Intro to Women and Gender Studies - WGST110 - Pop Culture Representations

Representations of Women and Gender in Popular Culture

Assignment description:

This project asks you to identify an archetype commonly portrayed (or notably absent!) in media in popular culture. You will examine how this archetype is defined in the media, and consider the impact of this portrayal on real people. You should use fundamental concepts in women’s and gender studies (from course readings and films, or that you find in your research) to provide a context for understanding the creation, perpetuation, and impact of these media images.

You will choose an archetype to explore and identify where it appears in pop culture media. Some examples include: the working mother in film; the bimbo in music videos; the teenage girl on television; or the father in advertising.

For this project, you will complete the following:

• Annotated bibliography
• Poster or video presentation
• Final paper in MLA, APA, or Chicago Style

You can use the library's resources to:

• Find information about popular culture during a certain time period
• Find information about representation of a particular group in popular culture/media
• Find analysis of popular culture representations or portrayals and how that affects real people
  • Use this analysis as part of your project
  • Use this analysis as an example of how to do your own

How to use this research guide:

The gray tabs represent different steps in the research process. Use the Next and Previous buttons at the bottoms of the pages to move between them, or select one to jump to that section.