Presentation Schedule and such...

Looking forward to your final project presentations in class during the last two weeks of class. Each group will present for 10-15 minutes (the timer will go off at 15 to cut you off.) Remember that your project has two parts: the presentation and the blog post (refer to the handout with rubric that I handed out in class for specific instructions). I have high expectations for your blog post so make it rich, detailed, hyperlinked, imaged, creative, informative, engaging, resourceful, and insightful!!

Kayla has invited all of you to be authors on the Final Projects blog. If you haven't received an invitation and accepted it, you will not be able to post your final project so email Kayla is you need help!

Per our conversation in class last week, here is the schedule for the last two weeks of class.

Tuesday, April 26
4-4:30 Course evaluations
4:30-4:45 Diana's group
4:50-5:05 Blue & Melissa's group
5:10-5:25 Deirdre and Lexi's group
5:30-5:45 Jane's group
5:45-5:55 BREAK
5:55-6:10 Jess' group
6:15-6:30 Amanda's group
6:35-6:50 Ron's group

Tuesday, May 3
4:00-6:00 T-Pain Discussion (Student Union Ballroom)
6:15-6:30 Jasmine's group (back in the classroom)
6:35-6:50 Dante's group

Looking forward to it!!!

LB :)

More on the domestic violence issues we talked about a few weeks ago...

We talked in class a few weeks ago about issues of violence, blame, culture and misogyny in relation to the Chris Brown/Rihanna assault. Then just last week, we talked about the constructions of boy culture and girl culture in our society, namely "boys will be boys" and "good girl-ness."

These two clips seemed to be appropriate fuel to our academic fire...

First, recent Chris Brown interview on Good Morning America ends with CB outraged, throwing a chair out of his dressing room window. He reports being very angry that people keep bringing up an incident that happened two years ago.

Then, a response that questions why Chris Brown is so angry and what historical burdens Black artists have faced.



Thoughts??

Very cool videos

Just want to share these amazing short films... all about how media representation and beauty culture influence how we think about ourselves and each other.

You can view them for free until the end of this month using the password: Body Typed.

Good Girls, Take II

See my blog from last week for info on the texts for this week. Also, please note that you can watch Atalanta here rather than buying the track on itunes.

OOOPPS!!! Final Project Week!

Hi all,

NOTE: Thanks to Diana for finding my brain... I totally skipped a week on the syllabus when I put my blog up on Thursday. Please postpone your Good Girl reading and watching for this week. Rather we will be working on Final Projects in class. (Sorry about any confusion!)

For your blog post this week, I want you to brainstorm about ideas that might be spinning around in your brain for a final project. For this last assignment, you need to choose some topic that relates directly to issues of Teenagers in/and the Media. It should be something about how teenagers are represented -- in other words, what the media teaches us about teenagers. Or it can be something about how teenagers represent themselves. (Think of GLEE week as an example of the type of thing you might take up on your own.)

Suggestions: You could look at teens and video game culture, teenage sexuality (how they learn about it in sex ed/media), the prom, the mall, teen magazines, teenagers and tattoo culture, teen representation on Degrassi (or any other show), reps of gay teens, teens and social class, pre-teen culture (tweens), etc etc.

These are just a few examples of things that interest me. But your project needs to interest you!

I am hoping that most of you will choose to do this in partners or groups. Though I won't force anyone to work on a topic they don't like so if you need to work alone, I will let you. You final project will be something digital (powerpoint, movie, pictures, etc), something written (not a full paper, just a handout or other materials to teach us what you have learned) and a presentation in class. Details in class on Tuesday...

So for your blog post, explore a few topics. Post pictures, links and write out your possible ideas. Do some research about the area you are interested in. Be as deep and through as you can and we will work for these posts in class on Tuesday!

See you then...

LB :)

Good Girls

Hi folks,

Per the syllabus, your texts for this week are three:

1) Tolman and Higgins, How Being a Good Girl an Be Bad for Girls

Read carefully and make sure that you can answer the title question. What do Tolman and Higgins say about the dangers of being a "good girl?"

2) Watch Alice in Wonderland (the recent Johnny Depp version -- this is where the Netflix part of the course expenses kicks in, though you can watch it anyway you can find it!)

Here I want you to think about how Alice resist the pull of good-girl-ness. How does she challenge the expections of being a young, white woman who follows the rules? And like we discussed during GLEE week, what happens to her in the end? is she punished for her efforts to resist? Is she rewarded for her rebellion?

3) Listen to the children's story called "Atalanta" from the Free to Be You and Me album (available on itunes for $.99).

This album was released in 1972 just in the heart of second wave feminism. What does it teach us about what it means to be a good girl and what costs are involved?

On you blog, connect these three texts in some way to explain Tolman and Higgins' claims and use Alice and Atalanta as examples.

See ya Tuesday!

LB :)

Hip Hop Pedagogy

Hey folks,

This week in class we will have a guest speaker, Marco McWillliams, who will help us explore hip hop culture in the United States and how it relates to the questions of media representation, power and privilege that we have been asking this semester. To prepare for his session, we will divide into four groups and each group will read one of the very short but dense articles by Dr. Jared Ball that are linked on the side of my blog. (You can certainly read all four if you want to!)

You are accountable to your group members here, so please read carefully (and use the hyperlinks he includes to help clarify issues you don't understand). Further, you are demonstrating your smartness and curiosity to our guest speaker by being well prepared as well, so show off a little. :)


Jared Ball, Hip Hop I
Taylor
Lauren
Ron
Nneka
Leecy


Jared Ball, Hip Hop II
Jessica G.
Lexi
Jessica K.
Amanda
Melissa


Jared Ball, Hip Hop III

Racquelle

Jane
Krsiten
Diana
Deirdre


Jared Ball, Hip Hop IV
Blue
Hilary
Annie
Jasmine
Mary
Dante


(NOTE: The images above are just examples of the rising scholarship around hip hop... they are not directly related to the readings)

Two more ways to watch GLEE

Hmmmmm... not many blogs are up yet. Really hoping everyone will be prepared for class tomorrow. Grrrrrr... :(

Here are two more ways to watch glee online:

Never Been Kissed or Here (via Blue)
Never Been Kissed/Furt (on Amazon)
Never Been Kissed/Furt (search on itunes)

Check out Lexi's Blog for a great analysis rich with quotes and detail...

See you all tomorrow!

LB :)

Some GLEE resources to check out....

After you read my post below with advice on watching and writing about GLEE this week, you might also check out these resources I found just poking around online:

Glee Resources:

Overview and analysis from The Daily Beast

Feminist Analysis: Top Five Problems with GLEE

Review of Never Been Kissed

LGBT Themes in GLEE

Talking to Teens about GLEE

Episode Summary: Never Been Kissed

Episode Summary: Furt

GLEE!!!!!

Hey folks,

Hope you had a great break and were as restful or productive as you needed it to be.

So excited to talk about GLEE this week in class. Check out Kayla's Blog for links to the Pilot Episode. There are also links to Never Been Kissed (season 2, episode 6) and Furt (season 2, episode 8) on hulu.com.

But if you go to HULU you will not be able to watch them in full unless you join HuluPlus for a ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL. (This is because these episodes are in the current season of the show.) Signing up will not cost you any money as long as you cancel your membership within a week. But it does require you to sign up with a credit card. It took me 3 minutes to do it. Literally.

If anyone found other sites, please post them as well.

Once you watch all three episodes, please post on your blog about them. Use the tools we have already developed in class including the three assumptions of the course, Raby's dominant discourses of youth, Grinner's SCWAAMP, or Christensen's "secret education" to talk about what this show teaches us about teenagers. I am not so interested in whether you like the show, or if it is realistic, or if you think "teenagers would never do that," etc. I want you to think abut how this show TEACHES US about what is "normal" about teenagers, and how it naturalizes certain ideas about who teenagers are.

Please use examples from Never Been Kissed and Furt in your post.

(I am going to focus class on issues of masculinity and sexuality, so you can put that in your brain as well.)

See ya on Tuesday!

LB :)