Gender and sexuality image analysis
In this assignment, you will write a paper analyzing an image for it’s underlying messages about gender and sexuality. This is your opportunity to demonstrate and apply what you have learned in this unit.
Choose an Image:
For this assignment you will choose an image to analyze for it’s gendered content. To begin, you want to select an image that lends itself to deep analysis. Don’t pick hastily from the many sexist representations that you can find in advertising. You want an image where you can dig deep into what is going on.
You may want to select something about which you already know, so that it will be easier for you to put the image into context. Think, for example of Madeleine Dong’s choice of “Guo Jianying’s line drawing on the cover of Furen Huabao” on p. 203 of her publication.
An image that reflects a particular opinion or point of view, like a piece of propaganda or a political cartoon, would lend itself to extensive analysis, and would be a better choice than a bikini -clad girl on a beach selling perfume or jeans.
Submit your image with your paper, but do not include it in the page count.
Analysis:
Write a paper analyzing the way sex and/or gender are being portrayed in the image you have chosen. Describe the historical and spatial context of the piece. What is it saying about gender in it’s own time and location?
What was the photographer, artist, editor, or publisher trying to say about gender or sexuality with this representation and how do you think the image would have been received by an audience?
In your analysis, apply concepts and ideas from multiple readings, lectures, and films from this Unit to your image.
Citations:
Include a list of all of your sources, including your image source and any course materials that you reference in your analysis. Also include references to the materials from the Unit that you use.
Do not include your citations or any quotations longer than two sentences in your page count.
