Strong Women and Gentle Men

This activity is based on "The Children's March [1]." (Download the Teacher's Guide [2] here.)

Objectives

• Students will see the role that different genders played in the Movement.
• Students will understand how popular culture influences them.

Materials

• Teachers may supply magazines but encourage students to use their own favorite magazines
• Posterboard, scissors and glue

Framework
The civil rights movement in Birmingham was a good mixture of boys and girls. As you watch the film, think about the following questions. Download complete answers [3] (PDF) here.

1. What roles did you see boys and girls taking?
2. Were their roles different or similar? How so?
3. Who is leading whom at what time? Why?
4. How is each gender represented?
5. How do these gender roles in the film compare to who leads at your own school?
6. Who in your school or community are the leaders? Are they males or females?
7. What do you think is meant by "strong women" and "gentle men"?

Now, as then, we are shaped by the images around us. Imagine if your community had a "Whites Only" sign up for water fountains or restrooms. How would that shape (or misshape) your identity? The power to resist and to rebel rests in being able to see things differently than the way things are presented to you.

Non-violence requires strong women and gentle men to accomplish its goals. In this lesson, students will take popular magazines and look at how the media portray girls and boys differently.

Found Poem
A Found Poem is made up of words or phrases from something you read. It uses someone else's words, but in a new way. Students can, of course, find words anywhere: newspapers, magazines, pieces of literature, documents, oral histories and narratives. They also can be spoken words that students hear in the hallways or at lunch.

Guide students in creating Found Poems that address the gender roles and expectations affecting their lives:

Step One Flip through a magazine or piece of literature and cut out words that catch your eye.

Step Two Choose 10 main key words or phrases that describe how you see each gender represented or addressed.

Step Three Arrange these words or phrases in a pleasing and meaningful way to make a poem. Write, type or use the pieces you've ripped out of magazines. Glue them to posterboard. Illustrate it with drawings or pictures.

After you do one for both genders, what do you notice when you compare and contrast font size and color? Why do you think magazine people chose these for each gender?

Step Four Write or find a response to how you see genders represented differently in the media and explain your poem to the class.

Step Five Where can you strategically put this poem for others to see it? Who is your audience? Why is it important that they see it?

Follow-up Discussion

• Do these ads represent gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students? Why or why not?
• Can gender be fluid?
• Can all genders have all attributes?

Found Poems Model
Encourage students to arrange their posterboards as shown in the model PDF [4] of the poem below.

Every Girl Every Boy By Crimethinc
For every girl who is tired of acting weak when she is strong, there is a boy tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable. For every boy who is burdened with the constant expectation of knowing everything, there is a girl tired of people not trusting her intelligence. For every girl who is tired of being called over-sensitive, there is a boy who fears to be gentle, to weep. For every boy for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity, there is a girl who is called unfeminine when she competes. For every girl who throws out her E-Z-Bake oven, there is a boy who wishes to find one. For every boy struggling not to let advertising dictate his desires, there is a girl facing the ad industry’s attacks on her self-esteem. For every girl who takes a step toward her liberation, there is a boy who finds the way to freedom a little easier.