Lesson plan: your gender--beyond black & white.

Purpose: This activity explores gender and gender role expectations. Participants explore ways they may and may not conform to societal expectations, as well as investigate ways in which gender may not be as dichotomous as is frequently assumed. Discussion also explores ways one's internal sense of gender is not always in agreement with natal sex.

This activity works best as an opening exercise to explore ideas of gender and gender identity. It can also be used in sessions exploring intersections of sexual orientation, homophobia, gender roles, and genderphobia in society.

Activity:

1. Create and distribute a worksheet for each participant. To create the worksheet, hold an 8" by 11" paper horizontally and draw a vertical line down the middle. On the left-hand side write "Perceived Gender Expectation" and on the right-hand side ride "Actual Gender Experience." Distribute a worksheet as well as crayons or markers to each participant.

2. Invite participants to use creativity in drawing pictures or writing words under each of the two categories on the page. Representations can be concrete or abstract, and no one will be asked to share their creations unless they wish to.

Ask participants to draw pictures or write words that illustrate their "Perceived Gender Expectation"--what others expect of them based on their natal sex. In other words, in what ways do/have others interacted with them--perhaps either reinforcing stereotypic assumptions, or, in more challenging ways, based on their biological sex? Participants can include examples of both recent and childhood experiences.

4. On the other side of the paper, ask participants to illustrate their actual experience as a gendered person--representations of their individual and unique internal sense of gender. Again, this may be similar to societal expectations and norms, or challenging to them, or both.