Group Work: Sex and Culture

1. Have each member of the group share the object they brought in, and they're essay, for the second short essay assignment. Everyone in the group should actively listen: ask questions, add insights, take notes, and participate as each person shares.
2. As a group, decide which of the cultural objects has the most potential for a deep analysis. That will be the object you present and talk about to the class.
3. Then, as a group, think about what messages we can take about cultural attitudes to sex from that object. What messages do you get about whether it's good, bad, or neutral to have sex, when, under what conditions, and with whom. Do you get different messages if you're a man or a woman? Are there messages there about what kind of sex is deemed socially "good" and what's deemed "bad"? What messages do you get about what it means to be sexy, or what it means to be sexual? Are those different if you're a man or a woman? Are they different if you're heterosexual, homosexual, bi-sexual, asexual? What messages do you get about gender roles? What it is to be masculine or feminine?
   
4. On Tuesday you'll give your presentations. You'll show whatever you brought in to the class as a whole, and then discuss it in depth. If you've brought a film, you might want to give a brief introduction, show a whole clip, then talk about it a bit more at length. You will have about 10 minutes to present.
   

The Nude

Don't forget to do your readings, posted below, so that you have the background information to follow the presentation.

Short Paper 2

Humanities 160: Birth, Sex, and Death
Short Paper 2
Sex and Culture

Bring in some cultural object that you think reflects ideas or attitudes about sex. It can be a scene from a movie, a magazine, a game, a book, what have you.

Write a 2-page paper in which you say what attitudes and assumptions are reflected in your example. Try to analyze the object in as much depth as you can. Some questions you can ask yourself as you think about the example you chose:

o Are there any people portrayed in the example? Do they seem strong, weak, indifferent? What makes them seem that way?
o Who, if anyone, is sexually aggressive and who, if anyone, is sexually passive? Are men and women treated the same way (if both are featured)?
o Does the example seem to comment at all about the goodness, badness, or appropriateness of the objects or actions featured? What comment do you think it makes?
o Imagine switching the genders of the people featured – would the way they’re portrayed strike you as unusual or noteworthy in any way? Why or why not? What if you switched the sexuality of the people involved? What about the gender expression?
o Who do you think is the audience for this expression? What messages do you think it sends to that audience?
o What is the history of that object (for example, if you were looking at magazine advertisements, in what ways have they changed over time, and in what ways have they stayed the same)?

Your paper should be typed, double-spaced, in 11- or 12-point font, and with 1” margins (approx. – leave me enough room to write in the margins). Don’t use a cover page.


Here's a link to a PDF of the assignment.

Reading for October 8

Here's the link for your reading for Thursday. Let me know if you have any questions. See you then!

Don't forget we're doing 2 quizzes on Thursday.

Reading for October 6

Hi all; here's the link for your reading for Tuesday. There will be a short quiz at the beginning of class on the reading. Let me know if you have any questions.