"We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

In the summer for 2012, I got a part time job working at a local gym in the child care center. One of my co-workers, had really short hair, wore long basketball shorts and t-shirts and shoes that were gender neutral. I will call her Erin. At first glance, most people thought Erin was a boy. But when you began a conversation with Erin, you could tell that she was a girl. Before I began this course, I would have described Erin as a "tom-boy" or "butch." I worked with her a lot that summer and we got a long great. I personally wondered if she was homosexual, just based on the way she dressed and sat in a chair (leaning back with legs open like men tend to do), which I now understand was holding stereotypes about women who are homosexual. (I thought about his internally, but never externalized my questions.) I overheard a group of girls who were working in the infant room talking about Erin and calling her a lesbian and saying degrading things about her. It really upset me because I really enjoyed working with her and she had a great personality. She also had a twin sister who had really long hair and wore similar clothes and wore make-up.

One day, we took the kids outside to play. A little girl came up to the Erin and told her "You look like a boy! Are you a boy?" (but her tone was very snubby.) Erin turned red in the face and said "I'm a girl." So later, I took the little girl aside and I got down on her level and told her that was very rude to ask and that she should go apologize for saying that. I told her sometimes girls have short hair, but we don't need to call them a boy. She apologized to Erin and then went back to playing.

Looking back with my new knowledge of anti-bias education, I would have asked her, "What makes you think she looks like a boy?" It has been found that people seem to rely on hairstyle as a
noticeable facial cue in determining a person's gender  (Eyssel & Hegel, 2012). I would then further the conversation by asking her "Did you know that some girls have short hair? We call them pixie cuts. Like Tinkerbell." As an anti-bias educator, I would also tell her that thinking all girls have long hair is a stereotype that that in fact, some girls have short hair. I would use this as a teachable moment later on and even use the game "Stereotype or fact" as mentioned in week 3's media segment on gender stereotypes (Start Seeing Diversity: Sexual Orientation)
This assignment has caused me to reflect on my own beliefs and consider how my perspectives influence their teaching and interaction with students from diverse sociocultural backgrounds (Eyssel & Hegel, 2012). 

References

Eyssel, F., & Hegel, F. (2012). (S)he's Got the Look: Gender Stereotyping of Robots1 (S)he's Got the Look: Gender Stereotyping of Robots. Journal Of Applied Social Psychology, 42(9), 2213-2230. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00937.x

Han, S. H. (2010). Sociocultural influence on children's social competence: A close look at kindergarten teachers' beliefs. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 24, 80–96.

Laureate Media.  (n.d) Start Seeing Diversity: Gender [media podcast] Retrieved from Week 3 resources of EDUC 6357 at https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4197932_1%26url%3D