Gender and Sexuality.

“We’re all born naked and the rest is drag.” – RuPaul.

I believe whatever we choose to wear, say, portray is usually a reflection of how we feel on the inside. I have been in the creative industry since I took my first steps, and have always explored my sexuality and gender whether I knew it or not, so this is something that I encourage. I find it beneficial when schools to have posters promoting the LGBTQI+ community along with things like, the day of silence. This draws attention to kids who cant speak to anyone about their struggles with sexuality and gender, or problems at home or school. The school I was at on my practicum had a one minute of silence for the community and some girls even went the whole day in support, with tape placed over their mouths, plastered with the ‘day of silence’ promotion stickers and gave out pamphlets for youthline and help avenues, which I found very touching. Many of my students saw the minute of silence as a minute of prayer and I saw many of them praying during the time. This kind of promotion and education on the struggles some people face, is definitely needed in our schools, as things like bullying is massive in New Zealand. Bullying sayings like “That’s gay” need to be addressed. There was a massive debate in class as to the approach to reprimanding such verbalisations, but at the end of the day, we need to be thinking about why these things are being said in a negative light and address it accordingly. Is it coming from a place of ignorance? Then we need to take the role to educate here. Youthline director Stephen Bell said,“New Zealand is continuously ranked among the worst in the world for our levels of teen suicide. In a normal week two teenagers or two children kill themselves. About 20 young people will be hospitalised for self-harm each week, he estimated.” This is something we need to make students aware of and that these sayings are a from bullying. Students need to know even if they say things in passing that they think are ‘funny’, these could be the comments that stick with these students to the point where they may believe such things of themselves and could send an individual over the edge.

In class we talked about how we can challenge the norms in our classrooms. When speaking to students about injustices, personalising the stories is important. Letting them know these stories are real. The more relevant to their age and even their country or city, can make it more real and help them identify, are they going to be the person who is helping or are they going to be the person responsible for hurting? Making them aware of the repercussions, can be an intimidating but useful tool, as the weight of those situations can invoke the feelings of empathy, sympathy and even the anger for the injustice. Where something may seem foreign, we need to humanise it, putting it in their realm of consciousness. Ways of doing this in drama, could be by challenging gender roles in dramatic performance.This could potentially offer a window into other ways of life and create a safe place to learn gender and sexuality. Drama and the arts may give people the sense of anonymity they may need to ask questions or talk about topics they may feel are potentially taboo in other classes or situations.

Secondary students are at a critical stage in their identity and sexuality development and outside influences can persuade or alter their perceptions of the different lifestyles chosen. What I’m talking about here, is things like home influence. We don’t know how these things are being talked about in students homes and religious beliefs can also be a factor here too. At a stage of progression, students may not have matured within themselves enough to form untainted personal opinions. Therefore, it is important as educators, we use this opportunity to foster better ideals in our adolescents.

We need to praise these things and normalise them in our environment. Being different is just another way of noticing something is special.

“If you can’t love yourself how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?                                               Can I get an amen?” – RuPaul.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/91728517/kiwi-students-report-secondhighest-rate-of-bullying-in-international-study

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/85305366/the-highest-rate-of-teen-suicide-in-the-developed-world