HUM 2061 - Gender in Art and Media

Credits: 3
Hours/Week: Lecture 3 Lab 0
Internship hours per week 0
Course Description: Through an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach, this course critically examines the complex ways in which gender is constructed, performed, and represented in various forms of art and media, including visual art, performance art, craft, music, photography, film, television, fashion, magazines, games, social media, and digital culture. The course also explores how underrepresented and fluid gender identities and experiences challenge and redefine those mediums. Drawing on feminist perspectives, this course will interrogate the role of gender bias in art and media and how it perpetuates cultural norms of gender inequity. Special emphasis will be placed on artists and identities that have been historically erased. This course is open to everyone and is an elective in the Gender Studies Certificate. 

MnTC Goals
Goal 6 Goal 7A

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1020 with a grade of C or higher OR ENGL 1021 with a grade of C or higher.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: None

Major Content
1) Historical Erasure of Women Artists from Museums/the Canon

2) Nudes: Body Material/Body Politics

3) The Gaze: Subjectivity/Objectivity

4) Housewives & Whores: The Double Bind- Stereotypes in Film & Television

5) Craft: High vs. Low Art

6) Fashion, Hair, and Make-Up

7) Creative Collaborations /Intersectionality

8) Mediated Masculinity

9) Magazines and Zines: A Dialectic

10) Camp, Kitsch, and Pop Culture Extravaganzas

11) Social Media and Solidarity: Intersections of Race and Gender

12) Final Project: Overlooked Artist DIY Project
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course, students will be able to…

critique the social and cultural assumptions about gender that have influenced artistic choice and interpretation.
analyze the ways in which gender is represented in various forms of art and media.
evaluate the ways in which gender norms and stereotypes are reinforced and challenged in art and media.
analyze the impact of gender inequity in creative work.
describe the scope and variety of art and media that have been historically erased or overlooked because of the dynamics of unequal power relationships concerning gender identity.
critically evaluate art and media using formal tools of analysis.
describe how the changing discourse around gender identities influences the creation and consumption of art and media.
evaluate personal attitudes and beliefs about the intersectionality of gender with other social categories such as race, sexuality, class, and ability in art and media.

Minnesota Transfer Curriculum (MnTC): Goals and Competencies Goal 6
Goal 7A
Competency Goals (MnTC Goals 1-6)
06. 01. Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.

06. 02. Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within an historical and social context.

06. 03. Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.
Theme Goals (MnTC Goals 7-10)
07A. 01. Understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the United States’ history and culture.

07A. 02. Demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society.

07A. 03. Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry.

Practicum hours per week: 0

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