Chapter 6 Getting into trouble got me thinking about what a feminist intervention program might look like. Putting things in quotes –e.g., “victim”, “troublemaker”, “natural”- might be reflective practice, but it can also be a form of erasure. There is a certain valorization of the Carnival with a Foucauldian research perspective. As a result, I am left wondering about the quiet kids, or the ones who are willing to perform quiet for the sake of getting by. How does desire for something other than belonging intersect with race, gender, and class? Ferguson does not examine in any great depth what academic skills and knowledge are being taught and learned in the classroom. If anything. How do girls and non-expressive boys feel and learn in a class full of masculine performance?

From the blog Feminist Teacher ( https://feministteacher.com/2011/03/29/teaching-boys-feminism/ ), Ileana Jimenez writes:

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In the past three years, I have taught a high school course on feminism titled Fierce and Fabulous: Feminist Writers, Artists, and Activists. Each year, girls and boys sign up for the class and each year, these young men are awakened not only to injustices regarding race, class, and gender in national and global contexts but also to injustices regarding how they have been socialized as boys…

…I’ll never forget one boy’s reaction to these stories. Ian was so moved by his peers’ experiences that he submitted a post to May’s Hollaback! blog. In it he wrote:

It was during the session with Hollaback! that my eyes truly opened. The girls in my class started speaking about their past experiences with street harassment and the stories just didn’t stop . . . I was shocked at the kinds of things that were happening to my classmates and I was more shocked as to how clueless I was during all of this . . . If these women have gone through traumatic experiences from which they had lasting memories, then most definitely women I know even more personally have gone through this type of harassment as well. It is scary to think that all of these things are going on without ever being called out. It’s scary to think that a man can completely get away with making a woman feel uncomfortable or unsafe on the street or subway.

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There is a lot of talk these days on the necessity of teaching about privilege. Here is a list, there are many others, of the invisible masculine knapsack.

http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2012/11/30-examples-of-male-privilege/

I am not convinced of the pedagogical effectiveness of using privilege to talk about racism and sexism. There are a lot of people with which it simply does not work. It is like global climate change, most people are cognizant that we are headed for environmental and social disaster, but those benefitting from hegemony do not want to change their lifestyles so they deny the obvious and grasp at straws to justify their lack of sincerity.

When I have brought up privilege to call someone out on what they said or wrote, the common rejoinders include:  pointing to some instance of when they saw themselves as victims of underprivileging, talking about when marginalized peoples benefit from “tokenism”, trivializing particular examples of privilege/underprivilege, or to just repeating the mantra: Things are getting better and all we need is more time. I think these defensive actions (http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/01/reactions-white-privilege/ ) make it nearly impossible for many people to listen to privileging arguments.

What are the alternatives? Blogger Emily posted on the blog Anthro Doula http://anthrodoula.blogspot.com/2015/08/teaching-feminism-to-teenage-boys.html:

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As far as teaching teenage boys feminism, I think a good place to start would be to relate it to them, personally, and to stress how the system hurts us all.

How does the patriarchy limit their own expression as boys and men? How does it hold them back?

Men are often pressured to fit into a “Act like a Man” or “Man up” world where men can’t be sensitive, or have certain interests. It damages men’s emotional literacy. It limits them. They are pressured to always appear strong and not ask for help. It encourages promiscuity. It encourages aggression and violence. It perpetuates one-dimensional stereotypes that not all men identify with.

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We can’t talk about a feminist education of boys and men without also talking about toxic masculinity. It is a lens which I think could add a lot to Ferguson’s work.

Technology

The misogynistic notion of sexual entitlement that is nurtured by pornography and mainstream media (http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/05/boys-sexual-entitlement/ ) is a problem demanding critical media k-12 literacy. Of course, the difference between political awareness and political consciousness is that the later includes a desire for advocacy, we can never make kids “critical” enough to keep afloat in a sea of negative messages, they must also do the work of dismantling structures of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Small activism projects might be a nice way to start, as well as reading and discussing the history of collective action, with materials such as the movie Selma which de-centers individualistic images of leadership to focus on the work of group activism.

More technology

This app is interesting. I am taken in by the optimism; trusting in belonging (collectivism) is positively anti-capitalist.

I am also happy about the choice of actor to be the face of the app.

That said, I can see a likely Foucault critique:

The app is just another patriarchal institution. Users are disciplined into surveillance for the purpose of cyber/pseudo-affective consumption. It just another treadmill of consumptive capitalism –creating desire which will never be satisfied.

There is a ton of really smart material on YouTube for teaching about gender and justice.  The video below is one example. Unfortunately, Googling something along the lines of ‘teaching boys about feminism’ will also reveal just how misogynistic and patriarchal the online environment can be. Part of our job as gender and justice teachers is to wade through this crap to find the wisdom which will be most appropriate for our students.  I think providing an online syllabus of links is the best route.

Here are some questions I adapted from (http://anthrodoula.blogspot.com/2015/08/teaching-feminism-to-teenage-boys.html ) I think it is worthwhile to discuss our role as teachers in doing feminism.

How do we teach boys and young men to…

…listen to women about how being underprivileged affects them

…stop being a bystander and start calling people out

…stop raping, catcalling, telling sexist jokes

…believe women when they say something is sexist

…believe in the capable leadership of women

…be responsible for contraception, housework, emotional work

…be aware of the amount of space they take up (physically and in conversations)

…identify as feminists?

And some more tasks we might want to consider:

What should boys and men have to do in your classroom (at any level of education) to make a more feminist environment?

If gender and justice were mainstreamed as part of pedagogy, what should be required of students? What should be required of teachers?

From censorship to gender quotas to prison sentences and fines, we must decide how to enforce gender and justice laws with businesses and public institutions. What would a realistic timeline look like? How does that reflect your goals and values?

Finally, a free lesson plan for high school and/or undergrads:

Here are seven myths (http://www.hexjam.com/uk/sex-relationships/14-masculinity-myths-that-are-keeping-the-patriarchy-alive-and-well ) that could be used for poster discussion stations.

Real men don’t feel pain

Real men are independent

Real men never back down

Real men live for competition

Real men play the field

Real men fuck like pros

Real men suffer

Students work in groups. They go from one poster to the next and fill in a chart that looks something like this:

 

Where do you think this myth comes from	Who benefits from this myth	Why this myth is untrue

Afterwards, one member of each group shares key points with the class.