Gender in Pop-Media Writing Assignment

One of the first questions asked about a newborn human is whether "it" is a boy or a girl.  Gender is such a significant part of human identity that it can be difficult to perceive.  Just as a fish cannot see the water, so we often have a hard time understanding the impact gender has on our lives.  Furthermore, it is difficult to unravel truths about gender from the bombardment of cultural messages in popular media that make distorted claims about the meaning of gender.

Your assignment is to uncover and analyze some of the messages about gender embedded in one sample of popular media (e.g., an episode of a tv series, a youtube video, a feature length movie, a commercial). While writing this paper, you should answer three questions:

1) What implicit (implied, but not obvious) messages about gender does the sample communicate?
2) How does sample communicate the messages? (e.g., visual cues, dialogue, lighting, acting/costume, sound, word choice, sequencing)
3) Why is the target audience likely to be persuaded by the message?

Some considerations:

1. The people who produce media may not even realize they are saying anything about gender.
2. This assignment is NOT about attacking pop culture for telling all women they have to be supermodel beautiful to have value as human beings.
3. This assignment is NOT about attacking men for objectifying women.
4. Gender is NOT an issue for women alone. Men, too, are influenced by subtle communications about gender roles.
5. Gender is NOT one-dimensional (simply a genetic trait or a matter of physical appearance), but involves numerous facets:

• from the obvious (i.e, dress; roles in courtship, marriage, and the workplace)
• to the less obvious (i.e., nonverbal language, speech patterns, expression of emotions)
• to the assumed (i.e., beliefs and attitudes about leadership, relationships, spirituality, and social power).

Audience
You are writing for Juniors at Maeser.  They are very familiar with popular culture, but do not usually think about the silent messages about gender embedded in the media they use.  They are accustomed to reading academic essays and expect your paper to use appropriate writing conventions.

Voice

• Formal and objective
• Enthusiastic and informative

Other Specifications
Length: 400-600 words (Include the word count in the MLA heading on the line after the date.)
Use MLA formatting (See OWL at Purdue for MLA guidelines.).
Due:TBA