DePaul University has introduced a new course that will examine what it refers to as “the more troubling aspects of social media,” as well as explore how these platforms can be censored to protect women and “queer people.”
The 300-level course, entitled: “Sex, Gender, and Social Media” will be available for DePaul students in the winter, spring, and summer quarters of 2018-2019.
The goal of this new course will be to explore how social media can be utilized to advance interests pertaining to topics such as “gender identity” and “social activism,” while also analyzing “the more troubling aspects” of social media, according to the course description on DePaul’s website.
The description goes on to clarify that “troubling” specifically refers to ideologies that promote free-market capitalism, as well as how social media platforms have “provided new forums for public attacks on women and queer people.”
“We will examine how these platforms offer new opportunities for sexual education, sexual and erotic/romantic expression, the negotiation and exploration of sexual and gender identities, and feminist/queer media criticism, social activism, and community,” states the course description.
The implementation of this new course has been made amid Twitter’s recent announcement that it will blacklist anyone “misgendering” or “deadnaming” transgender users on its platform.
“Although our emphasis is on sexual and gendered aspects of identity, we will always view subjects as multiply-identified according to, most prominently, class, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, and ability,” the description adds.
As DePaul introduces this new course for students, professors and staff from several other universities across the country are researching and developing a new system for “detecting prejudice” on social media, in what will likely be an attempt to contribute to Big Tech censorship.
The “Sex, Gender, and Social Media” course at DePaul University will be taught by Associate Professor Allison McCracken.
McCracken received her Ph.D. in American Studies with a focus in media studies, and currently teaches courses in American popular culture and media, social media, gender and sexuality studies, LGBTQA/sex U.S. history, and American Studies methods, according to the university’s website.
The associate professor is also currently researching the television series The Voice.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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