Final Project: Moments of Gender Transgression

“Examining gendered roles thru writing and visual production”

Solicitation Letter Due: Friday, June 11

Final Project Due: Friday, June 25

This assignment is an opportunity for you to explore the construction of

gender, gender roles in our society and your understanding of those.
Specifically in this assignment you will construct a 1000-word opinion piece
that could conceivably be printed in a magazine or submitted to a blog of
your choosing. You should browse the Internet for blogs or magazines about
gender that might accept a piece like the one you want to write/video and
write a letter of solicitation to this blog/magazine, “pitching” your project to
them.

Moment of Transgression means you will need to self-identify as a

specific gender, most likely one to which you feel you belong. In your letter
of solicitation, you will identify your own gender and sexuality and make
clear to yourself and your audience what the rules, norms, and social scripts
are for this role. You’ll then sensitively select which of these roles you will
defy. When you do this, you should note what you observe as the responses,
reactions, and consequences to your transgressing behavior. Does anything
change? For whom? How? Why, do you think? Write all your notes up into an
opinion piece that fits into the overall description of the assignment.

Your transgression should not be a simple one. For example, if you identify
as a straight male, dressing like a female is somewhat simplistic and
obvious. I want you to really brainstorm the roles that we play, the ones that
society pressures us into and polices us to enforce, then choose one of these
more covert, less-discussed roles to transgress.

I’ll create a special discussion board for conversation about how you might
go about crafting a creative and thoughtful project, but keep this in mind:
Your transgression should not place yourself or other people in
direct line of bodily injury/harm. Neither should the act(s) involve
breaking federal or state laws. Consequences of the transgression
are the sole responsibility of the agent (that’s you).

Questions to consider:
How does the production of meaning affect gendered roles?
Why are differences important?
If meaning cannot be fixed, how does that impact our understanding of
gender and gender roles?
What does it mean that we’re able to transgress gender?
What did you learn about gender fluidity or sexuality fluidity from
transgressing it?
Goals for the assignment:
• Paper or video is well organized, thoughtful, and insightful.
• Transgression is complex.
• Writing is clear at the sentence and paragraph level.
• Develop a thesis statement applicable to the topic.
• Work within the essay format incorporating topic sentences and
(introduction, body, conclusion).
• Work with a given genre: satire, opinion, comedy, biography,

For this assignment you are required to produce both a letter of

solicitation/introduction to your chosen outlet, and the final paper/video. This
solicitation letter should be written formally and addressed to the proper
editor of the blog or magazine of your choosing. The letter should give a brief
overview of your opinion piece and the style in which it is written, as well as
address your rationale for participating in the transgression and what gender
and/or sexuality roles it will challenge. If you choose to write the essay, it
should be approximately 1000-1200 words. If you choose to record the
video, it should be 5-8 minutes in duration, and although you needn’t script
it, it should be well thought-out and rehearsed, just as if you were sending it
in for publication on the blog or magazine. Either way, the final project
should make reference to (at least) 2 sources from the syllabus. You should
incorporate these sources into your essay/video to support some assertion
you’re making about gender/sexuality or to help explain some consequence
or effect of your transgression.