A colleague of mine makes all of her students wear a skirt to class on a given day. (She provides a “refusal option,” which entails writing a 5 page paper on why they refused.)

The lecture on that day is about policing gendered bodies — how certain clothing enforces certain postures.

Best wishes to you.

I have a book of photographs by Annie Leibovitz called Women. I pick about 15 images of women in traditional and untraditional roles to show the class. Then I tell them to jot down their first impressions of the people in the images. Most of the untraditional women are assumed to be men. I then ask the kids to share their observations as I again show the images. It inevitably turns to a question of gender and I ask what all of the people in the images have in common. Sometimes a series of answers comes and I tell them that they are all women. Usually a surprised look and a little shock follows.

The class then discusses why the assumption was made that some of the people were males. We talk about the traditional roles of men and women and it sometimes goes on its own way. A fun exercise and a chance to challenge the stereotypes about women.

Check out the book Race, Class & Gender in the U.S. by Rothensburg.