ANSO 15
"It's a love story, baby, just say yes": Media, messages, and healthy relationships Winter 2025

Class Details

From the time we’re small children, we’re inundated with media about romantic relationships: who to have them with, how they unfold, what the should look like. But what makes a relationship “healthy”? Are romantic relationships the pinnacle of what kinds of relationships we can have? How do we end relationships we don’t want to be in anymore? Using a range of popular media–reality TV like the Bachelor/ette franchise and Love Is Blind; animated movies; rom-coms; short stories–as a lens to examine healthy relationships (romantic and friend): what stories are we told and do we create about how relationships form and deepen? What are the “right” and “wrong” reasons to be seeking and staying in relationships? How did first reality TV and now social media shape our notions of public and private in relationships? How do we have healthy relationships across identity differences? In addition to exploring the messages we receive, we’ll have the opportunity to construct our own answers to these and other questions.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 25
Expected: NA
Class#: 1029
Grading: pass/fail only
Requirements/Evaluation: Paper(s) or report(s); Presentation(s); Creative project(s); Other: I typically offer a range of creative options, which has included podcast episodes, lit reviews, a course catalog, etc.
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: An interest form
Unit Notes: Meg Bossong '05 is the Executive Director of MASOC, the MA professional association of clinicians who work with children, youth, and young adults with problem sexual behaviors. She was previously the director of the PEACe Office at Williams.
Materials/Lab Fee: $105
Attributes: STUX Winter Study Student Exploration
WELL Winter Study Wellness

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