Instructions:
In short essay format, provide a well crafted response that demonstrates your understanding of the assigned reading and that builds on class discussions, and any relevant independent research. All research should be included at the end of your paper in a references/works cited section. Consistent with our previous research assignments, you may format your citations according an academic style guide of your choosing. If you do not have a format preference, please use the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide (provided in the “Course Materials” section of this Blackboard course).
Description:
Throughout the course we have identified how cultural frameworks, socializing agents, and social control mechanisms shape identity and social roles. We have also explored how these forces have historicallly shaped and continue to shape perceptions of who should hold power over another (i.e. individual, group, community, culture) in different social conditions (e.g. pandemic and shelter-in-place orders, police and institutional racism, hyper-consumerism and increasing economic inequality). Over the past two years we have also studied, witnessed, and possibily participated in protests arising from all of these phenomena.
In a final look at inequality and potential progress, use the reading by Wolf (located in the Final Exam Reading folder in the Course Materials section of Blackboard) and examples from US culture to discuss the current significance of Wolf’s “Beauty Myth” and whether, in the midsts of a pandemic and social transformation, it continues to contribute to the perpetuation of unequal power relations between men and women.
Prompt:
Naomi Wolf published The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, in 1990. Reflecting on Wolf’s article discuss what is meant by the “Beauty Myth” and whether this dynamic still operates in our pandemic society. If so, how? If not, what has changed? Second and building on your previous argument, do you think the power gap between men and women is narrowing or widening? Finally, in 2017, millions of women (and men) marched and protested against gender and sex inequality (also included were protests against other racial, ethnic, and economic forms of inequality). Based on your research of the 2017 Women’s March, the racial justice protests of 2020, and Wolf’s argument, do you think we are likely to see more mass protests on the issue of sex and gender inequality? Why or why not?
APA format:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
