Sheridan Wall

Ru Pauls drag race parallels many reality tv shows that focus on women and femininity. The parallels between these two programs allows the audience to better understand the nature of drag. It normalizes drag appearance and equates it with that of other contestant based shows like Americas next top model.

Ru Pauls drag race sets the stage for drag women to be their own voices in popular media culture. As Ru Paul says, Drag Race is a mechanism for education, awareness, and identity expression. People from everywhere can turn on the show and learn about alternative gender and gender identity while others who experience this struggle themselves can…[Read more]

While celebrities like lady gaga and Madonna have tried to give voice to the LGBTQ community, their portrayals of the community actually limit and quiet those very voices they are attempting to represent. As cisgendered women, they cannot successfully portray and advocate for the LGBTQ community without being able to directly relate to the…[Read more]

Using the examples of Shape Magazine and Men’s Health Magazine, we can observe the differences in the language, photos, and overall messages of these magazines and how that plays into the dichotomy of femininity and masculinity. In Shape, the emphasis is placed on weight loss and beauty while Men’s Health speaks more about overall fitness and…[Read more]

There exists a social order power dynamic designed based on socially constructed ideas of sex and gender characteristics. This gender order is maintained in the context of masculinity vs. femininity. Within masculinity and feminist, there are further divisions that illustrate and perpetuate this social power dynamic. Hegemonic masculinity embodies…[Read more]

Women are presented in arts and media not as a whole character active in controlling the narrative but rather as an object being looked at. While men are shown as active characters by shots of their face, etc., women in media and art are often depicted as full bodies, not exclusively their faces but faces in combination with body parts. This…[Read more]

Shonda Rimes explains her theory on diversity in television. She exclaims that diversity in television isn’t something revolutionary. It’s actually just portraying the realities of this world. Real life is diverse, and everyone should get to see someone they identify with living the life or telling a story that they want to hear. Normalizing…[Read more]

Colorism is a byproduct of racism rooted in a vast history of Eurpoean colonialism in which societies were organized and classified by “pure” whiteness and continued through deviations from white purity.

The color blindness mentality allows privilege to prevail and be ignored rather than encourage respect and equality. Color blindness perpetuates ignorance and asks people of other races to ignore significant aspects of their identity and heritage.

This article delves deeper into the idea of race as a social construct. It examines the role of biology in racial identity, deconstructing arguments that claim the basis of race to be in biological skin color or appearance. The author raises an interesting point that if that were true, then race would be consistent across the world and emphasis on…[Read more]

I think this article connects to both the ZOE Saldana piece as well as Race and Racial Identity are Social Constructs. It raises unique questions about what black is and how that affects one’s identity and social situation as well as reinforces race as a social construct considering it varies in different nations.

I think it’s interesting to bring up the idea of racial identity in terms of racial proximity. I think it reiterates the subjectivity of race and its social construction. Furthermore, I think it’s interesting to examine this effect on children of multiracial couples as society and racial identity continue to evolve or remain stagnant.

Just about everyone understands that children are impressionable. Therefore, most of us are more cautious of our behavior in front of children, watching what we say and making sure not to expose them to anything too crude or too violent. However, it is interesting to examine the effect of television on children in a context other than sexuality…[Read more]

While character identification usually occurs in narrative writing, I think it’s interesting to examine this concept in the context of non narrative writing, especially news stories. The ability to evoke empathy through the abandonment of one’s own identity in order to explore and experience another’s could be an interesting and perhaps motivating…[Read more]

Zoe Saldana’s unique heritage as a black woman of Latina roots emphasizes the challenges facing minority actors in a controversial industry. The film industry often casts according to racial norms and stereotypes to create a perception of “authenticity,” white men as white men, black men as black men. However, this type casting contributes to the…[Read more]