Course Intro

Welcome! This is the course blog for Uhon 390 Sexuality and American Popular Culture. Below is a brief intro to the course. Check out the Course Syllabus for more details.


In August 2013, Miley Cyrus shocked fans and critics with her performance of “We Can’t Stop” at the MTV VMAs.  The next morning, news media was abuzz with what amounted to a national debate about Cyrus’ performance, which seemed to push new boundaries for both the former child star and the music industry. But did it? What exactly was new here? To many observers, this seemed yet another chapter in a longstanding debate over the appropriate expression of female sexuality in popular culture. When did popular culture become so consumed with sexuality? Well, if you take the long view, when wasn’t it?

This course will examine the intersection of debates about sex and sexuality with the emergence and transformation of American popular culture, looking at patterns and changes from the 1780s through today. We’ll explore how different cultural forms—from the novel to blues music—introduced new ideas about sexuality and gender, challenged existing social mores, and gave voice to different groups within American society and culture.  Examining these moments can give us a unique window into the past, while providing us with tools for examining our own culture.  In this class we will do both – examine past struggles over sexuality and popular culture and learn to think more critically about struggles over sexuality today.