Module: MCO5101-20 Television, Representation and Gender

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Rebecca Feasey

Module Tutor Contact Details: R.Feasey@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

Television, Representation and Gender aims to provide you with the opportunity to study the key debates surrounding the representation of gender on the small screen. The syllabus will begin by identifying a range of dominant sex role stereotypes as they appear in contemporary popular programming, and ask you to consider the ways in which they can be understood in relation to the broader social context, and wider debates about feminism, femininity and the much touted crisis of masculinity. It will go on to explore the representations of girl power in children’s animation before looking at critical writing on the portrayal of sex, romance, domesticity and cosmetic surgery on television. The module will conclude by investigating depictions of male friendship, sporting masculinity and fatherhood in television texts. Television, Representation and Gender will identify a range of academic debates and encourage you to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of such literature in relation to a range of contemporary popular programmes. The assessment will test your ability to analyse extant literature in the field, your skills in applying such work to relevant television texts and your capacity to communicate your ideas effectively in a range of formats.

2. Outline syllabus:

• Television, gender and society

• Brains, beauty and girl power

• Sex, romance and the single girl

• Marriage, motherhood and domesticity

• Ineffectual and absent fathers

• Intimacy, camaraderie and male bonding

• Fashion, ornamentation and transformation

• News, gender and power

• Aggression, brutality and sporting masculinity

• Heroes, heroines, and everything in between: challenging stereotypes

3. Teaching and learning activities

Television, Representation and Gender will cover a number of key debates relating to the representation of gender in contemporary television programming, with each debate being introduced in a formal lecture and then challenged, considered and reconsidered in the ensuing seminar. Each debate will require looking at the relevant lecture slides, the essential reading, specific television texts and a range of further readings as outlined in the weekly schedule. The Minerva site for the module will act as a research centre and will contain both weekly support materials (lecture slides, essential and further reading) and broader research materials.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Research Folder (2500 words equivalent)

• % Weighting: 50%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: F-Word Feature Article (2500 words equivalent)

• % Weighting: 50%