Final Information

Hi everyone,

Here is your information for the final:

Your papers are due to my mailbox on the third floor of Ellis by 5pm on Thursday, March 18th. You do not need to turn in your annotated bibliography. However, you will need to submit a (correct) Works Cited page with your essay, and any other drafts that you've written. Use the handout that I gave you to help guide you, or feel free to ask me.

In reading through your final blogs, I am so happy that you all enjoyed this class as much as I did. Some of you commented that you feel as though you are empowered by your ability to critique the media; I want to encourage all of you to feel this way, because as someone said, you are the future, and have the power to change what we see.

I'm also glad to see you writing about how this class applies to your everyday lives. For me, this is something that is so important; even though I am your instructor, I also found myself analyzing the media much more than I previously did. I can watch a commercial and laugh, but at the same time, I am completely aware of how heteronormativity plays a part in the humor (Darby's Old Spice ads immediately come to mind).

And I am glad to see you talking about these issues with the people around you. I am part of a fantasy football league with my significant other. During the draft this year, several of the people (yes, Dylan, I'm sorry to say they were men) made homophobic comments that got me very upset. I wanted to speak up, and my significant other made me stay silent. That incident still upsets me, and I regret not speaking up, even in a "silly" atmosphere. I hope that you all have the opportunity to speak up.

Finally, I am glad to see you all reflecting on the fact that this class was about more than women in the media. Like Dylan, I feel that men often get a bad rap; as Andi says, it is equally important to look at representations of men in the media in order to understand where these stereotypes come from. Too often we focus on women and discuss stereotypes that are harmful to women; I believe that it's important to look at the stereotypes that are also harmful to men. That was one reason I chose Yep for this class; his article speaks to the violence of the institution of heteronormativity across genders, ethnicities, sexualities, and abilities.

You have all improved as writers, thinkers, and conversationalists. I have enjoyed every class this quarter, even at 9am :) I hope that you have as well.

Best,
Megan

Homework for 3/4

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Thursday, 3/4:

1. Read Butler, "Gender is Burning," Ch. 4 of Bodies that Matter and hooks, "Is Paris Burning?" (the last two readings on Bb).
2. Bring at least 2 how/why questions to class - one should relate to each reading. If you have questions about the film itself (plot, character, etc.), please bring those as well.

Homework for 3/2

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Tuesday, March 2nd:

1. Your annotated bibliography, with 10 sources, is due to the Digital Dropbox by classtime. Make sure that you follow the model I gave out in class, and use pp. 167-169 in Envision if you need more help.

Remember that in each annotation, you need to include:
- a brief summary (1-2 sentences) of the source
- how the source is relevant to your essay (why you might use it)
- the reliability or the credibility of the source with regards to your essay.

Homework for 2/25

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Thursday, Feb. 25th:

1. Essay 2 is due. Please bring all your drafts, and make sure each is clearly labeled.
2. Please respond to your classmates' research proposals. You may follow the same procedure as last time; the questions are still posted to the blog.
3. Remember that we are meeting in Alden 323 on Thursday.

Homework for 2/18 and 2/23

Hi everyone,

As you know, we will not be having class on Thursday. This post is important, because it includes your homework for both Thursday and Tuesday, 2/23. First, your homework for 2/18:

In order to receive attendance credit for class on 2/18, I would like for you to do the following:

1. Each of you will be assigned a group on the Discussion Board. In your group, I would like for you to upload your essay (you can do this by clicking on your forum and choosing "Add New Thread," then adding an attachment). Try to do this by midnight tomorrow (2/17).
2. Please read and respond to each group member's paper. You may download the essay and make comments, but I would also like you to write a short response (you may do this at the end of the essay or in the response box for your reply on the DB). Your response should be at least 250 words, and should incorporate the following:
- What is the writer's angle into the topic? That is, how does the writer believe his/her media represents gender/sexuality? And, is this clearly stated and followed through on?
- Assess the writer's use of evidence. Is the writer relying on summary too much? Or does the writer link summary to analysis? (Writing about media can be tricky, because in some ways, you do need to provide some summary for the reader. However, as the reviewer, keep in mind that we want to see how the evidence the writer has chosen helps show the writer's thesis. Therefore, if there is summary, it must connect to the thesis through careful analysis.)
- As the audience, is there anything you want to know more about?
- What do you believe is working best in the essay thus far (and why)? What do you think the writer needs to spend more time on (and why)?

As you will have a fairly significant amount of work for Tuesday, I would recommend that you try to get your essay uploaded, and your responses completed, as soon as you can. I will not be able to give you a full attendance mark until this is completed, nor will I be able to give you feedback on your essay.

Next, your homework for Tuesday, 2/23:
1. I am going to give you an extension on the essay. It will now be due Thursday, 2/25. This is so we can have some time in class Tuesday to discuss your papers, if necessary. So, if you have questions as you continue to work on your paper, please bring those questions to class.
2. Because I am giving you an extension on Essay 2, I would like for you to submit a research proposal for Essay 3 as your next blog entry. Please see the essay assignment for more information.
3. Read Yep, pp. 37-41, and Fausto-Sterling, from Sexing the Body. We will be watching a video in class that covers the issues both discuss.

Homework for 2/16

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Tuesday, 2/16:

1. Blog #5 is due.
2. If we didn't get a chance to in class, make sure that you look at the two artifacts for discussion Thursday: Abby and Brittany Hensel Turn 16, and Allison Lapper Pregnant.
3. Bring the question sheet, along with the Thomson reading, to class.

Homework for 2/11

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Thursday, 2/11:

1. Read Ch.1 and 2. of Thompson, from her book Extraordinary Bodies (Bb). Make sure that you also bring all the other readings we have done so far to class.
2. Using at least of the five items on the checklist in Envision on pp. 62-63, or the one on pp. 101-102, do a short analysis of the topic you've chosen. Bring this to class Thursday.
3. Write two blog responses (about 200 words each) to your classmates' proposals. In these responses, I would like for you to consider the following:
- scope: is the writer proposing something that he/she can feasibly write about in 4-6 pages?
- audience: as a potential audience for this essay, what do you want to know more about?
- thesis: look at the working hypothesis the writer has constructed. Do you have suggestions, or other points the writer might want to consider?
- General comments: any other general comments you might have to help the writer as he/she begins analyzing the media chosen.

Homework for 2/9

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Tuesday, 2/9:

1. Read Slagle and Yep, "Taming Brian: Sex, Love, and Romance in Queer as Folk" (Bb).
2. For your blog post this week, I'd like you to post a 300-400 word proposal for your next essay. This will give you a chance to get feedback from your peers and myself before you begin to work on the essay. Here is what the proposal should include:

a.What is the television show/ad campaign/film/album you would like to analyze? Why?
b. What is your attitude towards your topic? What are you curious/critical about?
c. Try to develop a working thesis for this essay. It can be simplistic, like "On the television show Sex and the City, the women's sexuality seems to be liberating, but in the end always conforms with heteronormativity." You do not have to stick to this thesis, but it will give us a general idea of the direction you think you are headed.
d. Implications: by analyzing this media, what do you hope to show your audience?

Homework for 2/4

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Thursday, Feb. 4th:

1. Make sure that your responses from class today are uploaded to the wiki; the page is called "Responses to Mulvey and Yep, 2/2." The Writer from each group should just edit the page and add in his/her notes. Group members: make sure that you check the wiki to verify that the Writer included all relevant information.
2. Make sure that you bring Mulvey and Yep with you to class Thursday.

Just in case we don't have time today, take a look at the two gay-friendly ads CBS has declined to air during the SuperBowl. If we don't talk about them today, we will talk about them Thursday. Think about how what we read in Yep today informs why these ads might have been banned.

Ad for ManCrunch.com (scroll to the bottom for video)

Ad for GoDaddy.com (also scroll to bottom for video)

Homework for 2/2

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Tuesday, Feb. 2nd:

1. Final Draft of Magazine Cover and Essay 1 are due. Please print out your cover in color and submit all the drafts you have created for Essay 1. Basically, I want to see the work you've done on it.
2. Read Yep, pp. 21-26 and 31-35.
3. Read Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (Bb). This can be a difficult reading, so my advice is to tackle it a little bit at a time.

Homework for 1/28

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Thursday, Jan. 28th:

1. Two blog responses are due.
2. We will have our second workshop featuring Darby, Kelly, Maya, and Molly.
3. If you have NOT had your paper workshopped this week, please submit a draft to Digital Dropbox by classtime Thursday.
4. Please read these short series of articles/comics from The Oatmeal on various aspects of grammar. I think that you will find them helpful, and fairly accessible.

How to Use an Apostrophe
How to Use a Semicolon
Ten Words You Need to Stop Mispelling

~Megan

Homework for 1/26

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Tuesday, 1/26:

1. Blog #3 is Due.
2. Read Alfano, pp. 78-85. Make sure that you bring Alfano with you to class.
3. We will be having our first writing workshops, featuring Rachel, Kat, Britney, and Lauren.

Have a good weekend!

P.S. Here is a little fun for you:
Disney Princesses Deconstructed

Interesting article

First, I want to say that you are all doing a great job so far with your blogs this quarter. You are finding interesting and relevant points to discuss, and I hope you're taking the time to read all of your peers' work, because it is some great reading.

This article was sent to me by a colleague who knows the content of our class this quarter. While we haven't discussed control over pregnant bodies, it's certainly an issue that we could talk about.


http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2010/01/15/until-we-have-better-science-please-shut-up-about-my-pregnancy-pinot-grigot.aspx

Homework for 1/21

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Thursday, 1/21:

1. We will be meeting in Ellis 18 to work on your magazine covers. If you want to get a head start, you can go to http://bighugelabs.com/ and choose "Magazine Cover." However, this program is not very intuitive. You cannot save your work (as far as I can tell), so you will need to take careful notes of what you did, right down to the color. I would suggest creating a Word file where you write in everything you do.
2. Try to bring your image to class. Make sure the image is high enough res that it doesn't look like the sample :)

Homework for 1/19

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Tuesday, 1/19:

1. Your magazine cover presentation is due. (I will post the groups to Bb later today, and create Group pages for you too.)
2. Blog #2 is due by classtime Tuesday.
3. Read Alfano, pp. 26-34 and 66-77. These pages will be helpful as you begin to think about your first essay.
4. Instead of doing a formal proposal, I would like for you to bring some notes regarding what you want to do for your own magazine cover. We'll spend some time in class talking about both the covers and the rhetorical analysis of the cover.

Enjoy the long weekend! Here is a link to an image that relates directly to what we've been discussing in class:

Perfect Girls vs. Real Girls

Homework for 1/14

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Thursday, 1/14:

1. Read Johnson, "Promoting Easy Sex without Genuine Intimacy" (Bb), and the last two pages of chapter 2 of Alfano (pp. 61-63).
2. Your first blog responses are due. Remember that you need to post a minimum of two responses.
3. We will be watching a video in class Thursday: Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly 3.

Homework for 1/12

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Tuesday, Jan. 12th:

1. Read Yep, pp. 19-21, and Bordo, "The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity" and "Beauty (Re)Discovers the Male Body" (Bb). The two Bordo essays together are a little long (about 70 pages), but they are engaging. Just plan accordingly so you have time to complete the reading. And remember to bring the Yep and both Bordo essays with you to class.

2. Your first blog entry will be due by classtime. For this blog, in addition to the blog requirements, I would like for you to introduce yourself to your readers by giving a short biography. Because I'm asking you do this additional writing, think of the blog length as 300-500 words.

3. Don't forget to check the course wiki between now and class on Tuesday.

Enjoy the weekend! Stay warm.
Megan

Here is Gust A. Yep's biography, from SFSU:
http://www.sfsu.edu/~comm/faculty/yep.htm

And here is Susan Bordo's biography; she is a professor at UK:
http://www.as.uky.edu/academics/departments_programs/GenderWomenStudies/GenderWomenStudies/faculty/Faculty/SusanBordo/Pages/default.aspx

Homework for 1/7

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Thursday, Jan. 7th:

1. We're going to begin reading Gustav Yep, "The Violence of Heteronormativity in Communication Studies." This is available on Blackboard. You'll just be reading some introductory material from this article: pp. 11-14, 16-19, and 26-31.

2. I would also like for you to skim the chapter in Alfano on rhetoric and persuasion, in particular pp. 37-40, 43-47, 48-51, and 54-61. Make sure that you are familiar with the rhetorical terms ethos, pathos, logos, kairos. Kairos will be especially important for our conversations this quarter.

See you Thursday! Stay warm.

Welcome to 306J

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the blog for our English 306J class, focusing on rhetorical constructions of gender and sexuality in the mass media. On this blog, you will find links to your classmates' blogs. You will also find general news and notes about the class. I will copy the homework to this blog, and post who is responsible for the course wiki, as well as any other relevant material. I'm looking forward to reading your blogs, and your essays, this quarter, as well as the discussions we will have about the course material.

Megan