- Why is Sontag an iconic figure for women and the LGBTQ community?
- How did being female and queer shape Sontag’s life and career?
- Why did Sontag and other public figures keep their personal lives private? What risks did they face?
- How did women and the LGBTQ community stand up for their rights? How have these rights evolved since the mid-20th century?
- Why does understanding the personal lives of historical figures matter?
- How can art deepen our understanding of individual identities and experiences?
- What injustices do women, queer people, and other minorities face today?
- How can students support LGBTQ and women’s rights in their own communities?
- Reflect on Sontag’s public role as a prominent woman and her decision to keep her personal life private
- Understand Sontag’s key arguments about feminism, gender inequality, and power
- Identify barriers to equality for women and LGBTQ Americans
- Relate students’ own experiences with gender and identity to Sontag’s life and ideas
- Reflect on the relationship between identity and art
- Investigate the work of historical and contemporary queer artists
- Consider current social, political, and artistic activities that support LGBTQ and women’s rights
- Use art, writing, and visual displays creatively to explore complex issues
- High School Grades 11-12
- College or University
- Art and CultureMedium > Visual Arts
Subject Matter > Art History
Subject Matter > Music
- History and Social StudiesPeople > African American
People > Latinx
People > LGBTQ
People > Native American
People > Other
People > Women
Themes > Civil Rights
Themes > Culture
Themes > Politics and Citizenship
World > Modern World
- Literature and Language Arts
Genre > Biography
Genre > Drama
Genre > Essay
Genre > Novels
Genre > Poetry
Genre > Short Stories
Place > The Americas
Place > Modern World
- Analysis
- Auditory analysis
- Compare and contrast
- Creative writing
- Critical thinking
- Cultural analysis
- Debate skills
- Discussion
- Evaluating arguments
- Expository writing
- Gathering, classifying and interpreting written, oral and visual information
- Historical analysis
- Internet skills
- Interpretation
- Investigative/journalistic writing
- Journal writing
- Letter writing
- Literary analysis
- Logical reasoning
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions
- Media analysis
- Musical analysis
- Online research
- Oral analysis
- Oral communication
- Oral presentation skills
- Painting
- Persuasive writing and speaking
- Photography
- Poetry analysis
- Poetry writing
- Report writing
- Representing ideas and information orally, graphically, and in writing
- Research
- Role-playing/Performance
- Summarizing
- Synthesis
- Technology
- Textual analysis
- Using archival documents
- Using primary sources
- Using secondary sources
- Visual analysis
- Visual art analysis
- Visual presentation skills
- Vocabulary
- Writing skills
- ELA Reading: 1-7, 10
- ELA Writing: 1-10
- ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-6
- ELA Language: 4, 6
- HSS Reading: 1-10
- HSS Writing: 1-2, 4-10
IDENTITY UNIT
As the foremost female intellectual of her day, Susan Sontag embodied an ideal, a zenith that none could equal but many aspired to. She refused to be reduced to her gender, but was also perfectly willing to use her beauty and sensuality to advance her career. Publicly, she was the fierce “dragon lady” of American letters; in private, she was as confused and vulnerable as the next person. Since girlhood, Sontag had been pushing socially acceptable boundaries to make room for herself as a brilliant woman in a circle of men, yet she was unwilling to reveal her vulnerabilities, for fear of being dismissed as weak. She kept her sexuality private, assuming it would be used against her, and remained in the closet as a public figure, even near the end of her life, when fans and colleagues urged her to come out. Before her death, she hesitatingly admitted to being bisexual, though her personal diaries are much more explicit. “My desire to write is connected to my homosexuality,” she confided in a 1959 journal entry. “I need the identity as a weapon to match the weapon that society has against me. I am just becoming aware of how guilty I feel being queer.”
As a feminist, Sontag vehemently advocated for women’s rights and her own importance, but did little to help other women, and often did not identify with them. From our 21st-century perspective, Sontag can be confusing as both a feminist and queer icon: she was conflicted about these identities, and sometimes chose to avoid discussions of gender and sexuality altogether. Her struggles make her a fascinating subject for study and discussion today, as ideas about women, gender, and sexuality continue to evolve, along with political and societal transformations.
This unit explores her private journal entries and feminist essays from the 1970s, and introduces LGBTQ artists that she knew and wrote about, many of whom were friends or lovers. It also gives students the opportunity to reflect on identity questions by writing essays and speeches, exploring the historical and contemporary contributions of women and LGBTQ artists, and sharing aspects of their own identities—including categories such as race, ethnicity, and class—in artworks and creative writing.
- Watch Regarding Susan Sontag and reflect on its relevance to your students and subject area. For extracurricular organizations, community groups, and book clubs, consult our guide on adapting the curriculum.
- Review our curriculum units and lessons below, then choose the individual lesson(s) most aligned to your needs. See our interdisciplinary diagram for more help choosing an appropriate lesson and unit.
- Select the handout(s) and student activity you will use with each lesson.
- Begin the lesson by watching and discussing the lesson video module with Handout 1
- Continue the lesson with Handouts 2-4 to deepen learning (optional)
- Complete the lesson with a student activity: options include writing, presentation, and creative assignments as well as class projects or debates
- Download or print all related resources for your lesson at our resource center (video module, handouts, worksheets, teaching plans), and prepare for classroom use. Preview the lesson video module, familiarizing yourself with the content and any potential areas of sensitivity for your students (see viewing and discussing sensitive materials).
