Looking at Gender from Literary and Historical Texts to Alternative Media Production

Students start with a game of gender identification based on descriptions of people, in order to become aware of certain stereotypes that they may apply in their daily lives.

Then the key concepts of stereotype, prejudice and essentialization are introduced. The analysis is followed by identifying examples of problematic gender representations in literary/historical/media texts, with a focus on the specifics of pop culture media products.

Students then create their own media products, presenting them to each other and evaluating each other’s creations.

MEDIA PRODUCTION

Magazine cover created by high school Romanian students in Bucharest after analysing the gender representation in the Great Gatsby novel and film. The image depicts Daisy, the main female character on the cover of Vogue magazine as a successful woman. Thus, trying to offer an alternative representation, different from how she is represented in the novel (victim, passive, with no other concerns than being beautiful and practically wife/lover).