Sunday, October 28, 2007
Discusssion Prompt 2
How did gender influence the positioning strategies and developing predispositions enacted by the girls and women described by, Blair, Smith, DeBlase, and Wason-Ellam? What are some of the ways in which they took up particular gendered positions without really thinking about them? How were their gendered understandings, positionings, and practices linked to particular texts and literacy practices? How did the instructional practices (or how would the suggestions for instructional practices) shape or reshape the students' "practiced identities" in relation to gender?
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6 comments:
In the article "If only I was like Barbie," the girls focused on how a girl looked and how she dressed while reading storybooks. They were asked why a character in a book was considered a heroin and all of their responsed had to do with the appearance of the character. They also related the characters in their books to the media in their lives. They related the characters to tv shows, movies, and toys that surrounded them on a daily basis. The researcher suggests that educators facilitate girls responses by helping them to unravel their thoughts and articulate what kind of sense they were making of the characters in their shows and media. In the example the article describes with comparing a storybook character to a soap star, the student was able to look past the appearance of the character in the book and relate her to her favorite soap star. I think this response could be very helpful in helping students get past the looks and dress of people. I was very shocked by the different comments that were made my students in this article. I have always realized that many girls focus on the looks, shapes, and clothes of others to judge their character, however, after reading this article I now feel like this may be worse than I had thought. I was amazed that these girls interpreted the stories to make them fit the already established ideas of what an appropriate behavior of females was. I definately think that it is important to read books in your classroom that represent females differently than our society has shaped the "expected female to be."
Darcie, I agree. I was shocked by many of them as well. Although when you really think about all the messages that are on TV and in the magazines, I guess there's no reason why we should be suprised. What bothers me is the fact that these messages are being soaked up and internalized by children at such a young age when development is critical and they are very impressionable. How difficult will it be to deconstruct these gender role regime's of truth? Is it even possible to do in some cases?
I agree with both of you. I also read the "If only I was like Barbie" article and I too was shocked by some of the things these girls said. Most girls gossip and talk about clothes, etc., but I was amazed by how much these girls base on appearance. The article showed a web of a question asked to the class about the character in a story and some responses that were made. All of these responses had to do with how the character looked. She was not very pretty. In the end she became pretty. When did our society become so consumed with how pretty a person is or how skinny they are? I do not remember ideas being shaped around a characters looks when I was in school. Now, children are so influenced by MTV and how a girl is supposed to look. I liked how the researcher took that the girl was interested in soap operas and had her relate the character in the story to a character on the show. I guess this is something we as teachers will have to do more often to get students past the idea of appearances.
Actually Shannon, to disagree with you a bit I'm not shocked at all by the comments I read in the, "if only I was like Barbie," article that as Nodelman (1996) states, "they come to literary texts already immersed in the world as represented by toys, TV shows, and movies..." By the time the students reach us as teachers, they have already been exposed to the gender biases that are so common in today's society. So for the students to make these type of comments, especially as seven and eight year olds, although it rasies awareness, it just reiterates the fact that the gender roles are so ingrained into these children's mind. It definitly sets off alarms as teacher because we know that no one can stop these gender biases but us!
I didn't read this article, but I definitely agree with all of you and to go along with what Mallory was saying, we as teachers definitely have a chance to save the world and stop gender biases, but then again, how much can we really do? Sometimes it's too late depending on what grade you teach and if no one has done anything to go against these biases. I mean look at the poor little girls who are forced into cheerleading and beauty pageants at such a young age. I know that's extreme but many girls have some sort of situation like this and I feel like many of them (unless they rebel) will be stuck in that mindset no matter what they are taught. This doesn't mean I don't think teachers should do anything and everything to alleviate these biases and I most certainly am going to do the best I can, but I feel that we also have to realize that we can only do so much.
Mallory, I completely agree with you. Our students all come to us with previous knowledge and experiences. They come with an idea of how the world is and often fall into believing these ideas of what a girl/woman should be. It's kind of sad when you actually stop and think about it. I agree with Darcie, when she says that we should work to portray women differently than society has shaped them. Teaching provides this opportunity. There are many chances that we have to have our students see men and women in many different lights. We want to show them that a woman can work as a firefighter when most students see all firefighters as men. We want to introduce to what could be and while it may be hard to change what they already preceive, we can certainly work to change their misconceptions.
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