Gender Norms and Gender Transgressions (in popular culture)

Gender Norms and Gender Transgression

Your assignment (not due yet--I will let you know) is to choose some public figure (musician, athlete, actor, artist, politician, fictional character, etc) who you admire (or admired growing up), and describe and analyze the “messages” they send about gender, especially the way they present themselves as men and woman in comparison to “the norm,” or various gender norms. Do they transgress (violate) gender norms for the various groups to which they belong, or do they reinforce them, or do they do both? Are they “manly men,” “girly girls” or do they mix or reject such expectations? If you choose gay or lesbian figures, be aware that sexuality (in the sense of who one is attracted to) will complicate your analysis.

There are many cultural "norms" for men and women in general, but there are also norms specific to smaller groups, like one's particular profession, one's generation, or various subcultures. Thus you might find that mixed messages are extremely common (and interesting). For example, if you chose Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, you might describe how Cobain was both hyper-aggressive in his music (fitting norms for young men, for male punk musicians, and for 90's rock stars), while also expressing an extremely un-macho sensitivity and vulnerability in his lyrics. One might argue that an artist who compared his libido to a mosquito did not share the same macho ideals of hard rock contemporaries like, say, Guns and Roses’ Axl Rose, who Cobain criticized for sexism, among other things:

"His role has been played for years. Ever since the beginning of rock and roll, there's been an Axl Rose. And it's just boring. It's totally boring to me. Why it's such a fresh and new thing in his eyes is obviously because it's happening to him personally and he's such an egotistical person that he thinks that the whole world owes him something."

Be sure and think about the context and history of your public figure, and what factors may have influenced the kind or “flavor” of gender they project. The more details you can think of to support your analysis the better—for example, hairstyle, clothes, make-up, or the messages in their art or professional field. Pictures would be especially helpful, or perhaps links to or embedded youtube clips....

BlogWonks

For your next, extra-credit post, you can do one of two things. You can get credit for finding one or two substantial blog posts by partisans on the left or right on your paper topic, and commenting on what you learned (if anything) from those posts, or discuss points made in the comments--many blogs have surprisingly erudite commenters mixed in with the "regs" (regulars) and "trolls" (usually partisan opponents who try to derail the thread or otherwise stir up trouble by making inflammatory, obscene, or off-topic comments). If you choose this option, see more instructions and links below;

OR

Examine and reflect on other media treatments of your issue online, commenting on issues of bias, subtle or plain. Thus you might consider how the media frames your issue, what it emphasizes most, what kind of balance the outlet achieves, how adversarial they are (vs. accepting the "official story"). You also might also compare coverage or reporters. For example, you might compare the AP (or other news services) and McClatchy/Ridder coverage of your issue, or compare how other online news outlets cover it: the NY Times vs. the Washington Post, CNN vs. Fox News, or international or regional coverage vs. the "MSM" (mainstream US media like the Times, USA Today, etc.).

If you choose to do the "blogwonk" assignment (many bloggers are issue "wonks"--often, they are professors or experts of some sort, or they may be educated lay-people who read obsessively about an issue for partisan or ideological reasons), I recommend starting with technorati or google's blog search function, and then use the search function on the following blogs, if you can find it:

On the left, some of the wonkiest blogs include Matt Yglesias (young nerd), Kevin Drum (older, center-left nerd), TalkingPointsMemo (reporter/blogger), Atrios (curmudgeon/economist), Ezra Klein (even younger nerd), Tapped (group blog), Brad Delong (economist) and MaxSpeak (another economist). On the right, use this list of award winners, or this one, or search google for conservative blogs. Here is a WaPo list of some of the most prominent blogs (though from 2004).