Research Assistance?

So if you were teaching a class called "Sex, Gender and the Media," what snippets of U.S. television advertising and/or programming would you want your students to watch? With links, please.

Comments

[Beth]

lol I took that class.

Back in April 20/20 aired a program on transgender kids, which I wrote about here: http://womanofthetigermoon.blogspot.com/2007/04/2020-transgender-program.html

and here:
http://womanofthetigermoon.blogspot.com/2007/04/gender-variant-children-in-news.html

Both of my posts have links to various ABC print articles about the families, and about growing up transgender. As far as I know, ABC hasn't made a DVD of the program available, but you can find it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utpam0IGYac

That's part one, there are five parts. Overall this was a good program; I wasn't sure what to expect, but for a mainstream media outlet, they did a good job. I highly recommend it for a class of this type.

And there's always 'Sex and the City' -- good for a discussion (the most contentious one, in our class) of women, men, gender roles, and media representation.

Kill Bill -- loads to analyze and discuss there in terms of gender and race vis a vis violence and traditional film roles for women.

Okay, I'll stop now ;-)

[ezfez]

Is it limited to the US (asks the British historian)? Because there's been an interesting mix of gender stuff in the British tabloids this fall, between Heather Mills McCartney (divorcing Paul), an inquest into Princess Diana's death, and the Madeleine McCann case. It all came together in a series of very angry interviews given by Mills in which she compared her suffering at the hands of the media with that suffered by Diana and Kate McCann (Madeleine's mother). (See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/10/31/mills131.xml
for starters.)
You've got saint/whore and good mother/bad mother all over the place with these three, plus the strange voyeurism of tabloid celebrity.
For a more thoughtful take, there's also Anne Enright's essay on Kate McCann. Enright's just won the Booker Prize for her most recent novel, and she's taken flak for her exploration of all the difficult (and very gendered) issues raised by the McCann case. Her original essay is here: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n19/enri01_.html
There's plenty of coverage of it to be found, including this from the NY Times which doesn't assume a British familiarity with it all:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/books/08enri.html

Sorry if this is all completely irrelevant--a British comparison might be the very last thing you need! Good luck, anyway.

[Grace]

My first thought is Buffy the Vampire Slayer (http://imdb.com/title/tt0118276/). For some reviews on women in action movies, you could check out www.heroinecontent.net.

Sounds like a fantastic class.

[Diatryma]

Because it made me so extremely angry: Grey's Anatomy, the prom episode, near the end. The "Stop looking at me!" "Stop making me look at you!" and then they have sex. I don't know what you could do with it besides the obvious, but oh, with the angry. However, I am not of the linky (I am only barely of the TV-watching).

[Jessica]

This may not have sex but this group reports on how women are portrayed in the media. You may find some references there:

http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/

[deb]

It is not on the web, so it may not be possible for you online class, but Marlon Rigg's _Color Adjustment_ (1989? 1992?) is a history of African Americans in television, and is great. Ruby Dee narrates.

[artsweet]

Check out

http://toxicmedia.blogspot.com/

for some good ones

[The Domestic Goddess]

Ohhh...the blatant advertising. Watch programs "for women" and "for men" and see the difference in the commercials. Some of them are SO INCREDIBLY SEXIST I cannot believe we are still DOING that in this day in age. Deoderant commercials? Alcohol commercials during football games? It's all about super-sexy women licking things, eating things, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrvLR0pVQ3A
During Supposed "women's" programming? 40-somethings, not-as-sexy soccer mom-types (in other words, real people) dressed in high-neck shirts with no cleavage and khaki pants.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnMz3OBE478

They know who they are trying to reach for sure. Don't even get me started about the VS fashion show.

[Sara]

there are SO many ways to go - don't forget the advertising to KIDS - the hypergendered preschool-oriented commercials. Drives me insane.