WGS 2420 - Gender, Sex, and Film

Credits: 4

This course will explore how film intentionally or unintentionally reflects and shapes our perceptions of sex and gender categories and norms. Throughout the course students will examine mainstream, independent, and international films looking at how gender, sex and race are represented. Students will analyze how women and men and transgender persons have historically been portrayed in film and how sex and race are intertwined with gender. Questions and topics include how sexualities from heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian, and gay have been represented during different socio-historical periods; how different film genres from romance to horror and comedy position characters according to sex and gender; who do we identify with and why; and how do different audiences respond to characters based on the intersections of sex, race, and gender? Students will have the opportunity to reverse the lens and experiment with video production.
Fulfills: Humanities distribution requirement. AL and D in LS Core.