Special Topics Seminar: Feminism and the Media

This course will examine the relationship between feminism and the media. Can the media be feminist? Which media? Visual culture is political and politicized. How feminism is represented is part of how feminist projects and movements have been successful, hindered, complicated, and negotiated. We will consider some of the historical roots of women-in-film, learn about television as a “feminine” medium, and analyze ways that contemporary media genres and phenomena engage with or disavow feminism.