Michael Kimmel Tags: gender, inequality, sex/sexuality, subtitles/CC, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2008 Length: 54:00 Access: no online access Summary: This is a video of Michael Kimmel, sociologist, giving a talk at Middlebury College. His talk is about gender broadly speaking, but a good majority of the talk discusses men and masculinity. Kimmel is a great public speaker. He refers to data that substantiates his claims. The video can be used in whole or in different parts and will add to a class discussion about gender. I have found his section on gender privilege the most instructive, especially the anecdote about how a male student assumed that, as a male professor, Kimmel offered an "objective" opinion. Kimmel is funny and good natured. This video is appropriate for a first year level through graduate level audience. There is some content about sexuality and some of my students have duly noted that the video is heternormative, but that said, it's a great video to begin discussions surrounding gender and gender privilege. Submitted By: Janni Aragon
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Tags: consumption/consumerism, gender, marketing/brands, organizations/occupations/work, housework, representation, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 0:29 Access: iSpot.tv Summary: Unlike other advertisements for cleaning and household products that might at least attempt to covertly embed sexist messages about women and domesticity (here and here), this advertisement for Quilted Northern toilet paper makes no qualms about explicitly linking women to the domestic sphere. One of the primary ads for Quilted Northern's new Soft & Strong brand toilet paper originally opened with a male voiceover explaining that, “We went around the country asking women to speak frankly about something no one wants to talk about.” The unspoken phenomenon mentioned in the ad referred to that taboo topic of toilet paper. While the male voiceover implicated himself in the story as part of the “research team” that interviews women across the country, women in the ad are positioned as experts of the domestic domain, able to speak knowledgeably and credibly about toilet paper. This ad appears to have been removed from YouTube and in its place are two shorter clips, and much like the original, each features a woman describing what she needs from toilet paper. The new advertisements, like the original, deploy the persuasive technique of ethos, or an appeal to credibility or character. Instructors can point out that what’s significant here (and in thousands of other commercials for household products) is that, unlike appeals to ethos that involve, for example, Michael Jordan endorsing Nike or “9 out of 10 dentists” endorsing toothpaste, the credibility of the Quilted Northern experts lies solely in the fact that they are women. They are not avid toilet paper enthusiasts or physicists that can speak to the durability of the toilet tissue fibers. The message is that being a woman, and specifically a woman with a family, enables one to speak credibly about matters involving the domestic sphere. As consumers, we are told to trust and purchase this household product because an “extremely reliable source”—i.e., women—told us to. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Tags: biology, bodies, children/youth, gender, lgbtq, sex/sexuality, clitorectomy, intersex, intersexuality, medical sociology, transgender, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2000 Length: 12:50 Access: YouTube; www.isna.org Summary: The promotional synopsis for this film notes that, "Clitorectomy and other forms of sexually mutilating genital surgery are a reality here and now for children born with a clitoris that doctors or parents think is 'too big.' In this short documentary, Kristi Bruce and Howard Devore, both born intersex, talk eloquently and straightforwardly about their experience of a medical model based upon shame, secrecy, and forced 'normalization. Physician Jorge Daaboul joins their call for an end to secrecy and mutilating genital surgery on intersex children." This film is incredibly informative and concise and would be a nice way of beginning a discussion about intersex identities. The clip might also serve as a means of beginning a discussion about how the rigid gender binary in the United States and elsewhere leads to physically and emotionally harmful institutionalized practices which affect a sizable population. Note that two other clips on The Sociological Cinema (here and here) explore the topic of intersexuality as it pertains to South African runner, Caster Semenya, and the media attention she received after her "true" sex was called into question in 2009. Submitted By: Lester Andrist The Girls on Film Tags: gender, media, feminism, gender binary, gender trouble, representation, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2011 Length: 3:16 Access: YouTube Summary: The Girls on Film (TGOF) describe their film blog as "a commentary with the objective of stimulating thought around the art of storytelling through film." The creators of the blog seek to challenge the audience through their "exploration of archetypal energies that are typically portrayed by men." To this end, the blog posts scenes from mainstream blockbuster films that were performed by men and recreates them with women actors. In this clip, Ashleigh Harrington and Katerina Taxia (directed by Jeff Hammond) reenact the recruiting scene from J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009). I would argue that Harrington and Taxia were able to compellingly recreate the scene, thereby effectively challenging us to reconsider the plausibility of a female masculinity. Others I have talked to are equally convinced that despite excellent performances from the actors the masculine language sounds too much like an affectation when spoken by women. Irrespective of whether the reenacted scene works as well as the original, the clip is useful for engaging students in a discussion about our assumptions regarding the natural affinity between men and masculinity. Students can also be encouraged to discuss the TGOF scenes and the blog as a means of talking back to a film industry, which produces far more movies featuring men as protagonists than women. Feminist cultural critic, Anita Sarkeesian offers an insightful five-minute video post about the male centered movie industry, which would work well as a companion to the Girls on Film clip. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: gender, theory, feminist theory, judith butler, performativity theory, queer theory, 00 to 05 mins Year: 1963 Length: 1:22; 3:12 Access: YouTube (clip 1; clip 2) Summary: Key concepts in Judith Butler's "gender as performance" theory are illustrated by a simple close reading of these two mainstream Hollywood films from 1963, (the very same year, incidentally, that Betty Friedan published The Feminist Mystique). The first shows the tom boyish Nancy (Hayley Mills) and Nancy's girly cousin Julia (Deborah Walley) teaching the dowdy Una (played by Mariah Popham) that being a socially successful woman is simply a matter of walking, talking and smiling in a feminine way, as well as dressing in equally feminine clothes. As Butler suggests, gender is something we "make" and "make-up." The next clip takes this idea a little further, with popular and newly pinned Kim (Ann Margaret) singing about the virtues of growing from a girl into a woman. However, importantly, although Kim's lyrics remind us that being a woman is all about "wearing mascara" and "smiling a woman's smile" she is, at the same time, pulling a sweet, vaguely flirtatious switcheroo by almost completely disrobing, taking off her dress and pulling on an oversized sweater, socks, jeans and a baseball cap. As Butler might describe it, she is "subverting" her gender through "parody" or "drag," for the perfectly socialized Kim, as distracted by love as she may seem, is herself still very well aware that defying gender norms are as easy as following them, especially when the naked body is only hinted at and never fully exposed or seen. Submitted By: Audrey Sprenger Tags: gender, inequality, organizations/occupations/work, sex/sexuality, sexual harassment, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2008 Length: 1:03 Access: YouTube Summary: Cultural Anthropologist, William M. O'Barr (2010), notes of the popular television show, Mad Men, "[It] is a world of heterosexual, white, male privilege." O'Barr further observes that "Gender displays recur. The social structure of the office—men in professional positions, women as their assistants—rings true of pre-Feminist Movement America in the 1960s. Every woman is either a Jackie or a Marilyn and every man wants them both—or at least most of the men. The admen direct the lives of women, not just those in the agency, but those in the entire society. It is a world in which men are dominant and women are subordinate and sexualized." O'Barr draws on a number of clips to make his argument, but one in particular (Season 1, Episode 12, “Nixon Vs Kennedy”) struck me as a useful supplement to a discussion on sexual harassment. The clip features an adman chasing and wrestling a woman to the ground during an office party. Pinning the woman to the floor, he demands to see the color of her panties. The scene is a relatively unambiguous example of sexual harassment, but students might object that the woman who was tackled seems to be participating and even laughing. Here, it might be helpful to note the two women in the clip who were uncomfortably observing the incident and to encourage students to think about sexual harassment as a form of gender discrimination, which creates an unequal work environment for all women. Irrespective of the tackled woman's outward expression, the incident clearly reinforced for everyone the ideas that women in the ad office are first and foremost valued for their capacity to sexually titillate, and they can be made to submit to the demands of their male colleagues. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: discourse/language, gender, media, nationalism, race/ethnicity, social construction, culture, masculinity, orientalism, othering, representation, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2006 Length: 9:01 Access: YouTube Summary: The caption below this trailer-esque, YouTube montage by Jaqueline Salloum describes it as exposing "Hollywood's relentless vilification and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims." Much like the Avatar video remix, also posted on The Sociological Cinema, "Planet of the Arabs" works as a media literacy tool for deconstructing how the Arab or Muslim Other is portrayed in mainstream media. The clip draws footage from varied sources, ranging from James Cameron's action-packed "True Lies" to an episode of Jim Henson's playful creation, "The Muppet Show." The clip demonstrates that Arabs and Muslims are consistently depicted as religious fanatics, perpetual terrorists, backwards, and irredeemably tribal. While Instructors can certainly ask students to articulate these representations, they can also press students to contemplate how these depictions of Arabs and Muslims help construct an American national identity. At about 2 minutes, the remixed clip echoes the idea that "they are attacking our way of life." In other words, the media consistently propagates the idea that the Muslim or Arab terrorist is not only a threat to life, but also Western civilization. Taking the analysis a bit further, students can be asked to consider how these depictions of Arabs and Muslims are simultaneously about constructing not only an American identity, but an American masculine identity. In several places, one sees how an American masculinity, characterized by stoicism and poise, is set in direct contrast to an irrational, Islamic fanatic or an incompetent Arab buffoon. As Salloum suggests, the clip might work well with Jack Shaheen's book, Reel Bad Arabs, which reviews the Arab and Muslim stereotypes in 900 films and was researched over a period of 20 years. The clip would also work well in tandem with Edward Said's landmark book, Orientalism. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: gender, social mvmts/social change/resistance, feminism, stereotypes, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2005 Length: 2:05 Access: YouTube Summary: I like to use this short clip in my classes when I talk about feminism, feminists, and popular perceptions about feminists. Excerpted from the documentary film I Was A Teenage Feminist, the clip shows a survey of men on the streets of New York City stating their opinions of feminists. In my experience, the clip is an effective conversation starter because students find it humorous (whether they agree with the perceptions or not) and it opens the door to exploring why there are so many misconceptions about the label "feminist," as well as a discussion around who is advantaged or disadvantaged by these labels. Click here for additional clips from the film and click here and here for discussions on the utility of using humor to teach sociological concepts. Submitted By: Kendra Barber Tags: gender, media, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, colonialism, hip hop, pigmentocracy, representation, socialization, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2010 Length: 20:10 Access: Vimeo Summary: This film by Nayani Thiyagarajah, Brian Han, Leanne McAdams, Derek Rider, and Vanessa Rodrigues addresses the topic of shadeism, which the filmmakers describe as "the discrimination that exists between the lighter-skinned and darker-skinned members of the same community. This documentary short looks specifically at how it affects young womyn within the African, Caribbean, and South Asian diasporas." Through the testimony of five women and one little girl, the film explores a number of issues surrounding shadeism, including the practice of skin bleaching, media representation, the legacy of colonialism, and resistance to shadeism through hip hop culture. At about twenty minutes in length, the film is unable to explore any of its topics with any real depth but works well as a means of setting up a discussion on shadeism. In particular, the film might be a nice way for instructors based in the United States to engage students in a discussion about racial logics operating elsewhere. Submitted By: Lester Andrist
Jay Smooth discusses "no homo"
Tags: discourse/language, gender, lgbtq, sex/sexuality, fag discourse, homophobia, hip hop, Identity politics, masculinity, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2008 Length: 2:58 Access: YouTube Summary: In this clip Jay Smooth of the Ill Doctrine remarks on the emergence and popularity of the phrase "no homo" in hip hop music. Smooth first notes how the term "no homo" was popularized by Cam'ron of New York's Dipset Crew, he critiques the term, then discusses whether it can even be used ironically as a critique of homophobia. The clip would work as a nice follow-up to C.J. Pascoe's Dude, You're a Fag, which argues that through a "fag discourse" boys effectively police the boundaries of masculinity. Students can be asked to consider how "no homo" might be a part of this discourse. Note that this clip works well in tandem with a second short clip from Brian Safi of "That's Gay," which similarly draws attention to the emergence and use of the phrase "no homo." Submitted By: Jessica Holden Sherwood |
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