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, December 2, 2013

The Way Women Dress & Positions of Power

After today's presentations, especially the one referring to women in pop culture who are/aren't feminists I really started to think about how the way women dress seems to affect how people view them from a feminist standpoint. Should we think that Beyonce can't possibly be a feminist since she wears revealing clothes sometimes? Does exploiting a gender norm (in this case the norm of how women dress) mean that a woman is using it to empower herself or simply comply with what society expects? Something that really stood out to me was when I watched Frozen this weekend and the character or Elsa turned more"feminine" once she was crowned Queen and gained a position of power. Her dress was more sparkly and beautiful and instead of wearing flat shoes she now wore heels. Elsa's body was also much more curvy and visible in the dress. So was Disney trying to give the message that her way of dress empowers her, that she is exploiting the gender norm to show that you can be a powerful woman AND wear heels? Or did Disney simply respond to the fact that the position of power means that she has more expectations on her as a woman and that more eyes are on her - so she should fulfill those expectations.  Or did Disney even think her way of dress through, I mean, who wears little heels in the snow? Without a doubt there is much scrutiny given to women in positions of power and how they dress. Just look at Hillary Clinton...infamous for her pantsuits and receiving much criticism over them. Would she be scrutinized equally if she wore more high heels and pencil skirts and dresses? Does showing more of your body equal power?  It seems that society is most comfortable when women in positions of power stick to gender norms.

No comments:

Post a Comment