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.


Friday, November 15, 2013

ABSTRACT: Gender Inequality in Popular Films

It's not a surprise that females are grossly underrepresented on screen & behind the camera in popular films and television programming. At USC, I work under an Annenberg professor, Dr. Stacy L. Smith, and I help her with her on-going research: Media Diversity and Social Change. We conduct a yearly content analysis research study focusing our analysis on how gender is portrayed in the Top 100 Grossing Films. We also analyze gender portrayal in family films, prime-time television programs, and children television shows.

The main intention of my paper is to analyze the under-representation and misrepresentation of females through films. Gender stereotyping is an inherent problem in today's entertainment landscape. Popular films are showing gender inequality through their stories and character portrayals. These depictions of females in popular films goes beyond merely creating stereotypes. The lack of exposure of females in popular films has contributed to the growing social problem of gender inequality.

I will proceed with my argument by focusing on the on-going research that I currently am working with Dr. Stacy L. Smith and her brilliant research team. I will describe, in detail, about the method we use in our study, and how we code the films and analyze the data. From each film, we code over 40 different variables, and we focus on the unitization of characters that are either speaking on screen or named on screen. From there, I will proceed my argument by focusing on the findings of the research. Because we analyze over 40 different variables per character, we can link and show more reasons as to how and why females are significantly underrepresented on screen & behind the camera in popular films. For example, "Females in the top-grossing films of 2012 are more likely than males to be shown in sexy (i.e., tight or alluring) attire (M=7%, F=31.6%) or partially naked (M=9.4%, F=31%)....[and] [f]emales' age is related to on-screen hypersexualization" (Smith et al.). The variables I will be focusing on in association to gender is speaking role, age & sexualization, occupation, STEM jobs, and lastly, off camera we study gender prevalence behind-the-scenes.

I will not be solely relying on this research study as my only methodology in analyzing this subject. I plan to expand out of not just analyzing gender inequality in popular films from the United States, but I will develop my paper into also focusing gender inequality in popular films from China as well. I believe it's important to see this type of research on a global scale. Obviously, I can't analyze all of the countries within a 8-10page paper. Thus, I chose to focus this comparison with just one country, China, a country that I have lived in for over 15years and is one of the top 10 countries in the main film industry.

The big picture of all this is to show how the portrayal of females in popular films has contributed to the growing social problem of gender inequality. Whether on screen or behind the scenes, the story for females has not changed. Movies should be able to accurately depict their female audience. I plan to conclude my paper with driving the message of how media should enforce toward the screen and toward popular content that presents women and girls equally and powerfully.
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