Through no fault of their own, in a culture that vilifies those with a nondominant identity and sexual orientation and objectifies the body image of girls and women, they must endure catcalls and put downs, threats of sexual harassment and violence, and learn to measure their self-worth by weight and dress size. (It’s not about grit, p. 81)
Yes, this occurs in New York City too. Sometimes, blinded by the “liberal-ness” of this huge cosmopolitan city, we believe that the types of hardships and trauma described in chapter 4 of this book happen only in rural areas of “fly over” states where they live in repression of sexual identity and expression. This happens in New York City too. This happens in all the big cities of the United States. This happens all over the world. With as much advancement as we’ve made with/towards gender equality, gender identity, and sexual orientation, we still don’t live in a world where the majority of our students don’t experience harassment, bullying, or violence towards them of just being who they are.
It would be purposefully ignorant not to recognize that these societal standards affect our students on a daily basis and sometimes even cause themselves to distance themselves from society to the point of self harm and danger to themselves. Unfortunately, there is still problematic and violent behavior still regarded as “normal” and its up to us as educators to stand up against that so that are students can, even if for 45 minutes of their day, exist in a space that welcomes and celebrates them. We have no idea what that can do for them and what the extent of that positivity can cause in them.
When we explicitly denounce and go against behavior and language that puts our students down, we show them that we can be or are allies and that they can trust in us. Upon reading the statistics regarding the language schools present around anti-bullying, I remember in a recent class on this topic watching videos and never seeing the topic of sexual orientation come up. Even I, as a member of the community, completely overlooked this glaring chasm in the anti-bullying movement. There was an emphasis on gender, race, size, ability, but the basis of sexual orientation was either never spoken of or grazed over so lightly that I cannot remember it at all. We can all do better for our students. We can all step up and stand up for them, even when that comes with a cost.
The stories in this chapter and articles for this week can still happen in our classrooms. What will we do for our students that experience this?
I was thinking similar question when I read this week’s readings. I understand how struggles and difficultlies of those students if we put in the situation as them. Yes, the trust is most important part. So what do you think about how do we (as educators) build such relationship with our students? How should make them comfortable in our classroom to engage their learning?
The fact that there exists a taboo around acknowledging bullying against individuals of the LGBTQ community, as highlighted through its exclusion in the majority of anti-bullying programs in many schools, shows how incredibly important it is that we, as teachers, make every single voice heard in the classroom. By further ignoring students who come from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities and sexual orientations, we further silence them and make school yet another uncomfortable and, sadly, unsafe place. By using inclusive materials in our lessons in which individuals of all backgrounds are portrayed, as well as by allowing our classrooms to be spaces in which such taboos are openly talked about and questioned, we are further creating a safe environment where all voices and experiences can be accepted and heard. I believe this is also a way to build trust between the students and the teacher, hopefully resulting in a bond in which the student feels comfortable going to the teacher for any reason, such as bullying.