Name of Event: Queer Iconography: 3rd Annual LGBT Symposium
Organizer: LGBT Studies Program and Hofstra Cultural Center
Location: Hofstra University
This event was an extremely interesting and worthwhile experience. It consisted of a series of guest speakers and panel discussions with time for questions and answers. The overall purpose of the symposium was to first discuss the ways in which we as a society refer idea of being "queer" in many different ways. The point that the speakers wanted to prove was that there is no one set way of being queer and just to suggest this is extremely limiting and unfair. Homosexuals like all other people do not fit into pieces of a puzzle, they are all unique. Role models/Icons were also an important part of the days discussions. One might initially think that role models are great because they give people a sense of safety where you know that someone is like you and open and out there in the world and they aren't alone. We discussed people in the media, actors and actresses and people in the music business. While individuals like Ellen Degeneres, Elton John, or even Clay Aiken give some assurance that they are not alone, there are a lot of limitations in regards to role models. This applies especially to homosexual minorities because they might have less icons who are just like them and this can be very disheartening and cause a great deal of distress. It may cause them to question who they are while other non-minorities might have more icons who they see as being just like them. In addition, the symposium also touched upon labels and how they can be extremely limiting not only in the LGBT community but also in communities all over the world. What happens if someone doesn't fit into a norm label? The repercussions of labels can be extremely hurtful and should not be used.
I really liked the way speakers shared a great deal of personal experience. For instance, people discussed coming out and what this meant for them holistically and how it is most definitely an experience that they will be going through their entire life. This made me think of my future students and how their personal lives should be a part of my classroom experience. I do not want to make people hide who they are in school, I should be the person who helps students embrace their differences and learn from each other. In terms of being a role model, I realize that I am a certain ethnicity and sexual orientation, but I want to try to be a role model for all of my students no matter if they are similar or different from me. I plan to do this by embracing our differences and trying to be as supportive as a possibly can be because growing up is really tough no matter who are what you are.
As a future teacher, this experience really made me think about the way in which students are labeled in the classroom. Labels really are not good; they get in the way of people really getting to know each other and I will not label kids in my class. Aside from my perspective as the teacher, labels are also bad coming from a child's perspective. If a teacher labels a child as a "problem" or a "slow learner" eventually the child will start to believe the label and that is just unfair and unreasonable.
This experience really made me think about a lot of the themes we discussed in our Multicultural Ed class because we have been reading and exploring how people are faced with injustices because of their differences. We have been discussing and planning ways to incorporate peoples unique cultures into the curriculum in interesting and creative ways. The symposium really reinforced to me how important this actually is because when people are made to feel lesser or ashamed of who they are they don't benefit from many crucial experiences.
5 comments:
Hey Anne Marie,
This sounded like it was really interesting. If I would have known about it, I probably would have gone. I think that its great that people got up and shared their own experiences with coming out. I know that for me it was probably one of the most difficult things I had to do. To realize something like that about yourself is not easy but once you do it almost lifts a huge weight off of your shoulders. Even though it was two years ago I think that it is something that I will continue to focus on for the rest of my life.
It is true that people throw the word "queer" around like its nothing. Whether it be to the way somebody looks or to a person. Children like to throw that word around a lot to. Like you, I think that it is important that children understand that labeling people is not something that they should do.
Megan
I really love what you are saying about labels and really ties in well with the "reframing" that we learned how to do. I have seen how labels can be even more limiting than whatever it is that is actually being labeled a lot. I know this is confusing but he's an example: My students in self-contained class know that they have been referred to as the slow kids, and they get these messages a lot. Their faults are openly discussed. Because of this, my students do not achieve as much as they can not because of whatever "limits" their abilities afford them, but because their confidence is so low. Why should they even try to achieve and progress if they have only ever been given ceilings?
ps great job!
So I totally couldn't figure out how to comment before, hence the reason my response to Angelica's is its own post. My bad, sorry. Anyway, this symposium sounded really interesting. It really got me thinking about labels. I really hate labels and the way they clump children together in a group even when they have different qualities (totally got off of the LGBT topic right there a little bit) and they make it hard to really understand who a child is individually. By just saying a child is autistic or gifted & talented or lesbian that really doesn't tell me anything about who the child is. And while having a label is necessary for some extent of character description I think some teachers rely too heavily on the label to tell the whole story of the child. In the LGBT(+) world I think labels are everything to "outiders". "They" give them a label and then don't really learn anything about who they are or what thier beliefs or preferences really are. In my classroom I would actually want to do a lesson on the downfalls of labeling someone. Children are too quick to place each other in categories or labels and leave them there and then refuse to believe anything else about them or remove the label from them. I think it's our job as educators to stop this type of behave and to stop labeling children ourselves. Okay, sorry for the randomness of that post! :)
Annmarie-thank you so much for posting this. I think you definitely touched on a lot of interesting and important issues, all of which I agree with and support. Firstly though, I appreciate you pointing out the lack of role models that minorities have when it comes to the LGBT community. I completely agree with the importance in being a role model for children and peers (hence my wanting to become a freshmen RA this year) but I think your point about this deficit is something that might be interesting to look into further. These people must be out there so is there a reason they are not as open about it? Perhaps they already feel quieted and offset by being an ethnic or cultural minority and it would almost be a double whammy to come out in this more "secretive" or invisible sense.
I also really liked your comment about how you don't want your students to have to hide who they are when they come into school and into your classroom. I definitely agree with this and the importance of getting to know your students and allowing them to get to know, and RESPECT, each other (I like that you used the word "embrace").
I think this directly relates to the whole issue of labeling. I think we can also directly relate it to our conversation in class yesterday and how words are often just thrown around be it in a derogatory manner or simply because our students do not know the true meaning and background of the word.
Lastly, I want to agree also with Christina in her statement about understanding a child individually. This goes hand-in-hand with the "person first" mentality in special education where we "label" people as "a person with autism" instead an autistic, etc. Thanks for addressing that!
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