Tags: art/music, bodies, discourse/language, gender, inequality, lgbtq, sex/sexuality, social mvmts/social change/resistance, gender expression, gender identity, identity politics, riki wilchins, queer, queer theory, transgender, subtitles/CC, 06 to 10 mins
Year: 2012
Length: 6:35
Access: YouTube

Summary: What better way to learn about the multiplicity of genders than to talk openly about gender identities and expressions, especially those which appear to challenge the prevailing myth of a tidy binary? The director of this short film asks eighteen trans activists, "How do you describe your gender identity?" and one by one, they respond. "Being a woman has got nothing to do with having a vagina," one activist remarks, then adds, "being a man has got nothing to do with having a penis." The clip is useful for underscoring the analytical distinction between gender identity, which refers to one's inner sense of being a man or a woman, and gender expression, which refers to one's fundamental sense of being masculine or feminine through performance (see Riki Wilchins, Queer Theory, Gender Theory). The impulse to police the gender binary, to ostracize and assault those whose gender identity and expression appear incongruent or fall outside the gender binary is an oppressive project, and as the activists featured in this clip suggest, there is both conformity and resistance to this project. To some extent, the activists who identify as transsexual women, work within the schema that posits "woman" as an identity which is meaningfully distinct from "man." In contrast, one activist appears to reject the binary altogether (1:04 to 2:38) and identifies only as a "trans person." To my mind, the collection of interviews begs a central and important question: Is it possible to move beyond gender as a fundamental basis of one's identity?

Submitted By: Lester Andrist

Tags: aging/life course, art/music, emotion/desire, marriage/family, methodology/statistics, biography, data visualization, divorce, memory, narrative, storytelling, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2001
Length: 2:34
Access: Vimeo

Summary: In this clip "Polly", a 65 year old woman from the Midlands in the UK, recalls the time as a child when her parents sat her down and asked her which of them she wanted to be with. Her story, re-narrated by three players, represents how this traumatic event became an enduring memory throughout the various stages of her life. This video exhibits how sociologists can draw upon biography and narrative to explore any number of sociological concepts; in this particular clip, Polly's narration of her own biography can be used to explore sociological understandings of memory, emotion, family, and the life course. For example, the clip could be useful in a class on cognitive sociology, highlighting how cognitive processes, such as memory, are shaped by socio-cultural events, such as divorce. In addition to using the clip as a way to interrogate biography and narrative as sociological methods of research, the clip could also be a nice launching pad from which to introduce an assignment where students create their own videos, using their own biographical narratives as a window through which to explore larger sociological phenomena, much in the way C.W. Mills suggested. The clip's Vimeo webpage provides production details about the video, as well as a link to a paper by Kip Jones, the video's writer and producer, "The Art of Collaborative Storytelling: Arts-Based Representations of Narrative Contexts," which tells more about Polly's story and Jones' method. Kip Jones describes the clip as an "experiment in visualisation of research data."

Submitted By: Kip Jones

Tags: art/music, capitalism, class, consumption/consumerism, prejudice/discrimination, theory, aristocracy of culture, pierre bourdieu, status hierarchy, taste, 11 to 20 mins
Year: 1961
Length: 12:10
Access: YouTube

Summary: This is an animated rendering of Dr. Seuss's 1961 book, The Sneetches. In the story, Star-bellied sneetches enjoy elite status, so when plain-bellied sneetches get stars imprinted on their bellies, the status system is thrown into disarray. In response, the sneetch-elite pay a heavy price to reestablish their distinction by having their stars removed. I like to use this video as an illustration of Bourdieu's idea of taste as it pertains to status, which he outlines in his book Distinction. In a chapter he names "The Aristocracy of Culture," Bourdieu describes tastes as "manifested preferences." They are "the practical affirmation of an inevitable difference” (56). Groups put forth considerable effort to maintain and reinforce their differences, and as Bourdieu observes, groups work to naturalize their distinctive tastes. Although absent in Dr. Seuss's story, Bourdieu's social theory draws attention to the fact that groups are always interested in asserting the fiction that tastes—their mode of acquisition of culture—are in fact due to more fundamental differences in their natures.

Submitted By: Margaret Austin Smith

Tags: art/music, gender, media, bechdel test, feminism, film, oscars, patriarchy, privilege, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2011
Length: 5:11
Access: YouTube

Summary: This humorous clip from Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency explores the predominance of male-centered plots among films that have won the Academy Award for Best Picture in the last 60 years. I like to use this clip as an example of what it means to live in a male-dominated society. It works especially well when paired with Allan Johnson's reading "Patriarchy" (here), or one could also use the chapter "How Systems of Privilege Work" from Johnson's book Privilege, Power, and Difference. This clip works well as a launch pad for discussing how Oscar-winning films are also films that reflect our white-centered, able-bodied-centered, and heteronormative society. Note too that Sarkeesian has recently updated her thoughts on this topic with a feminist critique of the Academy Award Best Picture Nominees for 2011. For more information about the ubiquity of male-centered stories and the Academy Awards, check out "Oscar Was a Dude: America's Celebration of Men," which is also published on The Sociological Cinema.

Submitted By: Kendra Barber

Tags:  art/music, capitalism, consumption/consumerism, economic sociology, theory, f. a. hayek, john maynard keynes, subtitles/CC, 06 to 10 mins
Year: 2010
Length: 7:33
Access: YouTube

Summary: Created by John Papola and Russ Roberts, this clip produced by EconStories compares and contrasts Keynesian and Hayekian economic theories in the rap song and video, "Fear the Boom and Bust." EconStories sets the stage for the video's narrative on their website: "In 'Fear the Boom and Bust,' John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference begins, and at the insistence of Lord Keynes, they go out for a night on the town and sing about why there’s a 'boom and bust' cycle in modern economies and good reason to fear it." This clip is a fun and entertaining way to engage students in discussions around two dominant and competing economic philosophies, and the relationships between these perspectives and the current economic crisis. In the clip, the two economic giants-turned-rappers go back and forth, advancing their perspectives on such core economic issues as: their approach to markets (e.g., to regulate or "set free"), consumer and government spending (including the stimulus), the role of savings, considerations of human action and motivation, and the power of investments. The video is an excellent way to illustrate for students the philosophical differences behind these two preeminent economic perspectives of modern capitalism. For more information, see a transcript of the lyrics, as well as an NPR story about the video. Also, check out another fun and engaging rap video featured on The Sociological Cinema that is great for the sociology classroom.

Submitted By: Valerie Chepp

Tags: art/music, commodification, consumption/consumerism, discourse/language, gender, intersectionality, lgbtq, media, race/ethnicity, sex/sexuality, violence, femininity, homophobia, masculinity, media literacy, popular culture, sexism, sexual objectification, stereotypes, subtitles/CC, 21 to 60 mins
Year: 2007
Length: 55:31 (trailer here)
Access: Google Videos; also available in segments on YouTube (part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4; part 5; part 6)

Summary: Using his own relationship with hip-hop as a guiding light, filmmaker Byron Hurt presents "HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, a riveting documentary that tackles issues of masculinity, sexism, violence and homophobia in today’s hip-hop culture. Sparking dialogue on hip-hop and its declarations on gender, HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes provides thoughtful insight from intelligent, divergent voices including rap artists, industry executives, rap fans and social critics from inside and outside the hip-hop generation. The film includes interviews with famous rappers such as Mos Def, Fat Joe, Chuck D and Jadakiss and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons; along with commentary from Michael Eric Dyson, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Kevin Powell and Sarah Jones and interviews with young women at Spelman College, a historically black school and one of the nation’s leading liberal arts institutions. The film also explores such pressing issues as women and violence in rap music, representations of manhood in hip-hop culture, what today’s rap lyrics reveal to their listeners and homoeroticism in hip-hop. A “loving critique” from a self-proclaimed “hip-hop head,” HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes discloses the complex intersection of culture, commerce and gender through on-the-street interviews with aspiring rappers and fans at hip-hop events throughout the country." (Excerpt from the film's website on PBS IndependentLens.)

Click here for excellent classroom materials and teaching resources, including a discussion guide, video modules, education guide, issue briefs, and more. Additional information also available at www.bhurt.com.

Submitted By: Valerie Chepp

Tags:  art/music, capitalism, commodification, consumption/consumerism, media, social mvmts/social change/resistance, theory, creativity, culture industry, frankfurt school, mass production, max horkheimer, theodor adorno, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2009
Length: 2:12
Access: YouTube

Summary: In their chapter entitled "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" from their book Dialectic of Enlightenment, critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer conceptualize power as an absolute, all-encompassing force, driven at unrelenting speed by the engine of capitalism. They argue that culture is an important site where power in contemporary society is demonstrated; here, cultural productions have transformed from pure art forms to gimmicky imitations in which the aesthetic appeal is now simply a response to consumers' "tastes" and the goal is no longer to evoke truth but rather to merely “entertain.” Horkheimer and Adorno refer to this routinized and commodified feature of contemporary culture as the culture industry. This short montage of various scenes from different Disney movies is one illustration of how cultural products can be seen as an imitation of one another, recycled formulas sold to cultural consumers as entertainment. As an assignment or topic for class discussion, students can be encouraged to cite other examples of interchangeable formulas sold in popular culture through the mass media, which might include formulaic narratives, images, and characters sold through hip hop, action movies, soap operas, romance novels, among many others. Yet, students can also be encouraged to critique Horkheimer and Adorno's totalizing take on the culture industry, as they essentially argue that there is no escape; even when we believe we are freely making choices in the cultural marketplace or, worse yet, even if we recognize the culture industry’s suffocating strength and intentionally try to resist it, our actions and cultural creations have already “been noted by the industry” and become part of the system. Since present-day art is only a vehicle for entertainment and amusement, it is stripped of emotion, tragedy, and truth, and merely exists to appease and distract us. In this state, we are defenseless and unable to resist. As such, the cultural actor “creating” under capitalism’s oppressive rules is (often unknowingly) fated for unoriginal imitation. According to this theory, none of us are actually behaving as individuals and our creations, which are in essence predictable simulations of other commodities circulating in the culture industry, ultimately fuel the engine of capitalism’s absolute power and the monopoly of mass culture. Do students agree that they are cultural dupes and incapable of original artistic creation and innovation? And what does cultural creation and consumption have to do with "resistance" and "distraction"? Distraction from what? Finally, can students think of examples of popular cultural creations that serve to challenge capitalistic power and the status quo? How would Horkheimer and Adorno respond to these examples?

Submitted By: Valerie Chepp

Tags: art/music, immigration/citizenship, nationalism, social construction, race/ethnicity, theory, war/military, culture, latino/a, poetry, racism, stuart hall, symbolic interaction, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2010
Length: 2:18
Access: YouTube

Summary: I first started using Paul Flores' spoken word poem with adult intermediate English language learners as an example of an activity called "list poems," where students explore different ways of expressing descriptions with one adjective (here, "brown"). The students write their own list poems, we share them, and then we talk about how meaning is social—how the context in which the descriptor is used, the social interaction itself, and the ways the participants interpret both the words and the interaction, shape the meanings made of the words. In teaching sociology, I would place this activity in a discussion of social theory—perhaps in a discussion of social constructionism, symbolic interaction, or cultural studies. Stuart Hall, for example, describes the making and sharing of meaning as a social process. It is possible to see the social process of meaning-making here in the different feelings one might get from the poem when reading it silently as compared to watching it performed, or when reading/viewing it alone as compared to reading/ viewing it with others. The poem can be read at www.marcusshelby.com.

Submitted By: Margaret Austin Smith

Tags: art/music, bodies, discourse/language, gender, sex/sexuality, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2011
Length: 2:25
Access: YouTube

Summary: In a recent post entitled, "The Clitoris: Most. Awkward. Discussion. Ever!" Sociologist Sarah Nell Rusche draws attention to the way culture and power act as a guiding force, "not only for what gets constructed as acceptable sexuality, but also comfortable conversation topics." Rusche begins by recounting her rather awkward experience of saying the word "clitoris" to a classroom full of snickering undergraduates. The above clip might be a way to move past the anxieties students typically have about discussing sex and sexuality. In only 2 minutes and 25 seconds, the clip (created by loveyourvagina.com) compiles a massive list of possible nicknames for vaginas into a song. More than an ice-breaker, the clip could also be used to introduce, trigger, or promote a rich discussion related to the representations and language associated with sex in American culture. It could also be a way of drawing attention to the meaning and purpose behind the countless euphemisms used to describe the penis, the clitoris and the downtown dining and entertainment district.

Submitted By: Jessica Leveto

Tags: art/music, discourse/language, knowledge, media, advertising, art history, culture, feminism, film studies, media literacy, representation, semiotics, sociology of culture, walter benjamin, subtitles/CC, 61+ mins
Year: 1972
Length:  120:00
Access: YouTube (Episode 1: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4)
                                  (Episode 2: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4)
                                  (Episode 3: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4)
                                  (Episode 4: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4)

Summary: This classic BBC miniseries, narrated by John Berger, critically examines Western visual culture from the Renaissance to today (or at least 1972). Together, four episodes focus on the role of context in creating meaning, the male gaze, and the different functions of depictions of wealth in early modern and late modern imagery. In episode 1, Berger remarks on the way meanings and interpretations of paintings and photographs can vary depending on context. For instance, the way in which a viewer sees an image can change depending on how the viewer confronts the image. In episode 2, Berger draws on paintings and photography to explore his thesis that Western culture is one in which "Men look at Women," and "Women watch themselves being looked at," thus locating the nude in Western art as an objectification of women. In episodes 3 and 4, Berger argues that oil painting was a medium, which celebrated the privileged lifestyle of European aristocrats. If oil painting was developed to represent the texture and tangibility of objects, then color photography serves a similar function today and is carried forward in the work of advertisers. Clips from Ways of Seeing can be used as an effective way to introduce students to the study of semiotics, and more broadly, the sociology of culture.   

Submitted By: Matt