Masculinities in Film

First Year Seminar 20 (CRN 2720) Fall 2005 TR 12:30-1:45 pm

Joseph Schneider. Office: 134 Howard Hall, Phone 271-2158

Email: joseph.schneider@drake.edu (usually, easiest and quickest way to contact me)

Hours: MW 2:00-3:30pm; TR 2:00-3:00pm and by appt.

Course Description

This course on masculinities in film asks you to approach movies as something more than entertainment. It asks you to step back a bit and see popular film as an important part of material culture in which the connections between a film and you as spectator offer an almost endless set of fascinating questions to consider, discuss, and write about. These can focus on its characters and their relationships, the setting and its time and place; the “eye” of the camera and the technical aspects of filmmaking; the story, plot; and what these portray as good and bad, right and wrong, normal and not. A film is, in short, more than “a movie,” or perhaps it’s that movies are more than you might think. Most immediately, these questions all can be drawn together by asking, “How do spectators, including you, and films typically connect?” or, more simply, “What happens when people go to see movies?” And in particular, what happens in terms of what we are calling “masculinities” (or, using the more general or inclusive term, “gender”)?

To fully answer this latter question, one would need to do a lot of careful research that might be organized around the idea of what “effects” films have on their viewers, although this notion of effects is probably too simple. While I won’t ask you to do that kind of research, you should always keep that requirement in mind: if you are making an argument about the effect of one thing on something else, all sorts of careful procedures (sometimes called “methods” in science) and “evidence” (and “logic”) are required in order to make that a really “strong” argument.

Mostly, we will try to do careful, informed, and reasoned speculation about what goes on at the intersection of audiences and films in terms of masculinity and gender. In your writing, especially, I will ask you to make the best speculative arguments that you can make, using the insights gained from the reading and your observations of the films. The main focus of our attention in the course are the images of, representations of, moving pictures of men and women in fictionalized stories (with one or two exception) that would like to be read as more or less “real.” As such, we will spend a lot of time just talking in detail about what is there, on the screen, before us, and how we are being invited to read or see what is there. To do that carefully, we have to, in effect, slow down the looking that we do so that we can give it more careful and sustained consideration. To do that, I will ask you to keep a journal of film viewing notes for each of the films assigned. Without these notes, you would forget too much and fill in too much, making our discussion and your arguments about too many different things. We constantly would be talking past one another. So, you will be asked to pay close attention to what men (mostly) and women look like and do in these films, based on your viewing notes and memory, and what these performances/practices might mean to those who view the films in terms of masculinity/gender in their own lives.

You should always include yourself in this category of spectator or viewer: your own reactions to the elements of the films we view can be valuable resources for your thought and argument in the context of the readings and discussions. While it is risky to try to speak for a whole category of people, for instance, young men of a certain social class, race/ethnicity, region, nationality, etc., it is less risky to try to speak for yourself (although even that is not always clear or easy).

The assigned readings for the course provide an important context and resource for the discussion and writing that you are asked to do. In this writing, you mostly will do “exposition” and “argument” (check these words out), drawing on the details of the films and the readings. Both of these resources—the readings and the film viewings—should be used, in detail, to make the essays productive opportunities for the growth of your own thought and writing.

The materials and arguments I have used to shape this course are based on the assumption that in 2005 in the United States, sex/gender is a more or less familiar—if not always easy—topic of popular discussion both within and between groups of men and women. While much more has been written about women and the circumstances of their lives, including how they have been depicted in film and popular media, the volume of writing and discussion on men and masculinity, especially in the industrially- and technologically-developed urban centers of the world, has increased dramatically as well. Thanks to various women’s movements and to feminism, among other forces, women’s lives have changed rather dramatically over the last half-century in the United States, and these changes have been toward greater equality/parity with men on a whole range of measures and toward a more full range of options for women in how they can live and be. Linked to these changes for women have been changes in the ways to be a man that, increasingly, have become topics for popular consideration and mass media presentation. For both men and women today, the options are many but remain unmistakably limited according to a whole range of considerations, many of which we will take up in the course.

Related to this point, the course is based on the value judgment that changes and practices of life for both men and women that allow them greater freedom of choice and movement in how to live and be and relate are preferred. The authors of the assigned readings hold a similar view. It is possible that you do not share this view. If that is the case, you of course will be free to express your ideas in the course but you will be held responsible (in terms of my evaluation of your work) for knowing and understanding the arguments that make up the foundations and elaborations of the preferred position as they are found in class discussion and in the readings. The point, in short, is that while you don’t have to “agree” with these views, you do “have to” know and speak/write clearly about them. Please ask for clarification on this point if you don’t understand.

Reading

There are two books to buy at the University Bookstore on Forest Ave and 30th.

Bordo, Susan. The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 1999.

hooks, bell. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. New York: Routledge. 2004.

In addition, there are a few readings that may be on E-Reserve or that I will distribute in class. These are mostly identified in the outline, below.

Academic Dishonesty

You all know that presenting someone else’s work or ideas or material (even when that “other” is an “impersonal corporation” or a seemingly anonymous “webpage” or site and not an individual) as your own, original /work is a fundamental violation of the core values of (at least) any educational system. It is “cheating” and it is about the worst thing you can do in college.

There are various forms of cheating (see College of Arts and Sciences text, below), one of which is plagiarism or the taking of already existing material (from books, articles, the web), presenting it under your own name (as your own), and hiding or ignoring or forgetting the fact that it is not your own creation, in a paper, report, or any work you turn in as your own. In doing this, you try to get credit for something that you have not done.

Please be sure you are clear about this. You can take information and even verbatim information from other sources and use them in your work, but if and when you do that (and you of course will), you must be very sure that you say this is what you are doing: that you are drawing on, using, others’ ideas and writing and that you have named the author/s, the source documents, and given the page numbers and publication information of specifically quoted or closely paraphrased materials.

If you don’t credit the people/organizations from which you obtained the material, some say this is a kind of “theft.” Actually, it may be worse than stealing because it undermines the very nature of the project and aims of the university. What matters in such a place is what you think, write, and say as your own. Of course, this always is “based on” what others before you have thought and written. There is very little that is truly “original” in the kind of work we do in academic life, but we value originality and “creative” work highly, and we value people having the experience, the struggle, of thinking; of considering what others have said and then figuring out what their own response to that is. Plagiarism violates and undermines all of that. It makes a mockery of the serious and hard work that students and teachers do around learning.

If you ever have a question about plagiarism, what might constitute it or whether what you are thinking of doing might be it, please check with me or with other faculty members. It is or should be treated in the most serious way if discovered.

I think you know that the “web” is a source of some of the “new cheating” that has come to exist in school.[1] But it also provides a very powerful resource for faculty trying to locate “suspicious” writing that is sometimes submitted to them by students. It is usually very easy to locate the source text from which a plagiarized segment has come. No matter how hard-pressed a student is, it is never worth taking the risk that cheating poses to your future as a student. I think almost everyone would be able to imagine and appreciate “circumstances” that might make cheating seem to be a solution to the pressures of school. It is not a solution. You should never count on anyone in the university “understanding” the fact that you plagiarized or cheated (or giving you “another chance”). It could mean the end of your college career here.

Below is an excerpt from the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Handbook that speaks to cheating and plagiarism in rather specific ways. These are the definitions we use and that you are expected to know. These definitions apply university-wide.

4.6.11 Definitions. Academic dishonesty is an encompassing term involving any activity that seeks to gain credit for work one has not done or to deliberately damage or destroy the work of others. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Plagiarism - misrepresenting another's ideas, phrases, discourse, or works as one's own.

Cheating - the act, or attempted act, of giving or obtaining aid and/or information by illicit means in meeting any academic requirements, including examinations.

Fabrication - intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic sense in any academic exercise.

Facilitating Academic Dishonesty - intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic dishonesty.

Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to:

a. Copying from another student's paper, laboratory report, or other report, or computer files and listings;

b. Using, during a test or laboratory experiment, material and/or devices not authorized by the instructor in charge of the test;

c. Without the instructor's permission, collaborating with another, knowingly assisting another or knowingly receiving the assistance of another in writing an examination or in satisfying any other course requirements;

d. Incorporating into written assignments materials written by others without giving them credit, or otherwise improperly using information written by others (including that which might be stored on computer disks or other technological devices); or submitting commercially prepared papers as one's own;

e. Submission of multiple copies of the same or similar papers without prior approval of the several instructors involved;

f. Claiming as one's own work that which was done by tutors or others with no mention of credit to or the assistance of those persons;

g. Deliberately damaging or destroying another's laboratory experiments, computer work or studio work;

h. Knowingly obtaining access to, using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting in its entirety or in part, the contents of a test or other assignment unauthorized for release;

i. Substituting for another student, or permitting another student to substitute for oneself, to take a test or other assignment or to make a presentation;

j. Intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise;

k. Forgery, alterations, or misuse of University documents;

l. Falsifying information submitted or failure to reveal relevant information in any University application form or offering any false information in any University disciplinary proceeding.

Film Screenings

We will not use our regular class meetings to view the films. There are two viewing labs—Monday and Tuesday 7:00-9:30 pm—during which to screen the films, before Thursday discussions. The viewing labs are held in the media classroom in Cowles Library (room 45, down the stairs and to the right). You should plan to see the film for the week during the Monday or Tuesday scheduled lab period. While attendance will not be taken at these labs (it will be for our class meetings), it is assumed that you will have seen the week's film by the time you appear in class on Thursday for discussion. I don’t care which lab you attend. Several of the films we will see are available at local video rental shops but you should not assume that they will be available.

You should not assume that you will be able to view the films at Cowles at times other than the scheduled lab periods, although there are some single VHS viewing stations near room 45 that you might use in rare circumstances (but never at the time of the scheduled labs); you can’t check out the library copies of the films.

Course Work and Grading

The various pieces of work that make up the course and the relative weight for each are as follows, each of which is detailed further below:

(1) Discussion framing memos. 25%.

(2) Film journal—both viewing and reflection notes. 25%.

(3) Four essays. 50%: 12.5% each.

I'll inform you of your midterm grade by midterm, which is Friday, October 14. Midterm grade reports must be submitted for First-Year students and these will be available to you on the Drake webpage.

Class Meetings

As you know, this course is called a "seminar." This means that the students talk more than in a “lecture” class.

But "just talking" (sometimes called “B.S.”) and "talking about the readings and films" are not the same. You should come to class prepared to talk about these course materials. Tuesdays will be set for talking about the readings assigned for the week. Each Tuesday you should bring a discussion framing memo, using one, single-spaced printed page that sets out at least three elaborated points/comments you want to make about specific issues in the week's assigned reading. When there are multiple sources of reading assigned, aim to touch all of them with at least one question for each.

These should not be "reading notes." That is, they should not just repeat ideas/definitions from the readings. They should not simply say that this or that is “interesting.” They should contain your particular responses to, insights from, questions and confusions about, and like/dislike of (and why) specific ideas or arguments you have read for the week. They should have specific page references to the reading so it is easy to see to what your comments refer. I will collect those memos each Tuesday at the end of class as part of your course work (25%). No memos accepted at a later time. As I read them, I will be looking for evidence that you not only have read but that you have thought further about the material assigned. What you decide to focus on is up to you, but it has to be linked specifically, with page references, to the reading for the week. I won’t grade each one of these but I will comment on each one. I’ll give you a midterm grade and a final grade on these memos and try to suggest pretty clearly where you are by my written comments. I expect you to hand in all these memos, of course. The first memo is due on Tuesday, August 30 during the second week of class.

Thursdays will be given to discussion of the week's film and will be led by two students, using our developing ideas and understandings about masculinity and sex/gender from the readings and prior discussions. I will try to bring the film to class on Thursday so that those leading the discussion can direct our attention to relevant segments as we talk. Two students each week will be responsible for working together to prepare and lead these discussions. Leaders should take these opportunities to offer their own interpretations/analyses of elements of the films, drawing on the readings, and propose them to the class for response. Avoid framing these in terms of “What did you think of ______?”

When you are asked to lead a Thursday discussion, you will be expected to post 3-4 issues/puzzles about the film on the Blackboard course website, given our reading and thinking to that point, that you want to bring up for discussion when we meet in class. When you are the discussion leader for Thursday, you should post these items on the Discussion Board for the film in question by noon on Wednesday so that others will have time to look at and perhaps respond to them before class. Again, these, like your prep memos for Tuesday, should not simply be restatements of the obvious from viewing the film; nor should you simply note that this or that is “interesting.” What is it that makes it interesting in the context of your reading and our talk, and what do you want us to see or think about relative to it? Everyone else is expected to have looked at the discussion board for the day’s film before coming to class on Thursday. If you do not post when you are responsible for leading discussion and/or fail to show up for class the day you are to lead discussion, your discussion participation grade is reduced 1/2 grade point for each time this happens. Probably, everyone will have at least two opportunities to lead class discussion.

Note taking in class. Since there are no exams in the course, you have to think a little differently about how you use our talk in class as a resource for your own thinking and writing. I assume that you will be making notes during our regular class meetings, but your challenge is how to know which notes to make. To help you do that, remember what the course is about and what the emerging themes of reading and discussion are, along with your own ideas for writing. The same can be said for making film notes (see below). People will say things in class that make you think about something or that help you see something in a new way. You would want to write some notes about that to help you later when you begin to write an essay or make another comment. Since there are no exams; the idea is that you have to work to shape and direct your own understanding. Of course, it is an understanding that takes place in dialogue with other students and with me and my judgment of your use of the readings and class-related experiences.

I expect you to come to every class, contribute to the discussion, to see every film, to plan and lead a focused discussion on the films to which you are assigned, and to make notes on each. I will record your presence/absence at each meeting. If you miss more than three classes, you should not expect a course grade higher than C. Missing more than 5 classes puts you in danger of a D or F grade. This of course does not mean that if you never miss class you can expect an A or B. Excessive absences make it impossible to pass the course. I see attendance and participation as what it means to be enrolled in the class. If you plan to be absent, please contact me in advance (PhoneMail--ext. 2158--is always waiting for your call, as is Email--joseph.schneider@drake.edu).

Email Communication

You should plan to use email to communicate with me about your writing ideas and proposals and about other course matters. If you live off campus, you should use the campus computer labs or arrange to hook up to the campus network from home, if you have a computer and a modem. See the microcomputer people in the basement of Carnegie Hall or check Drake’s webpage to see about this latter arrangement.

Cell Phones and Wireless Computers in Class

Please be sure that your cell phone is switched off before class begins. Although Howard Hall is a wireless space, please do not use your computer in class unless I ask you to do so.

Film Journal

I require that you keep a film journal (25% of grade) for the course in which you will write about the films each week. I expect you to make two separate sets of notes, one called viewing notes, the other called reflection notes. Although you can keep both sets of these notes in a single notebook, please keep them separate; the following format is one workable way to do that and I suggest it:

VIEWING NOTES REFLECTION NOTES

Film Title

Date you viewed film/wrote notes Date reflection notes written

Any details about the film: (year made,

director, main actors, genre, etc.).

************************************************************************

LEFT HALF OF PAGE FOR DETAILED RIGHT HALF OF PAGE FOR

VIEWING NOTES SPECIFIC REFLECTIONS

STIMULATED BY

EVENTS/DETAILS NOTED ON

THE LEFT SIDE AS WELL AS

GENERAL REACTIONS TO THE

FILM AND SEGMENTS OF IT.

(See what "reflections" might mean,

below)

Again, I ask you to make two kinds of notes: (1) detailed notes made while you are viewing the film, and (2) interpretive comments about these detailed notes and other recalled impressions made soon after seeing the film, before class discussion of the film on Thursday. I will collect your whole viewing journal from time to time throughout the semester, usually unannounced, so be sure to bring it with you on Thursdays. Another format for reflection notes might be to place them at the end of the viewing notes, using the whole page for each set of notes. The problem with that is that it makes it more difficult to connect the comment to the specific details of the film on which you comment.

Viewing Notes: These come first. They should be titled "Viewing Notes," followed by the name of the film and the date you screened the film. These notes should record the details of scene and dialogue and action that you want to note. Don't worry about spelling or form or syntax in your writing. Jot things down so that when you look at them after viewing the film they will help you recall what you saw and what you were thinking. Give yourself enough information to recall the thing being noted and try your best to get verbatim dialogue that you think is directly relevant to issues of masculinity/gender. Try not to write any analysis or interpretation—“reflection”—here.

Answers to the following questions are the kinds of things to get down as "viewing notes":

· What are the opening scenes of the film? Where do they take place?

· Who are the characters and what are their names? What positions do they occupy relative to each other? How does this change in the film?

· What do the characters say in the film--what is the "important" dialog?

· Who occupies most of the screen time? Who is shown on the screen for most of the film?

· What kinds of things are they doing?

· What happens after the opening scenes--what then, and then? This is a question about what film people call "the plot," which is not the same as "they story" (which is more about who the main characters are and what happens to them in the film).

· How does the film end--what is the situation of the characters then?

· Any sense of how the production of the film itself helps/hinders/influences your viewing. For instance, lighting, shots, music, settings.

Reflection Notes: On the right side of the page, as shown, write your reflections, interpretations, connecting them to those points in the detailed description of the film you have just written. They should be marked "Reflection Notes." I don't expect you to write as many of these notes as of the viewing notes.

Try to comment on aspects of the film that seemed particularly important and/or interesting and/or wonderful/offensive to you and having to do with men and masculinity. These notes should be more clearly written than the viewing notes, but don't worry about spelling and grammar.

As you think and write these, try to position yourself "critically" toward the film. "Critical" doesn't just mean being negative, but rather it means to develop your own sense of what the film is, and is about; what it tries to accomplish and how; what its "politics" are, and so on. It means you should consider the characters in the film as cultural objects to be studied and commented on rather than only to be consumed (which is what we do when we think of films as only "entertainment").

You might consider, for instance, some of the following:

· Your own reactions to the characters in the film and why?

· With whom do you identify?

· Against whom do you identify?

· What might the "message" of the film be and on what grounds do you say that?

· How would you characterize what this film is "about" and on what grounds?

· What is the main story the film tells? What other stories are told?

· How do the images and characters and stories in the film relate to other "texts" or events that you know about, such as newspaper stories, magazines, television, another class, and so on.

· And what about the "stars" in the film?

· What might you say about the connections between the actor/star and the character he portrays?

· What about the star separate from the character? Overall reactions?

· What do the film and its elements what you to see and feel as spectator?

Finally, you should write a couple of paragraphs at the end of the notes that express any thematic or general observations you have about the film that you have not been able to record earlier, including your own reaction to the film and its characters, themes, and so on.

Remember, use the details of the first set of notes to help you write these more interpretive ones. These reflection notes should be a good source of ideas for essays. I expect you to make this connection.

Four Essays

There are four essays required (each 5 double-spaced pages maximum; each worth 12.5% (50%) in which you are asked to connect some idea, concept, thesis, or argument from the class readings and discussions about masculinities, on the one hand, to some specific aspect or aspects of one or more of the films (e.g., details of character, story, relationships shown) you have seen in the primary films covered in that section of the course, on the other. Use the writing in your reflection notes to help you think toward these essays since I assume that, with time, your reflections on the films will also reflect your thinking that comes from the readings and class discussion.

The acceptable themes for each essay are given in the deadline reminders for the proposal statements in the outline, below. Your essay must be framed in a way that I can see as consistent with those themes.

For instance, you might be stimulated by an idea, concept, or thesis that you read about or hear discussed that might then help you understand or see one or more of the films or segments in the films in more careful depth and analysis (e.g., moments in a/the film/s when we can see what author Pollack calls the "mask of masculinity" "crack" or begin to come apart; or how this "cracking" looks different in film X compared to film Y; or instances in the films when one might see what "phallic power" looks like and how it is used, and so on). On the other hand, there might be a scene or scenes, or character/s or relationship/s or solutions from this or that kind of situation that you see in the film/s that make you think about an idea you have read about in the course that you want to critique or complicate or elaborate or illustrate (e.g., Pollack's easy use of the idea of a "real" or "genuine" or "true" self could be critiqued by drawing on some very specific details from a/the film/s that imply this is too simple a way to think about self). Finally, you might have your own particular combination of these two ways of thinking that you want to propose as a topic for writing. Great. The key thing is that you let me know your ideas so we can “talk about” them and so I can respond to your plans for writing and that we can negotiate a topic that you want to write on and that I think offers a good chance for success (both of these goals have to be met). You should plan to have your proposals for the essays to me no later than the proposal due dates listed in the schedule, below, and framed by the proposal format to be discussed in class. I can accept no final essays the plans and topics for which I have not okayed in advance. Please be clear: what you write about must be the result of this negotiation between us.

The most important thing here is that your paper or commentary must draw together (1) details of the film/s AND (2) ideas/concepts or arguments/theories from the readings and ideas presented/discussed in class. If you write only about one or the other, you miss the point of the assignments.

All pieces of writing must be printed in #10 or #12 size font, double-spaced, and have standard margins (no less than 1 inch). The 5-page limit is real, but excludes any footnotes or references you want to add.

Reading, Viewing, Class Meeting Schedule

Below are the films, the readings, and relevant dates for the next 16 weeks. The number in brackets at the end of the reading assignments gives the approximate number of pages assigned for the week.

Week Work

WEEK 1

8/22-26 Reading: (1) William Pollack, from Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood (New York: Owl/Holt, 1998): "Introduction: Listening to Boys' Voices," pp. xxi-xxvi; "Inside the World of Boys: Behind the mask of Masculinity," pp. 3-19; "Stories of Shame and the Haunting Trauma of Separation: How Can We Connect with Boys and Change the 'Boy Code'?," pp. 20-51. [52pp.; all Pollack reading, distr. in class.]

No Film:

Segment I: Fathers, Sons, and Family:

Looking for Themes in the Film Images of Masculinity

WEEK 2

8/29-9/2 Reading: (1) Antony Easthope, What A Man's Gotta Do: The Masculine Myth in Popular Culture, New York: Routledge, 1992: "Fathers and Sons," pp. 17-26 and "The Masculine Ego: The Castle of the Self," pp. 35-44. (2) Bordo, "Prologue: My Father's Body," pp. 3-11; and "In Hiding and On Display," pp. 15-35. (3) R.W. Connell. “The History of Masculinity.” Pp. 245-261 in The Masculinity Studies Reader, ed., R. Adams and D. Savran. Malden, MA: 2002. [62pp.; Easthope and Connell distr. in class or on E-Reserves.]

Film 1: Red River (1948) (Discussion 9/1)

WEEK 3

9/5-9 Reading: (1) Pollock, "Real Boys: The Truths Behind the Myths," pp. 52-64. (2) Bordo, "Fifties Hollywood: The Rebel Male Crashes the Wedding," pp. 107-152. [57pp.]

Film 2: Rebel without a Cause (1955) (Discussion 9/8)

WEEK 4 [NOTE: FYS lunch scheduled for Tuesday, 9/13.]

9/12-16 Reading: (1) Pollack, "Action Love: How Boys Relate," pp. 65-78 and "Real Fathers/Real Men: The Empathic Relationships of Fathers and Sons," pp. 113-144. (2) Steven Seidman, pp. 8-13 from "Introduction," in Queer Theory/Sociology, ed. Steven Seidman (New York: Blackwell, 1996). (4) Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Pages from Epistemology of the Closet (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990). [63pp.; Seidman and Sedgwick distr. in class.]

Film 3: The Sum of Us (1994) (Discussion 9/15)

*****Essay 1 Proposals due by Friday, 16 September at 4:30*****

Essay must focus on depiction of father-son-family relationships and/or how these relationships involve/implicate various others, including mothers/other women.

WEEK 5

9/19-23 Reading: (1) Pollack, "The Power of Mothers," pp. 81-112 [31pp.]; (2) hooks: “About Black Men,” pp. ix-xvii; “Plantation Patriarchy,” pp. 1-14; “Gangsta Culture,” pp. 15-32; and “Schooling Black Males,” pp. 33-45. [83pp.]

Film 4: A Raisin in the Sun (1961) (Discussion 9/29)

WEEK 6

9/26-30 Reading: (1) hooks, “Don’t Make Me Hurt You,” pp. 47-66; “It’s a Dick Thing,” pp. 67-84; “From Angry Boys to Angry Men,” pp. 85-100; “Waiting for Daddy to Come Home,” pp. 101-114. [54pp.]

Film 5: Antwone Fisher (2002) (Discussion 9/29)

Essay #1 due, Monday, October 3 by 4:30 pm

Segment II: War and Masculinity

WEEK 7

10/3-7 Reading: (1) Ralph Donald. "Masculinity and Machismo in Hollywood's War Films." Pp.124-36 in S. Craig, editor, Masculinity and the Media. Sage, 1992. (2) Bordo, "Does Size Matter?" Pp. 69-83; and (3) Bordo, "What Is a Phallus?," pp. 84-104. [46 pp.; Donald distr. in class or on E-Reserves].

Film 6: Full Metal Jacket (1987) (Discussion 10/6)

WEEK 8

10/10-14 Reading: (1) Bordo, "Hard and Soft," pp. 36-68. (2) R.W. Connell. Ch. 3, “Masculinities and Globalization,” pp. 39-56 and Ch. 4, “Globalization and Men’s Bodies,” pp. 57-66 in The Men and the Boys. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. [58pp.; Connell distr. in class or on E-Reserves].

Film 7: Saving Private Ryan (1998) (Discussion 10/13)

October 14 is mid-point of semester

*****Proposals for Essay 2 due by Wednesday, 19 October at 4:30*****

This essay may draw on ideas from the previous section’s readings but must focus primarily and in particular on the depiction of men and masculinity in the circumstances of war and from among the four films in this segment.

WEEK 9

10/17-21 Reading: (1) Bordo, "Gentleman or Beast: The Double Bind of Masculinity," pp. 229-264; (2) Judith Halberstam “Introduction to Female Masculinity.” Pp. 355-374 in The Masculinity Studies Reader, ed., R. Adams and D. Savran. Malden, MA: 2002. [54pp.; Halberstam distr. in class or on E-Reserves.]

October 17-18 Mon-Tues is Fall Recess

(Special viewing arrangements have to be made for this week, since viewing lab will be closed Mon-Tues, Oct. 17-18. Suggestion: If at all possible, make it a point to view Courage under Fire during the break.)

Film 8: Courage under Fire (1996) (Discussion 10/20)

WEEK 10

10/24-28 Readings: (1) (2) Revathi Krishnaswamy. “The Economy of Colonial Desire.” Pp. 292-317 in The Masculinity Studies Reader, ed., R. Adams and D. Savran. Malden, MA: 2002. (2) Robert Eberwein, “As a Mother Cuddles a Child: Sexuality and Masculinity in World War II Combat Films.” Pp. 149-166 in Masculinity: Bodies, Movies, Culture, ed. Peter Lehman (New York: Routledge, 2001). [42pp.; Krishnaswamy and Eberwein dist. in class or on E-Reserves.]

Film 9: Gunner Palace (2004) (Discussion 10/27)

Essay #2 due, Monday, October 31 by 4:30 pm

Segment III: Men as Friends, Enemies, and Lovers

WEEK 11

10/31-11/4 Reading: (1) Bordo, "The Sexual Harasser Is a Bully, Not a Sex Fiend," pp. 265-280 and "Beautiful Girls, from Both Sides Now," pp. 281-298. [51 pp.]

Film 10: Mystic River (2003) (Discussion 11/3)

WEEK 12

11/7-11 Reading: (1) Don Kulick. “The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitues.” Pp. 389-407 in The Masculinity Studies Reader, ed., R. Adams and D. Savran (Malden, MA: 2002); (2) Bordo, "Beauty (Re)Discovers the Male Body," pp. 168-193. [43pp.; Kulick distr. in class or on E-Reserves.]

Film 11: Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) (Discussion 11/10)

*****Proposals for Essay 3 due by Monday, 14 November at 4:30*****

The essay for this segment may draw on readings from previous sections but must focus primarily and in particular on issues of the depiction of masculinity as seen in the relationships found among the five films in this section.

WEEK 13

11/14-18 Reading: (1) Jillian Sandell, “Reinventing Masculinity: The Spectacle of Male Intimacy in the Films of John Woo.” Film Quarterly 49,4 (Summer 1996): 23-34; (2) Mark Gallagher, “Masculinity in Transition: Jackie Chan’s Transcultural Star Text.” The Velvet Light Trap 39 (Spring 1997): 23-31 (partial page assignment). (3) Bordo, "Beauty (Re)Discovers the Male Body," pp. 193-225. [51pp.; Sandell and Gallagher dist. in class or on E-Reserves.]

Film 12: The Killer (1989) (Discussion 11/17)

WEEK 14

11/21-25 Reading and Video: Vito Russo film, The Celluloid Closet (1995), in

class.

Thanksgiving Holiday is November 23-27

*****Proposals for Essay 4 due by Wed., 30 November at 4:30*****

This final essay should draw on readings from previous sections as well as from this last segment; it should focus on the final film and issues brought forward from it having to do with the depictions of gay men in mainstream cinema and the relation between these depictions and the portrayal of masculinity. The essay also should draw on earlier films and videos in which gay characters have been shown or referred to. Possible films on which to draw are The Sum of Us, Full Metal Jacket, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet, and perhaps The Killer (although no gay characters are identified in this latter film).

WEEK 15

11/28-12/2 Reading: (1) hooks, “Doing the Work of Love,” pp. 115-132; “Healing the Hurt,” pp. 133-145; “The Coolness of Being Real,” pp. 147-162. [47pp.]

Film 13: Barbershop (2002) (Discussion 12/1)

Essay #3 due, Monday, 5 December by 4:30 pm

Segment IV: Mainstream Cinema’s Straight Gay:

A Model for Masculinity?

WEEK 16

12/5-9 Reading: (1) Bordo, "Gay Men's Revenge," pp. 153-168 (2) TBA. [9pp.]

Film 14 My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) (Discussion 12/8)

Essay #4 due, Wednesday 14 December, by 12:00 Noon

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[1] One “dangerous” thing to do for the framing memos and for your essays is to rely on a site like Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB), which you easily can find by typing the name of the film into Google. I don’t mind it if you use that site to remind yourself of a character’s name or some aspect of plot that you have forgotten, but beware of taking phrases, sentences, or more, from those sites and putting them into your writing without citation. Even with citation, if you watch the film and take good notes, you will know more than the site’s information offers, and I would prefer reading your writing rather than theirs. The idea in doing writing, of course, is to be more than a sophisticated copy machine.