WGS 3230 - Gender, Race and Sexuality in Popular Culture

Credits: 4

Popular Culture is the US’s second largest export after weapons. This course will examine how gender is used in popular culture artifacts from popular entertainment including sports, films, music and more. Employing popular culture methods and theories including cultural studies, students will study how the meaning system is used to reinforce the status quo and also challenge it. By focusing on advertising, music, television, magazines, film, and social media, this course will explore how cultural values, fears, hopes and dreams are coded into gender scripts, and how these scripts intersect with other aspects of identity such as race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. The course will also examine what is at stake both in negotiating gender, race, and sexuality in contemporary culture and in doing “feminist” cultural criticism. Topics include changes in representations of bodies, relationships, and families; reflections of politics in popular culture; and the varied influence of popular culture as well as efforts by individuals and groups to use popular culture to promote social justice and political/social change. Case studies include media and popular culture representations of #MeToo, the movement for black lives, and issues of migration and immigration.

Fulfills: D in LS Core.