Welcome to the end of the school year, when everyone from Kindergarten through High School is counting down the days or hours until they’re “Free, free!!!!” If they’re a high school student living in Pflugerville, a little suburb north of Austin, however, they may also be trying to contend with some typical media-caused frenzy over [...]
Archives for May, 2010
Nudity
I recently read Live Nude Girl: my life as an object by Kathleen Rooney. The book chronicles Rooney’s experiences in being a live nude model, discusses the history of nude modeling, and delves into the psychology of nudity in general. I quite enjoyed the book.
What I felt was missing completely, and quite a glaring oversight [...]
Being yourself, even in the media
Today is the last in this semester’s series of my college students’ Sexuality in the Media projects. We’ve had three so far (body shapes, teen parents, and LGBTQQIA). But today’s project is easily my favorite of the semester. The beauty of both the image and the message are both stunning. Melissa Hernandez created this image [...]
Body shapes in the media
Today we are continuing on the fabulous media images my students created this semester. Earlier this week I posted images about teen parents about LGBTQQIA in media.
Today’s student, Faith Jaschke, was looking at representations of body shapes and sizes in advertising. She found over the semester that there is a substantial amount of unhealthy uniformity [...]
Media messages about teen parents
Yesterday I showed you the first of this semester’s Sex in the Media projects - and now here is the second!
As part of their Sex in the Media project, my students often investigate how teen parents are represented in the media. It’s a mixed bag, frankly, with sometimes glassy-eyed-approval of the beauty and sweetness of [...]
LGBTQQIA and Advertising
For those of you who have been reading my blog for some time, you may remember that about this time last year I posted three projects from my college students that were positive representations of sexuality in the media (Avant Garde Bodies, condom/bubble gum print ads, and True Beauty). I have four more student projects [...]
It is not your fault
One of my best friends is named Alice. She is an amazingly strong, beautiful woman. Years ago - just out of college - she was in an abusive relationship. Part of Alice’s healing process has included ongoing writing about her experience. The following is something she wrote recently, and gave me permission to post here.
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I [...]
The low points
My community college sex ed classes ended today. My students took a test on Tuesday and, among other more content-related questions, I asked them about their experiences in the class. I asked for high points and low points and I asked them to be specific. I always ask the question, as an extra-credit question, on [...]
What does prevention mean?
A friend of mine with a 7th grade daughter and I were just talking on the phone, and as we were saying goodbye, she mentioned that her friends with 7th grade children have disparate views on what prevention means. She didn’t have time to into what she meant, but wanted to save the conversation for [...]
Teaching about rape
Rape is one topic that I have a harder time covering than most. Part of the issue is that I’m never quite sure how the class is going to react. Here are two extreme examples from my college classes:
Last semester one of my college classes on rape was dramatic and emotional. Every single woman in [...]
