Playing with Gender Part II Discussion

Part Two of Applied Final Project, Playing with Gender: Understanding Our Gendered Selves:

“Challenging My Story” (5% of course grade; due end of Week Four)

One paragraph (200-250 words)

Purpose: Playing-with-Gender Act Proposal

In this section of the assessment, you will choose an act that challenges societal gendered norms or that runs contrary to the way in which you perform gender every day. In Week 6, you will go out into society and perform your act, so propose something you can actually do.

In conceptualizing this act, consider what you discovered about yourself as a gendered being in part one.

Turn in one paragraph (200-250 words) describing your act. What do you plan to do, when and where do you plan to do it, and why is it different from your gendered history and current presentation of self?

Suggestions: These acts can be small (wearing your hair differently, or not wearing makeup if you usually do), or large (a radical change in hairstyle or dress, or speaking or behaving differently with others), or moderate (attempting to use exclusively gender neutral language, or suggesting a mixed-gender activity that is usually single-gender). Use your Part One discussion to identify areas of gendered behavior in your life where you can intervene to change something.

For an act to be approved, it must meet the following guidelines:

1. It must differ from your usual practice.
2. It must be public (this is fieldwork; it is not sufficient to record your own reaction. Others must be able to respond as well). “Public” does not have to be a large number of people.
3. It must be noticeable, preferably without you having to explain the assignment to other people (see above about the public nature of the act).
4. You must be able to perform it in the course of a single day.
5. It must clearly relate to gender socialization.