Everyday Sexism

In the recent past, I've discovered a Twitter feed with the handle, "@EverydaySexism."  The feed

is fascinating for me as a male because I had no idea the kind of inappropriate and crappy behavior women have had to deal with.

I recommend checking out the sites and sharing responses with your students to get their interpretations.  Perhaps a pre-brief may be necessary as some of the content is quite graphic and the ideas may help long-held-in frustrations boil to the surface in class.  Still very worthwhile.

http://www.everydaysexism.com/

https://twitter.com/EverydaySexism

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/everyday%20sexism

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/everyday-sexism

http://www.policymic.com/articles/37157/everyday-sexism-project-launches-in-usa-to-give-women-a-voice

When it comes to giving young women a voice, we as sociology teachers must assist.  We also have an obligation to guide our young men into appropriate behavior.


The Teaching High School Sociology web site

Culture, Media and Photography of Athletes

I ran across this article while reading some others on Slate.com.  The title got me:  "What if every Olympic sport was photographed like beach volleyball?"  I knew exactly what they were referring to--the obsession to objectify and de-head the photos of the players and focus on particular body parts.  Granted, the uniforms for beach volleyball are already tiny bikinis for the females and board shorts for me, but check out this article and see the examples of how men would be photographed in the same style.
http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/international/article/1148979

You could use this in a gender and media unit or in the culture unit.  Great examples.  I'll let the reader check out the link rather than posting them here--I would rather make this high school classroom friendly without some contextualizing.

The Teaching High School Sociology web site