Women's and Gender Studies

Feminism and Popular Culture

WGST 3123 Feminism and Popular Culture

How and why do cultural phenomena such as Taylor Swift and the manosphere exist side by side in a historical moment?  Students will seek to answer such questions by examining ways in which gender is constructed and represented in popular culture. Starting with the Wachowskis’ iconic 1999 film The Matrix and engaging feminist and cultural studies theories, such as those imagined by Judith Butler, Laura Mulvey, John Berger, Teresa De Lauretis, bell hooks, and Sara Ahmed, students will analyze how boys, girls, women, men, trans and nonbinary folk are differentially represented in contemporary North American popular culture and how those representations intersect with race, class, sexuality, and ability. Students will have the opportunity to interpret feminism and popular culture through their own creative engagements with the theories and texts, broadly conceived. Prereq: WGST 1413 and third year standing, or permission of the instructor.