10 Essential MEF Videos for Courses that Examine Gender, Sex, Sexuality, and Power
If you’re looking for videos to help students think critically about gender, sex, sexuality, and power, don’t forget these popular MEF titles. Whether they’re exploring the destructive fallout of retrograde gender norms, the intersectionality of gender inequality and racial discrimination, or the accelerating backlash against women’s autonomy and LGBTQ rights, these videos are designed to help students think about the larger cultural forces that shape our gendered identities, our social relationships, and our political attitudes.
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THE BYSTANDER MOMENT
Transforming Rape Culture at its Roots
– Dr. Michael Flood | Author of Engaging Men and Boys in Violence Prevention
THE CODES OF GENDER
Identity and Performance in Popular Culture
“Completely engrossing. [As] a generally jaded viewer, perhaps the best measure of the effectiveness of this work is that it made me see things I hadn’t seen before and made me think in new ways about the ubiquitous images and messages that inundate and inform everyday life.”
– Gary Handman | Educational Media Reviews Online
FURTHER OFF THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW
New Gay Visibility on Television 1998-2006
“Further Off the Straight & Narrow makes an invaluable contribution to queer media studies, and is a superb documentary companion to Epstein and Friedman’s ground-breaking The Celluloid Closet.”
– Montreal International LGBT Film Festival
HIP-HOP
Beyond Beats and Rhymes
“Byron Hurt’s documentary is one of the most useful tools I’ve come across for deconstructing masculinity, sexism, violence and homophobia in today’s hip-hop culture…. [It] puts the responsibility on men for developing solutions to eradicate violence.”
– Mandy Van Deven | Co-author of Hey, Shorty!: A Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment and Violence in Schools and on the Streets
JOYSTICK WARRIORS
Video Games, Violence & the Culture of Militarism
“Combines incredible insightfulness with accessibility. Even as someone who devotes my career to studying the normalization of violence and the gendered dynamics of that normalization, I found this video strikingly original and deeply engaging.”
– Laura Sjoberg | Author of Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq
KILLING US SOFTLY 4
Advertising’s Image of Women
“Kilbourne’s main point — that advertising creates a toxic cultural environment in which sexual objectification, physical subjugation and intellectual trivialization of women has deep psychological and political resonance — is more compelling than ever.”
– Jennifer L. Pozner | Executive Director of Women in Media & News
PRICE OF PLEASURE
Pornography, Sexuality & Relationships
“Instead of wagging a finger at the billion-dollar porn industry from an academic pulpit, this film features a diverse group of college students, professionals, media makers, distributors, consumers, and adult performers to expose a panoramic and dizzying look at how pornography affects our lives and relationships.”
– Lisa Factora-Borchers | Feminist Review
THE PURITY MYTH
The Virginity Movement’s War Against Women
“Slam on point, The Purity Myth cuts through family-values smokescreens … vividly demonstrating that America’s current obsession with virginity is a straw man, merely a front for attempts at deep, insidious control over women and their bodies.”
– Hanne Blank | Author of Virgin: The Untouched History
“This film is a powerful reminder of the need to ensure that we are intentional in supporting the cognitive, social and emotional development of all women and girls, especially African American women and girls.”
– David Johns | Former Executive Director, the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans
TOUGH GUISE 2
Violence, Manhood & American Culture
“Riveting and transformative. Debunks the myth that being a ‘real man’ requires a false front, violence, and self-destructive behavior, and humanizes the boys and men who are born into this system. Watching Tough Guise 2 will be a breakthrough moment for many viewers.”
– Dr. Caroline Heldman | Chair of the Politics Department at Occidental College
