WGS-235 Gender and Sexuality in Visual Culture
Explores how gender and sexuality are depicted, constructed, and interrogated across a variety of visual mediums, including film, television, and photography. We will pair foundational readings in queer and feminist thought with representations in order to consider how theory and popular culture engage in a constant dialogue. Topics include: the maintenance of norms regarding gender and sexuality; how race, class, and ability complicate our understanding of gender and sexuality; the ways in which sexuality intertwines with other social and political formations; imagining alternative theories and practices in representing gender and sexuality in contemporary media culture. Possible texts include theoretical work by Sigmund Freud, Judith Butler, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, and David Halperin and media such as The Shape of Water (2017), Blade Runner (1982), Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (2003-2007), and Jess Dugans To Survive on This Shore (2018).