Why the Lens Approach?

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch teaches his daughter, Scout, empathy. After a series of baffling conflicts with people from all walks of life leaves her unsettled and angry, Atticus firmly but lovingly calls on Scout to try to see the world from other people's points of view:

Why the Lens Approach?

"First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-" "Sir?" "-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

Empathy

The Lens Approach Allows for Multiple Skins

You dont have to agree with an ideology to empathize with it. You dont need to diminish another persons experience to maintain power. The lenses try to tackle these two basic human ideas.

 Feminist critique and feminism is

Feminist Lens

not:

male-bashing taking away power from men for women only A lot of the descriptions I saw in your notebooks were actually caricatures of feminism. If all you see are caricatures, then your view will be skewed. You have to seek out nuance and reality, and these lenses help with that.

Feminist Lens
Feminist critique and feminism is about equality:
social cultural political economic If you believe that all genders should have an equal voice in these areas, then you believe in the core of feminism.

Importance of Being Earnest Quiz

STANDARD 1.1 Explain concise and appropriate textual evidence to support analysis of text. 7 minutes Clear everything from your desk except writing implements. No phones.

The Boy is Mine

How would you describe the female-female relationship in this narrative? Do you feel this a fairly typical set-up in pop culture (two women fighting over a man? two women whose only true interaction with each other is about the man?) Is there anything positive you can takeaway from this story?

Gwendolen and Cecily

How are they caricatures? What makes them one-dimensional? How are Gwendolen and Cecily are fairly typical representation of female-female relationships in pop culture? What is lost when these two women are shown in such a combative relationship?

One-Dimensional Characterization
The Bechdel test Allison Bechdel (famous cartoonist) came up with a way to analyze female-female interactions in pop narratives: Are there at least two women in the story? Do these two women talk to each other? About something other than romance? Why might such questions be beneficial in analyzing from a gender/psychoanalytical lens?

Nurturing Positive Dynamics

How do positive portrayals of female-female and male-male gender relationships help real relationships?
Superbad Hugely popular Seth & Evan Why?

Frozen Hugely popular Isla and Ana Why?

Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is usually noted for the love story swirling around the eponymous character, Jane Eyre the spirited governess, and her employer, Mr. Rochester. However, in the following excerpt, we see Jane a few years younger at a severe boarding school. Her only friend is Helen, and there is only one sympathetic teacher, Miss Temple.

Lowood = boarding school Gateshead = abusive foster home

Jane Eyre
What essential need is being nurtured? How does Jane see Helen? What elements of family work in this excerpt? Explain how a positive gender relationship outweighs the negative one in Miss Scatcherd.

Chapter 8 34:13

Jane Eyre
How have a few positive female-female interactions helped Jane? This goes on to inform her relationship with Mr. Rochester, one of the reasons why Jane is often considered an empowered female protagonist.

Whats with this quote?

I would not now have exchanged Lowood with all its privations for Gateshead and its daily luxuries. What has been nurtured in Jane?

Homework
Read the excerpt from Beloved. Where do you see elements of id, ego, and superego at play here? What psychological needs are being addressed/fulfilled here? How do gender relationships factor into addressing/fulfilling these needs? Be prepared to write an extended response using your textual annotations tomorrow.