Make sure you answer all questions thoroughly and refer to course material in your answers.
1. Find an example of an advertisement in which the body is presented as a project–make sure to include a link to the image or video, or embed the image/video in your post. Explain how the advertisement promotes the idea of the body as a project. To whom is the advertisement directed? What does the advertisement encourage the consumer to do? How does the ad try to convince the consumer to engage in this body project? What does the ad suggest are the social/personal consequences for not engaging in the body project, and why should the consumer care about those consequences? Pay attention to the ad’s use of imagery and texts in marketing to the consumer.
2. Mike Featherstone describes how the rise of mass media and consumer culture have led us to think of our bodies as projects to be worked at and maintained. How do you think he would explain the phenomenon of “Instagram face,” which Jia Tolentino describes in your reading “The Age of Instagram Face”?
3. Watch the following video on Jane Eliot’s “blue eyes, brown eyes” experiment. How does Jane Eliot’s classroom experiment relate to the idea that race is socially constructed? (note: video includes racial slur)
YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CtrpLh6TKk
4. What issue does Dorothy Roberts take with race-based medicine? How do you think medical racism of the kind she discusses might impact the health of people of color during the COVID-19 pandemic?
5. Did you have any questions about this week’s lessons? (optional)
Website: https://www.ted.com/talks/dorothy_roberts_the_problem_with_race_based_medicine?language=en
