Tolerance.
May. 30th, 2008 08:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckWe watched Bend It Like Beckham in class.
When asked what they liked and didn't like about the film, one boy said that he didn't like that Tony turned out be gay. "Why?", I asked. "Gay is not good", he said. "It's disgusting. They should all be burned", interjected S getting all excited. She likes to say shocking things and her fervour seemed a bit put on. D had an explanation for all this: "You're only saying this because it's what your religion says." S, born in Bagdad nearly 18 years ago, retaliated: "You should know that I'm not a Muslim. And you say Foreigners go home because that's what your dad thinks."
Sometimes it's hard to tell how much of this is an act. They listen to their favourite rap artists and they know that most teachers get all flustery that there's sexism and homophobia in the lyrics. They know how to shock us. They like the power they feel when they say: "Bushido and his crew can gangbang me anytime."
Underlying all this is a lot of insecurity about (gender) identity mixed in with all the prejudices and stereotypes they're confronted with every day.
Last night I watched a television documentary about homosexuality in professional football in Germany. The interviews with fans and football officials contained among two or three sane voices an awful amount of crap.
There was the "But the kids need to be protected from a homosexual coach" outcry, but I'm guessing that Mr D has taken up his cocaine habit again and doesn't know what he's saying. Or the guy who wouldn't want to shower with a homosexual team-mate, presumably because he's afraid that he'd like what he sees. Then there was the opposite approach: "Some of my best friends are gay. You can have so much fun with them. And anyway, football isn't just brute force anymore, you need creativity and elegance and that's what they're good at, right?"
edited to add a NOT that had disappeared after I rephrased a sentence and again because that sentence was truly messed up
ETA: Here is a link to an article in English about the documentary and you can watch it on youtube here.
When asked what they liked and didn't like about the film, one boy said that he didn't like that Tony turned out be gay. "Why?", I asked. "Gay is not good", he said. "It's disgusting. They should all be burned", interjected S getting all excited. She likes to say shocking things and her fervour seemed a bit put on. D had an explanation for all this: "You're only saying this because it's what your religion says." S, born in Bagdad nearly 18 years ago, retaliated: "You should know that I'm not a Muslim. And you say Foreigners go home because that's what your dad thinks."
Sometimes it's hard to tell how much of this is an act. They listen to their favourite rap artists and they know that most teachers get all flustery that there's sexism and homophobia in the lyrics. They know how to shock us. They like the power they feel when they say: "Bushido and his crew can gangbang me anytime."
Underlying all this is a lot of insecurity about (gender) identity mixed in with all the prejudices and stereotypes they're confronted with every day.
Last night I watched a television documentary about homosexuality in professional football in Germany. The interviews with fans and football officials contained among two or three sane voices an awful amount of crap.
There was the "But the kids need to be protected from a homosexual coach" outcry, but I'm guessing that Mr D has taken up his cocaine habit again and doesn't know what he's saying. Or the guy who wouldn't want to shower with a homosexual team-mate, presumably because he's afraid that he'd like what he sees. Then there was the opposite approach: "Some of my best friends are gay. You can have so much fun with them. And anyway, football isn't just brute force anymore, you need creativity and elegance and that's what they're good at, right?"
edited to add a NOT that had disappeared after I rephrased a sentence and again because that sentence was truly messed up
ETA: Here is a link to an article in English about the documentary and you can watch it on youtube here.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-30 09:47 am (UTC)Sometimes it feels like running into a brick wall. I've taught these kids now for more than five years and when they say stuff like that I feel like a failure, because tolerance is obviously one of my most important teaching aims.
But then, as teachers, we're sometimes a lone voice in the wilderness of sexist, racist and homophobic voices, especially when the kids hear this kind of stuff at home a lot.