This year I've decided to get more interactive to celebrate the day and discuss sexism using poweful images.
This year's logo for International Women's Day is #PressforChange, so everybody should start by condemning campaigns and attitudes we see in everyday life without even realising. That would be a great way to press.
The UN Secretary- General António Guterres has said :
"On International Women’s Day, let us all pledge to do everything we
can to overcome entrenched prejudice, support engagement and activism, and
promote gender equality and women’s empowerment."
Two of the targets
of the 2030 Agenda are:
End all forms of discrimination against all women
and girls everywhere.
Eliminate all forms of violence against all women
and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and
sexual and other types of exploitation.
We all know that publicity uses women to increase sales and "attract" customers,these are forms of discrimination and exploitation. Here you can see some examples:
and even we see advertisements or campaigns that are not as appropiate as they seem.
But I want to highlight the sexism and discrimination present in sport, specially in the press, where women are seen as something beautiful, wearing sexy outfits, it's not their sportive achievents what matters to sell more.
Colombian Cyclist team
Are all the hightlighted things important? What is relevant here?
All of us shoud stand up, fight against this and try to get the targets of the agenda before 2030.
We really tried hard and made an effort on completing all the exercises on passive voice, so now it's time to enjoy it in songs and see it's really useful to express your feeelings.
Listen two these two songs and find all the possible examples of passive in the lyrics
ADELE "Someone like you"
MAROON 5
Answers:
Adele: We were born and raised in a summer haze You'd be reminded that for me it's over Regrets and mistakes they are memories made
On March 17th people all over the world celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. It is the date when he is supposed to have died in Downpatrick, Ireland. We know he was born English, captured by Irish pirates who made him a slave, later he became a bishop and converted Ireland into Christianity using the shamrock as the symbol of Trinity. There are lots of legends attributed to him such as he banned the snakes from Ireland (snakes were a pagan symbol of druids really). I don't want to bore you with history, if you are interested in knowing more about it you can click in this link: History of Saint Patrick The Day started to be celebrated with parades in New York city 10 years after US Independence from the British in 1776. Today I just want to comment some symbols related to this Festival.
THE SHAMROCK ( Seamroy for the Celts) As I said before, this clover is associated to Saint Patrick and therefore to Ireland, because the Saint used it to explain the mystery of Trinity to pagan people ( three in one: Father, Son and Holy Spirit) , later it became a symbol of nationalism.
GREEN
Green is a colour associated to Saint Patrick's Day. People wear green, dye rivers in green (Chicago) etc, but at the beginnig the colour for that that day was blue. In the 18th century green became more popular because of different reasons: the clovers which are green, Ireland was called the "Emerald Island" because it's so green, green was the colour representing the catholics in their flag and Leprechauns can't pintch you if you wear green.
IRISH MUSIC
Irish music is played in Irish pubs all over the world. Irish People are very musical, they like singing, dancing and playing music. Music represents their ancient traditions (The Celts had an important oral tradition and used songs and music to tell stories and culture) Celtic music and language were forbidden by the English. Nowadays there are important Irish bands (The Chieftains) who try to bring to live the old tunes and instruments such as the fiddle, the uilleann pipes (a sort of elaborate
bagpipe), the tin whistle (a sort of flute that is actually made of
nickel-silver, brass or aluminum) and the bodhran (an ancient type of
framedrum that was traditionally used in warfare rather than music). Other famous Irish bands are U2, The Corrs, Sinead O'Connor etc.
THE LEPRECHAUN ( Lobaircin for the Celts)
It comes from an ancient Celtic belief about tiny men, good or bad, with magical powers. Leprechauns were crazy fellows, whose task was mending the shoes of the fairies. Leprechauns are known to be treacherous and tricky specially when it comes to protect their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
CABBAGE AND CORNED BEEF
Irish main diet was based on potatoes and all kind of stews but there is one which has become famous mainly among Irish inmigrants to USA. It includes potatoes, carrots, beef and cabbage. If you have it with a pint of Guinness, better.
Christmas is just around the corner full of good wishes, food, lights, presents etc, but we often forget the real meaning of Christmas and that lots of people can't or just really don't feel like celebrating it. I have chosen some quotes and a video by John Lennon to give you some food for thought.
1. What do you think Churchill meant with "a season of reflection? 2. Some people don't consider
politically correct to wish Merry Christmas to others and they just wish
"happy holidays" or "happy season" Do you agree?
3. Do you think Christmas is getting "too commercial" nowadays?
Some people can't celebrate Christmas for different reasons and we shoud dedicate some time to think about them. This is what John Lennon and Yoko Ono did when they wrote and sang this special Christmas song in 1971. Happy Xmas ( War is Over) was performed with the Harlem Community Choir and it was also a protest song against the Vietnam War. As a peace activist, Lennon said when he wrote the song: "I understand what you have to do: Put your political message across with a little honey." The video, released in 1990, includes images of their billboard campaign against war all over the world, with their son Sean and the choir. This song has had lots of covers by different artists.
You can see the lyrics here with an activity to complete. Worksheet Another version of the video was released later with hard images of the war
Some weeks ago I watched a funny video (thanks Paul Kelly for sharing) by "Weird Al" Yankovic called "Word Crimes" this video is a parody of the song " Blurred lines" by Robin Thicke and was recorded in 2013. All
Yankovic is really concerned about proper use of grammar and has
campaigned against bad use in songs, posters, ads and social media. He
considers himself a "grammar nerd"
In this video he mocks on line commenters, misspelling, abuse of numbers instead of letters, language on SMS, punctuation etc.
Watch the video and write down as many mistakes which are mentioned as you can.
I have come across a viral ad that I consider worthy to share and talk about with my students. It an advertisement from Swedish Railways (SJ) by TBWA\Stockholm which challenges gender roles with Paul's transformative journey.
1. Can you describe what you saw? 2. What is the main purpose of the ad? 3. Why do you think this video has gone viral? 4. How does it make you feel?
"Whoever you are, wherever you want to go, for the bigger journeys and the small, SJ will be there for you" this is the main message of the campaign. Would you travel with them?
On December 9th, 2016 Madonna was regarded Best Woman of the Year at Billboard Awards. It wasn't something new for her as she is used to getting all kinds of awards all along her 34 years as an entertainer, but this was a special one to be cited. When she got on stage to receive her award she stood in a man-like position and gave a powerful speech.
She talked about misogyny, abuse, sexism and feminism. We found an unusual Madonna who almost broke into tears remembering long ago sufferings. I want to highlight some of the things she said about the following and give some food for thought.
MISOGYNY AND SEXISM
“I stand before you as a doormat… Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer"
What do you think she wanted to say about being " a doormat"?
“Thank you for acknowledging my ability to continue my career
for 34 years in the face of blatant sexism and misogyny and constant bullying
and relentless abuse.”
"If you’re a girl, you have to play the game. You’re allowed to be pretty
and cute and sexy. But don’t act too smart. Don’t have an opinion that’s out of
line with the status quo"
What happens if you have an out-of-line opinion or you don't play the game?
"To age is a
sin"
Why are women rejected in some jobs when they age?
"Women do not
have the same freedom as men.”
"Women have
been so oppressed for so long, they believe what men have to say about them,”
“They believe they have to back a man to get the job done.”
Why would you back a man or a woman? In what ways?
WOMEN HATING/HELPING OTHER WOMEN
“Be what
men want you to be, but more importantly, be what women feel comfortable with
you being around other men"
What do you think she means with this last sentence?
"As women, we have to start appreciating our own worth and each other’s
worth. Seek out strong women to befriend, to align yourself with, to learn
from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by, to support, and enlightened by.”
Why is this so important?
This year the International theme is #BeBoldforChange to help forge a better world- a more inclusive, gender equal world
To celebrate woman's Day this year I've chosen two videos I hope you like
A beatiful song by Alicia Keys "Superwoman" (2007)
and another one as a tribute to George Michael who passed away on December 25th "Freedom" (1990).
They talk about being yourself and don't care about others' opinions on you. It's like Madonna said in her speech: you have to fit a stereotype or an imageto be counted.
On January 10th, 2016 David Bowie passed away, but he left an interesting legacy of songs, videos, art, tolerance and a new way to see life.
One of his best song ever was "Space Oddity" released in 1969 during a period of great interest in space flight. The United States' Apollo 11 mission would launch five days later and would become the first manned moon landing another five days after that.
In 2013, the song was covered by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who performed the song while aboard the and therefore became the first music video shot in space. It has reached popularity in 2016 because it was used by Lady Heroine for the game "Call of Duty Infinity warfare"
Chris Hadfield ( 1959) was the first Canadian to walk in space, he flew two space shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station. He was responsible for a crew of five astronauts and helped to run
dozens of scientific experiments dealing with the impact of low gravity
on human biology. During the mission he also gained popularity by
chronicling life aboard the space station and taking pictures of the
earth and posting them through social networks and by singing and playing the guitar in space for the first time.
Before listening and watching the video I'd like you to try to define or give a synonym for the following words that you'll see in the video.
