We read "Race, Ethnicity, Surgery", by Maureen O'Connor, and then discussed it in class. This time, I had them all fill out "Say, Means, Matters" charts to help guide the discussion. I usually split the class into small groups to discuss the ideas before coming back together as a group, but somehow this reading caused the groups to bubble over and reform as a class almost right away. I've never seen such spirited discussion from my students!
Topics that came up:
Ethnically related surgeries
Plastic surgery in general
Eating disorders
Hollywood and false images
Photoshopping
Micahel Jackson
The Kardashians
Media
My students were finally embodying the kind of discussion I've been hoping for: they were eager to talk and to respond. They wanted to break into the conversation, and everyone had something to say. People were talking about having pride in how you look, without surgery, and how far surgery can remove someone from their original appearance. We talked about familial pressure, and how hard it could be for children to grow up with a parent, or parents, that had altered their appearance significantly (the Kardashian family, for example). My black student said she thought it would be particularly hard to have black parents that lightened their skin, because that would leave the child, or children, feeling very different, out of place.
There was a general consensus that plastic surgery for personal or necessary reasons was fine, but not when bowing to pressure from family, friends, or society as a whole.
I noticed too, when they left class, a greater sense of camraderie.
No comments:
Post a Comment