DRAFT 8/26/2015
AMST 127B
Women in American Popular Culture
Tuesdays & Thursdays 5:00 – 6:20
Brown 316
Instructor: Dr. Jillian Powers
Office: Brown 326
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 – 2:30
This course provides an introduction to critical issues and approaches in the study of popular culture with a specific focus on the role andrepresentations of women. Popular culture is never simply entertainment or a diversion. Instead, “pop” culture provides us with stories, images and scripts through which we imagine and practice femininities, masculinities, and sexualities. These images and stories are also infused with class and racial characteristics. The norms perpetuated and contested through popular culture are evident in our constructions or ourselves and society – from the look we aspire to and the clothes we buy to the ways we understand sex, love, and romance. This course allows us to critically analyze images, practices, and narratives that perpetuate and/or disrupt these norms.In this course we will look at television, film, popular music, comics, gaming, and advertising.
Through primary and secondary materials, we’ll examine popular portrayals of women (created by women and men), their sources and impacts, and what they tell us about women’s roles and other gendered themes, tensions, and anxieties played out in popular culture. Our investigation of Women in Popular Culture is far from comprehensive. Instead we’ll focus on contemporary American culture and developing a range of critical skills, questions, and frameworks through which we’ll be able to analyze the messages of popular culture surrounding us everyday.
Some questions we will tackle:
How does popular culture shape our commons sense notions?
Why are forms of popular culture loved, feared, revered, and reviled?
What are the images we see in popular culture and how do we read them?
Who creates and disseminates these images? Who benefits from them?
These questions will serve as the basis for our conversations regarding the forms and function of popular culture.
Designed around the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies, this course will expose students to key concepts and theories from a number of different fields including Sociology, Anthropology, Communications, History, Cultural Studies, English, Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies, and American Studies. We will study a variety of theories and methods used in contemporary feminist/cultural studies on popular culture, as well as examine a number of popular media texts. As we move from topic to topic, students will develop the skills to analyze the reciprocal relationship between culture and key stratification factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, region and sexuality. Through course assignments and classroom discussions students will learn to situate popular culture within its social, historical, political, and economic contexts and their personal lives.By the end of the course, you should have the skills and tools to perform such analyses on your own.
Four-Credit Course (with three hours of class-time per week)
Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).
Course Objectives:
-Transform traditional ways of knowing—in and out of the classroom—by reaching across epistemological and methodological divisions to foster interdisciplinary perspectives on social life
-Recognize that gender, race, class, ethnicity, age, sexuality, and nationality are crucial aspects of identity and can be understood primarily in their intersections
-Understand how popular culture is written, talked about, and experienced
-Join scholarly and theoretical conversations about women and their positions in popular culture
-Learn major approaches or cultural theories, concepts, and terms to understand popular culture
-Understand the basic concepts of major critical theories used in studies of popular culture
-Make practical application of these theories
-Critically analyze a popular text through close attention to structure, imagery, and the text’s relationship to society. “Read the text,” by utilizing a variety of approaches.
-Improve critical reading and writing skills
Course Requirements:
- Complete all readings and actively participate in discussions 12%
- Advertising Analytic Essay17%
- Close Reading of Gentleman Prefer Blondes 17%
- Representation Essay 17%
- Fanfiction Analytic Essay 17%
- Wildcard Assignment 20%
Assignment details to be discussed further in class.
Participation, attendance and classroom engagement: Readings are to be completed before the class period for which they are assigned. Attendance is a crucial aspect of class and you are expected to come prepared, ready to engage, and willing to participate in a respectful and thoughtful manner. Three unexcused absences will result in the deduction of a whole letter grade from your overall score (An ‘A’ will be reduced to a ‘B’). Five or more unexcused absences, you fail the course. Please send me an email if you are unable to attend class by 3PM to have your absence count as excused.
Late Policy: NO LATE COURSEWORK WILL BE ACCEPTED. All coursework must be completed on time unless we have come to an agreement before the due date, nothing will be accepted after the last day of class.
Evaluations
Your final grade will be determined by your performance on the above requirements. All assignments will be graded on a standard scale of 0 to 100.
The final grade will be given using the letter grade system standard at Brandeis University. The table below shows how the numeric grades will be converted into letter grades:
97-100A+
93-96A
90-92A-
87-89B+
83-86B
80-82B-
77-79C+
73-76C
70-72C-
67-69D+
63-66D
60-62D-
below 59F
University Policies
Academic Accommodations: If you are a student who has academic accommodations because of a documented disability, please contact me during the first two weeks of the semester and give me a copy of your letter of accommodation. Federal law and university policy require provision of reasonable accommodation for students with diagnosed learning disabilities that may affect how they participate in the class or meet class requirements. I encourage students who believe they need such accommodation to contact the Academic Services Office early in the term. Detailed information on policies, procedures, and resources related to learning disabilities can be found at this link:
If you have any questions regarding documenting a disability, contact Beth Rodgers-Kay in the undergraduate Academic Affairs Office (x63470, ). Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.
University Policy on Academic Integrity: You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity. You are expected to turn in work that is completed, written, and designed by you! This means use footnotes and quotation marks to indicate the source of any phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or ideas found in published volumes on the Internet or created by another student.[1] I will refer any suspected instances of alleged dishonesty to the Office of Academic Affairs.
Violations of may result in failure of the course or on the assignment or in suspension or dismissal from the University. If you are in doubt about the instructions for any assignment in the course, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification. Do not test me! Ask if you have any concerns before compromising your undergraduate experience!
See:
I encourage all students to visit the Brandeis writing center if you would like to improve your writing.
TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM
Laptops, PDAs, cell phones, headphones, and all other technological distractions MUST BE OFF AND AWAY at all times during class-time.
On Controversial Subjects and Classroom Community
We will be discussing many contemporary issues that are the subject of intense controversy. Many might consider what we will cover as taboo, controversial, deeply personal, or simply unfamiliar. You may have strong feelings about these issues, and those feelings or opinions may be opposed to some of the articles and chapters you’ll be reading. I will encourage discussion and debate on these topics, as I believe that one duty of the course is to critically examine what we may accept as “common knowledge” or accepted practice. In addition, you may also find that that some of the material raises deeply personal or painful experiences.
To ensure that your own personal experiences and opinions do not affect your class performance, and to keep discussions and debates civil and academically focused, I ask you to keep the following points in mind:
1.Students are expected to serve as resources for each other and fully commit to the collaborative and supportive community required to successfully complete a course/project of this nature
2.Be aware that understanding arguments made in the readings does not require accepting those arguments. Indeed, even if you disagree with an argument, you must first understand it to make a reasoned critique. Do not simply dismiss them.
3.Opinions are not acceptable arguments in discussion. If you wish to critique a concept, you must provide some evidence or data from the readings (or outside material, if you so wish, as long as it is scholarly). Do not be afraid, however, to speculate on potential consequences or impacts based upon existing data or to inquire about the existence or quality of data with regard to an argument.
4.Anecdotes are not data. Just because something happened to one person at one time does not imply a pattern or trend. The difference between an anecdote and an example is that examples are illustrations based on systematic data (this point will be crucial for your final paper!)
5.Do not become emotional or engage in personal attacks. While you may have strong feelings on these issues, remember to always keep a cool head and show respect for differing opinions. I am committed to creating a safe and supportive classroom community.
Required Texts:
Gay, Roxane. 2014. Bad Feminist. Harper Perennial.
Course Overview
August 27:
Introduction to Popular Culture, Cultural Studies, and Feminism
[Introduction] and [Back to Me], from Bad Feminist
Why Pop Culture Matters
September 1 & 3:
Zeisler, Andi. 2008. “Pop and Circumstance: Why Pop Culture Matters,” in Feminism and Pop Culture. Pp.1-22. [IN LATTE]
Wong, David. 2012. “5 Ways you Don’t Realize Movies Are Controlling your Brain.” Cracked.
Smith, Greg. 2011. “’It’s Just a Movie’: A Teaching Essay for Introductory Media Classes.” Cinema Journal. 41 (1):127-134.
Selections: Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, an Introduction by John Storey [IN LATTE] or Stuart Hall TBD [IN LATTE]
In Class: What key terms should we be familiar with?
Advertising
September 8 & 17:
Firth, Katherine and Ping Shaw and Hong Cheng. 2006. “The Construction of Beauty: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Women’s Magazines Advertising.” Journal
of Communication. 55(1): 56-70.
Berger, John. 1990. Ways of Seeing, Chapter 1. [IN LATTE]
Klein, Naomi. “Culture Jamming: Ads Under Attack” in No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Toronto: Vintage Canada. 2000: 279-310 [IN LATTE]
Watch: Killing Us Softly
Assignment: Chose 5 advertisements all within one genre (this can span time, or brand, etc.) then analyze the content of these advertisements by using the theories and methods we have discussed so far in class. Topics include, but are not limited to: body image and ideals, gender roles, sexuality, etc. DUE: SEPTEMBER 21 BY MIDNIGHT. 5 PAGES plus images.
Duke University Libraries, Digital Collections.
The Dominant and Oppositional Gaze
Sept 22: Methods of Critique
The Dominant Gaze
Laura Mulvey. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, p. 837-840. [IN LATE]
Watch: Beyonce: Partition
Sept 24:The Oppositional Gaze
hooks, bell. 1992. “The Oppositional Gaze,” in Black Looks: Race and Representation. South End Press. 115-31. [IN LATTE]
Crosley “Can we Stop Fighting Over Beyonce’s Feminism Now”
Butler, “For White Girls Only? Postfeminism and the Politics of Inclusion”
Watch: Nicki Minaj: Anaconda
In Class: Define the dominant gaze, the oppositional gaze
Oct 1: What is feminism?
Weiss, Penny. 1998. “I’m not a feminist, But…” Popular Myths about Feminism,” in Conversations with Feminism: Political Theory and Practice. Rowman and Littlefield. [IN LATTE]
McRobbie, Angela. “Notes on Post-Feminism and Popular Culture: Bridget Jones and the New Gender Regime” in All About the Girl: Culture, Power and Identity. Ed. Anita Harris. London: Routledge. 2004: 3-14. [IN LATTE]
Watch: Miss Representation
Beyonce: Flawless
In Class: Define postfeminism and any other key terms or analytic approaches
Women Consuming the American Dream
Oct 6 & 8:
Zeisler, Andi. 2008. “American Dreams, Stifled Realities: Women and Pop Culture in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s.,” in Feminism and Pop Culture. Pp.23-56
Roxane Gay, The Marriage Plot, New York Times, Sunday Review. May 10. 2014.
Turim, Maureen. 1990. “Gentleman Consume Blondes,” in Issues in Feminist Film Criticism. Indiana University Press. 101-111 [IN LATTE]
Arbuthot, Lucie and Gail Seneca. 1990. “Pre-Text and Text in Gentleman Prefer Blondes,” in Issues in Feminist Film Criticism. Indiana University Press [IN LATTE]
Suggested: Fishbein, Leslie. 1989. “The Harlot’s Progress in American Fiction and film, 1900-1930. Women’s Studies: An Inter-disciplinary Journal. 16(3-4): 408-427
Watch: Gentleman Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks 1953)
Assignment: Use the theories, methods, and scholarship we’ve discussed so far to analyze the musical numbers from Gentleman Prefer Blondes. What else can we say about these scenes? What new contributions can you offer based on your close reading? DUE: OCTOBER 12 BY MIDNIGHT. 5 PAGES plus screen captures/images
Women and Representation: Depicting Diversity
Oct 13:Black Bodies in Popular Culture
Chito Childs, Erica. Historical Realities and Media Representations of Race and Sexuality, in Fade to Black and White. Pp. 15-32. [IN LATTE]
Pozner, Jennifer. 2010. “Erasing Ethnicity, Encoding Bigotry: Race, Pre—and Post—Flavor of Love,” in Reality Bites Back: the Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV. Seal Press. Pp. 161-195 [IN LATTE]
Suggested: Dagbovie-Mullins, Sika. 2013. “Pigtails, Ponytails, and Getting Tail: The Infantilization and Hyper-Sexualization of African American Females in Popular Culture.” The Journal of Popular Culture. 46(4): 745-771.
Oct 15: Who is Absent, How are They Portrayed, What Needs to Change?
Beltran, Mary. 2015. “Late Invited to the Party: What’s Still Not working for
Latina/os and TV. Flow
Diane Anderson-Minshall, I kissed a Girl: The Evolution of the Prime-Time Lesbian Clinch. Bitchfest, Winter 2004. Pp – 313-317. [IN LATTE]
Sarah Mirk. A Conversation about Transgender Representation in Pop Culture. Bitch Media. June 19, 2015.
Rebecca Wanzo “I know You’re Tired of Hearing about Girls: but How about a Puzzling Piece of History”
Roxane Gay. “Girls, Girls, Girls” in Bad Feminist. Pp 51-60.
Roxane Gay, “I Once was Miss America,” in Bad Feminist. Pp. 61-70.
Queerness, Queer Feminisms and Sexuality in the Media
Oct 20 & 22:
Moore, Madison, 2012. “Tina Theory: Notes on Fierceness,” Journal of Popular Music Studies. Vole, 24, Issue 1. Pp. 71-86.
Springer “Queering Black Female Heterosexuality” in Yes Means Yes. Pp-77-92. [IN
LATTE]
Gerhard, 2005. “Sex and the City: Carrie Bradshaw’s Queer Postfeminism.” Feminist Media Studies. Vol. 5 No. 1.
San Filippo, Maria. "Owning Her Abjection: Lena Dunham's Queer Feminist Sexual Politics." in media res. January 7, 2013.
Watch: Sex and the City
In Class: What key terms should we discuss? Look up the difference between “sexuality and sexual orientation,” find an explanation of what “queer theory” is. Bring to class your examples.
Assignment:Why is it so important to see yourself represented in popular culture? What is your favorite representation of women in popular culture, why? Using the analytic tools and theories we’ve learned and discussed so far, explain why your favorite cultural figure or character resonates. What does it reveal? For extra credit dress like this figure/character/etc. for Halloween and analyze your own performance. Take photos. DUE: NOVEMBER 2 BY MIDNIGHT. 5 PAGES plus screen captures/images
Women in Comics
Oct 27:
Emad, Mitra. 2006. “Reading Wonder Woman’s Body: Mythologies of Gender and Nation,” The Journal of Popular Culture. Vol .39. Issue 6. Pp. 954-984
Lepore, Jill. 2015. Looking at Female Superheroes with Ten-Year-Old Boys. The New Yorker. May 7. 2015.
G. Willow Wilson. 2015. Dr. Lepore’s Lament.
Gender Inequality in Video Games
Oct 29:
Katz, Jackson. 2013. “Call of Duty and a Generation of Joystick Warriors,” in The Huffington Post. 11/19/2013.
Chick, Tom. 2013. “Speaking the Unspoken Truth about Gender Inequality in Videogames” Quarter to Three. 11/27/2013.
Hayes, Elisabeth. 2010. “Girls, Gaming, and the Trajectory of IT Expertise,” in Women and Gaming: The Sims and 21st Century Learning by James Paul Gee and Elisabeth Hayes. Palgrave MacMillan.
Jennifer deWinter and Carly Kocurek, “#1reasonwhy Women in the Gaming Industry Matters. February 20, 2013.
Suggested: Shaw. Adrienne. 201. “Do you identify as a gamer? Gender, race, sexuality, and gamer identity.” New Media and Society.
In Class: Discuss Anita Sarkeesian and the Lowdown on GamerGate, Before class take a look at some of Feminist Frequency’s Videos to familiarize yourself with the discussion:
Women Can’t Be Funny
Nov 3:
Gabrielle Moss. A Brief History of “Women Aren’t Funny.” Bitchmedia. April 29, 2013.
Alessandra Stanley. Who Says Women Can’t Be Funny? Vanity Fair. April 2008.
Jilly Gagnon. Reasons Women Aren’t Funny. McSweenys. August 5, 2013.
Warner, Helen. "A New Feminist Revolution in Hollywood Comedy?: Postfeminist Discourses and the Critical Reception of Bridesmaids." In Postfeminism and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. ISBN: 9781137306838.
Watch: Selections from Funny Girl
Can Rape Jokes be Funny?
Nov 5:
Laugh Riot: Feminism and the Problem of Women’s Comedy, Andi Zeisler, BITCHfest 2006. Pp. 148-154 [IN LATTE]
Roxane Gay. “Some Jokes Are Funnier Than Others.” Bad Feminist. Pp. 177-182
Lindy West. Hey, Men, I’m Funnier Than You. Jezebel.
Lindy West. An Open Letter to White Male Comedians. Jezebel. 5/10/13
Watch: Lindy West and Jim Norton on Totally Biased.
Nov 10Female Fandom
Radway, Jan. 1983 “Women Read the Romance: The interaction of Text and Context,” Feminist Studies. 9(1): 53-78.
Click, Melissa. 2009. “’Rabid’, ‘obsessed’, and ‘frenzied’: Understanding Twilight Fangirls and the Gendered Politics of Fandom. Flow.