Dreaming of Gender: Assessing Sut Jhally’s Dreamworlds Hypothesis of Gendered Depictions in Music Videos

Abstract

This assignment is intended to help students critically examine media – specifically music videos – for the gendered messages contained therein. This goal is achieved through analysis of currently popular music videos, via a process adapted from Sut Jhally’s classic documentary series, “Dreamworlds.” It is also intended to promote critical examination...

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Details

Subject Area(s):

Art/Music, Sex and Gender

Resource Type(s):

Assignment, Class Activity

Class Level(s):

Any Level

Class Size(s):

Any

Learning Goals and Assessments

Learning Goal(s):

1. Identify and discuss key concepts from Sut Jhally’s classic documentary series, “Dreamworlds”
2. Watch selected currently popular music videos and utilize a classification scheme to rate them based on the gendered representations they contain
3. Discuss their findings with other students and collaboratively arrive at conclusions regarding the ratings of the videos they watched
4. Analyze data in order to draw conclusions about the level of support for Jhally’s hypothesis
5. Identify weaknesses of the Dreamworlds hypothesis and methods that comprise the exercise, and propose solutions (where relevant)

Goal Assessment(s):

1. Following the in-class session, have students write a short paper covering the following topics: 1) An analysis of whether the data support, or fail to support, Jhally’s hypothesis. Have them discuss whether they would draw the same conclusion if they were using just the current semester’s data versus all of the data, and connect this assessment with the...