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.


Saturday, November 2, 2013

article about a screenwriter who identifies as a feminist




http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/diablo-codys-lamb-in-las-vegas

I recently found this article about screenwriter Diablo Cody (Paradise, Juno, Young Adult, Jennifer’s Body,) regarding her directorial debut “Paradise” and her experience working in the industry, especially as a female who identifies as a feminist. I think the article speaks to what we’ve been discussing in class. All of her films have a female protagonist who go through some sort of transformation and in the article she explains she wants her female characters to be intelligent (which is not something we always see on screen). Her new movie, Prodigy is about a woman who is exceptionally smart but does not know how to be social and interact as well as most women on tv seem to do.

When asked about identifying as a feminist, she replied, “CODY: I don't, really. Unfortunately, I can't fault other writers and directors for how they choose to present themselves, but I just think people are very fearful of declaring themselves as feminists because it's just confused with being misandry. And if you get labeled a man-hater in this town, you're screwed. Men are still the gatekeepers.


For me, I'll never stop identifying as a feminist, and I think the conversation about women in film is very important. I know there are other women who don't agree with me and say, "No, we need to stop talking about that and start talking about our work and just do the work and just show them that we can do it." And I'm like, "No." I don't know how to say it. If we really had just sat back and not engaged in conversations about feminism, we would have no projects thus far. So, you have to have the balls to talk about those things, even if other people might find it off-putting.”

The article continues to talk about the pressure of being a female  in the industry and how there is a burden of representation for minorities. Do we think that females have to write strong, good role model characters since they are so limited? The same question can be asked of queer representation? But if women should only write strong independent female characters isn’t that limiting creativity?

These questions can be tied to so many of the shows and female represents we’ve watched like Sex and the City, Orange is the new Black, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and more . It will be interesting to see where the industry goes both on and off screen.
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