We will explore how changing ideas about sex, sexuality, and gender appeared in certain types of twentieth-century popular culture. As a group, we will learn to interpret media, such as movies or television, as historical texts that provide insight into past notions about sex in the United States. To this end, we will start with the assumption that media functions as mechanisms of socialization and as a venue for expressing popular concerns or beliefs about gender roles, same-sex desire, race, and so forth. We will uncover how the media represented historical issues such as courtship among heterosexuals, pornography, gay liberation, and birth control through a weekly film lab. At the same time, we will seek to uncover the voices of groups that the mainstream media have often omitted (or actively sought to silence) in discussions about sex. To that end, much of our course reading will draw from academics engaged in an assortment of overlapping fields. Students will be introduced to scholarship in race and ethnic studies, queer studies, feminist studies, and so forth.

Students should be aware that certain course materials contain sexually explicit language and/or images. Some images include nudity and/or sexually graphic content.

Course Requirements:

Short response papers, class participation, viewing films, a mid-term paper, and a final project. No exams.

Intended Audience:

This class is geared toward upper-level undergraduate students who are interested in gender studies, women's history, GLBTQ studies, mass media, history, and American Culture.

Class Format:

Weekly Seminar with a film lab. This is an in-person only class. Lectures/Discussion will not be recorded or offered as hybrid.