Topics - choose ONE
1. How are commercial interests served in a contemporary British culture which encourages women and men to turn themselves into porn stars for a day, if only by wearing the T-shirt?
2. Thirty years ago, Gaye Tuchman said that women were being ‘annihilated' by mainstream news, such was the level of their invisibility. To what extent does her argument hold true in our current decade?
3. Women journalists say that they have to battle both for jobs and to be taken seriously. How (if at all) has this picture changed over the past few years and if it has, in what ways?
4. Consider the media's preoccupation with disciplining the way in which women and men perform gender, through a discussion of any of the following themes: size 0; obesity; 6-pack; cosmetic surgery (or choose one of your own, to be agreed by module tutor).
5. The taboo against displaying non-heterosexuality has been broken in spectacular fashion with any number of TV shows (not to mention films) which both ‘normalise' gay and lesbian sexuality (egWill and Grace, Queer As Folk, Brokeback Mountain, Carol, Milk) as well as treat it as a specific trope or theme (the L-word). Discuss how sexuality has ‘come of age' using an example from popular culture or the internet (eg a site specifically aimed at a gay and/or lesbian audience).
6. Stereotypes of gender are further complicated by the combination of other types of personal characteristic such as race, disability and age. Discuss the problem of this ‘double whammy', using the example of one ‘double identity' (eg black men, older women).
7. Whilst much work has been undertaken on women's magazines, those targeted at men have received rather less scrutiny. Discuss the ways in which ‘masculinity' is encouraged to be performed in contemporary men's magazines.
8. Whilst the internet was originally developed as a military aid, it has now become a standard media form for many of us in the developed world. Discuss the ways in which the online world is regarded as a gendered space, using a genre (eg games) or audience (sites aimed at women or men) example.
9. You can determine your own essay topic, to be approved by the module tutor.