It's Been a While

Sorry for the lack of communicado! Here's what I have been up to:

Remember that post about how to make feminism digestable for the teens? I was prepping for that and teaching that to the young ladies where I volunteer.

105 girls signed up but I only had 78 seats. :( It broke my heart.

But the class went so well!

My topics were:

• Haute Couture or Haute Mess-why what we wear matters. In this class, we discussed the idea of what is acceptable vs. what is sold as well as the focus on celebrity fashion. This also covered those terrible who wore it better/fab or drab articles as well as the dependency on make up and contouring.
• To Has Cheezburger or Not to Has Cheezburger-why weight is the question. This covered body image lashback for all sizes as well as the altering of toys and animated characters into a sexualized body type (with much care to never actually say the word sexualized).
• Character Assassination-How our beloved fictional characters measure up to today's "standards". Covering Hermione, Katniss, Bella, Tris, Arya, and Daenerys with special consideration given to how the media defines a strong female character as well as analyzing their names to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
• The Dreaded "F"word-do we still need feminism? Explaining what feminism is, including the three waves and different types of feminism.

The girls were so receptive to the material and had some great discussions about it. Girls thanked me for teaching it and asked for pictures with me, and even said they wanted to go back to their schools to start feminist clubs. It was incredibly heart-warming and rewarding. The kind of experience that makes me think twice about what I am doing now and if I should go back to school to persue teaching. Teaching is in our blood on my mom's side of the family. My grandmother was a teacher. i had a cousin go to school for it. I started to go to school for it. However, I'd prefer to be a college professor than teach high school or middle school.