This course aims to provide students with an understanding of how cinema and other medias ‘construct’ expectations about masculinity and femininity and ideas about normal and deviant sexualities. The course will encourage students to reflect on the multiple axes of privilege, exclusion and inclusion within the production and consumption of media culture. The course explores some of the ways in which Italian cinema and media have made use of ideas about gender and sexuality as crucial components in the articulation of discourses about the nation, the family and the couple. You will learn about Italian feminist activism and the sexual liberation movement and you will watch recent films such as Call Me By Your Name and The Ignorant Fairies, as well as Italian classics such as La Dolce Vita.  This course counts toward fulfillment of the UO Bachelor of Arts degree group requirement for Arts and Letters (A&L) and International Cultures (IC).