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.