Visualizing Lenses
The
most difficult aspect of this assignment was realizing that I am not very familiar
with teen movies and TV shows so I struggled to find examples that would work. I
decided to look at some teen movies from the late 90s to see if there were
images or scenes I could use, and there were (A LOT), but all the main
characters were white. There was absolutely no diversity in the late 90s,
except for the “token” people of color whose characters were given no depth or development.
While movies and TV shows from today offer a lot more representation of the
90s, the feminist lens was more difficult to apply to these movies. Since my
hope was to make the feminist lens easier to understand I really needed the
scenes I used to be cut and dry.
I
finally decided on using a scene from the Netflix movie Moxie, an image
from the movie Waiting to Exhale (which is older but one of my all-time
favorite movies), a scene from The Simpsons, and a scene from Beauty
and the Beast. I think it’s important to consider context when looking at
the image from Waiting to Exhale because while most people would say
that this scene depicts a woman who is fed up and is sticking it to her ex-husband
for cheating, we really need to move away from the “crazy female” trope. I
thought Beauty and the Beast would be a good choice because most people
have seen it at least once by the time they’re in high school and I knew that
students would be able to compare the ways that Gaston was perceived versus the
ways Belle was perceived by the town.
I
posted each scene/image with a small caption that consisted of questions. The questions
are meant to guide the student’s thinking process while giving clues of what to
look for. For example, the scene from Moxie is accompanied with the
question “Who has the power?” The caption asks who you think is in control, and
what is happening that makes you think that, as well as urges students to pay
attention to facial expressions and body language. I used this technique of
asking questions and offering suggestions of what to think about as they watch
or look at the clip.
Even though
I felt like I had a deep understanding of the feminist lens, I think this
project helped me to see through this lens where I wasn’t able to before, if
that makes sense. I know in the past when I watched Bernie set her husband’s
car on fire in Waiting to Exhale I laughed and thought she was a really brave
and strong woman for doing that. As I watch that scene now, I realize that it
feeds the “crazy chick” stereotype which is really harmful to women. I also
realized that I need to get up to date on teen movies and TV shows so that I
can relate to my future students more and incorporate learning tools like this
in my classroom that will be relevant and interesting.
Bonus Content:
This is a video from the YouTube channel Feminist Frequency. I thought it was an interesting analysis of Katniss from The Hunger Games but there are plenty of other interesting video analysis of other movies and ads.
Once the visualization is finished and posted to your blog, write a one-two page process analysis describing your process of matching the images with print. Also comment on how the process of visualization deepened your understanding of the content in ways reading alone might not have
I really liked your blog this week! I am one who struggled with critical lens in middle school, but the more I worked on it the easier it got for me and I started enjoying using my own critical lens. I really liked your visual, I think it touched base on very important information that people need to know. If you plan on using this in your classroom I think it will fit greatly as it gives an example of what critical lenses are and how we can use them. I think it is important to add a visual for your students when talking about something that may be a little more complex to understand as I know it is easier to explain, and understand when it is right in front of you and you can look at different piece. With these visuals it reminds me of examples.. like when we got to see some examples of these blog posts that always helps me get a better understanding of what we have to do so I feel like this visual is like one of those! Great job!!
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