Resources for teachers and parents about children’s books that challenge gender stereotypes Continue reading “Breaking the Mould – it’s child’s play”
The Importance of Girl Things
Why are girl things so despised? Consider the derisive response to music girls like, movies and television shows girls watch, social networking sites girls inhabit, activities in which girls engage, and the clothes girls wear. The criticism is always snide and condescending: girl things—which appeal to, attract, star, and represent girls—are considered, at best, vacuous and, at worst, distasteful. In a 1999 article, gender and cultural studies scholar Catharine Driscoll argues anything perceived as a “girl thing” is instantly dismissed without consideration of the importance it might have in the lives of real girls. While the Spice Girls and their fans offer an infamous example of this girl-targeted derision, there are no comparable examples of bashing boy-things; no ubiquitous hatred for boys and their things. Continue reading “The Importance of Girl Things”
On the ascendance: education as a key to global feminism?
GEA Policy Report, March 2013
International women’s week was inaugurated in the media this year in a quiet way and yet it has spawned a tremendous amount of footage in the press and other media, culminating in the UK with a weekend festival of arts called Women of the World organized by Jude Kelly, indomitable director of the Southbank Centre in London. What is particular music to GEA is the welcome focus on Education as the main path to equality as can be seen in a myriad of articles, letters and comments and the launch of the new British Library website. Continue reading “On the ascendance: education as a key to global feminism?”
Golden lads and girls all come to dust: School shootings and gender in a violent America
Golden lads and girls all must/As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. –Cymbeline Continue reading “Golden lads and girls all come to dust: School shootings and gender in a violent America”
A report from from the BSA’s Young Masculinities one-day seminar
On Friday the 2nd of November, in an event entitled Young Masculinities: Challenges, Changes and Transitions the British Sociological Association’s Youth Study Group turned their attention to masculinities, an area receiving ever increasing academic attention in light of both the concerns of ‘the problem with boys’ as well as shifts within contemporary theories of masculinity. These shifting theories of masculinity have been usefully brought together in relation to education in particular in a recent article in Gender and Education by Chris Haywood and Máirtín Mac an Ghaill (October 2012), who suggest that “studies of masculinity in education are reconsidering how masculinity is being constituted” (2012: 580). Thus, while researchers within the field of gender and education have had masculinity as a central site of analysis for some time, in the case of the BSA’s Youth Study Group, masculinity has been noticeably absent as Steve Roberts, the group’s co-organiser remarked when opening the seminar. Although education acted as an investigatory location for some of the papers (Cann, Ingram, Kehler, Schalet), education as a specific avenue of investigation for young masculinities was interestingly not at the forefront of the papers being given. Forms of education could nonetheless be observed in the papers offered, with young men learning about acceptable forms of cultural consumption, learning about codes of conduct within particular subcultural contexts, learning to regulate themselves, and applying what it means to be a ‘man’ in transition(s) to the work place. The relationship between education and young men was therefore located, in most of the papers, at the level of social and cultural practice rather than at a formal or institutional level. Continue reading “A report from from the BSA’s Young Masculinities one-day seminar”
NEW SERIES: Queer Studies and Education
Series Editors: William F. Pinar, Nelson M. Rodriguez, and Ugena Whitlock Continue reading “NEW SERIES: Queer Studies and Education”
Ditching the ‘Sticks and Stones’: Facebook and the power of social regulation
Back in the day, I remember my mum repeating the old slogan “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. I think it was in the context of some kids in my kindergarten class teasing me. Thankfully it was not a scarring incident and I don’t exactly remember the nature of the insults. However, I do remember that saying. I reflect on it now in reference to my mothers’ upbringing that consisted of a difficult relationship with her naval father in the south west of England. She embodied a sense of ‘toughness’ and to ‘never let them make you cry’. She still recommends this way of being today and constantly espouses that it is one of her strengths- that the people around her will never see her emotions and never know if they affect her. So in the context of my life it wasn’t a saying that was out of character. Indeed, it made a lot of sense back then. Sticks and stones could hurt you (as my sisters often showed me); whilst in comparison a few verbal insults were surely manageable. Continue reading “Ditching the ‘Sticks and Stones’: Facebook and the power of social regulation”
The Feminist Library presents ‘Women’s Studies Without Walls’ weekend – 19th and 20th January
By Ruth Nicholson, Structured Volunteer at The Feminist Library and member of the organising committee of the ‘Women’s Studies Without Walls’ Continue reading “The Feminist Library presents ‘Women’s Studies Without Walls’ weekend – 19th and 20th January”
Enterprising, Enduring, Enabling? Early Career Efforts and ‘Winning’ Workshops
I was recently invited to present and participate in a British Sociological Association (BSA) workshop organized by the Early Career Researchers (ECRs) Study Group conveners, Dr Katherine Twamley and Dr Mark Doidge. The title of the workshop ‘What is a Winning Funding Application?’ posed an urgent, anxious question, felt as I planned my delivery and attempted to answer a loaded query, literally worth a lot. I wondered how I would, with colleagues, ‘workshop’ my way out of funding crises and the destruction of UK Higher Education: how to keep things constructive and positive in a harsh new climate? To enable rather than dissuade even as ‘early career’ is ever extended across the career trajectory which means some never ‘arrive’? Continue reading “Enterprising, Enduring, Enabling? Early Career Efforts and ‘Winning’ Workshops”