A few weeks ago, I was with a coworker at an elementary school doing some prevention work. During a break, I stepped into the hallway to admire all the students’ work. (Sidenote – isn’t that a wonderful time, where our work is displayed proudly through hallways and on refrigerators? We should do more of that as adults.) I walked past paintings and hand writing practices, and began reading some of the writing prompts the students had answered. There were two rows of work – the first row featured sheets of paper and with the question,
“How would you turn a frog into a prince?”
The students had answered this question in a variety of ways. From the very innocent, “I’d take my wand and tap his head until he turned into a prince!” to the more involved, “I’d put the frog in a cannon and shoot him into a wall. Then he’d explode and be a prince!” The answers varied across the board.
Then I turned to the second row of papers which answered the prompts,
“A princess is as pretty as _________
A princess is as fragile as __________
A princess is as nice as _________”
The responses fluctuated between flowery to simple, but they all remained in the tight box that the prompts provided. No one put “as pretty as a donkey” or “as fragile as a piece of steel” or “as nice as a mean granny.” The prompts limited the responses and solidified the idea that princesses are inherently pretty, fragile, and nice. My favorite response to the prompt was, “A princess is as pretty as a flower, as fragile as glass, and as nice as a servant.”
Reminder – this work came from 2nd graders. Which brings me to the idea that we have got to talk about gender and gender norms from the beginning. And not in a lecture way, not in an intellectual way, but in a way that kiddos can grasp.
Ask any child what a Prince or Princess does/looks like/acts like and they can describe Disney’s definitions to a tee. And while most children know that they are not real Prince or Princesses, it’s not a huge jump from fictional characters to boys and girls and men and women. Take a look below at how our elementary students identified these fairy tale characters last week.
Take a look at these definitions of Prince and Princess. Do you see a connection to the stereotypes of men and women?
I’ll be posting more about how gender roles are directly related to sexual violence in the upcoming weeks. It’s going to be fun! But for now I’ve got to run to work with middle schoolers on this exact subject!
Hope your week is off to a great start.
-Corey Ann Seldon
Sexual Violence Prevention Specialist
June 20, 2011 at 7:16 pm |
Why weren’t the prompts the children were given the same? The prompts seem to lend themselves to open and closed interpretations. I’m curious to see “The prince is as pretty as ______” and “How would you turn a frog into a princess?” responses.
June 20, 2011 at 9:01 pm |
Nice work Corey Ann! Clear evidence that the Woman/Man Box manifests itself well before we realize it, during our most vulnerable, developmental years.