Sut Jhally

Pornography has moved from the margins of society into the very mainstream of American culture. From Internet pornography to MTV, sexualized images of idealized women and men jump off the screen and into our lives, in the process shaping our gender identities, our body image, and our most intimate relationships. In this multimedia presentation based on her acclaimed book, leading anti-porn feminist and scholar Gail Dines argues that the dominant images...

Over the past three decades, obesity rates in the US have more than doubled for children and tripled for adolescents ́ and a startling 70% of adults are now obese or overweight. The result has been a widening epidemic of obesity-related health problems, including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes. While discussions about this spiraling health crisis have tended to focus on the need for more exercise and individual...

For years, there has been widespread speculation, but very little consensus, about the relationship between violent video games and violence in the real world. Joystick Warriors provides the clearest account yet of the latest research on this issue. Drawing on the insights of media scholars, military analysts, combat veterans, and gamers themselves, the film trains its sights on the wildly popular genre of first-person shooter games, exploring how...

In this recently discovered, newly restored video of one of Stuart Hall’s most famous lectures, Hall speaks with dazzling precision about the responsibilities of intellectuals and educators in the face of undemocratic structures of power, injustice, racism, and inequality, and lays out in the clearest possible terms a theoretical framework for dissecting and resisting authoritarian thinking without lapsing into reductive ideological simplifications....

The line between sexual consent and sexual coercion is not always as clear as it seems -- and according to Harry Brod, this is exactly why we should approach our sexual interactions with great care. Brod, a professor of philosophy and leader in the pro-feminist men's movement, offers a unique take on the problem of sexual assault, one that complicates the issue even as it clarifies the bottom-line principle that consent must always be explicitly granted,...

Social and developmental psychologist and author Lynn Phillips explores the line between consent and coercion in this thought-provoking look at popular culture and the ways real girls and women navigate their heterosexual relationships and hookups. Featuring dramatizations of interviews that Phillips conducted with hundreds of young women, the film examines how the wider culture's frequently contradictory messages about pleasure, danger, agency, and...

Recovering Bodies features college students on the subject of eating disorders. They share their stories and experiences about the wide range of pressures that can lead to disordered eating, while providing valuable personal insights into the variety of psychological and physical symptoms involved. Also features expert commentary from professionals, and provides invaluable and empowering information about successful recovery and healing strategies....

The late George Gerbner explains how the universal story-telling function of human societies has been colonized by corporate media.

Gerbner urges us to think about the psychological, political, social, and developmental consequences of growing up and living within a cultural environment of pervasive, ritualized violent images.

In this classic 1989 lecture, now available for the first time, world-renowned cultural theorist Stuart Hall traces the social, intellectual, and institutional environment from which cultural studies emerged. An invaluable introduction to the issues that inspired cultural studies as both an intellectual and political project.