We kicked off Week 2 with a highly engaging post from Bill on the Good Lad Initiative. For those unfamiliar with this, it highlights ‘positive masculinity’ and the way in which men and boys talk about women. This is in direct relation to the recent debates around Donald Trump’s verbal treatment of women and his perceived (though hotly denied!) misogyny. Bill also kindly reposted his eLesson Inspiration on ‘sexual harassment at school’.
While on the subject of politics Jules posted a link to the Women’s Equality Party that was recently founded in the UK. On enquiring as to the possibility of other countries having something similar, Bill provided a link to the Peace and Freedom Party in California which has a lot in common (in terms of outlook and policies) with the WEP. What this seems to say is that many people are fed up with the old style of politics and are looking for something new – a party that is against sexism, discrimination and oppression based on class, race, age or physical disability.
Linda shared a great warmer she likes to do which cleverly initiated discussion on the sexism issues that the Trump/Clinton debates have started. She asked her Upper Intermediate ESOL class in groups to predict 4 news stories that they think will be on the front page. The groups share the stories they predict. Linda then projects the BBC online front page to check and groups get a point each for every story they predict that’s there. Good fun and motivating too!
Bill was very active and posted a number of interesting links related to sexist language, technology and sexting, the experiences of feminists in university and the observation of the Day of the Girl on October 11th .
So, another good week with lots to get us thinking about. The topics were wide ranging and included everything from girls in school, women in higher education, the politics of language and the language of politics! Thanks to all of your for your contributions.
We’re all looking forward to this week and to see what areas of interest relating to gender issues will grab your attention. Keep those posts coming!
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