I found myself comparing the way that I cover stereotypes and gender in my college human sexuality 101 classroom to the article Girls, Worms and Body Image by Kate Lyman. Her approach and experience as a second and third grade teacher were in fact very similar to mine and we use a few of the same activities, despite the age differences of our students. I was entertained by her idea of bringing back an old fashion day to experience gender discrimination first hand. Although I really enjoyed the idea of the lessons that could come out of an opportunity like dressing up and acting out a time in history- it did made me wonder about whether we are still stuck in thinking about these ideas of gender in an old fashion way. When I think of all the ways gender discrimination still shows up, I feel we still have a long way to go with gender issues and don't want to confuse students into thinking it was an issue of the past. Including a debriefing question, like what does current day discrimination look like, would be important.
Kate Lyman did something I did early on in my career which was separating students by gender and saying "lets talk about facts about boys/men" and "Facts about girls/women" and have them brainstorm in groups about the opposite gender. I haven't done this in several years because I feel grouping students based off of gender is a bad idea. By putting students into groups based of gender, it reinforces the gender binary, which could especially be problematic if someone's identifies different from the group or gender assigned to them or if they are non binary and don't identify as either gender. I have adapted this activity over the years to be more inclusive of non binary folks, so I now frame the discussion around assumptions we make about someone assigned male/female at birth. Despite the age differences our students responded the same to the similar question and their perceptions of gender look identical and come from similar media messages. I also include in my version an all/both/everyone- and ask my students how many of their responses may be experienced by everyone and ask them why they think we still hold onto "either this or that "perspectives? I ask my adult students probing questions as they are doing their brainstorm like who has the expectation to drive, pay on a date and/ or ask someone on date? Obviously these questions would not be appropriate to ask second and third graders but with my college students I can eventually get to a place of conversation around equality. Sometimes teaching happens in funny ways. I love that her story includes a rainstorm where a bunch of worms come up and she uses it as an opportunity to put the girls in charge of collecting the worms and breaking the stereotypes that dirt is for boys. Sometimes learning happens when we least expect it. I loved this example of how we can shift attitudes and beliefs.
I really enjoyed that Lyman used story "X" to guide a discussion about gender in the classroom. I thought this was a great way to incorporate the topic into the curriculum. I found it interesting when she had them look around at each others clothes to see that most of them are unisex. I often point out that we gender everything from backpacks and lunch boxes to razors and socks. Many products that are similar pay a higher tax because they are marketed towards girls/women. This is known as the pink tax.
Kate Lyman also does another similar activity that I also do with my students around analyzing media. She and I both bring in barbies and ask our students to tell us what they see. I review the dimensions of what barbie would look like in real life (shown in picture) and how she would topple over because her body dimensions would be disproportionate to her body figure. take it a step further and look at the marketing of toy packaging including what gender role might be displayed. We also both give our students the opportunity to show us examples of where they find sexualized, gender stereotypes in ads they see. My students often make comments about not even knowing what products some ads are actually advertising for.
I reflected on the idea that she was doing similar activities with her second graders. Is it a topic too complex for a second grader or too simple for a college student? I think neither. I think it is important to start young with teaching media literacy (and safety) at a young age and continue to have these conversations as young people grow up. I hope that we can shift the idea of binary ways of thinking and start to expand this idea outside the classroom and into businesses. Students of all ages realize the discrimination is happening and hopefully the work we do in the classroom can prepare them to look critically at advertisements and media from a more inclusive lens as they enter into adulthood. We want young people to see more representation of themselves in the media and not unrealistic false expectations shown through a filtered lens that is unattainable.
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