Race, Gender and Social Class

Description:

Select ONE of the Three essay choices. Your answer should be 6 pages in length. Fundamentally, this midterm is designed to gauge whether or not you have done the readings and how well you understand them. Students that just riff off the top of their head in a personal opinion style will receive an F score. All of the questions component parts must be answered to be graded.

Strong papers do the following: 1) they accurately summarize the reading that is named in the question prompt and define the readings core ideas by using quotes (and set up and follow through said quotes properly) and/or by using clear paraphrasing. 2) they explain the concept with specific examples from the course readings, from the screenings or from lecture (examples from the readings are the most valuable). 3) They demonstrate an ability to put one reading in conversation with another reading, which is to say, the students answers effectively synthesize ideas across texts.

Vague or carelessly written answers will also result in a low score (EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!). Be precise as possible and draw from the readings as much as possible. The more readings-based examples, the better.

Required Format: Word or PDF file, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, 1.5 or double spaced, Times New Roman font, APA or MLA in-text, citation format, but no bibliography is necessary.

Due Date: The essay is to be uploaded on BlackBoards Turnitin interface in the content folder (read final exam) by May 19th by 11:59PM

Option Two: Race, Gender and Social Class

In Inventing the Cosmo Girl (1999), Laurie Ouellette explains how editor Helen Gurley Brown changed Cosmopolitans style in the mid-1960s. Unlike Ms. magazine, an outlet more aligned with the feminist movement, the Brown-directed Cosmopolitan recognized not just women readers but specifically single, working-class women readers. In what ways did the magazine acknowledge the class dimension of a whole new influx of service-sector women workers that filled the labor market in the late-1960s and 1970s? How did the girl style American dream that Browns Cosmo articulated challenge some aspects of capitalist patriarchal hegemony while reinforcing and perpetuating other aspects? Connect Cosmo and Browns emphasis on female beautification and self-worth to Jillian Baezs chapter entitled Navigating and Negotiating Latina Beauty. How does Baez explain how the media not only sexualizes Latina women in gendered and class terms a la Ouellettes analysis but do so in distinctly racialized ways? According to Baez, in what ways do Latina audiences accept the hegemonic, consumerist depiction of Latina beauty but also contest it?

Dear class,

As you review the final essay options, you’re eyes may zero in on essay option two because it includes the least amount of references. Because option two involves the least amount readings, I will expect responses that choose this option to engage said readings at a much much deeper level of depth than with the other essay options. In short, this is not an easier route to take. Keep this in mind.