Sex Gender & Pop Culture (GEND 120)
(CRN: 30567)Fall 2010
ACK 103, MTWRF 2:00-2:50 p.m.
Contact Information:
Professor: Tonia St.Germain, J.D. Teaching Assistant: Courtney Parsons
E-mail: tstgerma@eou.edu E-Mail: middlec@eou.edu
Phone: 541-962-3003
Office: ACK 113
Office Hours: Mon, Tues, 11 - noon, Thurs 3-4 and by appt.
Mailbox: Room 202 Ackerman (Social Science Office)
Institutional Requirement: Difference, Power, and Discrimination (DPD):
It is expected that the course will be approved next year for the new DPD institutional requirement (for students matriculating at EOU in fall 2010) but it is not clear if the course will count retroactively. You should check on this next year if you find yourself in need of a course to meet the new requirement.
Description:
Paying particular attention to images of race, class, and sexuality, this course will examine historical and contemporary representations of women and men in American popular culture and will analyze the production and consumption of such cultural forms as television and movies, advertising, popular music and fiction, sports, fashion, and domestic consumer culture. Participants will explore the ways these processes and products influence basic assumptions about social roles and expectations for women and men, and develop a critical consciousness about their own participation in embracing or resisting these roles and expectations.
Required Texts
- Dines, Gail, and Jean M. Humez, Eds. (2010) Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. 2nd edition. Sage Publications.
Course Outcomes / Goals / Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
- Gain historical and theoretical understanding of representations of women and men in U. S. popular culture.
- Understand the role of popular culture in producing and reproducing US cultural norms regarding social roles for women and men.
- Understand the intersections of gender with race, social class, and sexuality within US popular culture representations and practices.
- Engage in serious and scholarly reflection on everyday experiences of popular culture.
- Develop skills in the critical analysis of US popular culture forms.
- Gain experience in clear and effective writing.
- Argue effectively through scholarly debate during classroom discussion.
- Evaluate sources through research and writing.
General Rules, Guidelines, and Special Needs:
- Course Calendar: I reserve the right to make adjustments in the course schedule. In no case will you be expected to complete assignments or readings earlier than described
- Keep copies of all work until you receive official notice of your course grade.
- According to the EOU Catalog, "Minimum elements of appropriate classroom decorum include: punctuality, courtesy, civility, purposefulness, and integrity." If you must arrive late or leave early, try to be as quiet as possible. Regarding courtesy and civility, while I encourage strong expressions of disagreement, I expect your conversations with me and with one another to be respectful at all times.
- Written assignments must be double-spaced and submitted in a word-processed format using a 12-point font and 1" margins. Because errors in formal writing influence readers’ opinions of you as a writer, make sure to check grammar and spelling before printing a final copy.
- Regarding academic misconduct: Eastern Oregon University places a high value upon the integrity of its student scholars. Any student found guilty of an act of academic misconduct (including but not limited to cheating, plagiarism, or theft of an examination or supplies) may be subject to having his or her grade reduced in the course in question, being placed on probation, or suspended from the university, or being expelled from the university—or a combination of these (Please see Section II of the 2002-2003 Student Handbook and Planning Calendar: Campus Citizenship (Academic), p. 32ff. Campus Citizenship (Behavior), p. 41ff).
- Plagiarism, representing someone else's ideas or words as your own, is a serious academic offense. Use APA citation format to cite all ideas or words belonging to others that you include in your own writing. Your work should significantly exceed the quantity of citations and build new ideas upon them. As a general rule, provide quotation marks (and appropriate citation) when you use more than three consecutive words from someone else’s work. For directions on how to make proper citations go to the EOU ‘s Writing Lab page at http://www2.eou.edu/writelab/ click on “Resources for Writers, ”click on “Research and Documentation,” select “Hacker, Research and Documentation,” and finally select “Social Sciences” from the menu. Read this information over carefully and bookmark it for future use. For other plagiarism resources, see the plagiarism section of the English/Writing links page at http://www2.eou.edu/engwrite/links.html#plagiarism
- No work from another course may be used for credit in this course without prior permission from the instructor.
- If you have a documented disability or think that you may have a learning problem and need accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Program in Loso Hall 234. Telephone: 962-3081.
- Please take advantage of my posted office hours or make an appointment to speak with me about your work. I want you to succeed in this course, and have set aside those times especially to assist you.
- Commitment to Scholarship:
- In keeping with the Carnegie rule for academic expectations, students should devote a minimum of three hours per course credit. You should plan for a minimum of 15 hours per week for this course (including class time).
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Class behavior/Discussions:
I expect students to interact with each other in a mature and respectful manner. Many of the issues discussed in class may be controversial and challenging. I encourage you to approach discussions with a spirit of openness and tolerance.
Political Correctness:
You are under NO obligation to agree with the authors or the professor. Rather, your obligation is to demonstrate comprehension and thoughtful consideration. At the end of the course you should be able to articulate and effectively argue your own position. Although we will not agree about our interpretations of the various materials, we can agree that the only "political correctness" appropriate in this course is the commitment to encounter and engage course readings, course goals, and each other with openness, careful listening, honesty, and mutual respect.
- Means of Assessment and Grading:
- Grading: A plus (+) and minus (-) grading system with the following breakdown will be used: A 94-100, A- 93-90, B+ 89-87, B 86-84, B- 83-80, C+ 79-77, C 76-74, C- 73-70, D+ 69-67, D 66-64, D- 63-0, 59 and below F.
Assessment will be based on the following:
Class Participation (Total 30%) consists of attendance, classroom discussion and homework.
- Attendance (10%): You are expected to attend every class meeting, as half of your participation grade will be based on class attendance and participating in one weekly study session scheduled outside of class time. Tutors will be class during the first week to determine a mutually agreeable study session time for all students. In addition, sometimes during the quarter, we will be meeting outside of scheduled class time for a related campus event or film showing. Your attendance at these meetings is mandatory, and represents one credit of class time. Exceptions must be negotiated with the professor before the meeting dates.
- Discussion (20 %): You should come to class prepared to explore the authors' arguments and your reaction to their perspectives. You will be expected to be able to give brief summaries of articles and respond to specific questions on a daily basis and to help facilitate class discussions.
- Pop-Quizzes Students might be tested on a random basis during the term to help with classroom preparedness. These quizzes (5% each) will be applied to your discussion grade. Pop-quizzes will not be announced. You will not be allowed to make up a pop-quiz.
Homework Assignments (35%, seven at 5% each): This course is designed to emphasize classroom discussion and will only be successful if you read the assigned materials.
1. Annotated Bibliography (Due: Monday, October 4th)
2. APA citation format (Due: Monday, October 11)
3. Data Base Research (Due: Monday, October 18)
4. Evaluating Evidence (Due: Monday, October 25)
5. Developing a Web Site (Due: Monday, November 1)
6. Developing the Thesis (Due: Monday, November 8)
7. Developing the Prospectus (Due: Monday, November 15)
Group Project (Total of 35%): You will be assigned to teams to develop a web page on an assigned topic. The group project will give students the opportunity to observe and analyze the representations of race, class and gender in the media. More detailed information on each section of the assignment will be provided.
Deadlines: Students who show a disregard for deadlines could be penalized one letter-grade for each day following the due date.
E-mail:
I check my e-mail regularly throughout the week, however, I cannot guarantee that I will check e-mail over the weekend so do not expect immediate responses to messages you send me late Friday nights, Saturdays or Sundays.
I expect students to check e-mail regularly. I will be sending e-mail messages to the whole class to provide information regarding minor changes in the syllabus or share information about current issues for classroom discussion. When you respond to the e-mail messages I send to the whole class make sure you are responding to me and not the entire class. Use e-mail appropriately and judiciously.
Please DO NOT use e-mail to:
1. Ask me routine information that may already be on my syllabus.
2. Ask me what you missed in class when you were absent.
3. Discuss in-depth a major problem with an assignment or with a team member's work. If you have a major problem, please e-mail me to set up an appointment and briefly describe the problem, but the bulk of our discussion should happen at a one-on-one meeting in my office.
COURSE CALENDAR
Week One: Sept. 27 – Oct. 1
A CULTURAL STUDIES APPROACH TO MEDIA THEORY
Monday Course Orientation with Tonia and tour of computer lab and writing lab with Courtney.
Tuesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture, Douglas Kellner, p.9
Wednesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Hegemony, James Lull, p.61
Thursday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Women Read the Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context,Janice Radway, p.67
Friday go to computer lab and complete the group exercise: Annotated Bibliography (Due: Monday, October 4th)
Week Two: Oct. 4 -8
GENDER, RACE AND CLASS IN MEDIA
Monday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Hetero Barbie?, Mary Rogers, p.94
- Sex and the City: Carrie Bradshaw’s Queer Postfeminism, Jane Gerhard (Electronic copy on BB)
Due: Annotated Bibliography Assignment
Tuesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Wednesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Ralph, Fred, Archie, Homer and the King of Queens: Why Television Keeps Re-creating the Male Working-class Buffoon, Richard Butsch , p.575
- Video: Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class (2005).
Thursday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- What Does Race Have to Do With Ugly Betty: An Analysis of Privilege and Postracial (?) Representation on a Television Sitcom, Jennifer Esposito, (Electronic copy on BB)
Friday go to computer lab and complete the group exercise: APA citation format (Due: Monday, October 11)
Week Three: Oct. 11 - 15
READING TEXTS CRITICALLY
Monday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Mother of the Year: Kathy Hilton, Lynne Spears, Dina Lohan and Bad Celebrity Motherhood, Shelley Cobb see: http://www.genders.org/g48/g48_cobb.html
- Television’s ‘New’ Feminism: Prime-time Representations of Women and Victimization, Lisa M. Cuklanz and Sujata Moorti (Electronic copy on BB)
Due: APA Citation Format Assignment
Tuesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Wednesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Educating The Simpsons: Teaching Queer Representations in Contemporary Visual Media, Gilad Padva (Electronic copy on BB)
- Video: Further Off the Straight & Narrow: New Gay Visibility on Television, 1998-2006 (2006).
Thursday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- When in Rome: Heterosexism, Homophobia, and Sports Talk Radio, David Nylund (Electronic copy on BB)
- Disability, Gender and Difference on The Sopranos, Kathleen LeBesco (Electronic copy on BB)
Friday go to computer lab and complete the group exercise: Data Base Research (Due: Monday, October 18)
Week Four: Oct. 18- 22
ADVERTISING AND CONSUMER CULTURE
Monday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Image-Based Culture, Sut Jhally, p.249
- The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need, Juliet Schor, p.183
- Video: Dreamworlds 3 (2007)
Due: Data Base Research Assignment
Tuesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Inventing the Cosmo Girl, Laurie Ouellette, p. 116
- Video: What a Girl Wants (2001)
Wednesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Sex, Lies and Advertising, Gloria Steinem, p. 223
- Video: Killing Us Softly 4 (2010)
Thursday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Friday go to computer lab and complete the group exercise: Evaluating Evidence (Due: Monday, October 25)
Week Five: Oct. 25 – 29
REPRESENTING SEXUALITIES
Monday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Due: Evaluating Evidence Assignment
Tuesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Everyday Pornography, Jane Caputi, p. 434
Video: The Pornography of Everyday Life (2006)
Wednesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Thursday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Friday go to computer lab and complete the group exercise: Developing a Web Site (Due: Monday, November 1)
Week Six: Nov. 1 - 5
GROWING UP WITH CONTEMPORARY MEDIA
Monday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- The Future of Childhood in the Global Television Market, Dafna Lemish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUIvWGs6rl8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z6ks8Z0X20&feature=related
- Video: Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (2008)
Due: Developing a Web site Assignment
Tuesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Constructing the New Ethnicities: Media, Sexuality and Diaspora Identity in the Lives of South Asian Immigrant Girls Meenakshi, Gigi Durham http://www.csun.edu/~vcspc00g/301/newethnicities-csmc.pdf
- HIV On TV: Conversations with Young Gay Men, Kathleen P. Farrell (Electronic copy on BB)
- Video: Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power (2001)
Wednesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Thursday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Friday go to computer lab and complete the group exercise: Developing the Thesis (Due: Monday, November 8)
Week Seven: Nov. 8-12
IS TV FOR REAL?
Monday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Critiquing Reality-Based Televisual Black Fatherhood: A Critical Analysis of Run’s House and Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood, Debra C. Smith (Electronic copy on BB)
- Video: The Reality of Reality (2003)
Due: Developing the Thesis Assignment
Tuesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Disciplining the Housewife in Desperate Housewives and Domestic Reality Television, Sharon Sharp (Electronic copy on BB)
- “Take Responsibility for Yourself”: Judge Judy and the Neoliberal Citizen,” Laurie Ouellette (Electronic copy on BB)
- Video: Judge Judy. / Second to None (2008)
Wednesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Television and the Domestication of Cosmetic Surgery, Sue Tait (Electronic copy on BB)
- Video: Made over in America (2007)
Thursday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- “Tyra Banks Is Fat”: Reading (Post-Racism and Post-Feminism in the New Millennium, Ralina L. Joseph
- Video: America's next top model. / Cycle one (2005)
Friday go to computer lab and complete the group exercise: Developing the Prospectus (Due: Monday, November 15)
Week Eight: Nov. 15-19
INTERACTIVITY, VIRTUAL COMMUNITY AND FANDOM
Monday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Reading the Romance of Fan Cultural Production: Music Videos of a Television Lesbian Couple, Eve Ng (Electronic copy on BB)
- Video: The L word. / Season one (2004)
Due: Developing the Prospectus Assignment
Tuesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Scroll down this very interesting web site to find the article.
- Video: Just a Game (2005)
Wednesday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
Thursday come to class having read and prepared to discuss the following:
- Accidental Activists: Fan Activism in the Soap Opera Community, Melissa C. Scardaville (Electronic copy on BB)
- Sex Lives in Second Life, Robert Alan Brookey and Kristopher L. Cannon (Electronic copy on BB)
- Video: Coming of age in Second Life : an anthropologist explores the virtually human (2008)
Friday go to computer lab for web page group work (no assignment).
Week Nine: Nov. 22-26
Monday Video: Generation M: Misogyny in Media & Culture (2008)
Tuesday Discussion on video
Wednesday Thanksgiving Holiday-- No Class
Thursday Thanksgiving Holiday-- No class
Friday Thanksgiving Holiday-- No class
Week Ten: Nov. 29 –Dec. 3
Monday: Group Presentations
Tuesday: Group Presentations
Wednesday: Group Presentations
Thursday: Group Presentations
Friday: Group Presentations and wrapping up the course.
Finals Week: Dec. 6 - 12
Thursday 12/9 Final Exam 1-3 p.m.