Illustrate and critically discuss the ways in which connotations of shape and colour can be regarded as gendered.
Guidance
For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the general criteria.
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What Key Features Do I Look For?
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Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here.
Advice for this particular assignment: Note that the question refers to 'connotations' - avoid discussing more formal and deliberate 'symbolism'. Advertisements (and brand 'logos') differentially targeted at men or at women are a particularly good source of material. Look at the shapes and colours of what is represented but also at the shape (and colours) of typefaces. Take nothing for granted: try to find the best evidence you can of the extent to which particular colours and shapes are regarded (by whom?) as having gender connotations and also why (exactly what kinds of justifications are offered for these judgements?). In dealing with colour, do not equate stereotypical gender connotations with the much more diverse colour preferences of men and women (not all women like 'girlie pink'!). Do not slip into a naive gender essentialism, equating the male sex with dominant masculine gender stereotypes and the female sex with dominant feminine gender stereotypes. Note how the gendering of colours and type styles be seen as contributing to the construction of gender differences rather than simply 'reflecting' sex differences. Definitions of key terms can be found in Chandler and Munday (2011).
Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations is essential. These should be inserted electronically into your Word document rather than cut-and-pasted in. You can scan such illustrations in from print sources, save them from disk-based sources, download them from online sources (such as my Powerpoint slides) or even create them from scratch in a graphics package. Use them to help you to make points more effectively. Label each one, 'Figure 1' etc. and add a caption.
Some suggested reading
Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!
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