JUST 300G - Dead White Women

Institution:

Westminster College (Salt Lake City)

Subject:

Justice Studies

Description:

With programing that holds salacious titles such as Stalked, Last Seen Alive, Surviving Evil, Southern Fried Homicide, House of Horrors: Kidnapped, Beauty Queen Murders, Dates from Hell and Swamp Murders the Investigative Discovery (ID) channel is the go to place to marvel at the frequency of violent deaths white women suffer at the hands of deranged murderers. It would be erroneous to assume that the ID channel only sets out to tell the story of white women, but, with very few exceptions, most of the programming evolves around the horrifying deaths or near deaths experienced by white women. It also needs to be noted that in between true crime stories about the murder of beauty queens, southern belles and the young white woman last seen walking home from school, the ID channel also includes series of white women as murderers. But what the programming does not include, unless it is at the hands of hysterical or evil white women, are the deaths of men. As the 11th most watched prime time cable TV channel for people 18-49 and the most watched ad-supported TV channel for women ages 25-54 of 2015, we must ask, why? What is so attractive about watching dead white women? What is it about white women's deaths that peeks our voyeuristic instincts? Do we as a culture find pleasure at the horrifying deaths of white women at the hands of abusive lovers and husbands? What is so titillating about these TV series? In this course we will watch popular documentary-style crime drama, scripted TV series, films and documentary films that demonstrates our (unhealthy) obsession with the death of white women. We will study these works from an interdisciplinary approach that includes theorists from film studies, cultural anthropology, feminist studies and critical race studies. Students will be required to have a Netflix account and access to the Internet. Course requirements include attendance, class discussion participation, group presentations and a research paper.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.westminstercollege.edu

Phone Number:

(801) 484-7651

Regional Accreditation:

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

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