Syllabus

Last updated: Fri, Jan 16, 2026

Phil 2109: Love, Gender, and Sex
Barnard College, Spring 2026
MW 10:10–11:25am, Milbank Hall 207, CourseWorks

Course Description

What does it mean to love, and what does it take to love well? Must true love make us “happy ever after”? Should love be exclusive? Is love between individuals or could it be communal and even political? How does love relate to gender and sex, and how might the experiences of queer, trans, and intersex people both complicate and illuminate these connections?

What is gender anyway? How do we figure that out? Is it a mere coincidence that the English term ‘sex’ refers to both an activity and a system of categorization? How should we think about consent, desire, objectification, and sexualization in connection to sexual autonomy and gender equality?

This course surveys philosophical questions about love, gender, and sex, and in so doing, aims to introduce students to the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of social philosophy. It is designed to be friendly to all students regardless of philosophical background.

Expected Learning Outcomes

In Phil 2109, students will learn to

  1. Explain, apply, and critique leading philosophical accounts of love, gender, and sex with attention to their historical contexts;
  2. Engage with interdisciplinary sources as a philosopher;
  3. Employ philosophical methods and tools to develop, articulate, and argue for their own views on conceptual and normative questions about love, gender, and sex;
  4. Charitably interpret and critically assess texts and arguments; and
  5. Discuss ways in which philosophical analysis and contemporary social justice movements may shed novel light on each other.

Required Texts

I have asked Book Culture to order the following texts. Bookshop is another place to shop independent bookstores.

  • Auto Anon, Reverse Tomboy: A Novel (2025). Paperback, 978-1069476708, $12.23.
  • Florence Ashley, Gender/Fucking: The Pleasures and Politics of Living in a Gendered Body (2024). Paperback, 978-1955904933, $15.80.

I will make all other required readings available digitally. If there are any barriers (technical, financial, etc.) that make it difficult for you to access these texts, please don’t be afraid to let me know.

Barnard statement on affordable access to course texts and materials

All students deserve to be able to study and make use of course texts and materials regardless of cost. Barnard librarians have partnered with students, faculty, and staff to find ways to increase student access to textbooks. By the first day of advance registration for each term, faculty will have provided information about required texts for each course on CourseWorks (including ISBN or author, title, publisher, copyright date, and price), which can be viewed by students. A number of cost-free or low-cost methods for accessing some types of courses texts are detailed on the Barnard Library Textbook Affordability guide. Undergraduate students who identify as first-generation and/or low-income students may check out items from the FLI lending libraries in the Barnard Library and in Butler Library for an entire semester. Students may also consult with their professors, the Dean of Studies, and the Financial Aid Office about additional affordable alternatives for having access to course texts. Visit the guide and talk to your professors and your librarian for more details.

Assessment

Final course grades will be awarded on the following basis:

All course requirements must be completed in order to pass this class. An F received on any work due to academic misconduct is grounds for an F in the course.

Participation

In approaching a philosophical issue, we will often find ourselves in the middle of a long conversation among many different authors. A hallmark of what we do in philosophy is the way we participate in this conversation and position ourselves in relation to these authors: we are not outside observers just here to absorb what each author has said and perhaps to summarize some of the points of agreement and disagreement; rather, we are equal parties to the conversation, just like every other philosopher. It’s helpful, then, to think of philosophy classes not as where you come to be lectured about particular philosophical views but as where we gather to do philosophy together, to contribute our own insights to ongoing philosophical conversations, and to think through these difficult issues for ourselves.

Participation in philosophy courses also serves a wide range of pedagogical purposes: class discussions help students make sense of difficult ideas and arguments in the texts; they help students learn to explain and apply concepts, analyze and assess arguments, and formulate and respond to worries and objections; in addition, they contribute to other students’ learning experience by helping to build a vibrant, mutually supportive classroom environment that encourages questions, exchange of ideas, and philosophical reflection.

You are expected to regularly contribute to class discussions and participate in class activities. To do so, you are expected to have read the assigned texts carefully and critically in advance of class (remember to bring a copy with you as we will often look at difficult passages together!).

It’s useful to keep in mind that philosophical writing is, at bottom, argumentative—that is, its goal is to defend or criticize a particular view. As you do the readings, be sure to:

  • Keep track of what the author says they mean by a particular term or distinction, and take note of terms and distinctions that don’t quite make sense to you.
  • Identify the view the author is defending and the argument they are offering in support of their view (be careful to distinguish passages where the author is speaking for themself and where they are explaining another author’s view or considering objections!), and write down thoughts and questions in the margin as you react to each step in the argument.
  • Ask yourself if you think what the author is saying is not only plausible but well-argued. If not, think about why not: Is it because the author’s argument relies on a false premise, or is it because the author’s reasoning is fallacious? Is there a more plausible or more arguable way of formulating the point the author hopes to make? Are there countervailing considerations, alternative positions, or further complications that the author fails to take into account? Even if you agree with the author, try to anticipate objections that other readers may reasonably raise and think about how you can respond to them on the author’s behalf.

For this class, I will use in-class activities (which will be graded for completion) to establish a baseline participation grade, and then move up or down taking into account preparation, engagement, contribution, and respect for others. Class participation will make up 15% of your final grade.

Shorties

For at least five classes this semester, you will write a short discussion post responding to that day’s readings. These “shorties” should ideally be 200–300 words, and definitely no more than 500 words (for reference, this subsection on shorties is 265 words).

The purpose of the shorties is threefold: they invite you to critically engage with the readings, offer low-stakes opportunities for you to learn to do philosophy through writing, and will inform and shape our discussions in class. The shorties are not summaries. Instead, try to raise a question (and consider how the author might wish to answer it!), motivate a puzzle or a worry, defend a view against a worry, connect the reading to an idea or argument we discussed previously, or apply it to a current context, a historical event, or your own lived experience and see how it holds up. If there are two or more readings for a given class, you may choose to either focus on one of them or reflect on a broader theme/common thread.

You may choose any five classes to write shorties for, as long as you do at least one for each of our three modules—love, gender, and sex. You may also write more than five shorties, in which case only your best five shorties will count toward your final grade.

Shorties are due to CourseWorks > Discussions by 7:30pm the day before the class. So, for example, a shorty on a Wednesday’s readings would be due by 7:30pm on the Tuesday of that same week.

Shorties will make up 20% of your final grade.

Response Papers

You will be asked to write two response essays, which are designed to encourage you to engage with our course materials in ways that build on but go beyond our discussions. I will circulate prompts and instructions in advance.

The better of your two essays will make up 25% of your final grade, and the other one another 15%.

Final Project

You are required to complete a final project for this course. While I will provide prompts, you are welcome to work with us to craft your own. This can be either a traditional final paper or an equally substantial creative project of your choosing—for example, you might want to make a zine, create educational materials on an issue, write a play, design a board game, draft a short story or a piece of public writing, script and produce a video essay, record a mini-album, publish a podcast episode, curate an exhibit, build a website or an application, reenact a story or a moment, imagine an alternative history, illustrate an argument or debate, or profile a community member (really, the sky’s the limit!). My hope is that the flexibility of the format will allow you to further engage with our course materials in a way that suits and reflects your own interests.

If you are interested in pursuing your own final project, please meet with either me or our TA by Wednesday, April 22 to discuss your idea. If we can both see a workable final project, we will then ask you to write up a short project proposal to finalize it.

The final project will make up 25% of your final grade.

Schedule

Course Policies