Required Texts:
(available at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza and Mary Jane Books)
Edut, Ophira, ed. Body Outlaws.
Jackson, Shelley. Patchwork Girl (CD-Rom).
Mernissi, Fertima. Scheherazade Goes West.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye.
Course Packet – available at Shipmates (also at Stuyvesant Plaza).
  
Course Requirements:
Class Participation (20 points)
Participation includes your regular attendance and contributions to classroom discussions and the webct discussion board. Attendance will be taken through name cards, created the first day of class. You are allowed 3 unexcused absences; however, if you go over this number, you stand to lose 2 points for each additional absence from your final grade. Excused absences will only be granted in cases of documented illness and emergencies. Five bonus points toward your final grade for perfect attendance!! Perfect attendance means that you have never missed a single class (whether this is excused or not – including for illnesses and emergencies), nor have you ever arrived late nor left early for any reason. If you attend every single session, from the beginning of class time to the end, and if you are respectful in class, contribute to discussions and never disrupt class through disrespectful behavior (being insulting, rude, walking out of class without saying “excuse me,” or NOT turning off cell phones, pagers, and beepers), then and only then will you receive bonus points for perfect attendance.
Pop Quizzes (20 points)
Scheduled throughout the semester and unannounced; you will have as many or as few quizzes, depending on how regularly everyone in class keeps up with their reading assignments.
Photo (or Audio) Essay (10 points)
Based on a media watch exercise, compose a 4-5 page personal essay (typed and double-spaced) on your experiences and awareness of mass media, incorporating analysis of photos that you've taken of media (or clippings of ads), or of the audio materials that you've collected. The essay is due February 8.
Creative/Writing/Multimedia Project (20 points)
You will be required to submit written or artistic work towards publication. You may choose from one of the following: (3 bonus points if submission is accepted by e-journal or wins its sci-fi competition)
You will need to choose Option A or B by Tuesday, February 15. Explain your choice in a 2-3 page proposal/prospectus (typed and double-spaced).
Annotated Bibliography (5 points)
To develop the work that you completed for the photo-audio essay, assemble information on three websites and 3-5 secondary sources (articles from academic, peer-reviewed journals, or academic books or anthology chapters) relating to this topic and that you plan on using toward work on your team's website; use APA format. In your annotations, provide a brief summary (150 words) of main arguments in each source. The assignment is due Thursday, March 17.
Website Team (25 points)
From Production to Consumption: in teams of 4, collaborate on the creation of a website that provides information and traces the impact of women's bodies in our global information age, from the worker/producer, who assembles our media, to the consumer who is seduced into buying these products. How are women's bodies used on both ends of media production? Your website should include interactive features (such as images and hyperlinks), a bibliography of secondary sources (compiled from each team member's annotated bibliography assignment) and a list of related and valuable websites linked to the site. Your team may focus on one of the following media topics:
I. "Who Assembled This Computer? What's on the Screen?" Explore the role of women workers in our digital age; what lives do they lead, and why is computer media making such lives "invisible" to the rest of us? Then, explore how the (hyper)visibility of women's representations in cyberspace supports this invisibility.
II. "Who Made this Lingerie? What Makes it Sexy? Do You Have to Starve to Fit into it?" Explore the role of women workers in sweatshops; what lives do they lead, and why do all of our fashion ads make such lives "invisible" to the rest of us? Then, explore how the sexual objectification of women in fashion ads supports this invisibility. You may also want to explore the connections between women in poor countries who are thin, due to famine, and women in wealthier countries, who are thin because they strive to be beautiful. Similar questions can be applied to the other topics below.
III. "Who Made this Toy? What Fantasies does it Sustain?"
IV. "Who Made this Video Game? Who Has the Power and Control?"
V. "Who is Forced to Work in Porn Industries? How is Pornography Mainstreamed in Our Everyday Lives?"
VI.
"Where is the 'Real' Cancun? How is Spring Break and Sex Tourism Linked?"
VII.
"Who Stole the Music? From Poverty to Hip-Hop to Sweatshops."
VIII. "Whose Harem is This? From Burquas to Thong Bikinis."
IX. "What's Wrong with Women's Bodies? Cosmetic Surgery, Thinness, and the First World Woman."
X. "Are Diamonds Really Girls' Best Friend? From Romance to Warfare."
On each team, students may perform one of these roles: web master; managing editor; researcher; bibliographer. A website team narrative (typed and double-spaced), including the website's written text and a proposal for how this information will be digitized in an interactive hyper-format, is due Tuesday, April 12. The website is due on a CD/disk by Monday, May 9, 12 noon in my mailbox, Social Science 341. Only websites receiving a grade of A- or higher will be published on our class website.
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