So selecting content is always
just combing over the internet
with your coffee in the morning
and seeing whose talking about what.
But as useless as many people think
Facebook is, it's really great for
academics to form private little
groups. And I have, I am a
member of several little
groups that are dedicated to
different things.
One is Women + In Theatre,
so we are talking about issues
that affect feminine voices and other
bodies in theatre that aren't masculine.
Another group is specifically for
non-tenured professors to air their
grievances and woes to the world.
Privately. But one of my favorite groups
is one that is comprised of mostly
academics, and few academics at heart
who gather articles and share interesting
information, and it was formed by
Dr. Brian Herrera, who teaches Latinx
theatre: American history,
and so a lot of his articles that he's
looking at also relate to my classes.
And so he kind of sparked
that idea in me
that I was allowed to start gathering
things, and just stashing them away
like a squirrel hides their nuts, just to
make sure that I have all the things
that I could possibly need, and even
if I'm not going to use that for my students
it's still informing me in a way that I'm
connecting dots myself as we move forward
in this 21st century.
And I started realizing that since there
was so much out there, and most of it
was written by non-traditional voices
why wouldn't that be a really
good basis to have a text.
So in winter 2017, a lot of us
know that the #metoo movement
became kind of international and very
suddenly on everyones radars,
and that was started by a tweet by
Alyssa Milano, the movement itself
had actually started in 2006 by a
woman named Tarana Burke
who is a fierce feminist, and
dedicated person of color to
creating a voice for women and
people of color, to have a place and
space to talk about sexual assault
on their bodies.
However Alyssa Milano tweeted this
and the response was the #metoo
response. Which then was the beginning of
Harvey Weinstein being called out,
and Bill Cosby. They were men who had
been considered heroes in Hollywood.
And they were being called out what
felt like sometimes two
and three times a day,
and then I started seeing it in
articles about regional theatre, where
these men who had been the artistic
directors for years and years and years
and highly respected were now being
called out for sexual assault,
and the biggest difference was that
people were listening.
And because this was happening within
the realm of entertainment and Hollywood
and theatre, which are subjects that
I teach, I was seeing a lot of articles
about this, and probably the most
influential one that really snapped
and made me believe that we needed
to change the way we thought was an
article that Molly Ringwald wrote about
the breakfast club, viewing the breakfast
club with her child, her now teenage child
in opposed to #metoo movement,
and the repercussions it had,
and I read it and I thought
"Oh my gosh! Every single student I know
needs to read this in relation to film"
In understanding when they are
watching The Breakfast Club or
The Graduate, or Rushmore,
or any of these beloved coming
of age stories that they need to
have access to this article so they
can understand why we adored it
so much, and that there was nothing
else, even though it was being
created, it just wasn't being
showcased by people in Hollywood,
because people in Hollywood don't
back things that aren't gonna be
blockbusters, so I thought that
was really important that we have
that information, and I realized that
if it was that easy to find, that all
these other articles were also really
easy to find, and publish, and for use,
why wouldn't we only show them this
information so that we could teach
film in a different way, but also so that
they could see the research process.
We spend a lot of time talking to
them about how they need to cite
their references or source their
references, or give credit to where
credit is due, yet we are constantly
researching things as professors
and giving lectures, and not telling
them where we're getting our information.
So what if they saw that whole
thought process, and I started,
that's what started the pieces so
thanks Molly! You're great!
So one of the most important things
that we recognize in teaching film
or humanities in general is that everyone
has a relationship to it.
And certainly everyone has a relationship
to, oh okay, not everybody,
somebody might have been raised
in a home that was non-traditional
that didn't have electricity and didn't
study these kinds of things, however
they probably have heard of
Shakespeare or they have probably
heard of stories, and stories have been
around since the beginning of human kind.
It's important to find that connection
between modern society and the
foundation of society as we understand
it, and it's important to do it in a way
that is culturally relevant and open,
and not appropriating from anyone else.
And the only way we can really do that
is if we understand that story is the basis.
That this idea that we need to hear these
stories, and we need to feel catharsis,
is what makes us all human in a way,
and actually helps to create empathy
I think on a different level, that we all
understand that we have shared common
experiences, shared common desires and
needs, and so we create this empathy for
each other, and that's kind of I think
an important thing to educate
young adults in.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community