Some ideas for paper topics

Prompt 1:

Naomi Wolf argues in The Beauty Myth that even as women have made strides in social, legal and economic spheres, they are increasing pressured to reach impossible standards of beauty, a type of cultural backlash against female power and success. According to Wolf this “beauty myth” is assisted by advertising and consumer culture, leading even the most accomplished women to divert their energies toward an unhealthy obsession with body image. In the recent hit show Ugly Betty, Betty Suarez, an ambitious young Latina struggles to “make it” as a journalist in the fashion world, an industry fueled by the cult of beauty. Even though Betty is constantly ridiculed for her style and looks at her job, she refuses to conform to the beauty standards of her workplace, and focuses instead on her job, her family and her friendships. The show seems to satirize and fetishize the fashion industry at the same time.

Susan Faludi’s book Stiffed suggests that our cultural landscape is dominated by what she calls “ornamental culture.” She argues that “ornamental culture is constructed around celebrity and image, glamour and entertainment, marketing and consumerism, it is a ceremonial gateway to nowhere.” Faludi also argues that “the internal qualities once said to embody manhood—surefootedness, inner strength, confidence of purpose—are merchandized to men to enhance their manliness. What passes for the essence of masculinity is being extracted and bottled and sold back to men.” The film Fight Club echoes many of these themes and suggests that American masculinity is in crisis. However, unlike Faludi’s analysis, Fight Club appears to embrace the notion that men need to return to essentialist notions of maleness to overcome the crisis.

Identify the various masculine and feminine myths in one of the following texts: Fight Club, Ugly Betty, Stone Butch Blues, Transamerica, America’s Next Top Model. Does the film/book/tv show reinforce or criticize these gender roles?

(How, for instance, does Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues subvert or redefine "masculinity"?)

Prompt 2:

Along with being an adaptation of a popular Spanish-language telenovela , the television show Ugly Betty also works off the film version of The Devil Wears Prada, but changes the ethnicity and the class of the protagonist. How does this change complicate the gender script?

Prompt 3:

Imagine if you changed the gender/race/ethnicity of a character from one of the texts from class. In a 5-6 page essay address how this shift would subvert the gender dynamics in the narrative.


Prompt 4:

Create your own prompt or project but you must receive approval from me!


Final Paper due May 4!