Assignment: For Essay Three, you will be using the knowledge, histories, methodologies, and skills that you have acquired in WS 240 in order to put together an analysis of the representations of women/men in contemporary popular culture. Essay 3 is worth 25% of your grade. The first version of the essay is due in class on Tuesday, April 17; it counts 5% of your grade. It must be a complete essay to get full credit; no late first versions will be accepted. You will workshop that essay with a partner in class on that day. The final version is due Tuesday, May 1. It is worth 20% of your grade. The completed essay should be a minimum of 1200-2000 words. Your essay should accomplish 3 critical writing tasks:

1. Historical perspective: You have already analyzed media representations of women in the late 1800s and the mid-1900s. In this assignment, it will be your job to review the conclusions that you came to in the first two essays and to assess their validity in the present.

2. Intersectional analysis: Throughout class we have seen the ways that gender, race, class, and sexuality are all components of identity that become almost impossible to separate. For this assignment, you will be using an intersectional analysis in order to analyze the way that women/men are re-presented in popular culture.

3. Use of theory: You must include as sources for this assignment at least one in-class reading (although you may use more) and at least one additional article from any scholarly journal. As with Essay Two, these outside resources will help you to make your own argument.

Method: First, pick any form or combinations of forms of popular culture (magazine and newspaper ads and articles, television shows, movies, music, commercials, cultural icons . . . ). Then look for the ways in which gender, race, class, and sexuality are all simultaneously represented in the popular culture forms that you have chosen. Do not limit your analysis to the actual image. Take it further and answer questions about target audiences, the producers of the form, and what role the form plays in U.S. culture. While engaging in this analysis you should be able to look to some of the theories that we have been reading about in class in order to explain the politics of such representations. You can make use once again of

If you have any questions about this assignment or need help brainstorming, please do not hesitate to arrange to meet with the TA, Jill Pioter, or with a Women's Studies Writing Center consultant.

Evaluation: As always, your essay will be graded on its successful completion of the terms of the assignment, on complexity and originality of thesis, argumentation, organization, style, and mechanics (including citation form). I will grade down if citation form is not correct. Essays that arrive at all late will be substantially penalized.