And who was I to contest the sexiness of the song with lyrics like this:

Let’s have some fun, this beat is sick
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick

There is something blatantly sexual here, but it’s almost disguised as cute.

Why?

Is the word-play just an exercise in creativity? Or is it because we don’t want to hear a woman be too graphic? Other than Little Kim and occasionally Christina Aguilera, bless them, you don’t hear too many female vocalists really getting into the dirty details. (Or at least I don’t – so if they exist let me know.) The female vocalists I hear tend to stick to sexual innuendos, word play, and barely-there get-ups to get their message across.  Granted there are males who do this too, bless them, but I tend to hear more men being more direct. (Anthropologically speaking this may have to do with what type of music I am listening to at what times of the day and in what city the radio station is broadcast, etc.) But for the sake of conversation, let’s cut the radio analysis and move on to discussion.

So listen to the radio, reflect, and write; I’d love to get some opinions on this.

Why is it that men get the go ahead to say things so bluntly? Do female vocalists have the same opportunity and simply dismiss it in favor of more timid titillation?

Do you prefer one type of sexy song over the other? (Options being: a word-by-word play of the situation or word-play hinting towards the situation.)

Dr. Martin Simpson, Director of the UF Reading & Writing Center, has published a 30-minute video lecture with practical tips for improving your citation skills and avoiding plagiarism. He discusses key elements of the Student Conduct Code, identifies common types of plagiarism, and suggests concrete strategies for improving the use of sources in your writing. Dr. Simpson also addresses some common misconceptions about what constitutes plagiarism and contrasts the expectations for college-level writing with what you may have experienced in high school.

I encourage you to invest half an hour in watching Dr. Simpson’s video. While you’re at it, you may also want to view the other study skills videos produced the Reading & Writing Center, including those on time management, note-taking, and test-taking (Part 1, Part 2).

Remember that there will be no lecture, so that you may take the exam during our normal class period, if the rest of your day is full. Friday discussion sections, however, will meet as usual.

Please see the tips for students from E-Learning Support Services, which include good advice like:

• Always save your answers
• Document your problems
• Don’t wait until the last minute

If you do encounter technical problems while taking the exam, please contact the UF Computing Help Desk (392-HELP) before contacting your TA or me.

Good luck!

Download the exam review guide here (PDF)

Please note that the exam will be open on E-Learning from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. next Friday. We will not have lecture that day, so that you may take the exam during our normal class period, if you have no other open time on your schedule.

Also note that some students have experienced computer problems in the past that could be avoided. To minimize the chance you will have problems that affect your grade adversely, please plan either to take the exam on a campus computer or to make sure that the off-campus computer you will use is compatible with the E-Learning exam system. You can check the compatibility of your system by logging on to E-Learning and taking the practice test posted there now.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

Now, I haven’t received my copy of been to the library to check out the latest issue of Playboy yet, but the Alligator’s story raises plenty of eyebrows about the study. This story is a great opportunity for you to put what you’ve learned in class so far to the test.

Before I offer my take on the Playboy poll and the Alligator story about it, I’d like to know what you think about it:

• What are the strengths and weaknesses, if any, of the Playboy poll?
• What conclusions do you think are justified by the results?
• Did the journalist who wrote the Alligator story do his job in critically reporting about the story?
• In what ways do you think cultural context influences how the story was reported?

Let’s hear from you—after you’ve finished your first reaction paper, that is.

• Description of reaction paper requirements (PDF)
• Rubric and guidelines TAs will use to grade your paper (PDF)

Together, these documents should give you a clear sense of what we expect from you and how your papers will be evaluated. The grading scheme has been designed with an eye toward improving your skills as a writer, and your TAs will work with you to ensure that your writing continues to improve over the course of the semester.

If you have any last-minute questions about the assignment, please contact your TA or leave a comment here.

Tonight’s screening will also include a discussion of two related readings: “Neoliberal Policy as Structural Violence: It’s Links to Domestic Violence in Black Communities in the United States,” by William L. Conwill, and “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” by Kimberle Williams Crenshaw. For more information, or to get copies of the readings, please contact J. Hale-Gallardo.

If you have never used ARES before, you will have to sign up first, using your UFID. Then, once you log on to the system, search for ANT 2301, add it to your personal page, and click on readings to access them as PDFs. If you are off campus, you will have to log on to the UF network either through VPN or using the library’s proxy remote logon. Don’t worry if you don’t know what these things are: The library has step-by-step instructions on their website.

For more help on accessing articles through ARES, see the tutorial videos on the library website.

Some of the journal articles are available directly from the journal’s website. But to access the articles, you’ll need to be working on a campus computer or be connected to the university network through VPN or the proxy remote logon. Learning how to use these tools for off-campus access to the library will save you a lot of time down the road.

If you have other questions or tips to share, please leave a comment below.

This website will be an important part of the course. Some materials—including the syllabus, announcements, and details on assignments—will only be available here. The website will also host a blog for the course in order to encourage discussion on relevant news or events around campus, to share thoughts about how the themes of the course relate to current events as well as to share thoughts on the themes themselves, and to stimulate thinking about assigned readings and course material. I strongly encourage you to post comments on the blog to share your point of view or to pose questions that you’d like to raise for discussion with other students, the TAs, and me. You’re also welcome to write your own blog post, if you’re interested. Follow the link at the bottom of this page to register for an account. Then let me know you’d like to write a post, and I’ll give you access to do so.

The easiest way to keep up with the web site is to subscribe to the course RSS feed. Just click on the link to “All Posts” on the right-hand side of the page. You’ll have the option of adding the course feed to your favorite feed reader (if you use one) or of receiving a daily email any time there’s new content on the site. Judging by last semester’s experience, most of you will probably want to subscribe by email.

(Some of you may be receiving this post by email because you’re still subscribed from a previous semester. You’re welcome to follow along—we’re still talking about sex!—but if you’d rather not receive any more updates, just click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email you received.)

You can also click on the subscribe to “Comments” using the link on the right. When you subscribe to comments, you’ll be notified any time someone adds a comment to a post on the blog. I hope this feature will encourage you to participate in the discussion with other students and with your instructors.

We look forward to a great semester and hope you do, too. What do you hope to learn about in this course? Leave a comment below to let us know.