Gender and Popular Culture

Catalog description

This course examines the representation of gender in American popular culture from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will examine texts across television and film, pop music, popular print media, social media, advertising, and fashion, and we will engage the historic relationship between these pop texts and sociopolitical movements. We will also read critical texts from the feminist and queer tradition on desire and sexuality, race, religion, and political power. And we will consider how the methods and modalities of gender studies can inform our understanding of pop culture. Students are responsible for three short papers of 3-5 pages and a final paper of 10-15 pages that showcase their original research around the themes of the class.