Teaching

Guide
Unboxing Masculinity
October 2013

Preface

Hello and thank you for downloading the Unboxing Masculinity teaching guide. This is designed to help teachers make the most of the content found at www.unboxingmasculinity.com. Breaking down traditional notions of masculinity can be a somewhat difficult task. We hope that you find the material that we have collated useful, and thought provoking for your students. We certainly had fun putting it all together. We do not claim to have all the answers on how to deconstruct masculinity, but we hope to provide you with the tools to assist you in undertaking the process. We live in a society that should no longer accept traditional gender roles; a society where there are no black and white definitions. As the quote by Johnny Weir, an Olympic Gold Medal figure skater states: Masculinity is what you believe it to be. I think masculinity and femininity is something that's very old-fashioned. There's a whole new generation of people who aren't defined by their sex or race or who they like to sleep with. Yet mass media still continues to perpetuate such bold definition of what a true man is. We encourage you to challenge such distinctions in your teaching practices and have your students begin to think about whether a person is any less of a real man as a result of the clothes they wear, their occupation or their hobbies. Thanks, Andrew, Josh, Julian, Von & Martin October 2013

Forums & Survey

By now you may well have noticed the links for the forums and survey at www.unboxingmasculinity.com. This section of the guide aims to give you a brief overview of the functionality of each.

Survey
We could like to formally encourage you to have your students complete the survey listed on the site. It is a good way to begin to have students thinking about how they view masculinity in their own lives. We have added the requirement of stating the school a student attends as a means of comparison. Once the results have been submitted, you can request a collation of specific results from your school. This provides the basis for you as a teacher to form an understanding of the different ideas regarding masculinity in your classroom, and will help you make more informed choices as to how you choose to deconstruct masculinity.

Forums
We would also like to encourage you to make use of the forums. There are two ways that students can engage with these. Firstly, there are the open forums where students can discuss their ideas about masculinity or what is being shown in the media. Secondly, if you would like to make use of a password-protected forum for private class discussion, please use the contact box on the homepage and this can be organised for you. This is a useful tool for student interaction in a setting that can be moderator by you- the teacher.

Masculinity around the world

This section of the website can serve two purposes. Firstly, it can be used as an educational tool for students. Its optimal usage would be for a research task. Information is provided for students; however it could be used as the basis for a comparative analysis, or further research. Ultimately, it aims to have students beginning to think how masculinity differs around the world. This highlights the point that masculinity is a societal construction- thus there is no true definition of what truly makes a real man. Secondly, this section can also be used as a self education tool by teachers increase their understanding about the students in their classroom. Australia is an increasingly multicultural nation, with teachers more and more likely to come across students with different ideas about masculinity.

British Masculinity Crisis

In recent months, British media has been covering what has been termed a masculinity crisis. A speech by British MP Dianne Abott has been provided on the site for analysis by students. This is another area where a research task could be conducted, as there are plenty of different media outlets covering the issues. For more information, teachers can view the attached reference list for a few newspaper articles with important information.

Worksheets & Activity Ideas

Historical depictions of Masculinity in the Media

The following questions relate to the Disney Portrayals of Men video found at www.unboxingmasculinity.com/videos

1. What does the video tell us about the historical notions of what it means to be a man? Or what the ultimate man was depicted as? _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What are the characteristics that define a real man within these Disney characters? Beauty and the Beast:____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Hercules: __________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ The Incredibles: __________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ The Emperors New Groove:_____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ The Little Mermaid: ______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Mulan:_____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ The Lion King: ___________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Aladdin: __________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________

Activity Ideas
Activity 1: Hegemonic Masculinity Show lass the video on hegemonic masculinity commercials from: www.unboxingmasculinity.com/videos For each video clip, pause and ask the following questions 1. What is the dominant portray of masculinity in these clips 2. Do you like this video, why? 3. Do you think men have lost or gained masculinity through and in the media? How and why? Activity 2: Video Creation Allow students to work in pairs. Students will have 25 minutes, to create and upload a 3 minute video on from their smartphone of a depiction of masculinity. The video can be uploaded to the class Moodle/Edmodo page. This video has two components: . 1.) Portray a discourse/ specific type of masculinity, for example: macho, metrosexual, feminine, art student, hipster, jock, egotistical, chauvinist etc. You are not limited by these stereotypes. Half the video needs to be scripted to depict a scene of your choice. . 2.) The rest needs to show the class what the constructs of masculinity presented were. The second 25 minutes are watching these videos online. The class should discuss issues that arise in each video. Activity 3: Have students visit www.unboxingmasculinity.com/activities. There are instructions at the top of the activity. Have students read the activity, and then record their ratings for each person. Students will then discuss their ratings with the person seated next to them, and discuss their justifications for each. The teacher should then conduct a classroom discussion revolving around why certain ratings were awarded.