COMM 224: Introduction to Gender and Communication
Gender is both personal and social. It is personal because each of us is a gendered person whose thoughts, feelings, actions, goals, and experiences reflect and enact the gender identity that we individually adopt. Gender is also social, because the meanings of masculinity and femininity are socially constructed, reproduced, and changed. In this class we will explore both the personal and social dimensions of gender, communication, and culture, and how all three interact in our lives. We will also examine how culture sculpts gender and communication; how gender shapes communication and culture; and how communication creates, reproduces, sustains, and sometimes challenges and changes the meaning of gender and, with that, cultural structures and practices.
Required Textbook
Wood, Julia T. (2010).
Gendered Lives: Gender, Communication and Culture, 9th edition, ISBN 978-0495794165. Do not buy earlier editions.