EN4525 Gender Discourse

Semester B 2008

City University of Hong Kong

Instructor: Dr. Katrien Jacobs

Office: Rm. Y7613; Tel.: 2788-8873

Email: kjacobs@cityu.edu.hk

Lecture: Thursday 13:30pm-16:20pm

Office Hours: Wed 2pm-4pm

ALL COURSE MATERIALS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED ELECTRONICALLY

ON THE BLACKBOARD COURSE

What Do We Study in This Course?

This course introduces a Cultural Studies approach to analyze discourses of gender in American and Hong Kong popular media, and to ask critical questions about the impact of these images on our everyday life, our culture, and our interactions with each other.

Emphasis will be given to developing critical interpretive skills in a comparative, intercultural framework. Besides working on assigned materials, students will be asked to select their own media examples that they will analyze with the theoretical and critical tools acquired in the course.

What questions do we explore here?

1. How do images, stories, and icons in popular culture construct our sense of “femininity” and “masculinity,” categories that are partly culturally produced?

2. What is gender as a “discourse”? How is the dominant “two-gender system” naturalized over time? How has the media’s depiction of gender shifted over time, reflecting changing social and cultural norms and ideals?

3. How is gender connected to existing power relations?

4. What similarities and differences can we draw in the popular consumption of gendered images between Hong Kong and the United States?

Through investigating these questions, we aim to:

· Familiarize ourselves with the key theoretical concepts in gender studies and media studies.

· Study images of gender as they appear in a variety of media forms, such as websites, movies, documentaries, art, television, MTV, advertising, and so on.

· Learn how to critically read media representations of gender over a variety of topics, such as the questions of body image, femininity and freedom, masculinity and violence, transsexualism, comparative gender ideals in intercultural or transnational contexts, etc.;

· Investigate how Hollywood images of gender are received and interpreted by local Chinese audience;

· Relate and apply our discussion to practical everyday behavior, events, norms, and politics in a dynamic intercultural or transnational framework.

This course has a major thesis:

As the course proceeds, you'll be challenged to reconsider the stability of the two-gender system in a media landscape full of conforming and socially conservative norms, as well as surprising, contradictory, and even counter-cultural representations.

What are the Readings?

We are not using textbooks. All readings will be uploaded on the blackboard course in due time.

** The amount of reading has been kept to a reasonable level. The articles have been carefully chosen to provide background theoretical and analytic tools, to stimulate your thoughts, and to assist in our discussion of specific media examples.

To succeed in this course, it is crucial for you to keep up with the readings!

Your Grades

Coursework:

1. 50% A Class Presentation in a Student Research Group.

Topic: “Gender in Hong Kong (Sub)Cultures and Virtual Communities”

2. 20% Pop Quizzes, Attendance and Participation

Examination:

3. 30% Final Examination

Important Note: You are expected to attend class regularly and on time, complete the assigned readings before class, and contribute consistently to class discussion. The pop quizzes are to encourage you to keep up with the readings.

		COURSE SUMMARY	*SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Week	Date	Content	Readings	Screenings for Class Discussion
1	17/1	L1: Introduction	R1: Gauntlett, ‘Media, Gender, Indentity.’	Bjork’s Music Videos
2	24/1	L2: Definitions of Gender and Feminism. Gender Roles in the Mass Media	R2: (1) Chandler ‘Television and Gender Roles’ (2) Fung and Ma: ‘Formal Vs. Informal Use of Television and Sex-Role Stereotyping in Hong Kong.’	Everyday Violence Episode of ‘Sex and the City’
3	31/1	L3: Gender Bending in Anime	R3: Sharalyn Orbaugh, ‘Busty Battllin’ Babes’	Mamoru, Oshii, Ghost in the Shell
4	14/2	L4: Digital Portraiture and Subculture	R3: (1) Dick Hebdige, ‘Subculture: The Meaning of Style’(excerpt) (2) Andrew Guthrie and Katrien Jacobs ‘ COSPLAY: Wear-a-Game.’ (3) Jonathan Lipkin, ‘Portraiture in the Digital Age’	Jennifer Livingston, Paris is Burning.
5	21/2	L6: Hollywood Movies and Orientalism	R4:Gina Marchetti: ‘White Knights in Hong Kong’	Ray Stark, The World of Suzie Wong
6	28/2	L7: Pornography and Gender/Cultural Difference	R5: Chivers et al. ’A Sex Difference in the Specificity of Sexual Arousal’	Documentary Pornography; A Secret history of Civilization
7	6/3	Final Project Proposal Presentations.
8	13/3	Reading Week 20/3 EASTER BREAK
9	27/3	Reading Quiz L8:Hong Kong Lesbianism in the movies	Ka-Man Tong: ‘Being a Tomboy’ http://www.hku.hk/hkcsp/ccex/ehkcss01/issue2_ar_tc_01.htm	Yan-Yan Mak, Butterfly
10	3/4	L9 Transgenderism	R8: Terre Thaemlitz, Viva Mc Glam http://www.comatonse.com/writings/vivamcglam.html (2)Anne Fausto‑Sterling: ‘How to Build a Man’	Jennifer Livingston, Paris is Burning. Kim Loginotto and Jano Williams, Shinjuku Boys.
11	10/4	Presentations Groups 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9
12	17/4	Presentations Groups 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14
13	24/4	Exam Preparation

Useful Websites:

Research Project and Group Presentation: Gender in Hong Kong (Sub)Cultures and Virtual Communities 40%

l Groups of 4 to 5 students

l Close study of “visual documents” that reveal the gender dynamics of a (sub) culture in Hong Kong or a virtual community.

l I. Students select a number of significant visual documents--The documents can include art works, photographs, documentary films, websites, commercial advertising, commercial features films, independent media. It is important to include documents made about and made by the community.

l II. Students produce their own visual documents (photographs, drawings or video clips) while conducting interviews with members of the community.

l III. Students make a summary overview and critical analysis of the community and present their findings in class by means of a visually-oriented powerpoint presentation (dates will be announced).

l IV. each group writes a 15 page “visual anthropology essay” about a specific aspect of their research. This essay includes an overview of your research project on your interviews and library research. The essay also includes selection of the most striking visual documents (about 10 visuals)

l Possible cultures or subcultures: ethnic groups, sexual minorities, art collectives, music collectives, alternative life-styles, web communities, cosplayers, body piercers, Lolitas