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.


Sunday, October 13, 2013

Recent Commercials shown on TV

I haven't had the chance to sit in front of the TV in a while, but when I finally did turn on that remote control this past week, I got to see two different yet interesting commercials that I haven't really seen on TV in a while. I wanted to share this with everyone, and if anyone else wants to give their two cents about it, I would greatly appreciate it and be glad to see more points of views on these commercials.

1) One of them is a commercial for a healthcare organization, Cigna. This advertisement featured a woman portrayed in more "male occupations" or "male outfits" than I have ever seen before. Can't tell exactly what type of message they are going for, but for me, it was kind of refreshing to see more women portrayed as firefighters, policewomen, sports driver, etc and for that to actually be shown on TV. Gives little girls more role models and ambitions of what they can be.

Cigna "Born an Original"


2) The second commercial I saw was a two-part advertisement. The product they were selling was the new Samsung Smart TV and all it's cool, new voice-activation and personalization features. The family portrayed in this commercial is interracial- the dad is white, the mom is asian, and the kids are mixed races. I hardly ever see a commercial that features a interracial couple, let alone a whole family. It was kind of refreshing to see a more diverse type of family situation.

Samsung "Meet the Family"


Samsung "Battlestar Marathon"




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