2. TO START OF WITH WE NEED SOME COMMON
LANGUAGE AND UNDERSTANDINGS.
Take a piece of paper and put your first and last name on it. I will collect and pass
back these quiz papers for you to re-use for future quizzes.
1. According to Lois Tyson, what is a patriarchy?
Would you agree that we live in one? Why or why not?
2. What are the negative connotations of feminism, according to Tyson?
Would you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?
3. FOR THIS ONE CLASS ONLY: PLEASE GET INTO GROUPS OF FOUR OR SO,
SEPARATING YOURSELF BY GENDER ASSOCIATION. FOR THIS EXERCISE, YOU MAY
USE THE ESSAY YOU PRINTED UP BY LOIS TYSON, AS WELL AS YOUR OWN
THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.
Women: Get a piece of paper. Write Good girl/woman on one half of the top of the
page. Write Bad girl/woman on the top of the other page. Think of and list in each
column all of the roles, expectations, stereotypes, behaviors, attitudes towards sex,
marriage, careers, double standards, associated language, anything you can think of
associated with traditional patriarchal norms.
Men: Do the same thing but at the top of your columns, Write “Real” boy/man and
Inadequate boy/ man. Think of and list in each column all of the roles, expectations,
stereotypes, behaviors, attitudes towards sex, marriage, careers, double standards,
associated language, anything you can think of associated with traditional
patriarchal norms.
4. Now go to the board and write your lists in the
column I have already titled. It will be chaotic for a
bit but hang in there until we get our lists
completed.
5. BACK INTO YOUR SAME GROUPS.
Answer the following questions. Take some notes as you may not remember all you
have talked about when we discuss them.
1. Where do these these cultural identities come from? When do we start learning
them?
2. Are they acceptable to you or do you feel inhibited by them?
3. How are they damaging to you yourselves and how are they damaging to the
opposite sex and to society as a whole?
4. Can you think of any examples that prove that they are changing? Can you find any
examples that prove they are not? What are they.
6. AND BACK TO YOUR ORIGINAL QUESTIONS.
• Now go back to the essays I asked you to read and annotate for this class. Based
on our discussion today and what you see on the board, take 15 minutes or so
and find some quotes that are relevant to what we are seeing about ourselves
and what we have come to accept as societal norms. Write down the page
numbers for the quotes.
7. BACK TO WHAT YOU WROTE ORIGINALLY
• How have your responses changed as a result of our discussion? What can you
add about yourself? What about the notion of being a recovering patriarchal
feminist? If you are a man, can that apply equally to you? If you are LGBTQ, what
does that mean to you?
• Write several sentences about what you have discovered about the topics of
patriarchy and feminism.
8. FOLKTALES
Can you now look at what Tyson says about folktales (88 and 89) and what they
teach us? Find quotes that explain where our early teachings about societal norms
for girls and boys, men and women come from in the folktales we are told.
9. HOMEWORK
Read “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella” in our course reader.
You should also have time to start Blood Red Road. I think it won’t hurt to get a
head start on it. It’s a fast read.
