If fraternities were feminist [VIDEO]

This skit is intentionally exaggerated to show what fraternities DON'T DO. And by showing this, you can chat with your students about the practices (they think or know) fraternities DO engage in.

Gender Wage Gap by Occupation

The Wall Street Journal created a pretty cool interactive graphic showing how the gender pay gap varies by profession (well the graph is cool...the phenomenon is not).

Check it out! Use this your lectures on the pay gap
http://graphics.wsj.com/gender-pay-gap/

Gender in the Movies

The website polygraph looked into the issue of gender equality and film. Here's how they describe their methods: "We Googled our way to 8,000 screenplays and matched each character’s lines to an actor. From there, we compiled the number of words spoken by male and female characters across roughly 2,000 films":  Link to the data here: http://polygraph.cool/films/


The authors use the example of Disney films (Image Below). The site also featured in interactive graph, you can look at 2,000 of the screenplays, search for a specific movie title, and look at the difference in gender dialogue breakdown by genre.

The interactive features make this a great tool to use in class. You can also push your students to discuss the quality of the methods.

Sexism and Trolls Online [Videos]

We often have conversations in class about online behavior and how it might resemble or disrupt face-to-face behavior.  Sometimes it can be difficult to bring gender into the mix because students might feel that sexism is just one example of how mean people can be online.  However, this series of videos shows that women, particularly those in mail sphere, have particular harsh critics online. You can use this videos to discuss some of the reasons why that might be.

The first video shows men reading the mean tweets that were sent to female sportswriters.



If you feel ready to take this conversation to the next level, check out the sketch by Amy Schumer. It's a bit harsh but in the sketch, news reporters explain how making a "rape and kill" button on twitter, would be efficient.  This is clearly satire that shows the extent of the problem, but is probably best used with mature groups of students only:http://www.hulu.com/watch/936394

Power and Race [Interactive Graphic]

In response to the recent critiques about racial representation in the Oscars, The NY Times recently put together a graphic showing the "Faces of American Power".  The times include powerful people in entertainment, but also looked at leaders in other fields such as business, politics, and sports.

The result is a powerful representation of just how white our power structure is. You  may even want to point out colorism--those leaders who are included as minorities are often very light-skinned. (Think Marco Rubio or Cory Booker). And finally, wile it wasn't the focus on the analysis, this visual can also show your students just how white and MALE the power structure is.


 I often display charts showing how many CEOs or Senators are white, but I think for some students, images work better than numbers can to illustrate the depth and breadth of the issue. I hope you can use this to help students see the concept of white privilege and power. Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/26/us/race-of-american-power.html?_r=0

Women and Sexual Harassment the Workplace [Video]

I'm really enjoying Samantha Bee's new TBS comedy program.   I especially appreciate the feminist viewpoint she brings to the table.

Her segment on sexual harassment in the workplace is spot on. [Sadly] But it will be a good way to break the ice on a sensitive topic before launching into questions about what really makes workplaces equal.

How Privileged Are You? [Activity]

In past years, I have used the Privilege Walk activity to demonstrate the concept of advantages.  I grew disenchanted with the activity for a few reasons. The first was that many students had done the activity and thus knew what to expect. The second was that I felt like the underprivileged students weren't surprised to be at the back, but I could sense the emotional toll that standing there was taking on some of them.   I'm all for generating a healthy level of discomfort but I felt like I was somehow using the underprivileged students' situation to create discomfort for the privileged., which wasn't the purpose.   In addition, in a series of tiny rooms that I was assigned to, this exercise was not possible. I still think the "Walk" works well in some situations, but I was able to find an alternative that accomplished the goals and generated discussions. That alternative was actually produced by Buzzfeed!so the students tend to like it.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/how-privileged-are-you#.vazaNLNnZx

This quiz asks students to answer 100 questions and generates a privilege score.  It's not scientific but it is fairly comprehensive with respect to class, gender, race, sexuality, disability, religion, etc. Instead of doing this in class, I assign the quiz as homework. I ask students to take a screen shot of their results and to write a paragraph about what they think influenced their score the most.  They turn these in at the beginning of  class.  I ask them to discuss in small groups and while they do this, I record all of the answers on a spreadsheet (anonymously),  put them in order, and show the class the range of scores. From here I launch into the discussion  just as I would when the privilege walk ended and people were lined up across the room.  In the quiz version, you actually don't know who scored what - you just know the range of scores in the room. The underprivileged students know where they fell on the scale, but at least they don't have to stand and be gawked at by the high scorers.

It also may be helpful to pair this exercise with this video in class. This video shows other people doing the privilege walk so can be useful in the overall discussion without doing the exercise in class.

PS - One thing I still need to work on here. The high scorers wind up reporting feel "blessed". It's almost if the result is "Wow! I really dodged a bullet" or "I'm lucky" rather than "Wow. Stratification is real and it has given me a leg up and so we should investigate why that is happening ". I realize part of this is where they are in life, how often they have received these messages but still....

Football & Rape Culture [Video]

Amy Schumer is one of my favorite people in comedy right now. In this sketch, she uses satire to show the connections between playing football and rape culture.  I showed this video last week and the students found it humorous. More importantly, this really opened up our conversation on this topic.  In addition to the clear linkages between football and hyper masculinity,  the students also pointed out a number of other things:

• The players ask their coach a lot of questions.  This shows that boys and men aren't often taught what rape actually IS.  Most girls women have been taught how NOT to be victims, but boys and men don't discuss how NOT to be rapists.
• The coach's status and power are question when he tries to introduce new rules that don't line up with ideas about hegemonic masculinity. 
• The community plays a  role in upholding a certain way of thinking about football and football players.

Brutally Honest NFL Promo [Video]

Thanks to Funny or Die for putting together a video that sharply contrasts our the idealized notion of football versus the reality of scandals and issues that have plagued the NFL.

In many ways, this is just a more extreme, and honest, version of the regular promotions that show hard hits and advertise violence. I plan to use this video to discuss how ideologies are often undermined by evidence, yet still persist in our collective discourses.

"The Real Stuff White People Like" Talking About Race, Ethnicity, & Relationships [Interactive Data]

Today in class, my students and I were talking about race, ethnicity, friendships, and dating.  Our discussion centered on how cultural norms in different communities could influence people's likes and dislikes. Because we look for friends and romantic partners who share out interests, these likes and dislikes can affect who we choose to form relationships with it.

In order to get the students involved in talking about this without feeling like they were stereotyping people, I showed them some data collected by the fine folks at OKCupid.  The OKCupid staff looked at unique words and phrases used in the dating profiles of their site users and created interactive graphics showing the results.

The students got a kick out of this activity and it definitely broke the ice. After I showed them these examples, we had some great conversations about we find friends and dating partners and how/why these things matter to their lives.

Link to the site: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-real-stuff-white-people-like/

Intersectional Feminism Using Food Metaphor [Video]

In this video, writer and comedian Akilah Hughes uses the metaphor of pizza to explain intersectionality.  In brief, it goes something like this: in a world made for Burgers, Cheese Pizza is trying to argue that it deserves the same rights as Burgers.  In that struggle, what is a Pizza with toppings other than cheese supposed to do?

It's not a perfect metaphor, but I think it's a way to help students start thinking about intersectionality.

Link to video: http://feministing.com/2015/04/13/intersectional-feminism-brought-to-you-by-pizza/

A call to redefine what we value as masculine [Video]

I believe that it is important for students to examine how cultural constructions of gender are relational: not only is masculinity defined in relation to femininity, but masculinities are also defined in relation to one another.  I aim for students to be able to identify how constructions of gender, especially hegemonic masculinity, can be restrictive and can affect not only men's interactions with women, but also their interactions with other men and their self-identities.

This video calls for us to value characteristics of masculinity (that the creators see as) opposed to the current construction of hegemonic masculinity.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj7Zw4P8LPo

Map of Social Inequality using Human Development Indicators [Interactive Graphic]

How does the United States rank on measures of health, education, gender inequality, poverty, and other human development indicators in comparison to other countries around the world?  Use this interactive map and data from the United Nations Development Programme to help students get a better grasp on the “big picture” of social inequalities.

Link: http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/map

Socialization and Gendered Violence [Video]

A recent video called "Slap Her" went viral.  In this  video, children watch and react to the viral video and then later answer questions.

It can be hard to start a discussion about gendered violence but watching these children might get the conversation going in your classroom.  Because "Slap Her" shows boys refusing to hit a girl, the interviewer addresses issues of "being a man" and violence but he also asks the kids about reversing the situation. What if a girl were asked to hit a boy? I think the video also shows how strong socialization is - these young children have internalized norms about what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a man, and how that relates to violence. The kids do have a strong message.  "Don't Slap Anybody" and "If you hit people, you are dumb".

Gender and Teaching Evaluations [Interactive Graphic]

As sociologists, we know that people are evaluated differently based on their gender, but it can be hard for students to visualize this out of context.  This tool allows them to visualize gender and evaluations in a very relevant way: through professor ratings. Ben Schmidt looked at the evaluative words used in Rate My Professor reviews and compiled the results in this series of interactive charts. 

You can search for any word. The resulting graph will show you the difference between male and female professors in a variety of disciplines.    You can see one example above.  According to evaluations, men are funnier than women are more likely to be labeled as "genuises". Males are also more likely to be rated as intelligent and smart (though the gaps are smaller). . Males were also more likely to be "weird" in every discipline other than Physics.  Females were always more likely than males to be rated as  "nice" and to be rated as "mean".

  

Thanks to Dr. Schmidt, assistant history professor at Northeastern University, for putting together this data visualization.
Link: http://benschmidt.org/profGender/#

Accountability and doing gender while being a police man [Video]

This in-car camera footage ("Dash Cam Confessionals") of a Dover police officer captures him singing (and dancing) along to the Taylor Swift song "Shake It Off." Students find this 4 minute video clip helps them understand "doing gender" and how we are accountable for our gender performances. Have your students watch (and probably laugh) as this policeman changes from enthusiastic sing-along exuberance to "cool and collected" greeting-behavior when he drives by other people.

Video link: http://youtu.be/8XFBUM8dMqw

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

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.