SNL

Gender in Media Coverage

Michelle Obama "Baby Mama"

Candidate's Wives

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Candidates' Wives

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

The Gender Card?

Music and Politics

Alan Jackson's (2002) "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)"

Toby Keith's (2002) "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)"

Dixie Chicks controversy: "Shut Up and Sing"

Entertainment Weekly Cover

Politics as Soap Opera

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Final Project: Google Knol

Update (4/16/2009): Knol templates

Directions for the COMM 491 Final Project (Google Knol) can be downloaded here.

According to Google, a knol is “an authoritative article about a specific topic.” The contents of your knol should address the central question: “What are the most important things to know about this media text?” It should be well-organized, with a table of contents at the top, helpful sub-headings, and clear transitions between the sub-sections.

See the various Knol Help pages for additional information on:

What knols are and how they work

Basics of writing knols

Managing knols

Advanced knol techniques

Before sitting down to write your own knol, I would recommend browsing the “good knols” listed on the best practices page to get a better idea of how to go about constructing, organizing, and embedding images.

Study guide under construction (4/16)

Hetero/Homosexuality in Classical Hollywood + Sexualities on Film Since the Sexual Revolution

• Aspects of traditional Hollywood narrative that present heterosexuality as natural / default
• How homosexuality was connotated in classical Hollywood cinema (the pansy, gender inversion)
• How the Production Code regulated heterosexuality and homosexuality in film (+ what it was responding to)
• How changing views of homosexuality post WWII changed sexuality (and homosocial affection) in film
• Negative portrayals of non-straight characters in film (stereotypes, linked with violence or death, etc.)
• Improvements in the representation of LGBT film characters over time (give examples)

Study guide under construction (4/14)

Gender in American Film Since the 1960s

• First-wave feminism vs. Second-wave feminism vs. Third-wave feminism vs. Post-feminism
  
• Influence of feminism on film in the 1960s & 1970s (avoidance, sexploitation, buddy films, violence)
  
• How Nine to Five (1980) is representative of the 1970s “Women’s Film” genre
  
• How backlash to feminism influenced film in late 1970s and 1980s (hyper-masculinity, film noir)
  
• The relationship between gender, sexuality, and violence in the “slasher” genre
  
• Positive and negative portrayals of femininity/masculinity in contemporary film (give examples)
  

Feminism and the Backlash

Nine to Five (1980)

Fatal Attraction (1987)

Study guide under construction (4/9)

Masculinity in Classical Hollywood Filmmaking

• Why early American cinema emphasized male virility and strength
  
• How (and why) Hollywood attempted to prevent the sexual objectification of male movie stars
  
• Ways in which masculinity was performed in film during the 1920s and 1930s
  
• How the form and content of film noir reflected gender anxieties post World War II
  
• Films in which masculine ideals were challenged / were reaffirmed in the 1950s
  
• Why Rebel Without a Cause is both progressive and regressive when it comes to gender
  

Masculinity in Classical Hollywood

Sandow the Strong Man (1894)


Rudolph Valentino in 1926


Gone with the Wind (1939)


Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)


Double Indemnity (1954)


Rebel Without a Cause (1959)

Women in Classical Hollywood

Mary Pickford in Pollyanna (1920)


The Women (1939)


The Women (2008)
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