COURSES

In this course, we explore how gender and sexuality are represented—and produced—across media including film, television, internet, video games, advertising, and music. Through readings, screenings, and class discussions, we examine how gender and sexuality are constructed within social power dynamics that not only constitute but are also constituted by the production, consumption, and interpretation of media. We carefully explore how media forms shape our relationship to our own (and each other’s) bodies, influence how and what we desire, and privilege some identities over others.

Young people are expected to develop sexually during adolescence, even as their sexual activities are heavily regulated. This tension plays out repeatedly in popular culture, from movies to online fanfiction, abstinence-porn young adult novels and actual porn featuring “barely legal” actors. This course guides students through an examination of this genre of pop culture, focusing on the normative identities embedded within the sexual practices depicted. We consider the implications of these identities for power, consent, health, connection, and pleasure.

GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN DIGITAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

In this course, we explore how gender and sexuality are represented and produced within digital culture. Digital media and technologies are integrated into nearly every aspect of our modern daily lives, and they are never socially neutral. Existing social categories such as gender, sexuality, race, and class shape the development of new forms of media, and are in turn shaped by these technologies. Starting with women’s participation in the growth of computers and the internet and going on to examine modern media texts such as social media, YouTube videos, video games, and online pornography, we will carefully explore how digital culture helps shape our relationship to our own (and each other’s) bodies, influences how and what we desire, and privileges some identities over others.