Do any of you want to taste success like Beyonce or Miley Cyrus? Then head to the Rutgers University or Skidmore College as they are introducing courses inspired by these two pop princesses, starting this summer.
The women and gender studies course, "Feminist Perspectives: Politicizing Beyoncé" starting Wednesday at Rutgers, will examine the growth of Queen Bey's media empire and her success as a pop icon. Beyonce's ability to successfully manage her roles as a black icon, sex symbol, musician, mother and wife will also be studied. The officials believe that a powerful woman like Beyoncé is an ideal example of modern feminist.
"She's the most powerful black woman in entertainment and pop culture," said Kevin Allred, the doctoral student who's teaching the class, to NY Daily News. "She's gotten more confrontational and more explicit when she's talking about beauty and gender. Her music has always had strong implications for what it means to be a beautiful and strong woman today."
On the other hand, the sociology class based on Miley Cyrus - titled "The sociology of Miley Cyrus" - will be offered at the Skidmore College in upstate New York - starting Tuesday. The crash course will allow students to closely examine the history of a celebrity of their age and study the star's transition from an innocent Disney star to a sexual diva in less than a decade.
Lecturer Carolyn Chernoff said that Cyrus is "a useful primary document" on discussions of sex and power in media. Cyrus gained instant popularity with her slut shaming, overt sexuality and twerking at last year's Video Music Awards.
"She's a really a very interesting case study for how someone can represent sex and gender while maturing in the public eye," said Chernoff, a visiting assistant professor at Skidmore. "Miley is a work in progress, but you can already see such a complex narrative of how people talk about her unbridled sexuality."
This is not the first time American Universities have introduced courses on celebrities. Georgetown University offered a sociology seminar on Jay Z, while the University of South Carolina studied Lady Gaga as part of a discussion.
