The week prior to spring break, we screened both The Codes of Gender and Killing Us Softly 4, both of which examined images of women in advertising with a specific focus on how advertising constructs a distorted and destructive ideal of femininity.  This week, we screened The Bro Code:  How Contemporary Culture Creates Sexist Men, which examines how popular culture reinforces and rewards sexism and reinforces a hostile climate toward women, homosexual men, and
heterosexual men who challenge existing norms about what it means to be a man in American
society. 

As an extension of this week's screening, you are asked to screen EITHER Tough Guise 2:  Violence, Manhood & American Culture or Generation M:  Misogyny in Media and Culture, both of which are available on the CI Learn course website under "external links." 

For this week's blog post, you are asked to complete ONE of the following activities, and be sure to use examples and support your argument using examples from the two films you screened:

1. Go to lyric websites and print out lyrics by contemporary rap artists (Big Sean, Drake, 2Chainz, Meek Mills, YG, The Weeknd, Migos, Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne, etc.). Examine the content of the lyrics of one song from one of these artists and describe how the lyrics construct masculinity and how the lyrics treat women using as the foundation of your argument the concepts and ideas presented in the screenings.  As an extension, look at the official music video for the song and discuss how the images in the video construct a particular vision of masculinity and how the women are portrayed (what role or roles do the women play?  what is their purpose in the video?).  Please post a link to the song (preferably a link to the YouTube official video). 
2. When you think about young boys being exposed to these accelerating levels of violence
   – whether it’s in movies, video games, or porn – what kinds of messages about manhood
   do you think they’re absorbing? What kinds of messages about women? About
   femininity?  Provide images or links to media texts
3. Go to a toy store or go online to a department store chain that carries toys and games.
   Make a list of the games and toys that have been marketed strictly for girls and those
   for boys.  Ideally, take a picture of the store aisle and post it. What do you think are
   the positives and/or negatives about splitting games and toys in this way. Are there
   themes that you interpret as being male or female with respect to toys and games,
   such as weapons versus cosmetics?