Yesterday I listened to one of the CLIP podcasts entitled Pokemon & Popular Culture. One of the topics Vivian discussed with the young students was color representations and gender roles within the Pokemon characters. The students’ initial reaction was to describe the “boy” (although Pokemons are apparently genderless) characters in blue and green and the “girl” characters in purple, and pink. As I stated in my comment, my students still fall victim to gender roles that seem so antiquated. I was shocked at a conversation that some of my seniors had one day in class.
A class of 8, I see my AP biology students are falling victim to “senioritis” and keeping them on track towards the AP exam is often a daunting task. However, one thing that grabs their attention is talking about their plans for next year, all are college bound, and their goals for their careers. Of the 8 students, 3 are male 5 female and because this is AP biology, future goals are mostly involved with healthcare. All three male students want to be doctors. 3 of the female students want to be nurses. 1 female student wants to be a doctor, and the final student wants to go into advertising.
One day in class, I was teaching some AP test taking strategies. A particularly outspoken student asked me:
“Why do we need to know how to take standardized tests? I do ok on them. Then after this we never need to take standardized tests again.”
In response, I asked the students their future plans, and the above responses are what I heard. I had hoped to make a connection between their plans, and the numerous standardized tests they would have to take to get there. My AP strategies would help them on the MCAT, GRE, NCLEX, or anything else the future may hold, and I had hoped to relay that with this discussion. However, the discussion turned to why the female student would want to be a doctor.
The various cons that the female students came up with included:
she would never get married
she would not be able to have a family
she would potentially make more money than a man
and finally, the future nurses came to the census that women should be nurses and not doctors. I tried to reason with these girls, and even the boys in the class did as well, but nothing would dispel their view. I realize that nursing is a very noble profession, and those young ladies will be great nurses, but the idea in their brain that women should not be doctors was disturbing.
This was over a month ago, and I still am no closer to convincing them otherwise. I hope that something could dispel this gender role that these girls hold onto. Even the boys in the class were more progressive. It is horrible to see this notion extend from the pink v blue argument, to professions. Maybe I can convince them otherwise, but part of me thinks it may be helpless.
4 comments:
Wow- thanks for sharing the incident from your class. I think it is such a good illustration of how hard it is to unlearn particular discursive practices. By the time these kids hit highschool they've been bombarded with so many 'myths' regarding what they can and cant' be, what they can and can't do that is becomes more and more binding unless we ask the sorts of questions that participants from this course are asking.
It's scary because one can already imagine a cycle that could be ongoing unless it is disrupted in some way. Recognizing the issues is a way to begin to do this disrupting work...next steps?
Thanks
vivian
i thank god my brother is not an educator. when he meets people that aren't as liberal or free-thinking as he (claims to be) is, his solution is to say "who cares? they're going to die before i do." he's got a small point. in a parallel situation concerning gender/orientation roles, i remember my mom dukes telling me that people were starting to think that spongebob squarepants and one of the teletubby crew were gay (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E4DB173BF933A05752C0A9639C8B63). yes, most of those commenting on the issue were older and probably will die before me. i can only guess at other people's thoughts, but would guess that using a rather strong belief in stereotypes, some people are willing to extend them even to cartoons characters that have no intimate relationships or genitalia. stranger things have happened.
my brother's asinine solutions only apply to older generations. achievers, your blog shows that my brother's belief in the stereotype that only the older generation thinks non-progressively, is wrong. your students were so close to figuring it all out. it's not the fact that female students wanted to be nurses, it's the fact that they felt that the career was the rightful, glass ceiling in their healthcare careers and had bought into old ideas on gender in the workforce. knowing all the options available before drawing conclusions is being objective and critical.
the real question that i wondered while digesting your post was what did the girls think were the most influencing factors in the decision to view nursing as the be all and end all for women in healthcare?ff
I have a student in my class, a male, who wants to be a nurse. He struggles in science, not due to a lack of effort but he does not practice any homework as often as he should. Funny thing, he makes comments that degrade women and every female that come in contact with him in my presence seems to spew venom when they leave. When I ask thim why he seems to evoke such responses, he said I didn't do anything. He can't seem to control some of his responses. I wonder as a male nurses what kinds of issues which he uncover if he keeps this trend being a male in a female-dominated field, with a mouth that seems to make nearby female spew venom.
It is really interesting that so many of the female students in your class have such strict definitions of their gender roles while the males have much more progressive views than the females do. But even in college many gender stereotypes do come true, i have had many classes that are considered less masculine that have had no male students in it which just goes to show that even though the times have changed a lot of people still havent.
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