See assignment sheet in Files for more information. 

This is a 2-3 page paper that requires you to engage with popular media. Think about movies that are geared toward children, such as those made by Disney and Pixar. The film does not need to be animated. You could pick a recent film, your favorite childhood film, or whatever catches your interest. Your homework is to watch (or rewatch) a children’s movie through a critical lens of gender. In your paper, you should evaluate how gender is portrayed in the movie. Is it complex, or stereotypical portrayals of femininity and masculinity? Could the portrayal lead to negative outcomes for women and men (i.e., what do these representations say about gender)? How do you see gender interacting with race, age, social class, and/or sexual orientation in the film? How is violence handled? How is romance and sexuality portrayed? You need to explicitly incorporate course concepts and scholarly terminology. In doing so, you will critically analyze the ways in which women and men are portrayed in the movie, drawing on what you have read and learned about in class. You may use any part of the textbook or any of the readings to analyze the film (i.e., not only topics we have already covered in class). As you plan for this assignment, please keep in mind that Mulan will be used as an example in class to go over this assignment; therefore, Mulan is off limits for students to use for this assignment. You will need to select another film. See Canvas for the assignment instructions and grading rubric.

IMPORTANT: All written paper assignments should be submitted as attachments in Microsoft Word, have 1-inch margins, use 12-point font in Times New Roman or 11-point font in Arial, fall within the minimum and maximum length requirements, and include properly cited references in APA format if relevant (it is up to you whether or not you have included outside material you need to cite). Failure to follow these guidelines may result in a loss of points for the assignment. For all assignments, the TA and I are happy to answer questions and provide general feedback in office hours or via email; however, we cannot read full drafts of assignments in advance.