Gender Buffet Socialization Activity

Abstract

This activity allows students to engage with a journal article, something they might be intimidated by at first. It shows them that they can, with deep engagement, master the concepts of an article that is written for a professional sociologist audience. The concept of “the gender buffet” brings nuance to the topic of LGBTQ families, something interested...

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Details

Subject Area(s):

Family

Resource Type(s):

Class Activity

Class Level(s):

Any Level

Class Size(s):

Any

Usage Notes

Designed for use in a 100-level sociology of the family course, but could be used in other low to mid-level sociology of family or sociology of gender courses.
Instructors should have already covered gender socialization to successfully integrate this activity into the class. In my class, this was covered during the previous class session with...

Learning Goals and Assessments

Learning Goal(s):

1. Students will be able to understand what the gender buffet is, and how it was identified by Kate Averett
2. Students will be able to evaluate objects for their fit into criteria of gender neutrality expressed by couples in the article
3. Students will be able to evaluate the benefits and costs of implementing the gender buffet, and relate this to their own future families.

Goal Assessment(s):

1. Students’ understanding of the gender buffet and how it was identified will be evident in their responses to the first set of discussion questions or in a pre-activity survey, depending on the preference of the instructor
2. Students’ evaluation of objects will be assessed by their application of a gender buffet philosophy from the article to the items they present to the class as their “purchases”
3. Students’ analysis of the effectiveness of the gender buffet and its relation to their own future families will be assessed in the reflectiveness of their responses to the second set of discussion questions.