Empowered Women: International Women's Day

Trigger Warning:  This post is about violence against women.  The poses in this post contain violent images meant to spark awareness and passion in ending violence against women.

The Back Story

My RL mother was a victim of domestic violence.  Her first husband kicked her in the head with a steel tip boot and knocked her down a flight of steps.  For the rest of her life, she suffered from seizures.  As a child, I held the smelling salts as my oldest brother held her head and my second oldest brother made sure she didn't fall.  Violence against women is something I take seriously.

How We Can Make a Difference

Today is International Women's Day.  It's an important day for my sisters around the world because it reminds us that we all have a common bond.  Unfortunately, women around the world do not celebrate the same rights, and women suffer emotional, physical and sexual abuse daily.

Take some time to think about issues facing women around the world.  In Second Life, you can attend a day long concert held at the Music Road Trip Event Space in honor of women everywhere.  I will be there throughout the day; please come say hello.

#Break the Bias

The theme for the 2022 International Women's Day is to Break the Bias.  Women all over the world face daily micro aggressions rooted in bias, and these biases can lead to drastic ends like violence, discrimination, and, sadly, death.

Violence Against Women

 

TRIGGER WARNING:  Stop here if images of guns are harmful to your mental health.

A Story in Pictures

In the course of my RL career, I've taught women's literature nearly every semester for over a quarter century.  My own background is in archetypal theory regarding American female characters focusing on the archetypes of Mother and Temptress.  I've directed the Vagina Monologues several times over the years, and I have no problems with words used to discuss sexual activity, gender, or violence.  

My good friends over at Something New created a new pose called Showdown based on movies like Pulp Fiction.  The scene involves shady dealings and is a perfect "movie set."  This is something that I think Something New does swimmingly well; they create poses and backdrops that recreate beautiful (and not so beautiful) things we see on the screen and allow us to become the actors in those scenes.

The folks at Something New were taken back by some naysayers who were very upset about the use of guns as props especially given the current state of affairs between Russia and the Ukraine.  However, the movies that inspired these poses are still as popular as ever (John Wick 987), and the creators meant no disrespect.  It's important to talk about violence and our comfort levels with it, but if money is any measurement, violent movies are the most popular genre out there ranging from Cowboy films to Mafia inspired movies like The Irishman.

To stop bias in its tracks, we have to discuss what causes it, but we also have to talk about what happens when it is left unchecked.  Discrimination and unfair practices may not seem like much, but in a world where we are all struggling to survive, it's important to call out injustice when we see it.  If we don't, violence becomes the end result in a very preventable scenario.

A Lesson Plan

Something New didn't set out to create an educational tool, but this is exactly the pose set I would use to talk about gender and non-verbal communication.  In literature, we often don't get to "see" facial expressions, but in movies and games, we have that luxury.  We can put words to what we "think" characters are feeling.

In this first picture, there is no prop.  I would ask students to tell me what they think is going on in the picture.  In SL, I would have them each hop onto the standing pose ball and use the facial expression HUD to create an expression they think fits the scene.  Once they did that and snapped a screen shot, I would ask them to discuss the scene from the second (floor) pose and use the facial HUD to select something they felt was appropriate. 

Once we shared what we think is going on and how our facial expressions match the tone of the scene, I would ask them about how clothing, make up and hair factored into the expression they gave to males or females.  What kind of biases exist based on clothing?  

Once that coversation was over, I would ask students to add the gun prop.  What changes?  

Does the facial expression still make sense?  Why or why not?

Our discussion would explore different perceptions based on gender.  Do we perceive the situation differently when there is a male or female in the standing pose and/or the ground pose?  Why?  Why not?  What biases underpin our thinking about males and females caught up in a scenario like this?  What kind of "girl" is this based on her clothing?  What kind of "guy" is it that she's reacting to?  Can we be sure it's a guy at all?

The Final Learning Outcome

In Literature, we have to assign, usually in our heads, what we think the characters look like based on descriptions.  Do we have conceived notions about what a man with a gun looks like compared to a woman?  Do we think that "certain" women have a "certain" look that leads to a "certain" reputation?  Where did we learn that?  Who taught us bias in the first place?

Because I teach literature, I would probably fold this into a reading.  I'd have to think about which one, but if you have suggestions, please leave them in the comments below, or, better yet, come to the concert at Music Road Trip Event Space and chat with me there :-)

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