CSP 65 Gender and Pop Culture

From Beyoncé to The Big Bang Theory, from Cardi B to Call Me By Your Name, contemporary pop culture helps shape our understanding of gender in the twenty-first century. This course will examine how various genders are represented, constructed, and contested through pop culture. We will begin with some key readings on the social construction of gender and its intersections with other markers of identity, such as sexuality, race, and class. From that foundation, we will explore depictions of gender in recent pop culture, including television, music, film, and online culture, using our own expertise as consumers of pop culture to question how these forms both reinforce and challenge existing gender norms and why they are so instrumental in shaping our understandings of gender.