The Girl in the Mirror - Lesson
In this lesson, students look at how gender stereotyping may discourage young women from becoming involved in politics.
In this lesson, students look at how gender stereotyping may discourage young women from becoming involved in politics.
Here stands the spring whom you have stain’d with mud,
This goodly summer with your winter mix’d.
You kill’d her husband, and for that vile fault
Two of her brothers were condemn’d to death,
My hand cut off and made a merry jest;
Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear
Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,
Inhuman traitors, you constrain’d and forced.
Titus Andronicus, Act 5, Sc. II.
This is the second of three lessons that address gender stereotypes. The objective of these lessons is to encourage students to develop their own critical intelligence with regard to culturally inherited stereotypes, and to the images presented in the media - film and television, rock music, newspapers and magazines.The lesson begins with a review of stereotypes that are associated with men and women and their possible sources - including the role of the media. Students deconstruct a series of advertisements based on gender representation and answer questions about gender stereotyping about articles they have read.
Media speaks volumes about what is important in a society. What we see in media can have an impact on how we see other groups and how we see ourselves.
Canada’s Broadcasting Act, last amended in 1991, outlines industry guidelines for portrayal of diversity.
Since before Canada became a Confederation, racially and culturally diverse groups have been creating their own media: the first issue of the Provincial Freeman, which was a weekly newspaper edited and published by Black Canadians in the Province of Canada West (now Ontario), was first published on March 24, 1853.
Although the benefits of diverse media are considerable, the creation process can be riddled with challenges.