GWS 418: Gender, Sexuality and the Media (Fall 2024) : Films

This research guide will help those looking for resources on gender and sexuality in media, specifically those in GWS 418.

Finding Films

Looking for films? Try searching the catalog, the online collections below, and Dorothy, a database that collects details for productions primarily released since 2010.

Films

Ageless In interviews with women of various ages, Ageless critiques America's attitudes towards women and aging, with a focus on the media and advertising. The film follows two main characters--Heather, a 38-year-old, and Sheila, a 72-year-old--as they confront the aging process amid society's mores and attitudes around this topic.
The Celluloid Bordello Since the dawn of cinema, sex workers have served as muses to movie-makers. From turn of the century white slavery pictures (The Girl who went Astray, 1900), to iconic rom-coms (Pretty Woman, 1990), to indie hits (Tangerine, 2015), hookers, hustlers, call girls, street walkers, strippers and dommes have been staples of the silver screen. Cinematic sex workers are punchlines, cautionary tales or fantasy figures. They are brutalized, killed off, sometimes rescued and almost always represented as if no sex worker is in theater. Even in documentary films such as Born Into Brothels (2004) or Tricked (2013), reality is distorted by filmmakers (almost always non-sex workers), who are determined to show trauma, violence and pathos rather than the resilience, successes, and thriving communities that are the norm for many sex workers. THE CELLULOID BORDELLO brings sex workers to the theater. With equal parts historical overview, critique, and homage, the film lets real life dommes, escorts, porn stars and hustlers tell you which films they love and which they hate, which get it right and which miss the mark and, most importantly, how perpetuating stereotypes in media affects real peoples' lives.
The Culture of Complicity In this episode, we examine how mainstream cultural norms in music, advertisement, publications, gaming, and pornography have created an overtly sexualized and objectified image of women that has impacted social norms and the behavior of men and women.
The date rape backlash : the media and the denial of rape How did date rape shift from a "shockingly frequentoutrage," as Newsweek once called it, to a controversy over "crying rape," as New York Magazine later labeled it? Academy award-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) guides us through complicated intersections of gender, sex, power and violence, while Susan Faludi, bell hooks, and others expose this shift as a classic case of media "backlash" against women's autonomy.
Dreamworlds 3 : desire, sex & power in music video Dreamworlds 3, the highly anticipated update of Dreamworlds 2 (1995), examines the stories contemporary music videos tell about girls and women, and by extension boys and men, providing a meticulous analysis of how these narratives reflect and shape individual and cultural attitudes toward femininity, masculinity, sexuality, and race. Systematically dismantling music video's most persistent and disturbing stock representations, and setting them against cases of real-world violence, sexism and discrimination, the film inspires viewers to critically examine how the distorted images of the "Dreamworld" connect with the lives of real girls and women, and real boys and men.
Everything Is Copy Everything Is Copy profiles the life of Nora Ephron, the writer/director who was known for her acerbic wit and whose films include such cultural touchstones as Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally, and Sleepless in Seattle.
Frontline: Weinstein FRONTLINE investigates Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually harassed and abused dozens of women over four decades. With allegations going back to Weinstein’s early years, the film examines the elaborate ways he and those around him tried to silence his accusers.
Generation M : misogyny in media and culture For all of the achievements of the womens movement over the past four decades, misogyny remains a persistent force in American culture. In this important new documentary, Thomas Keith, Professor of Philosophy at California State University-Long Beach, looks specifically at misogyny and sexism in mainstream American media, exploring how negative definitions of femininity and hateful attitudes toward women get constructed and perpetuated at the very heart of our popular culture. The film tracks the destructive dynamics of misogyny across a broad and disturbing range of media phenomena: from the hyper-sexualization of commercial products aimed at girls, to the explosion of gender violence in video games aimed at boys; from the near-hysterical sexist rants of hip-hop artists and talk radio shock jocks, to the continually harsh, patronizing caricature of feminism found in virtually every area of American pop culture. Along the way, Generation M forces us to confront the dangerous real-life consequences of misogyny in all of its forms - making a compelling case that when we devalue more than half the population based on gender, we harm boys and men as well as women and girls.
Miss Representation Like drawing back a curtain to let bright light stream in, Miss Representation uncovers a glaring reality we live with every day but fail to see. Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media's limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself. In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the collective message that our young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman's value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, and not in her capacity as a leader. While women have made great strides in leadership over the past few decades, the United States is still 90th in the world for women in national legislatures, women hold only 3% of clout positions in mainstream media, and 65% of women and girls have disordered eating behaviors. Stories from teenage girls and provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics, like Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson and Gloria Steinem build momentum as Miss Representation accumulates startling facts and statistics that will leave the audience shaken and armed with a new perspective.
PicturePerfect We are barraged by media images that unrealistically glamorize and sexualize women and girls. This film explores the impact these messages have on young women's physical, psychological and emotional health.
Slaying the dragon Slaying the dragon: a comprehensive look at media stereotypes of Asian and Asian American women since the silent era. From the racist use of white actors to portray Asians in early Hollywood films, through the success of Anna May Wong's sinister dragon lady, to Suzie Wong and the '50s geisha girls, to the Asian-American anchorwoman of today, this fascinating film shows how stereotypes of exoticism and docility have affected the perception of Asian-American women.
TEDTalks : Megan Kamerick - Women Should Represent Women in Media How do you tell women’s stories? Ask women to tell them. At TEDxABQ, Megan Kamerick shows how the news media underrepresents women as reporters and news sources, and because of that tells an incomplete story.
This Changes Everything An investigative look and analysis of gender disparity in Hollywood, featuring accounts from well-known actors, executives and artists in the Industry.
Tough guise 2: Violence, manhood & American culture In this highly anticipated update of the influential and widely acclaimed Tough Guise, pioneering anti-violence educator and cultural theorist Jackson Katz argues that the ongoing epidemic of men's violence in America is rooted in our inability as a society to move beyond outmoded ideals of manhood. In a sweeping analysis that cuts across racial, ethnic, and class lines, Katz examines mass shootings, day-to-day gun violence, violence against women, bullying, gay-bashing, and American militarism against the backdrop of a culture that has normalized violent and regressive forms of masculinity in the face of challenges to traditional male power and authority. Along the way, the film provides a stunning look at the violent, sexist, and homophobic messages boys and young men routinely receive from virtually every corner of the culture, from television, movies, video games, and advertising to pornography, the sports culture, and US political culture. Tough Guise 2 stands to empower a new generation of young men - and women - to challenge the myth that being a real man means putting up a false front and engaging in violent and self-destructive behavior.
Women Who Run Hollywood Women have been omnipresent in Hollywood on the other side of the camera almost from the beginning. Think of the most successful actress, producer and business woman Mary Pickford or Frances Marion, to name but a few. Only with the arrival of the talkies the male influence in Hollywood became dominant for the next decades. With Women’s Liberation in the 70s and 80s, the tide turned again. Well educated women with university degrees took Hollywood by storm. Paula Wagner, film producer of Tom Cruise who heads Cruise Wagner Productions, tells us about the new era in Hollywood. Other contributors include Robin Swicord, Linda Obst, Cari Beauchamps and Ally Acker, filmmaker and author of ‘Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema’. Selected for Cannes Classics at Cannes Film Festival 2016.

Online Film Collections

Academic Video Online Streaming video collection spanning a wide range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. Access includes documentary films and series from the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Users can filter results by publisher, release date, content type, and from the more than 40 langauges represented in the collection.
CBS News Video Archive Archive of video segments from six decades of news programming and journalistic coverage of American and world history events, as they were originally reported by CBS News, 1950s-2010s.
CNN Video Collection Archive of video segments from Cable News Network (CNN) specials and feature programming on business, economics, technology, environmental studies, health, women’s studies, and human rights.
Contemporary Global Issues in Video Documentary video collection on global themes, humanitarian, and environmental issues, such as pollution, child trafficking, refugee camps, LGBTQ+ rights, indigenous people's movements, and more.
Docuseek2 Streaming video collection of documentary and social-issues films and videos.
Filmakers Library Online Interdisciplinary resource of over 1,000 issue-based documentaries and independent films from the U.S. and other countries. Topics include: race and gender studies, human rights, globalization and global studies, multiculturalism, international relations, criminal justice, the environment, bioethics, health, political science, and current events, psychology, arts, literature, and more. Clips, playlists, etc., can be integrated into web pages and learning management systems either as links or embeds. (Complete: not updated)
Films on Demand Thousands of streaming educational videos from producers such as PBS, BBC, and National Geographic.
GOOD DOCS Complete Collection Streaming films and documentaries featuring stories about individuals and communities working towards a more equitable world, and which provoke critical thinking.
Hindi Cinema: Histories of Film-making Video collection of unedited interviews and on-set actuality films related to Hindi film industry producing Hindi/Urdu language films from 1950-2010 in Mumbai, India, popularly known as 'Bollywood'.
Icarus Films Collection Streaming video collection of social, political, and historical documentaries on the Docuseek platform.
Kanopy Streaming video service of documentaries and films across diverse subjects and disciplines. Access to Criterion Collection, Media Education Foundation Collection and California Newsreel Collection.
LGBT Studies in Video Documentaries, interviews, and feature films explore the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Coverage of LGBT history and culture, civil rights, marriage equality, families, AIDS, transgender issues, and more.
PBS Video Collection Documentary films and series from the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) covering many educational disciplines, including history, science and technology, diversity studies, business, and current events.
Swank Digital Campus Streaming video collection of commercial and independent films and documentaries.
Television News Archive Summaries of television news programs collected since August, 1968; includes programs from ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, with CNN programs viewable online.
Women Make Movies Collection Streaming video collection of award-winning films from Women Make Movies, the leading distributor of independent films by and about women.