Bringing the Course Together:
Consumerism, Gender, and Argument
Major Paper Assignment #4
Recently and over the past few weeks we’ll turn our attention towards the way media
portrays gender roles in our modern society. Remember (as the term gender “role” suggests) our
working definition: gender is not your technical sex (what body parts you have), rather gender is
the socially constructed roles that suggest what a man or woman should be or act like. We are
assuming that “man” and “woman” are labels just like any other we adopt—and as we saw in our
quickwrites, these are problematic and open to stereotypical interpretation.
Whether through images or texts, we are under constant bombardment from almost
subliminal suggestions of how to be a man, how to be a woman, or even how to think about and
relate to the opposite sex. We’ve seen how these suggestions are not only unrealistic, but often
dangerous and corruptive.
With these issues in mind, you start your final paper and a chance to revisit and utilize all
the interpretive skills we’ve used on the past three papers. We will also be adhering to one of the
main conventions of this class—using objects and data that are not traditionally analyzed
academically and usually get lazily ignored or accepted as merely being the fabric of our daily
lives.
Magazines are the perfect combination of the two main topics we’ve been discussing all
semester. They tend to be both texts of rampant consumerism and often stereotypical
constructors of gender. For this assignment you will be asked to look at something as seemingly
simple and innocent as a magazine—you will be looking at its complexity and messages to see
what it almost subliminally says about the world we live in. You will need to choose a magazine
that has a target audience of one gender, but discusses and portrays both genders throughout its
contents.
Write an explorative essay where you argue for the reader to interpret the magazine
in your own unique way. Using a mixture of the advertisements, articles, images, and any
other relevant features, analyze and explain how the magazine constructs a gender role for
the target audience. Additionally, show how the magazine suggests the target gender
should act towards, relate with, and specifically view the opposite sex. This analysis should
be used to prove a larger societal claim (how this magazine reflects in miniature stereotypes
that are prevalent in and affect society at large) and this will become part of your thesis.
Other Requirements for the Paper
You must also perform some outside research to be incorporated into your paper. The
nature and topic of this research will be entirely dependant on the thesis you are trying to argue.
The most important point is that this research must not be there just for the heck of it, but must
serve a purpose in proving your point. You may wish to research the magazine industry itself,
the history of the magazine you’re using (students in the past have had great success seeing if the
magazine has a webpage where you’ll sometimes find mission statements and other interesting
facts), information about men and women’s representation in other media, feminism, sexism, the
advertising industry, etc. The possibilities are endless, and once again, depend entirely on what
you are trying to argue. You must have at least two of these.
These outside sources and quotes from any part of the magazine must be cited in the
paper MLA style, and your paper must have a Works Cited page.
Additionally, any advertisements or images you analyze from the magazine in your paper
must be torn out and stapled at the end of your paper, after the Works Cited page.
This paper should be 6-8 pages long.
Due Dates:
This paper is a large part of your grade, so we will be following a more regimented
system of process and due dates. Each step of your writing will be supervised by me to ensure
you the greatest possibility for success along the way.
November 19th or 22th
Magazine selection due during our conference. You must bring
the magazine with you so I can thumb through it. Turn in
Response Paper #9 which explains why you think this magazine
will be a good choice and some initial ideas about its
interpretation.
November 29th
This is your workshop day, but jot your thesis statement down on
a piece of paper (no need to type it) and turn it into me.
December 3rd
Second Draft Due.
December 8th
Second Drafts Will be Returned by this Day
Final Draft is Due in my box in the English office before 12/15 before noon. I will not be
back on campus after this, and a paper coming in after this date or time is simply
unacceptable. Feel free to turn the final draft in earlier if you wish; this would actually
help me out a lot!