Course Description

At the core of the course is the question how feminism has become a demonized and ridiculed “F-word” in an age when issues of gender and sexuality are at the center of constant, often explosive political debates. These debates often connect media representation and political representation but tend to do so in simplistic ways that bypass or distort decades of sophisticated feminist theory and practice. We will trace back such representations through the decades around case studies that encompass film, video, television and new media practices. The case studies come from the United States and beyond, taking into full account the global interconnectedness of media production and consumption as well as the transnational travel of feminist ideas. The main goal of the course is to evaluate how useful feminist thinking is to understanding the relays between media and political representation; and to develop a lasting critical apparatus to analyzing the politics of gender and sexuality in the media.


Monday, October 28, 2013

Criticism of BFGW


            As shocked as I was while watching BFGW in class last week, I reflected on the episode after class with a positive attitude. There are a lot of modern television shows that depict sides of society that many people have not been exposed to before. For this exact reason, viewers are usually shocked to see how these different types of people live their lives. BFGW has received a large amount of criticism for its portrayal of women as objects that must agree to marry any man who wants her. However, I think that this show also shows how we have progressed as a society in with respect to the treatment of women. Being a gypsy has been a culture for many years and has deeply embedded traditions that have been passed down for many generations. For them, the way women are treated is the norm because they’ve never been told or taught otherwise. However, the gypsy culture is so radically different from what we are used to, which is why BFGW was such a successful television show. People like to watch shows that are removed from reality, and BFGW is so crazy that at some points it’s hard to believe that the actors actually live their lives how they do. Because the audience is expected to be shocked at how women are treated so horribly, this means that society in general believes it is unacceptable.  The show getting criticism should not come as a surprise to anyone––we should be worried when someone says they agree with the wild lifestyles portrayed.
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