Learning Goal: I’m working on a theater report and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.
For Assignment 3, you had to write about what Ron Becker calls “the SLUMPY class.” Becker argues that SLUMPY class media content in the 1990s was edgy-but-not-too-edgy, inclusive but only inclusive of minorities that most white, middle- and upper-class liberals could readily accept (e.g., white affluent gay men in what we would today call homonormative relationships).
One of the GSIs (Lashon) recently asked me if I thought that the idea of the SLUMPY class is still operative today. I said I do think there is still a SLUMPY class, and there is still media being made for them — and with social media, SLUMPYs are making media for each other, too. So my question for you is: What is SLUMPY media today? What kinds of TV series and social media content do you see that you think is made by and/or for the SLUMPYs? What traits do you think define the SLUMPY class today (feel free to make up a new acronym, if you want to!), and what media do you see that you feel is targeted towards making that group happy/entertained/willing to buy things/feel “woke”/feel edgy/feel current, while not challenging them too much?
Write about it in a (minimum 2-page, double-spaced) essay and get up to 4 points!!!
Category: Theater
Learning Goal: I’m working on a theater multi-part question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.
The example and readings are attached, please follow the example to do this assignment. There are three prompts total.
For each prompt (a prompt can be a term, phrase, or concept) given below, please write:
a) The author who wrote about the term/phrase/concept. (You only have to cite ONE author for each concept, but you can definitely cite multiple authors. Citing multiple authors may help you to give a fuller definition of the prompt than only citing one. But you do not have to cite all of the authors who wrote about a particular term.) (0.5 point)
b) The meaning of the term/phrase/concept, as it pertains to the topics covered in this course. (You should plan on writing at least a few sentences to give an adequate definition.) (1 point)
c) A television OR social media example that illustrates the term/phrase/concept. (You only need to write about one example: television show OR episode, OR character, OR plotline from a TV show, OR a block of shows, OR an entire network; a social media platform OR influencer OR a hashtag OR an event or campaign on a platform.). You may give more than one example if you wish but only one is required. Anything that is a serial program (that is, consisting of multiple episodes) on broadcast TV, cable TV, or streaming platforms that you view in your domestic space, like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Go, CBS All Access, etc., counts as “television.” Feature-length (90-120-minute) programs made exclusively for a streaming platform (e.g., Netflix Originals like “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” or “Always Be My Maybe”) also count as “television” as they were made specifically for domestic viewing. Content (including music videos) made for YouTube or another social media site counts as social media, which you can also use for your examples. (0.5 point)
d) How the television or social media example relates to, and illustrates, the term/phrase/concept. Make sure to refer to at least one idea or argument made by the author (whom you named in part a). (You should plan on writing 1 to 2 paragraphs—6 to 12 sentences at least—to explain how your example relates to the term/phrase/concept.) (2 points)
You must format your answer according to parts a, b, c, and d, like this:
1. (term/phrase/concept)
a. (author’s name)
b. (definition of term/phrase/concept)
c. (name of an example)
d. (how the example relates to the term/phrase/concept)
Points will be deducted for poor spelling, grammar, and/or punctuation (up to 1 point). Points will also be deducted for improper formatting – proper formatting = listing out the different parts of each answer as a., b., c., d. (up to 1 point).
Each four-part response to a prompt is worth up to 4 points total.
Assignment 4 Prompts:
postfeminism
intersectionality
Black Twitter