Beauty Standards and Gender

1. Choose a theme or issue about which you are particularly passionate and that is directly related to Women and Gender Studies. Clearly identify a question or topic you would like to pursue. Narrow your topic by considering who, what, where, when and why. Be as specific as possible about what issue you would like to explore, and make sure to practice an intersectional approach by considering how class, race, gender, indignity, ability, sexual orientation, or other aspect of self may affect how this issue is experienced, and by paying attention to how social relations are experienced differently depending on one’s social location. Turn your narrowed topic into aresearch question. Include your research question at the beginning of this assignment.Using library resources find 3  academic  and  scholarly  sources that specifically engage thistopic. Academic sources can be books, journal articles, journal issues or other relevant andscholarly material. Your sources should not come from newspapers, magazines, Wikipedia or Google, etc. You will be evaluated on your ability to identify and engage with scholarly sources. Make sure the sources you have chosen are the best sources to allow you to develop and support your ideas.An annotated bibliography is a list of citations (in MLA format) of books or articles, each followed by a brief (usually 200 words) paragraph describing and evaluating the work. Its purpose is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy and quality of each source. You should do three things in these annotations 1. Describe each source; 2. Evaluate each source;and 3. Tell us how this source is relevant or useful to you – How and Why is it linked to thetopic you will explore – how will it help you answer your research question. This information willform your annotation. You may begin by succinctly highlighting the topic explored by thissource and its main argument. Then, what makes this source different than others? What is astrength and/or weakness of this source? Finally, how and why will this source be useful to you5 in writing your mini essay? Why did you choose this source and not another? What will it helpyou highlight? How does it help you answer your research question?Each annotation should be 200 words.  Please use  MLA format  when citing your sources. 2. The second part of this assignment is meant to build on the topic/research question explored through your annotated bibliography and allow you to engage with your sources to support a clearly identified argument or thesis statement. Now that you have learned more about your issue, you should engage in the next steps as if you were going to write the essay. Think of this as your attempt to answer your research question. In this section, you should 1) Identify a clear thesis statement (In this essay, I will argue….). Think of this as the “answer” to your research question; 2) In point form only, include three arguments in support of your thesis statement; 3) Include under each argument two pieces of information drawn from your sources that will help you “prove” this argument and cite where you are getting this information by following the “in text citation” style in MLA format (author, page #);  4) Include  a   concluding   self  reflexive  sentence  on  why this issue/argument  is meaningful for you/significant/important/relevant.