Gender code

A project based on the documentary The Gender Code. This material can be used in gender education, equality education, sociology, and more.

About the project

Connection to the Education Policy: Social skills, Self-empowerment

Type of material: Further reading, Projects

Target audience: 13-16 years old

Subjects: Equality, Self-identity, Self-esteem, Stereotypes

Students take notes and answer these question:

What is meant by the gender code?
What is pop culture's view on genders?
How do we categorize people based on signs? What are these signs? Do these signs matter in terms of communication?
What does Erving Goffman discuss?
What do advertisements tell us about ourselves?
Is gender identity natural? – What kind of process occurs when it comes to gender identity?
What is the difference between the concepts of sex and gender identity?
Masculinity or femininity in Western societies has largely been defined in terms of binary, how is this defined?
How do we learn to send gender signals or gender signs and what do these terms mean?
What is advertising realism?
Why does Goffman focus on advertisements in his analysis?
What is meant by femininine touch?
What is meant by the ritualization of subordination?
How are subordination and femininity connected?
How are powerlessness and pornification connected?
How can we see the difference in how men and women are portrayed in advertisements?

Students take notes and answer these question:

What is the coy knee bend?
It repeatedly addresses the defenseless and vulnerable, but what does it mean?
How is it discussed that women are made to appear helpless? What is the contrast and how is this related to the animal kingdom?
What is meant by permissible passivity? How does it manifest and what is the opposite, how are men then depicted?
What is meant by infantilization?
How does infantilization manifest? Why is it said that women never leave childhood?
What are the symbols of masculinity?
How is masculinity defined?
Give examples of how masculinity is shown in advertisements and media?
How are heterosexual men persuaded about masculinity in ads that are based on how gay men are portrayed?
How do prejudices against homosexuality manifest in the need to use women to sell men fashion?
What are the men's bodies like and how is it related to reducing "gay erotica"?
Students take notes and answer these question:
Are we stuck in the code?
How can it be argued that "tough girls" are still trapped in the code?
How does the code also manifest in sports?
How have these symbols been shaped through the course of time?