Final

Despite have racked my brain since the announcement of a final project (i.e. the first day of class), I’m still not sure what I want to do for my project. To be completely honest, I’m still not quite sure of the parameters for the project (though I have read the blurb in the syllabus).

One of my ideas was studying LGBT teens in graphic novels to see if they embody any of the discourses discussed by Raby; but I’m not sure if that will yield any results. I would mostly be using a convenience sample of the books I have: Young Avengers, Runaways, Avengers Academy, any of my Teen Titans comics, and anything else I could scrounge up. I do have a bit of an aversion to convenience samples because they’re not particularly scientific; however, if I’m only trying to demonstrate what I’ve learned in the course, it could be feasible.

In a similar vein, I was considering choosing a text that deals with teens to look for messages (in regard to Croteau and Christensen’s talk of socialization and messages in the media). I’m leaning more toward this. The texts I was pondering include: Princeless (which deals more with gender and race in comics than teenage-hood, though the protagonist is a teen), Teen Wolf (don’t laugh, but I could examine it partially with Raby’s discourses, or look at it in terms of heteronormativity- or, in many instances in the show, lack thereof), or an animated superhero show (one that deals with teens, like Static Shock, Teen Titans, or Young Justice, to look at the messages they purport both about teens and to their audience of viewers). Heck, even looking into children’s television in general interests me and would be enjoyable to study.

In terms of resources, I own all of the comics listed, though my local library could also be a resource if I expanded my sample; he entirety of Teen Wolf is available through Netflix and the MTV website; all of the episodes of Static Shock are on Youtube; and I’m a master of finding programs online, so I have no doubt I could find Teen Titans, Young Justice, or any other show, if need be.