Valentine’s Day and The Laramie Project

The Laramie Project

Image via Wikipedia

I have written before about The Laramie Project.  Please take a few seconds to read that post – especially the comments – before reading this one.

This Valentine’s Day, I was fortunate enough to see a former student in a production of The Laramie Project.  It was, quite honestly, one of the most wonderful moments of my life.  As a teacher, you always know that you’re doing important and meaningful things, but it is not often that you get to see just how important and meaningful these events really were.

I was accompanied to this show by Tim, who had never seen the play even after as much as I talked about it, and another former student, Mike, who was also cast in our production of the play before it was canceled.  We were able to have a late lunch with Mike and Collin (the student who was in this production of the play) and we reminisced a bit about the show and about what it meant to them to hear that it was canceled.  I knew it upset them, but I don’t know if I ever knew the extent to which it upset them.  And I don’t think I let on to them how much it upset me.

When the show was canceled, that night and for about three days afterward, I had to sleep on my couch with the TV on so I would have something to concentrate on besides the thoughts running through my head.  I was so sad and felt so helpless.  Here I was, trying to make a difference in these students’ lives, and instead I had just opened them up to the heartbreak and rejection they must have felt.  I felt responsible for it, because I was the one that brought up the idea of this production, knowing full well it may be canceled at any time.

And the worst part about it?  I did nothing.  I didn’t fight the decision.  I tried to tell myself that I couldn’t fight it for a few reasons: 1) I promised those kids a play, and they had seen enough productions canceled during their high school years for one reason or another, so I had an obligation to put on the show.  I asked the students if they wanted to drop out after it was canceled, and none of them did, so we found a new play and moved forward.  2) Quite frankly, I needed the stipend I received for the drama program.  3) I knew I was leaving the school at the end of that year (although the kids did not know that until much later) and, as a second year, non-tenured teacher looking for a new job, I didn’t want to burn any bridges by causing a big stink about it.  But I feel guilty about that a lot.  Here I am, touting myself as an activist, and what did I do?  Nothing.  I pushed forward and did the best I could with my time left at the school, but said nothing about the show until much later.

It didn’t even make any sense that they canceled the play in the first place, and I could have fought it, and fought it well.  The play isn’t really about a gay man; that is simply the backdrop for the event of the murder.  Even Matthew Shepard’s murder is just a backdrop for the townspeople’s feelings.  To quote Mike from yesterday: “The play isn’t even about being gay!  It is about how it’s not OK to beat the [crap] out of someone and leave them alone to die.”  And it really is about that.  About how it’s not OK to hate, and how hate this severe is often ignored until it manifests itself in a violent way like this, and what that hate and its violent manifestation can do to an entire town, an entire nation.  An entire world.  The backdrop to this play could have just as easily been any violent tragedy spurred on by hate.

And, most importantly, the play ends with hope – something on which we must focus if we are going to see any changes made.  Just before the end of the play, Dennis Shepard gives a statement at the trial of Aaron McKinney, saying he will not seek the death penalty in this case, and describing to the audience that Matthew was not alone out there.  He had the beautiful Wyoming countryside and the stars and the moon and the beautiful night sky and the wind and God.

In the face of this terrible tragedy, we see hope.  And, as I saw Collin deliver the last lines of this play, I thought: Maybe in the face of what must have been a tragedy for these students is hope, too.  Maybe they will see changes in their lifetime, and maybe they will be agents of those changes because of their experiences.  And maybe this time, I can help them.

I certainly hope so.

From the program

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16
Feb
2010

Female Teachers and Female Students’ Math Anxiety, Part 2

Recently, I posted some thoughts here and at Equality 101 about a study regarding female teachers passing their anxiety toward math to their female students, and my thoughts were met with some dispute, both by Veronica at Girl w/Pen! and in the comments of my post. Makomk in the comments of my post and Veronica both point out that the number of male teachers is so low compared to the number of female teachers that, from a researcher's perspective, it doesn't really matter if there weren't any male teachers. I can't refute this; the majority of our young female students are being taught by female teachers. In fact, I had thought of that the first time I saw the study, but thought it important to highlight the fact that there were no male teachers included, even though male grade school teachers do exist. While I maintain that it would be interesting to see if male teachers pass on subject anxiety to their male students, I will concede that, for the purposes of this particular study, it is unimportant.
However, I still have a few problems with the research itself, and the tone of the article. Let's start with the research.
Between the three of the articles cited in my last post (Chicago Public Radio, Yahoo News, and the LA Times), the numbers don't add up. I could not listen to the article, but in the written summary, CPR cites 17 teachers were studied, but does not disclose the number of students. The Yahoo News article cites 17 teachers along with 52 boys and 65 girls. The LA Times article cites 7 teachers and 117 students, but does not differentiate between boys and girls.
I suppose this is a lesson in checking multiple sources to get the full picture. Was it 7 teachers or 17? Both are impossibly small samples compared to the number of grade school teachers out there, and are restricted to one region of the country – the Midwest. How do we know if this is a national or regional issue? I'd venture to say that most teachers who are educated in the Midwest stay in the Midwest to teach. I know this was the case with my teacher ed program. (This is not to say that teachers are “homebodies” or anything like that, but since each state has its own certification requirements, it is often difficult to move between states.) Perhaps the problem, then, is with Midwestern teacher ed programs.
The number of students could also show a source of bias. If we are, indeed, talking about the larger sample of 17 teachers, this puts approximately 7 students per teacher in the study. If we are talking about the smaller sample of 7 teachers, this puts approximately 17 students per teacher. I don't know about you, but I have very rarely experienced class sizes like these. As a researcher myself, I know that researchers must provide informed consent to the parents or guardians of any minors in a study, and that the parents or guardians have every right not to allow their child to be included in a study. Perhaps, then, this low number of student-participants is because only parents who were actually concerned about their students' level of math anxiety agreed to have their children participate. Who knows, then, if the parents talked about math more at home, then, because they were made aware of the possibility of math anxiety by simply reading and signing the consent forms. I know that's a stretch, but it isn't out of the realm of possibility.
Regardless, I do think this study could have benefitted from a larger sample of teachers and students, more representative of a real, full classroom, and in several different regions across the nation.
Research aside, I still think the tone of these articles – maybe not the full study, I have not seen it printed in full yet – paint women in a bad light. First, why did these researchers decide to refer to this problem as “math anxiety?” This hearkens back to the 1950's and earlier when women were wrongly institutionalized for “hysteria” and “anxiety.” Why not call it “discomfort” or “a lack of confidence in their math skills?” What would it be called if male teachers were being studied? I bet it wouldn't be called anxiety.
Also, that the Yahoo News article goes on to quote Janet S. Hyde, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – not an author of the study – as saying:

“[Math anxiety] keeps girls and women out of a lot of careers, particularly high-prestige, lucrative careers in science and technology,” she said.

This just screams “It is the fault of women as a gender that they do not get high-prestige, high paying jobs.” Clearly, according to this article, we should not be blaming the glass ceiling or gender discrimination in the work place for being unable to get these jobs; it is our own fault, because we “make it acceptable” (quoted from the LA Times article) for women teachers to hate math and pass that on to their female students. While I do agree that this is a vicious cycle that needs to be stopped, and, yes, a fear of math may keep women out of math-related fields, it seems that this study allows us to imply things about women and math that excuse the rest of the problems in the system.
But what do I know? I'm just an English teacher. :)

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10
Feb
2010

Thoughts on “The Politics of Correction”

This is just a little taste of my new post on Equality 101.

“How can I help kids gain fluency in Standard English – the language of power – without obliterating the home language which is a source of pride and personal voice?” – Linda Christensen

For a recent school improvement day, the English staff at my school was asked to read “The Politics of Correction: How We Can Nurture Students in Their Writing and Help Them Learn the Language of Power” by Linda Christensen.  Now, I have read many, many articles about African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and English Language Learners and English Only legislation.  I’ve read many, many articles about how students who have grown up learning Standard English – predominantly students who are white and/or middle-to-upper class – have an unfair advantage over students learning other vernaculars when it comes to taking state tests and other state standards.  So much of these articles, however, were simply theory, and finally, after reading this article, I felt someone had finally written about what we, as teachers, can do to help these students.

Personally, with the way the state standards are at this time, I believe that there has to be a way to help students learn how to code switch – talk and write in their own vernacular with friends and family, but talk and write in Standard English when appropriate.  In her article, Christensen posits a few solutions to this issue that made sense to me.  She begins by discussing students she sees every day who are “handcuffed” by their inability to use Standard English – the language of power.  She fears they will leave school and be afraid to speak up in public meetings or write letters of outrage over policies because they “talk wrong.”  In this way, she justifies teaching her students Standard English; it is not just because of the state tests that they need to learn this vernacular, but because of future instances in which they may need to be able to use Standard English.

So how do we effectively help students feel comfortable about their writing and proud of their heritages while teaching them the “language of power?” …

Want to read more? (You know you do!) Click here!

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03
Feb
2010

Female Students, Female Teachers, and Math Anxiety – Oh My!

This is a cross-post from Equality 101.

This study has shown up in many places this week, and it bothered me quite a bit.  When I first saw it on City Room (the first link provided here), I was angry.  The study touts that female students learn math anxiety from their female teachers, but no male teachers were studied.  The research here included only female teachers, and examined how female students reacted to the teachers’ math anxiety versus how male students reacted to the teachers’ math anxiety.  What the study really found was that female students were more receptive to female teachers’ math anxiety than male students were.  What the study said was that it is clearly the female teachers’ fault that their female students hate math.

From the Yahoo article:

Little girls may learn to fear math from the women who are their earliest teachers. Despite gains in recent years, women still trail men in some areas of math achievement, and the question of why has provoked controversy. Now, a study of first- and second-graders suggests what may be part of the answer: Female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach.

From the L.A. Times article:

Girls have long embraced the stereotype that they’re not supposed to be good at math. It seems they may be getting the idea from a surprising source — their female elementary school teachers.

The sentiment is clear: those poor little girls, being subjected to math anxiety from those awful women teachers who hate math.  (Please note my sarcasm)  But could the girls’ math anxiety be passed on from their male teachers as well?  We won’t know from this article, because no male teachers were part of the study.

Please don’t get me wrong: I believe we, as a teaching community, need to find out why fewer women end up in math and science related fields.  I also believe that this study does show us some interesting data about female teachers and their female students.  But I also believe we cannot blame female teachers for this whole problem, and in order to figure out what really changes girls’ attitudes toward math and science, we need to conduct a study that is fair to the teachers and the students, and that requires a study that includes teachers and students of all genders.

And, in the interest of opposing viewpoints, check out this article, which says that there are actually very few gender differences in math ability worldwide.

How do you feel about this study and these articles?  Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

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27
Jan
2010

The Laramie Project

The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project out in New York is one of my all-time favorite plays.  And seeing as I was the drama director at my old school, that’s saying quite a lot; I read A LOT of plays in my time there, but Laramie is one that definitely stood out.
If you haven’t read it, you should.  Now.  It’s a quick read; you could probably finish it in an hour.  Or go rent it!  HBO teamed up with the Tectonic Theater Project a little while ago to make a screen version of the play, and it is phenomenal, too.
A little bit about Laramie for those of you who haven’t read or seen it (from a paper I wrote about it last year):

On October 6, 1998, a young man was found tied to a fence in the Wyoming countryside. He had been beaten within inches of his life and left there to die, all because he was gay. Matthew Shepard was still breathing when he was found the next morning, and remained on life support until he died on October 12, 1998. The unusual, pristine nature of the crime scene lead to the quick arrests of Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, who eventually pled guilty to the crime, citing “gay panic,” or temporary insanity caused by a fear of sexual advances from a gay person, as their defense.

The murder and subsequent trials gained national attention from celebrities, politicians, and news media. When the media descended on the small town of Laramie, Wyoming, “all dialogue stopped” (Laramie 11). It was as the case gained national attention that Moisés Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie on six different occasions to interview the residents of the town. They interviewed over 200 of the town’s residents – priests and pastors, ranchers, townspeople, friends of the victim and the accused, policemen and women who were on the case, the doctors who attended to Matthew Shepard, etc. The direct transcripts from these interviews, as well as journal entries and experiences of the actors themselves came together in the amazingly powerful play, The Laramie Project.

If that isn’t enough to entice you to read it, I don’t know what is.
But, my real reason for writing today about Laramie is because of one of my former students.  As I said above, I was the drama director at my old school for some time, and as the drama director, I worked with all sorts of students, and sensed the need to bring this play to the school and the community.  I hoped it would create a dialogue about my students’ lives that had been almost hidden until this point.  So I went to the principal of the school for approval and she granted it to me.  My students were so excited.  We cast the play before winter break and came back ready to go.
On the day we were to start our first rehearsals, the principal came into my room and informed me of the school board’s last minute decision to unapprove the play.
Now, keep in mind that this was a rural-ish school district, and a very conservative community.  I do not blame them for their decision at all, and I truly would like to believe that they had the students’ safety and best interests in mind.  But we were all heartbroken.  It was with tears in my eyes that I delivered the news to my students that first day of rehearsal.  And it changed them.  I saw them become disheartened and disappointed.  I saw them feel personally rejected, because this play spoke so deeply to so many of them.  But here’s the silver lining: I saw the activists start to come out in all of them.  Some went to the superintendent.  Some went to teachers.  Some had their parents call to voice their disappointment.  Some researched other venues for us to produce the play.  None of it panned out, unfortunately, but the important point was that they didn’t give up, and I could not have been more proud.  Since then, all of the students have graduated high school and moved on to bigger and better things, but I believe that experience has stayed with them in both good and bad ways, and I believe that it has made them better able to stand up for what they truly believe.
Yesterday, Collin, one of the students who was originally cast in the play, called me and left a very excited voicemail that he had been cast in his college’s production of Laramie.  His voice was almost shaking with excitement – as well it should have been – and it was again with tears in my eyes that I called him back to offer my congratulations (except these were good tears).  We talked for a little bit about the play and his auditions and all of that before he asked me if it would be a good idea to send invitations to the play to the school board of our former school.
Just when I thought I couldn’t be more proud, I was.
:-D
The production will be touring the weekend of Valentine’s Day with a stop in Chicago, so if you want more information, please let me know.

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22
Jan
2010

Teaching Feminism: Everyday Activism Part 2

Cross-posted with Gender Across Borders

I wrote a post a little while ago about teaching everyday activism to my sophomores.  I was so energized at the end of this two-day lesson – totally jazzed that they had caught on to the concept of activism so well that they had started talking about what they could do to speak out and raise awareness for their personal causes.

As interesting as it might be to follow my students’ activism, I think it is equally interesting – and important – to discuss my students’ original perceptions of activism.  In my original post, I mentioned that I put a list of actions on the board and asked my students if they considered each “activism.”  The following is the list again, but this time, I’ve put the number of students in each of my three classes respectively who believed each action is considered activism.  There were 22 students in my first class, 28 students in my second class, and 17 students in my third class.

Which of these are “activism?”
1. Donating money 4, 12, 2
2. Writing an article 1, 5, 2
3. Discussions 17, 14, 8
4. Signing a petition 17, 22, 17
5. Writing a letter 3, 5, 1
6. Protesting 17, 28, 17
7. Creating a petition 17, 23, 17
8. Blogging 5, 3, 1
9. Risking your life for someone 15, 14, 8
10. Going against what people think 16, 23, 17
11. Being a lawyer 3, 4, 11
12. Being a teacher 2, 2, 5
13. Being a doctor 7, 4, 11
14. Volunteering 18, 18, 13
15. Starting a group 17, 18, 12
16. Adopting a pet 3, 4, 3
17. Adopting a child 3, 8, 6
18. Making a speech 17, 14, 11
19. Making a sign 6, 10, 6
20. Talking to a friend 4, 3, 4

It is interesting to note, here, that discussions, signing and creating petitions, going against what people think, volunteering, protesting, starting a group, and making a speech were all highly recognized as activist activities, whereas very few students thought of writing an article, writing a letter, blogging, being a teacher, adopting a pet, adopting a child, and talking to a friend as actions of activists.

I was not surprised that my students thought of petitions, speeches, discussions, protests, and volunteering as activism.  After all, they are taught that activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr. give speeches and do interviews and hold discussions.  And in this day and age, protests are probably the most common form of activism students see on the news, and petitions are probably the most common form of speaking out in which students have participated.  I was, however, surprised that writing an article or writing a letter was not seen by them as activism.  So, I asked them why.

I started by grouping together the actions that had the highest number of votes, as I did above, and asked them what all of these had in common.  Every class said the same thing: In order for an activity to be considered activism, it must involve other people – an audience, a group, several signatures, etc.  When I asked them if articles and blogs had audiences, they said yes, but activism must be loud and directed.  Protests are directed because they are stationed outside of the building of whatever company is being protested; discussions and speeches are directed because people are talking about one specific issue.  When I mentioned that blogs have wide audiences, they replied that this may be true, but anyone can write a blog about anything, which makes it unreliable.  To protest or discuss or create a petition, you can’t hide behind a computer screen writing a post or an article.  You have to be out there, literally taking a stand for what you believe in.

While I still believe that blogging and writing are important forms of activism, my students have reminded me of the importance of literally taking a stand for your cause.  We can write and comment and share all we want, but it does not take the place of active activism – actually doing something.  As I pointed out to my students, Miep Gies actually did something, and what she did was not only the action of an activist, but the action of a hero.

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19
Jan
2010

Equality 101

I’d like to introduce to you a brand new blog for teachers and activists!  It’s called Equality 101, and yours truly is a contributing writer in the company of some seriously awesome teacher-writer-researchers!

Of course, I will still be posting education-related posts here, but I will include much of what you find here over there.  So if you’re a teacher or if you’re interested in education at all, head on over and check it out!

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16
Jan
2010

Teaching Feminism: Everyday Activism

It has come to my attention that my so many people either don’t know what “activism” is (“It’s like we need to be active to be healthy?”) or that it is for “other people” (“Angelina Jolie is an activist, right?”).  For some, it is a dirty word (“Those animal rights activists throw blood on people!”).  They do not understand the importance of everyday activism, or just doing what is right.

I was inspired by a recent Gender Across Borders article about Miep Gies which touted her as an “example for all activists.”  I’d like to take that a step further and posit that she is an example for all people and, as such, I felt my students needed to know about her extraordinary acts during the Holocaust, and they needed to understand activism as something that isn’t just for other people.

I began my two-day lesson with my sophomores by asking them to write a journal entry defining activism.  Many students responded to this as stated above.  We discussed activism and what it means, and then I put the following list on the board:

Which of these are “activism?”
1. Donating money
2. Writing an article
3. Discussions
4. Signing a petition
5. Writing a letter
6. Protesting
7. Creating a petition
8. Blogging
9. Risking your life for someone
10. Going against what people think
11. Being a lawyer
12. Being a teacher
13. Being a doctor
14. Volunteering
15. Starting a group
16. Adopting a pet
17. Adopting a child
18. Making a speech
19. Making a sign
20. Talking to a friend

We spent some time talking about each of these, and the students selected which they considered activism.  Then, the students wanted to add a few to the list like voting, recycling, and participating in a club.  When this was finished, I asked the students if they remembered Anne Frank.  Of course, they all did, having read her diary in 8th grade.  Inevitably, one student asked me if Anne Frank was an activist, which sparked a few minutes of debate about whether or not she was (“What was she fighting for?  She was hiding because she had to!” “But she was fighting for rights for the Jewish people!” “But she didn’t mean to be!  She wrote her diary because she was bored!”).  After this died down, I said “What about the woman who helped hide Anne Frank and her family?” The students almost unanimously agreed that she was an activist, even though her activism was very different than the types of activism we discussed on the list.

I then handed out the Gender Across Borders article and we read it aloud and I asked them questions as we read.  When we were finished with the article, I asked them what the difference between her activism and the activism on the list was.  They came up with answers like: “Now, people want to be famous and make money, which is their only reason for doing good things” and “Now, in the United States, people don’t have to risk their lives for others.”  Then, I left them at the end of day 1 with the question: What cause are you passionate about?

The next day, they entered the room, and written on the board was “What cause are you passionate about?”  Most students came in and sat down, looking puzzled.  A few told me they couldn’t think of a cause the night before.  A few others asked me what I meant by cause, or if standing up for a friend being bullied was a cause.  I put the list back up on the projector and said: “How many of you have done at least one of these things?”  They read over the list again and, gradually, their hands started raising one by one, until every single hand was in the air.  “OK!” I said, “Why did you do these things?”  And causes started flying around the room.  Cancer research, school violence, cleaning up a park, speaking out against racism, human rights, feeding the hungry, giving clothes to the homeless, working at animal shelters, fighting genocide around the globe… and the list went on and on.  When we had talked about a few of these in depth, I asked them to each write a journal about what cause they were passionate about, why they cared about it, and what they have done or want to do to make a difference because of it.

They were silent and writing furiously for the last 20 minutes of class.

Were they inspired to be activists?  I don’t know.  But are they more socially conscious now than they were before?  I’d venture to say yes.

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16
Jan
2010

Racism, Sexism, & Classism in Standardized Testing

Today’s guest post on teaching feminism comes from Emily Heroy. You can catch her on the Gender Across Borders Blog, or on twitter.

I took the GRE back in November after two months of studying. It was a gruesome two months of hard work, but it had to be done in order for me to apply for graduate school. I actually didn’t do so bad on the GRE—in fact, I’m going to take the GRE again in a week, for personal and professional reasons. Unfortunately that won’t be the end of standardized testing for me, given that I’ve chosen to get a master of education where testing will be key in order to be certified as a teacher.

Now that I’m in school, I have some more thoughts about the politics behind standardized testing. I first wrote about standardized testing about two months back on my blog here and also posted the same post on Feministing’s Community blog which received a ton of comments. I addressed blatant racism and sexism on the GRE and in test preparation material I used to study with. But I forgot to address something very important.

The last paragraph of my first post stated that “test prep courses cost a ton of money.” I did not delve into the class issue of standardized testing. The title of my first post was “Racism and Sexism in Standardized Testing,” but in reading the comments from the post, I realized that I completely overlooked class as an issue in standardized testing (a faux-pas in Intersectionality 101). One commenter pmsrhino stated that:

…because prep classes (and prep books which are often more expensive than the classes themselves) are so vital to achieving a high score on those tests (as you mentioned yourself, though sometimes it is less learning the material and more learning test taking strategies it still requires being taught to you somehow) it is an EXTREME disadvantage to anyone who is unable to do any preparation. So I think standardized tests are geared much more towards the upper class, with emphasis on opera music and sailing and other such upper class activities and a bigger advantage going to those people who have the resources to put into preparation for those tests. So it’s a nice triple whammy there, sexism, racism, AND classism. Woot.

Therefore, students have a better chance of receiving a higher score on any standardized test if they have the resources to pay for test prep books and take those expensive test prep classes, then someone who cannot afford those valuable resources.

I’m not going to get into whether or not there should be standardized testing, or more specifically, graduate school standardized testing (which was brought up in the comments of the Feministing Community post). However, it’s important to point out that especially young adults, who are preparing to take the SAT and ACT to go to college, are especially disadvantaged in taking these tests. Even more so, those students seeking the first college degree in her/his family must jump over many hurdles to get to the point where they can apply for college. Taking the SAT and/or ACT is another hurdle (which is an application requirement for many colleges) and if their family cannot pay for test prep material and/or a test prep course, their upper class counterpart (who has the same grades and teacher recommendations but a higher SAT/ACT score because they were able to afford test prep material) will have a higher chance of getting into a better college.

Humph, that’s frustrating. Some people want to see the SAT/ACT requirement dropped altogether from college admissions. Not surprisingly, if this requirement was dropped, the number of minority college admits and the number of admits from lower to middle classes would rise (see this interesting article about dropping the SAT).

Unfortunately, I do not think that would happen in the next ten years at least. I suggest that, if the SAT and/or ACT cannot be completely demolished, or revised to best suit all races, classes, and sexes; high schools should not only provide support for students seeking to take these standardized tests for admittance to college, but also provide test preparation material as well as free test prep courses for all students.

Another thing: I wonder about those high school students who have good grades and great teacher recommendations but do poorly on standardized tests—especially those who cannot afford to do better on those tests. In those many cases, I’d hope that their discouragement from the SAT/ACT does not deter them from applying to and attending college. After all, a test is just a test, but a college degree is forever.

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Filed under: Class, Feminism, Race
Tags: , , , , , , — by Ashley
5 Comments »
15
Jan
2010

Teaching Feminism and Body Image: What is Dove Really Selling?

Yesterday, during a lesson on persuasive rhetorical techniques, I showed my students a number of commercials, asking them whether the technique used was Logos, Ethos, or Pathos.  Along with this, I asked them what the ad was trying to sell, what it claimed about the product, if there was any bias present, etc.  A friend pointed me to the Dove Evolution commercial as an example of using Logos, or logic, to persuade an audience.  The commercial can be seen below, and you’ll need to watch it before you read on:

As soon as I saw this, I was totally ready to show it to my classes.  Not only is it a great example of Logos, but it has a great message, too.  A double-whammy!  I was expecting all sorts of teachable moments today when they saw the photo-shopping of the image and were as astounded as I was that this can be done, and is done all the time.  I expected to launch into an interesting conversation about the persuasive nature of magazine images in general, and how they persuade young people to be unhealthy to get closer to that unattainable ideal.

While there was quite a bit of that going on yesterday, and the students’ outrage at being “tricked” by the media was heartwarming, the initial response I received to the question about what product was being sold was interesting.

To me, this commercial is clearly “selling” Dove’s self esteem workshops, which I think are brilliant and necessary (although, I must admit, I haven’t done much research into them).  When I asked my students what this commercial was selling, they instantly said: “Dove soap.”

Is this because the commercial is unclear?  Did they tune out before the end of it?  Did I see it because this issue is constantly at the front of my mind, but maybe it isn’t at the front of theirs?  Or is this their mature and acute cynicism of the advertising industry showing through?  Did they think outside of the box to note that this commercial and the self-esteem workshops actually do promote Dove products (if they do these good things, their product must be worthy of buying)?

I don’t know, but I do know that it made me look at Dove – and any other corporation-sponsored initiative – a little differently.

How do you feel about the Dove self esteem initiative?  Leave thoughts in the comments.

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Filed under: Feminism
Tags: , , , , , , , — by Ashley
18 Comments »
07
Jan
2010
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