Upload a 400 or more word response to either 1 or 2 below before the submission window closes at the end of the day on Monday April 25. For full credit, be sure to demonstrate that you’ve both carefully read and reflected on the indicated article. As always, use one of the file formats listed so that your response paper can be opened and read. Some formats don’t work (Google docs; pages). If your journal can’t be opened and read, it can’t earn credit.
1. Monica Hesse, “Reese Witherspoon is Selling Frilly Southern Womanhood, Y’all”
What contradictory expectations for 21st century women are revealed in the story told by Emily Smith, the “Spooner” and book-talk seatmate in Hesse’s article? Where are some of the other places where these contradictory expectations are visible in American culture, in your view? How does Reese Witherspoon’s “Southern” image address these contradictions, according to Monica Hesse?
2. Frederick McKindra, “What Makes Lakeith Stanfield of Atlanta So Compelling?”
In what ways does Lakeith Stanfield’s ‘brand of weird’ represent a ‘counternarrative’ to audience expectations about Black masculinity, according to McKindra? Where else (in other actors or characters from popular culture, politics or social media) might we find other or similar counternarratives about Black masculinity?
McKindra’s essay is from 2018, and additional information about Stanfield—much of which he has revealed himself— has become available since (we’ll talk about these updates).
