AFR 320
Dangerous Bodies: Black Womanhood, Sexuality & Popular Culture Spring 2013
Division II
Cross-listed WGSS 402 / AMST 320
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

Whether presented as maternal saints, divas, video vixens, or bitches, black female celebrities navigate a tumultuous terrain in popular culture. This course considers the ways that black female celebrities such as Oprah, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, BeyoncĂ©, Janet Jackson, and Michelle Obama negotiate womanhood and sexuality, and the popular landscapes through which we witness that negotiation. It also engages contemporary black feminist scholarship, which most frequently presents the presentation of black female bodies in popular media forms as exploitive. We will review historical stereotypes of black women in popular media forms, discuss the history of the “politics of respectability” within black culture, engage black feminist responses to these types, and examine theoretical approaches to assess social constructions of womanhood and sexuality. We will also consider provocative questions relevant to discussions of contemporary black sexual politics: Should we view these women as feminists? Are they merely representatives of cultural commodification and control of black women’s bodies? Do these women best exemplify the reiteration of problematic characterizations? Are they positive models for demonstrating female empowerment, agency, or “fierceness?” This course explores the histories of representation of black female figures in popular culture, and in so doing, troubles contemporary considerations of black womanhood and sexuality. This course is part of the Gaudino Danger Initiative.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 15
Class#: 3462
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: evaluation will be based on class participation, short response papers, and the completion of an original research paper or project
Extra Info: may not be taken on a pass/fail basis; not available for the Gaudino option
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: WGSS majors and Africana Studies concentrators
Unit Notes: WGSS Senior Seminar
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
WGSS 402 Division II AFR 320 Division II AMST 320 Division II

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