Women's Studies in Sin City: Reactionary Politics and Feminist Possibilities

Abstract

Imagine: a women's studies administrative assistant in her fifties was a showgirl at nineteen. A part-time instructor in our 30-plus sections general education course, Gender, Race, and Class, served a term in the state Senate, where she was successful in abolishing the anti-sodomy law. (Anti-Semitic baiting denied her a second term.) Another women's studies instructor was previously curator at the Liberace Museum. A graduate student dropped out of Feminist Theory mid-semester because she was going through a divorce-her seventh. Half-time shows at the university's women's and men's basketball games consist of local girls, as young as three or four, dancing and performing the dominant local idea of female sexuality. The former dean of the College of Liberal Arts advertised the annual book fair, co-sponsored by the college, with bookmarks picturing a white showgirl in elaborate costume, holding a stack of books. The most popular upper division women's studies class has been Porn in the USA. These anecdotes exemplify the local character of Women's Studies in Sin City, Las Vegas. My perspective is that of a member of the founding generation, having taught my first women's studies class in 1970. I have taught in research and comprehensive universities, seasoned by a few liberal arts colleges. Recently, I was hired as chair to build and institutionalize the women's studies department at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). In part, I took this job to make a bigger splash in a smaller puddle. This location, however, is like none other. Nowhere else in the country is there such a unique form of conservatism, nor such possibilities for transforming it. As I will show, the Las Vegas factor, the academic setting of UNLV (an institution attempting a fast-track to research extensive status), the state context (heavy libertarian and conservative political influences, both secular and religious), and the geography (isolated desert), all contribute to the context for Women's Studies in Lost Wages (Moehring 2000; Rothman and Davis 2002.) I also will show how UNLV illustrates two long-standing maxims: the right strategy for Women's Studies is the one that works on your campus; and organizing broad networks of women and men who support Women's Studies is essential. Women's bodies, and minds, don't fare very well in Nevada, as exemplified by the Institute for Women's Policy Research rankings of women's quality of life in this state: 47th (of 50 states and the District of Columbia) in proportion of women with college degrees; 40th in its employment and earnings index; 42nd in its composite health and well-being index, and