Creative Project Discussion Paper
Abbey Martin
November 30, 2014
WGSS 223- Creative Project Discussion Paper
For my creative project, I wanted to focus on how the concept of feminism can shape people even at a very young age. I believe that we can begin to challenge the concept of male dominance and female inequality by teaching children in subtle ways the importance of feminism and equality. I decided to write a children’s book about two children playing basketball. At first, the female character isn’t allowed to play basketball with her male friends because it’s a “boy’s sport.” Eventually, the boys learn the value of the female character and begin to see her as an equal, which leads them to want to play basketball with her. My hope is that if this book were on a shelf in a bookstore, kids would read it and consciously or subconsciously relate it to their lives and what they can do to create equality in their own lives. This concept is a very simple one, but I feel like even subtle changes in how we present stories to children could really help to de-construct the current societal hierarchy and begin to create a mindset of equality from a childhood. When creating this project, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could affect how people (specifically females and males) act towards each other beginning from when they were children?” It’s awfully difficult to change someone’s mind when they have decades of life experience and set opinions under their belts, but children can still be shaped by what is presented to them. If they are presented with female-male equality, then hopefully that is what they will begin to recognize as true for them. It would be even more fantastic if somehow books with these sorts of themes would shape the parents and what themes and ideas they chose to present to their kids. Perhaps instead of choosing books with stereotypical gender inequality or gender characteristics, they would choose books with better representation of both boys and girls. The children’s book
November 30, 2014
WGSS 223- Creative Project Discussion Paper
For my creative project, I wanted to focus on how the concept of feminism can shape people even at a very young age. I believe that we can begin to challenge the concept of male dominance and female inequality by teaching children in subtle ways the importance of feminism and equality. I decided to write a children’s book about two children playing basketball. At first, the female character isn’t allowed to play basketball with her male friends because it’s a “boy’s sport.” Eventually, the boys learn the value of the female character and begin to see her as an equal, which leads them to want to play basketball with her. My hope is that if this book were on a shelf in a bookstore, kids would read it and consciously or subconsciously relate it to their lives and what they can do to create equality in their own lives. This concept is a very simple one, but I feel like even subtle changes in how we present stories to children could really help to de-construct the current societal hierarchy and begin to create a mindset of equality from a childhood. When creating this project, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could affect how people (specifically females and males) act towards each other beginning from when they were children?” It’s awfully difficult to change someone’s mind when they have decades of life experience and set opinions under their belts, but children can still be shaped by what is presented to them. If they are presented with female-male equality, then hopefully that is what they will begin to recognize as true for them. It would be even more fantastic if somehow books with these sorts of themes would shape the parents and what themes and ideas they chose to present to their kids. Perhaps instead of choosing books with stereotypical gender inequality or gender characteristics, they would choose books with better representation of both boys and girls. The children’s book