I taught my own class Femininities: Race, Feminism, and Media, a first-year writing seminar at Cornell University!

Course description: Is beauty, sexiness, Barbie, or the color pink feminine? What or who defines femininity? In our contemporary culture, such ideas are complicated by the performances of drag queens, sex workers, divas, and queer/trans artists of color. By exploring programs like the Real Housewives series, the film Hustlers, spoken word poetry, visual art, and related critical materials by such writers as bell hooks and Audre Lorde, this class will help you better understand the cultural politics of femininity in its relations to race and feminism. Gender expression and our responses to it are shaped by social and political forces that include race, migration, colonialism, and sexuality. Engaging such perspectives, we will write about our favorite divas, make zines, and analyze together films and other popular media forms.