Take notes as you watch your film. Pay attention to not only dialogue, but body posture, dress, facial expressions and other non-verbal communication cues which may indicate ideas about gender, sexuality, race, etc. This project should incorporate ideas and concepts we’ve discussed in class. Your objective in this project is to view the film not only as a reflection of already established cultural/social ideas about gender, but also how the film may be reinforcing or challenging those gendered ideas. If there are problems with representations in the film, point them out. The object of media literacy is to be able to analyze and contextualize media forms, thereby interpreting them as representations of culture and assigning them social meaning in the process.
Your film may address issues of race, gender, sexuality, sexual violence, or other issues. It is important to be able to identify the central theme(s) present in the film you have chosen.
Your media literacy project should meet the following requirements:
1. Follow proper Formatting. Use Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced with 1-inch margins in 3-4 pages.
2. A Thesis Statement-A well-developed and clearly stated thesis statement. Here are some questions which you may want to consider when developing a thesis statement: What is your overall argument about this film? How do you interpret the film? What is its significance for women’s, gender, and sexuality studies? Is it feminist? Explain why or why not. Is it reinforcing/challenging gender stereotypes? Does it accurately portray sexuality? Is it seeking to empower a group of people who is normally marginalized in society? If so, how? These are just a few questions you can entertain in order to come up with a thesis statement. Choose an over-arching theme/argument and support that argument with examples/evidence throughout your paper.
3. Develop a brief summary of the film, but do not make that the focus of your paper and do not give too many details. Instead, focus on your gendered analysis of the film.
4. Development and support of your thesis—Throughout the paper, choose relevant quotes and examples to back up your argument.
5. Research/citations—if you use concepts we’ve discussed in class or want to introduce a concept from a reading we’ve had in class to back up some of your claims, CITE THEM using MLA format. Use the UH Library website or google information on how to produce MLA format.
6. Works Cited/Bibliography. Make sure you have a final page that lists all sources used for this paper.
7. Proper Grammar—Use correct grammar. Polish and revise your paper before turning it in. This should not be a first-draft. Use spell/grammar check on your computer.
8. Clear Organization/Structure. Make sure your paper makes a clear use of organization. Do you have a clear beginning, middle, and end? Do all of your paragraphs make sense in order, or do you need to change the order of your paragraphs? Do you have an introduction, a few middle paragraphs, and a conclusion?
9. Clear and thoughtful/well-revised opening sentence: take the time to edit this and make it specific rather than too general; avoid hyperboles
10. Keywords/concepts from our course readings. These words should be bold in the text and should be used correctly. Use at least 3 of these.
11. Course Content: Demonstrate what you have learned in this class through this paper. Analyze/contextualize this film. What is it saying about women/gender/sexuality, etc.? How is gender “performed” throughout the film? Cite specific examples! Use the theory/concepts you’ve learned in class.
12. Transitions/Sentence Structure: In order to add interest and variation to your writing, be sure to use transitions and vary your sentence structure. Use In addition, also, therefore, however, moreover, although, though, etc. Use google and look up synonyms. Don’t repeat the same words all the time—use synonyms—but make sure you know what they mean!

Key word/ Concepts:
patriarchy
sex
gender
masculinity (masculine)
androgyny (androgynous)
femininity (feminine)
transgender
intersectionality
white privilege
gender performance
whitening
marked/unmarked categories
the “other”
representations
body image
fat/thin shaming
sexism
capitalism
heteronormativity (heteronormative)
male privilege
domesticity
the cult of True Womanhood/domesticity
cultural appropriation
Smurfette principle
Ms. Male character trope