Girls' Media and Cultural Studies

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course introduces students to critical analyses of girls' media culture. During the first half of the semester we will focus on constructions of girls and girlhood in intellectual theory, popular discourse, and media texts (particularly U.S. film and television), paying attention to shifts in such constructions as a result of sociohistorical contexts and the rise of feminist ideologies. The second half of the semester will be devoted to exploring the media and cultural practices of female youth, examining the expansion of girls' culture beyond consumer-oriented activities, such as magazine reading and music listening, to those involving media production, such as filmmaking and blogging. In addition to problematizing girls' sex and gender identity through intersectional explorations of age and generation, and vice versa, we will pay special attention to how issues of race, class, and sexuality impinge upon the formation of girls' identities, female youth cultures, and the representation of girlhood in popular culture.