1. Describe an example of a cultural encounter that you have experienced in your own life and discuss the ways in which it may have expanded or challenged your own ideas about cultural norms, values, symbols, and mental maps of reality. Conclude by discussing what you might have learned about culture from that encounter.
2. Discuss three examples of how changing cultural “norms” have been reflected in changing clothing styles/practices. Use at least two different course materials in your answer (including films, articles, textbook chapters).
3. In the article “Do Muslim Women Need Saving,” what does Abu-Lughod mean when she calls the burqa a liberating invention? Why does she compare them to mobile homes?
4. What do the travels of a t-shirt (from production to consumption to disposal) tell us about the key characteristics of the global economic system?
5. What did the “Zoot Suit” represent for young Mexican-Americans in California in the 1940s? Why was it so controversial, and what other kinds of fashion can be thought of in similar ways? Why?
6. Using examples from at least two different course materials (including films, articles, textbook chapters), discuss how clothing and fashion can be used as forms of both oppression and resistance or even liberation.
7. What does it mean to say that gender is “socially constructed” and what role can clothing/fashion play in this process? Use examples from at least two different course materials in your answer (including films, articles, textbook chapters).