Exercises to Exorcise Your Stereotypes

Checking in on your own stereotypes – An exercise

Full post at CJSR's Adamant Eve radio show blog: http://adamantevecjsr.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/checking-in-on-your-own-stereotypes-an-exercise/

...Think of a woman you know and who you identify as a woman, maybe an acquaintance. Someone like a coworker, a friend of a friend, or the next woman you pass on the street. What changes when you ‘realize’ she is a transwoman (that is someone born with male sex organs who now presents and identifies as a woman)? In your head how is a transwoman different from a cis-woman (cis-gendered means people whose sex organs ‘match’ their gender presentation. So a woman who was born with a vagina)?

For me, this is a good one not just for showing that we often think of trans people differently from cis-gendered people, but also for showing that we often think of men as fundamentally different from women. If you’re having a hard time trying to imagine this scenario try watching a movie like Transamerica and switch back and forth from thinking about the main character as a cis-woman and then as a transwoman.

Here is another one. Next time you’re watching a show with men and women on it imagine their genders are switched but they are saying the same things and acting in the same way. For example, turn on a home renovation show with a hetero couple and imagine in your head that the husband is a woman and the wife is a man. When the wife giggles or when the husband makes an assertive decision think about how you would understand those actions differently if they were made by someone of another gender.

You can try variations of either of these experiments with other categories as well like race, age, attractiveness, size, ability, or sexuality. Try it out! You might learn a thing or two that will help you out as you work to change the world!