Your major paper in this course is a research paper on a topic of your choosing. You may wish to investigate any number issues related to media images and the body, such as: body horror, healthy and diseased bodies, dismembered bodies, sexualized bodies, aging bodies, reproductive bodies, dead bodies in media, racialized/colonialized bodies, gendered bodies, children’s bodies, fetishized bodies, athlete bodies, celebrity bodies, differently abled bodies, classed bodies, fat and thin bodies, modified or subversive bodies, drug using bodies, the disembodied, religious bodies, tortured and punished bodies, pornographic bodies, non-human and animal bodies, body surveillance or cyborg bodies. You might address images of the body in any number of media forms including social and digital media, news media, television or film, magazines, social media, comics, or any other popular cultural form. Papers should the relationship between media images and the body as it connects to one or more of the course themes (sexuality, socialization, identity, racism, classism, ageism, social norms et cetera). The topic of the paper is flexible – be creative!
The paper should be between 8-10 double spaced pages. As this is a research paper, you should draw on a minimum of six empirical, scholarly, social science sources (these should be outside/in addition to the require readings for the course). The paper should review what is known about your topic and provide insights/implications for future research in the area.