Assignment 2: The Gendered Construction of Marriage - The Hawaii Gay Marriage Debate

Purpose: There are two goals for this project. First, students will learn how to conduct preliminary research on the Hawaii Gay Marriage debate using the Lexus-Nexus search engine and other archival sources. Second, students will articulate their own views on the subject and the relevant theories presented thus far in class.

Teamwork: You may work as a team of up to five people during the research process (i.e. searching Lexus-Nexus, reading articles) and during a discussion of the relevant theories. However, you need to write your own paper. When you submit your paper, include the names of your team members at the bottom of the paper.

Paper guidelines: You should identify and describe the issue/problem. Who are the important actors in the debate? How do they construct gender? Whose voices or which actors are not considered in the public debate? Based on the theoretical perspectives we have discussed thus far in class, which ones help us understand this issue? Which theoretical perspectives suggest a solution to the problem? How do you envision the issue being resolved or the problem solved?

Again, briefly address the following:

• What is the problem/issue?
• What is your data for understanding this problem? What systematic method of analysis did you use? (content analysis; or, inductive or deductive reasoning; or how did you select the samples of the articles you used?)
• Who is it a problem for? Who cares about this issue and why?
• How does the debate about the issue define or redefine gender roles? How does each set of actors define gender from their perspective?
• How can the issue be understood as a moral issue or as an economic issue? Where do the actors/stakeholders fall along these two dimensions?
• Why? Which theoretical perspectives help you understand the issue?
• Which theoretical perspectives suggest a solution?
• Present a creative depiction of a changed society.