AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Alright y'all. So I have a project in my Diverse Learners class to make a video about an Equity issue, and I chose gender bias, sexism, and similar issues. Instead of asking you guys to fill out a survey like I originally thought I would do, I decided it would be better to get some more personal stories.

Since this is for an Education class, the video will focus on gender issues as seen in the classroom specifically, as well as how they affect learning in the future. So when thinking about the questions, think about your school life. If you are not currently in school, think back to your secondary school or even primary school days.

You don't have to answer all of the questions - in fact, I'd rather you just pick one that stands out in terms of the experiences you've had, but you are more than welcome to answer more than one if they are relevant to you.

So in short, pick one or more of these questions, and tell me about what you remember experiencing in school based on them. A short paragraph should be fine, but you can go into as much detail as you want. If you feel your answer would be too short, add some context like what grade you were in, what type of class it was, things you remember people saying, or how you felt about the situation.



These questions are just guidelines - you are free to share whatever experiences you think might be relevant. Just remember to stick to the theme of gender issues in education.

If you feel like your answers might be kinda personal, you are more than welcome to PM them instead of posting them here. Also, you are welcome to discuss each other's experiences - I might use those responses too. Just remember that they will be shown in a video to people - but all the stories will be anonymous.


Here's the fun part. I plan on including a few snippets of your answers in the video, and for the interesting stories, I'm thinking I could include voiceovers. Instead of having me voice over every story, if you'd like, you can read your written answer aloud and I'll include your voice in the video. You don't have to, but I think it'd be cool because technology.
Use this site to record your reading and then post or send me the URL it gives you once you save it.
You DO NOT have to record your voice, if I include your story in the video, I can just do a voiceover myself. If you don't want your story to be read aloud AT ALL, just say so and I'll just use the text.

One last thing, the video is due in a couple days, so once I finish it, I might post it here if you really care to see it or hear your own voices or whatever. I don't think it'll be terribly interesting (other than yalls text I'll prolly just have a bunch of stock photos) but eh, if you guys have a hand in it, I'll probably show it here.

1. No.
2. No, no and no.
3. Yes. I was bullied for being girly in elementary school. I accidentally ended up an a girl's lineup and the rest of my social life was ruined from there.
4. There aren't too many ladies in the fighting game scene. I do not know why this is.
5. I notice people being treated differently because of their gender all the time. It's because each person has a different view on gender roles and does their own thing without consequence.

1. no

2. Nope.

3. Yes.
I was a nerd, wimp. Cared about feelings.
they openly made comments about my sisters being attractive "LOL SHES HAWT" in front of me, trying to get a reaction. I refused to give them that and they took it as a challenge. They tried many things to get under my skin through high school.

4. Engineering is generally dominated by males. Think 2-3 female for every 2-300 male. the girls I've talked to say that engineering lacks "passion" and "fun"

5. Yes, male dominated clubs mostly. The guys tend to stare (OMG SHE LIKES WHAT I LIKE). I'll admit, I look over a bit more than I should.

1. Did you ever have a teacher that blatantly gave preferential treatment to one gender over another, or treated you personally in a different way because of your gender? What did they do? How did this affect how you or your classmates felt or behaved in class? Did it have any effect on how successful you were in that class?

Not that I remember

2. Do you think your gender affected what courses or activities you participated in while you were in school? Were you ever discouraged from participating in something because others thought it was a "girly" or "manly" thing to do? Conversely, were you ever encouraged to do something you weren't planning on doing because of your gender?

Very likely, although nothing that I could say for sure. I think it's a little silly to say that your gender never affected your choices at all.

Not that I remember for the other two

3. Were you or someone you knew bullied or treated badly because you/they did not fit in to their idea of your gender role, that is, you/they were were not perceived as masculine or feminine for some reason? What caused them to see you that way? What sort of bullying took place (verbal such as spreading rumors, physical, etc)?

I remember during recess during maybe the fifth grade we were playing basketball and someone said someone else played like a girl to which I said something like "hey that's kind of not that cool maybe" and they were like "lol u gay"

I also had, like, crazy long hair while I was in high school. Like, down to the middle of my back (although it's also crazy curly so it kind of puffed up around my shoulders). No one really made fun of me for being "girly" though. I found out later that everyone thought I was on pot.

4. Think of your career or personal interests. Are any of these areas typically dominated by one gender? How do you fit in? How did your educational experiences affect how you pursued these interests?

Haha you'd kinda need a career to answer this question. I think marketing advertising tends to be more male-dominated, but I haven't worked in any kind of major capacity in it before so I'm really not the best person to ask. I'm the only dude at my work, but it's a quilt supply store so that kind of makes sense. My education didn't give me particularly good advice for how to pursue my interests, so I don't really think it affected me that much.

5. Are there any other times where you noticed people being treated differently in a school setting because of their gender? Did you notice any trends in how people behaved based on their gender or the gender of others? Tell us about it, as well as your own thoughts of how it played out and what, if anything, could have been done differently.

To be honest I never really paid much attention to what other people were doing. I'm generally pretty oblivious. I remember there was a lot of machismo among the sports teams although I think it kind of leveled out as we got older.

Shit it's been like 6 years since I was in high school what the fuck

1. Did you ever have a teacher that blatantly gave preferential treatment to one gender over another, or treated you personally in a different way because of your gender? What did they do? How did this affect how you or your classmates felt or behaved in class? Did it have any effect on how successful you were in that class?

-I have actually had a few teachers who have given preferential treatment to either gender. It varied however. I've had teachers who preferred female students, teachers who preferred male students, and teachers with no preference. This counts for both College and High School. The genders of the teachers themselves also varied so I can't really say there was too much of a pattern. Honestly, if i think on it hard, I might say there was actually more of a positive focus on female students when it came to most teachers.

2. Do you think your gender affected what courses or activities you participated in while you were in school? Were you ever discouraged from participating in something because others thought it was a "girly" or "manly" thing to do? Conversely, were you ever encouraged to do something you weren't planning on doing because of your gender?

-The activities I participated in in High School were actually mostly dominated by females. I did things like band, chorus, acting and environmental clubs that were all mostly attended by females. I never really factored my gender into it or what others might think about it because I don't particularly care for people's opinions on how I spend my time. Same goes for college really.

3. Were you or someone you knew bullied or treated badly because you/they did not fit in to their idea of your gender role, that is, you/they were were not perceived as masculine or feminine for some reason? What caused them to see you that way? What sort of bullying took place (verbal such as spreading rumors, physical, etc)?

-I was never the target of bullies in school, but a close female friend of mine was routinely bullied for her atypical behavior, opinions, beliefs, and her lack of adherence to gender roles. She was frequently joked about as being a lesbian due to the way she dressed and acted and kept her hair.

4. Think of your career or personal interests. Are any of these areas typically dominated by one gender? How do you fit in? How did your educational experiences affect how you pursued these interests?

-I've worked as a Host at a few restaurants and it's a pretty female dominated area. Most wait staff and hosts are female around here and even management was mostly females. As I break into voice acting I notice that it's a very equalizing field. I would say there's a fairly equal number of male and female talent in the field. Same goes for stage acting and singing. Those are the things I'm most familiar with, anyway.

5. Are there any other times where you noticed people being treated differently in a school setting because of their gender? Did you notice any trends in how people behaved based on their gender or the gender of others? Tell us about it, as well as your own thoughts of how it played out and what, if anything, could have been done differently.

-Of course it cannot be denied that gender, and the role it plays in our lives it drawn to abysmally dramatic lengths in the classroom among peers. It's my experience that, if someone wants to make fun of another person in a hurtful way to bring them down, they'll find SOMETHING to harp on. The go-to thing is usually gender related, I find. Words like slut and dyke would be thrown around pretty carelessly in school. Most of the time, if someone didn't fit into gender roles they would be heavily criticized by other students. I think this went for both male and female students pretty equally, and it was usually someone of the same gender doing the taunting or bullying (female on female, male on male)

Thanks for yalls responses so far, I really appreciate it.

I'll probably sort through them tonight, if anyone else wants to contribute feel free to do so.