Level(s): Grades 8 – 9

Author: This lesson was taken, with permission, from the award-winning Violence-Prevention Curriculum Healthy Relationships, produced by the Halifax, Nova Scotia advocacy group Men For Change.OverviewThis is the first of three lessons that address gender stereotypes. The objective of this lesson is to encourage students to develop their own critical intelligence with regard to culturally inherited stereotypes, and to the images presented in the media – film and television, rock music, newspapers and magazines. In this lesson students take a look at their own assumptions about what it means to be a man, and what it means to be a woman. The brainstorming and discussion sessions are meant to encourage them to ask gender-specific questions as a step in the self-reflective process. Students will begin to see how believing in stereotypes can lead to violence towards oneself and others.Learning OutcomesStudents will:

• discuss characteristics of male and female stereotypes in our society;
• identify ways in which their own lives have been affected by these stereotypes; and
• identify the aspects of these stereotypes that are related to violence.

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) are available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.