Why I took this class

When I was first looking at classes to take, I was really interested in this particular course, firstly because it fit into what I needed for my comm. major, but also because its content sounded really interesting. I’ve always been particularly interested in the types of issues this class offered, and in previous classes have done projects that look at beauty advertisements and their effects on consumers. With this class I hope to have a better understanding of media’s role within gender, sexuality, and the sort of impacts it has on society and society’s thinking. I also took this class because I’ve had Erin before, and really enjoyed that class with her.

I think it’s important to study this topic because the media is the lens through which society sees the world, and so its role is extremely important. Consumers assume that what they see in the media is the truth, and media guides our expectations and assumptions about society. By studying the media’s representation of gender and sexuality we can hope to better understand why society works the way it does, through critical thinking.  I think it’s important that we as consumers don’t blindly accept what media has to say, and to input our own thoughts into it.