Happy Spring Break!

Greetings from sunny Vermillion! We hit the weather jackpot this Spring Break. This a perfect opportunity to take stock of where we are in the semester. I am really glad we took the time to talk about project ideas on Thursday and I hope more ideas are percolating. I'll be sending personal emails to each of you with an update on your points from the Blog and some general comments on your participation across the board as well as your final project if you have posted.

If you have starting thinking about your project and will be in Verm, use this break to start pulling together some sources -- primary and secondary. You can use the internet, but I'll expect good old fashioned books in your bibliographies. I can help you with this as well.

I want to tell all of you here that I am really happy with how the class is going and I want us to keep the energy up. We're going to start moving into our projects, but say engaged with our readings. I'm really looking forward to our discussion of Susan Douglas' book in a couple weeks.

Questions to think about for your final project:
- what cultural form will I be looking at?
- what questions am I trying to answer about gender, sexuality, and popular culture by looking at ...?  what do I find interesting about ...?
- will I be able to get examples to analyze and from where (copies of zines, advertisements, films)?
- what secondary sources (books, articles) can I use to help me contextualize and analyze this cultural form?
- how can I bring in a comparative angle? (for example, how R&B builds on the blues tradition, how advertisements have changed--or not, the different terms of sexualization and objectification in women's vs men's sports, what happens when a  story moves from book to film)

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IF you are in Vermillion, let me encourage you to attend a screening of the documentary Miss Representation on Wednesday night at 7:00 at the Vermillion Public Library. I will give attendance and participation credit for this! I will be facilitating a discussion after the film.

If I don't see you there, see you after break!