This course gives students an opportunity to explore and analyze current issues regarding women and gender as they appear in the news and popular media every day. The goal is to bring an analytical eye to the presentation of these issues, the images of women and men, and the accompanying assumptions about roles and biology. The issues discussed will be far ranging and determined in part by what shows up in the media during the semester. What the issues have in common is not their topic but rather their topicality. The purpose of this course is to make the connections between current events and developments in mass media and popular culture to larger, more theoretical discussions of gender and biology, and the interplay of the two. As this course will consist primarily of discussion, rather than lecture, each student will be provided the opportunity to shape the direction of the course. Further, as the assigned texts for the course are written for a general audience, students will use their skills at critical analysis, in conjunction with a close monitoring of the news, to rigorously examine contemporary gender issues.