Parenting and talking about sex with children [Video]

This video of comedian Julia Sweeney is sure to make students laugh: she recounts how she talked to her 8-year-old about sex for the first time and how the conversation turned in an unexpected direction!  This clip is fun to use in my sexuality class to initiate a discussion of sexuality socialization and how parents discuss sex with children.  I accompany this video with readings on sex education.

Link to video: http://www.ted.com/talks/julia_sweeney_has_the_talk#t-3644

"The Danger of A Single Story": the problem with stereotypes [Video]

In this video of novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche's lecture "The Danger of A Single Story" she beautifully discusses the potential for misunderstanding and stereotypes that arises when we only hear one story about a place or type of people.  I use the first 5 (or so) minutes of the video to spark a class discussion about the kinds of "single stories" students may have come across (or assumptions people have made about them using a "single story").  This exercise could be useful in a wide range of classes from intro, to gender/sexuality, to race/class/ethnicity, etc.

Link to video: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript?language=en#t-0

Race, Privilege, and Emojis [Video]

I really enjoy the work of Sasheer Zamata and I thought that her recent bit on weekend update captured a few things we that often teach about when we talk about race.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/726782

Zamata points makes a link between structural differences in power and opportunity (in this case the lack of racial diversity in tech companies) and the lack of black emojis. Sure, it seems trivial, but I think these examples really make students think about the invisibility of privilege in ways that connect meaningfully to their real world experiences. If a white student thinks "wow, I never thought twice about racial differences in emojis", maybe this is a stepping stone towards 'Wow, I never thought twice about racial differences in policing".

Zamata and Michael  Che make that leap in the skit-Here's to hoping our students do too.

Who "throws like a girl"? [Video]

In this video, men are asked to throw rocks with their non-dominant hand.  Inevitably, some of the men have poor throwing technique (aka "throw like girls").  I think this video is a great way to illustrate the idea that the way we use and move our bodies may signal gender, but that these behaviors are learned.  In other words, being able to throw well is not about being a man or a woman, but rather about how much practice and training one has experienced.

Link to video: http://vimeo.com/34678147http://vimeo.com/34678147


Men Throwing Rocks With The Other Hand from Juan Etchegaray on Vimeo.

Media influence on body image [Video]

In gender classes, I encourage students to think about how cultural ideals of beauty are connected to how individuals feel about their bodies.  Although we discuss medicalization and the incorporation of eating disorders and body image disturbance into the DSM, I push students to think about socio-structural causes in addition to psychological and physiological causes.  I ask students to think about what body ideals portrayed in the media and how these ideals are connected to body image.  Students have a lot to say on this topic and I find that a good entry point is this video in which teenagers discuss their bodies:

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpFBKeuKf7M&feature=related

Messages about gender, bodies, and health on magazine covers [Activity]

This activity could be used in any course about gender, media, or bodies.  Before class, I conduct a search for magazine covers online from the current year (I use a Google Image search).  I use fitness and health magazines because I pair this activity with a reading about gendered fit body ideals (a chapter from Body Panic by Dworkin and Wachs*), however, any type of magazine could be utilized.  I usually use one cover from each of the following magazines: Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Fitness, Shape, and Self.

I put each image on its own PowerPoint slide and I also print out copies to hand out to groups of students: each group should have a different magazine cover (or set of covers) that they are responsible for describing to the rest of the class.

I ask students to identity what messages are communicated about gender on the magazine covers.  Of particular interest to my class are the body-related messages, the cover model, and the similarities and differences between magazines intended for men and magazines intended for women.

Students are often amused by this activity and surprised to see what we have been learning about reflected in magazines they actually might read.  This activity also gives students a chance to show off their mastery of the material and to teach one another.

Here are a few of the magazine covers I have used:

 

 

*I use the chapter "Size Matters: Male Body Panic and the Third Wave 'Crisis of Masculinity'" from Dworkin, Shari L. and Faye Linda Wachs. 2009. Body Panic: Gender, Health, and the Selling of Fitness. New York: New York University Press.