[Remember, you absolutely don’t need to answer all these three questions–likely you couldn’t do so in the one page limit! Pick the angle that most interests you, and run with it. You might even choose to focus only on a sub-question–focus in as you see fit.]

1) How does 30 Rock construct/represent masculinity and femininity? Does it uphold traditional gender roles, or does it challenge them, or does it do both? Do you feel issues of race and class inform the series’ representation of gender and sexuality, and if so, how do those intersections play out?

2) Likewise, with Damages, how does Damages represent the experience of professional women in the workplace? What notions of femininity (and masculinity) does it depend on or transform? How are men represented in this series that takes, as its premise, a focus on the experiences of professional women?

3) Compare 30 Rock‘s representation of the professional women (and the experiences of professional women) with Damages? Do you see continuities in the series’ representation of Liz Lemon, Patty Hewes, and Ellen Parsons? How about in the two series’ representations of masculinity?

[If you want to ask questions of the questions, or brainstorm answers with each other, feel free to do so in the comments to this post.]