying, not that we’re upset with you!!
• I like to compare teaching to “crowd work” in standup comedy. I don’t mind questions or occasional interjections (we may adjust as we go). And my apologies if I interject—I’m working on it!
• Sometimes people read my sense of humor as passive aggression; again, I apologize!

It is more important and relevant as ever to study love, gender, and sex

• The misogynistic label “AWFUL” (Affluent White Female Urban Liberal) and lesbian erasure in the wake of Renee Nicole Good’s murder
• The global rise of anti-trans movements: Plato censored in Texas, philosophers’ role in drafting the HHS report, the suicide of Middlebury trans woman student athlete Lia Smith, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology” executive order, ending of rape protections for incarcerated trans/intersex people, etc.
• “Manly tariffs”
• Tucker Carlson’s project of “testicle tanning”
• Keir Starmer’s “island of strangers” speech
• RFK Jr.’s obsession with testosterone and teen fertility
• The cultural war over soy milk, veggie burgers, and more
• After the gay frag, the genderless penguin chicks

Discussion question: What signifiance does love, gender, and sex hold that makes them so front and center in our political moment? And what is it about our current time that turns love, gender, and sex into such important sites of political struggles themselves?

What’s different about a philosophy class on love/gender/sex?

The questions we will ask

• are not just empirical but conceptual: “What is love?”—how has love in fact been understood vs. what does it really mean to love?
• are not just descriptive but normative: “What is love?” -> how has love in fact been practiced vs. how should we love?

Love, gender, and sex raise all kinds of big philosophical questions, even though feminist philosophy as a subfield only began to form in the 1980s:

• Metaphysics (the nature of reality): What is the nature of love, gender, and sex?
• Epistemology (theory of knowledge): How do we to know love, gender, and sex? How do love, gender, and sex in turn shape what we know/don’t know?
• Ethics (what’s good/bad, right/wrong, etc.): What are good ways to love? Is gender oppressive, liberatory, something else? Were the Barnard radfems right about porn in 1982?
• Political Philosophy (how should we live together?): How should we organize and structure love, gender, and sex as social institutions?

In so doing, we will work with primary rather than secondary sources.

• Philosophy is egalitarian: We treat even the most famous philosophers as equal participants in a long conversation.
• Philosophy is anti-dogmatic: We don’t believe something because parents, society, etc., tell us so; we believe what we reflectively endorse and can “own up to.”
• Philosophy is democratic: No interpretation should be taken for granted; we can and are all really just trying to figure things out.
• The most exciting philosophy being done today is thoroughly interdisciplinary: We will learn to engage with interdisciplinary materials as philosophers.

Philosophy is an activity we do, not specific facts to be memorized.

• For me, a philosophy classroom is not where students come to passively learn about different philosophies (though we will of course do a lot of learning!).
• It’s where we come to do philosophy together—think of us as a book club!

We will approach this class as a themed first course in philosophy.

• Take a look at all the helpful advice from previous students.
• Read the assigned texts carefully and critically before class (see also the participation section of our syllabus for advice).
• Come to class with questions or just things you want to discuss from the readings!
• Bring a copy of the readings with you.
• There will be a handout posted to the course website, but take your own notes as well.
• Talk through your thoughts with the class, and ask lots of questions.
• Ideas are powerful—don’t underestimate them!
• They are also deeply personal relevant; philosophy isn’t just intellectual. Think about the ideas in this class in relation to your own experiences and the world around you!

Course Logistics

• Course website: https://diotima.dingherself.com
• Required books
• Reading schedule
• Assignments & grading
• Excused absences & extensions
• Emergencies & makeups
• Office hours
• Emails
• Waitlist & access to readings
• Questions?
• Plans for Monday