In my Literature in ESL situation course, we have discussed of gender based approaches to teaching literature with special focus on feminism. Based on our discussion in lecture and tutorial, I strongly agree that it is important and necessary to expose students to gender perception in literature. There are some reasons why I agree with this statement.
A great number of teachers tend to employ picture books, chapter books, and fairy tales because they think these teaching materials can help students build a collection of narratives and create a world of their own while improving their literacy. However, many researchers point out that gender bias is still prevalent in contemporary children's and young adult literature and continues to stimulate hot debate. In my opinion, I think that the purpose of the including gender perception in literature is to provide a review of children's literature in view of gender stereotypes, which will help teachers better understand the issue and problem of stereotyped female roles in their teaching sources. What follows are suggestions that teachers can consider as their teaching principles or strategies to be implemented in the context or reading practices in ESL/EFL classrooms. It is hoped that the discussion of such a controversial issue can stimulate teachers to rethink what and how they should teach in the 21st century classroom. Ultimately, the topic of gender issues can help students’ promote critical thinking and literacy and empower them with a further understanding of gender thinking in their lives.
It should be noted that many of these books are still popular and commonly used in the contemporary classroom. More importantly, after three decades of research studies since the 1970s, such an insensitive mentality toward sexual imbalance is still present in contemporary children's literature. Under such circumstances, many writers have become more aware of the gender issues in their books. There are writers who attempt to increase the number of female characters in their books, and points out that many of their books are intentionally "dominated by main characters who are girls, female animals, or dynamic elderly women". Other than that, authors or writers also clearly indicates that the purposeful treatment and balance of female or male characters in a story, while admirable, are not a realistic standard for all children's literature, and in fact, is impossible to maintain given to the volume and variety of books in the trade book market every year. Nevertheless, some authors have suggests that some gender perception books can be used and considered in the classroom to offer teachers and students to have different perspectives on gender issues and help them enrich their reading materials and discussions. In my viewpoint, I think that, it would be more realistic and especially important to come up with "more books with strong female characters who are active, inventive, and in charge of their own destinies", thus placing more emphasis on the quality of female roles.
It is important to expose students with gender penception in literature. As we can know, the persistent imbalance of gender representation in children's literature highlights the importance of children's literature in greatly shaping many children's minds and consistently influencing different cultures in the world. For example, numerous children in many countries grow up exposed to American culture, which, to many children, is mostly composed of various fairy tales, such as Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Sleeping Beauty, none of which is American in ultimate origin. These fairy tales are also the main source of the animated movies that have been present in our lives for so many decades. Therefore, if we accept that fairy tales are one of the major categories in children's literature, we will agree that children's literature is probably the most influential genre read among students of different levels. Children's literature has become part of our culture that frames, or even dictates, the consciousness of our children and young people because they hear the stories and watch the movies again and again. In sum, children and young people receive a “secret education”, in which children's literature and popular culture share power in society and work to undermine the possibilities for greater democracy and equality in the classroom.
The stereotypes and worldview embedded in children's books have become accepted knowledge, and such deep socialized thinking has created barriers that prevent authors or teachers from implementing their democratic and classless beliefs, whether it be writing or teaching. According to some authors, coping with persistent gender stereotyping requires increasing awareness of gender issues on the part of authors and teachers. Authors should devote their attention to the representation of female and male roles in their writing process, while teachers should attempt to empower their students with critical thinking and alternative reading.
In a democratic and anti-bias classroom, teachers need to be extremely aware of the fact that dominant reading practices will make students familiar to ordinary texts and as a result students will passively identify themselves with the characters in many stories. Female protagonists in such stories have merely become the obstacles or prizes which the male characters encounter in the narratives. While men are always elevated as the characters that matter, women are reduced to being tokens of male status. Teachers should help students develop critical thinking through learning processes such as reading against the grain, in which teachers equip students with a certain attitude that deliberately challenges the text and helps students uncover the gender inequalities present in the text. In brief, teachers should adopt resistant reading practices rather than dominant or conventional reading practices.
To implement the notion of resistant reading practices, teachers should encourage students to approach a text critically by making sense of the text without applying traditional gender concepts. One useful strategy is to read and discuss the text through feminist perspectives that are based on women's positions in patriarchal society and discourse. Three of these relevant perspectives are the history of subordination and marginalization of women, women's absence from mainstream discourse and the objectification of women, which usually places women in one of the following four positions or categories which are nurturing mothers or caregivers, dutiful daughters, sexual or passionate women and mad or bad women. These four categories represent different female positions in Western cultures. The first two categories are symbolic of legitimate positions in a male dominated society. The third position can be a projection of male desire or need, while the last status is a nonconforming position. In most cases, these different female roles are defined according to what men want from them. Often in the course of a story female roles move from one category to another, or they can portray different identities simultaneously such as being a dutiful daughter and a passionate girl (e.g. Cinderella). Through the conceptual perspectives mentioned above, teachers can stimulate students to analyze different books and construct new meanings out of them.
By exposing students with the gender perception in literature, students might have a better understanding of the gender biasness in most of the country.
