Talking Points #7

Anita Hills is a Boy By: Peggy Orenstein

I really enjoyed this reading a lot, it was an easy read and short to the point. It takes place in Ms. Logan's classroom where she is trying not to practice equity but to teach it. Educators around the country are working to develope a gender-fair curricula. They are trying to address issues of the hidden curriculum, offering self-defense classes for girls, introducing aspects of sex ed as early as kindergarden, and develope curricula that explicitly takes on sexual harassment and is not male dominated. In Ms. Logans class, they do a project that s learning from the inside out. They begin to do research on their women, and they learn to connect to their life, and to really become the person. She teaches lessons where the boys in the class would have to act like an historic women. She began to see that girls are opt to take on either male or female roles, while boys just want to take on male roles. Girls in her class are dazzled by the reflection of the women around them, that they are studying. For the first time, it may be that the boys are the ones looking through the window, rather than all the other girls who have been doing that their whole life.
Quotes
1.)"If my class seems anxious at the beginning of a women's unit, I reassure them that women's studies is not about ruling over, its about existing with. Its important to be explicit with these reassurances right away. Feminist teaching is not about allowing a win/lose situation to develope between boys and girls."
I liked this quote a lot. It was pretty straight forward, what she is trying to teach in the classroom. All other classrooms are different from this because they don't really appreciate women as much as Ms. Logan does. They teach the regular stuff, thats all male-dominated, and its good to be different once and a while. Its really not about having the win/lose situation between boys and girls, it's just noticing that women are existing with men. They compare, and they are equal.

2.) "Give her a hand everyone! Ms Logan says, and even though shes is gesturing to a boy- who in this case who in this case would undoubtfully be ashamed to be called 'her' in front of forty peers- no one even flinches. Instead the students bursts into applause. And Nick, who has, if only for a few minutes, lived the expierience of sexually harassed women, takes his seat."
I liked how Ms. Logan did this lesson, where a boy would have to act like the women he is studying, and be put into her shoes. They didnt have to dress up or anything, but i thought it would be a cool lesson to do with a class. Ms. Logan knew he didnt feel comfortable with being a women and acting like one, and he did a very good preformance.

3.)" When boys feel like they're being forced to admire a women they try to pick one that they think behaves sort of like a man. Thats what they can best relate too."
I agree with this. I remember in middle school as well as high school that if we were in groups, the boys could never be any female part. They always have to be the male. I thought it was rediculous, but hey, thats how boys are. They feel like they'd be giving something up because boys percieve equality as a loss, which shouldnt be anymore, because we're all the same.

I found it very interesting that the boys in her classroom thought she was sexist just because she takes feminism seriously. When the girls in the class were telling about how much they liked it, they still felt bad for the boys because they felt that the boys are feeling ignored. This reading was a good one, i enjoyed it very much