Women,Gender,Sexuality Studies 292S - S-Damsels in Distress: Film

This course will examine representations of damsels in distress and heroes in cinema. We will screen a wide variety of films, mostly mainstream Hollywood movies since the 1970s, including Thelma and Louise, Set it Off, and Jordan Peele's Us. Course content will use feminist theories to explore and critique how race and gender work to construct both the damsel and the hero in cinematic representations. We will view and analyze films that construct white femininity as vulnerable and in need of protection, often from villains that are problematically depicted as "other" and dangerous. Films that complicate narratives of the hero and the damsel will be viewed to explore ways in which our ideas of heroes, damsels, and narratives are constrained by generic categories prevalent in film - particularly in mainstream movies. We will interrogate the figure of the hero in relation to an ideology of individualism prevalent in U.S. neoliberalism and examine how narratives might depict characters that instead work in collective to create change.

This is a blended class, meaning that each week you will complete online assignments one time (on Monday) and meet in person on Wednesday. Monday's assignments are due at 11:59 pm EST. For further questions, please be in touch with the instructor: rrbriggs@umass.edu.