11/23/11
Because Thursday was Thanksgiving and we are getting ready to head back to Oaxaca for our last week in Mexico, we only had one day of fieldwork this week. We spent Monday and Tuesday in class learning about the different types of domestic violence. These lectures mostly focused on the theme of equality as a form of preventing future cases of domestic violence.
On Wednesday, we traveled to a nearby high school to discuss this issue with 15-16 year olds. Normally, we spend all of Thursday and Friday preparing these presentations but since we didn’t have that option this week, we were forced to present the information without an outline. Also, we were unexpectedly divided into four groups with the boys only speaking with boys and the girls only speaking with girls. Surprisingly, the presentation went very well. They were also very fun because we were able to progress off the desires of the crowd. I enjoyed it because it really challenged my Spanish since I had to discuss topics without preparing what I was going to say.
During the presentation we did an activity where the men were to draw and write thing that define men physically, socially, sexually, and so on. Next, the men did the same thing for defining a woman. At the end we explained how most of the topics on the man poster were also present on the woman poster. For example, both men and women are strong, smart, independent, sensitive, and so on. We then further discussed the theme of equality by switching the two posters, man and women, with two posters from a female class. This showed that the social identities of women and men were similar between both genders and, when thought described on paper, both genders are very similar. We used this activity to show the classes that there are no defining characteristics that make one gender better than the other and we are all equal. Next, we tied equality into domestic violence and the lack of equality as a risk factor for domestic abuse. In the end the kids had a lot of fun and were surprised by the hidden message of the activity. The presentation was a great experience and one of my favorite presentations that we have given.
On Wednesday, we traveled to a nearby high school to discuss this issue with 15-16 year olds. Normally, we spend all of Thursday and Friday preparing these presentations but since we didn’t have that option this week, we were forced to present the information without an outline. Also, we were unexpectedly divided into four groups with the boys only speaking with boys and the girls only speaking with girls. Surprisingly, the presentation went very well. They were also very fun because we were able to progress off the desires of the crowd. I enjoyed it because it really challenged my Spanish since I had to discuss topics without preparing what I was going to say.
During the presentation we did an activity where the men were to draw and write thing that define men physically, socially, sexually, and so on. Next, the men did the same thing for defining a woman. At the end we explained how most of the topics on the man poster were also present on the woman poster. For example, both men and women are strong, smart, independent, sensitive, and so on. We then further discussed the theme of equality by switching the two posters, man and women, with two posters from a female class. This showed that the social identities of women and men were similar between both genders and, when thought described on paper, both genders are very similar. We used this activity to show the classes that there are no defining characteristics that make one gender better than the other and we are all equal. Next, we tied equality into domestic violence and the lack of equality as a risk factor for domestic abuse. In the end the kids had a lot of fun and were surprised by the hidden message of the activity. The presentation was a great experience and one of my favorite presentations that we have given.
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