Subtitles and

Transcript

0:09

Who in here remembers having a sex education class sometime

in either their primary or secondary schooling?

0:17

Alright and for those of you who raised your hands -which was
most of you- who remembers that process being really quite
awkward?

0:23

(Laughter)

0:25

Again, most of you have your hands raised. Sex education can
be a very very awkward and unappealing part of those times in
our lives.

0:31

Yet it is also a very pivotal part of our journey in becoming an

adult and knowing more about how to navigate the world
beyond school.

0:37

Now I want you to imagine -or draw from your own experiencewhat that class might be like for you if you are queer.

0:44

As some of you may have just realized that sex ed class could
have been more awkward and even useless to many people.

0:50

This is why I believe that Queer Pedagogy is extremely

important in adding to sex education curriculums, because it
will give a chance for youth to be more engaged in the
formation of their identities as well as provide them with more
tools on how to think critically of the world around them. In
doing so I hope that students will be able to rethink questions
of sexuality and create new possibilities for identities and
creative self expression.

1:10

I know that for myself, and I am sure many other queer folks
out there, that this system of teaching would have allowed
them to be more self aware much earlier on in their lives.
Additionally this probably would have also saved us a lot of
time researching these things, which depending on where we
were looking were not always correct or positive, on our own.

1:28

(Laughter)

Select language

George Drazenovich
Queer-ing Sex Education
Posted | May 2016
Rated | Educational, Insightful,
Pedagogy, Queer

1:30

Ive been throwing around the word queer quite a bit. Now I
am sure there are some varying definitions of it in the room.
One of which being the outdated version which was used to
insult the, for lack of a better word, queers back in the day.
Another, more recent definition, is the idea of queer as an
umbrella term used to refer to the whole LGBTQIAA spectrum
without getting winded. The last is less of an identity, but more
of an analytic and political process aimed at subverting and
potentially eliminating the dichotomous and restrictive sexual
and gender constructs. Such a multifaceted word, right?

2:08

(Laughter)

2:10

When we think about representations of queers today in

mainstream media we find that not all of them are being
represented in ways that that are positive, in fact lots of the
time representation is quite normative. This is why we have to
be very cautious like fellow researcher Guidotto says when
digesting this increased visibility in the media and consumer
culture.

2:28

This representation we see comes as a direct result of lack of

education. Schools should be a place where students are able
to understand how multiple levels of identities are produced. In
order for sexuality to be fully understood in regards to identity
we must also be able to understand how heteronormativity
functions in educational settings. Especially when thinking
about identity formation.

2:47

As Foucault observed If people think they have to uncover

their own identity and that their own identity has to fit into
some mold and conform to the things around it then we are
not progressing. Rather the relationship we have with ourselves
should be one of differentiation, creation, and innovation.

3:11

I believe that our educators need to find ways to deconstruct

sexual identities in the educational process so that it gives
students the opportunity to interpret sexual identity more
fluidly and broadly in the scope of the world.

3:23

This is the basis of queer pedagogy, deconstructing the

normativity of the world and creating a place that is more
objective and less objectifying.

3:29

How do we exactly queer sexuality? Well, it involves

interpreting human sexuality politically, socially, and culturally.
To do that we look to poststructural analysis.

3:38

We can relate queer pedagogy to Irigarays deconstruction of

the category woman. She launches her critical analysis
against that of Freud and his sexualized theory that indicates
female identity as a lack and as other than the male
identity. Oh Freud

3:49

Irigarays solution was not to create an alternative theory nor

suggest a reversal of binary structure, but rather to pose the
idea that woman signifies the possibility of never being one.

3:59

In a similar way we can see that queer pedagogy also serves as

a way to think about identity rather than becoming locked into
any kind of binary.

4:08

Sexual Identity is the name given to a particular historical

construction that took the form of establishing norms not
through punishing deviations from the so-called norm,
whatever that means, but rather by classifying traits as
perversions allowing for a more subtle social control.

4:23

For an example we can look at the works of Westphal and

Ulrich. They are responsible for the idea that sexual attraction
to men was fundamentally female in nature, as well as
medicalizing and making homosexuality visibly as a pathology.
This sadly turned into the incredibly horrendous idea that it
could be managed under psychiatry.

4:41

With all of these misconceptions, misrepresentations, and

misinformations how is it exactly that we insert a curriculum
into the nonsense that is known as the world.

4:49

I strive to think that we should combine queer pedagogy with

that of spiritual pedagogy.

4:53

Not to conflate the term spirituality with religion, because

spirituality is far too diverse to be associated with religion. I
also do not intend to de-politicize and privatize identity
through use of the term spirituality.

5:01

Rather I hope to relate spirituality as inherently connected to

relationships with the self and identity formation. As Dollarhide
from Manchester Metropolitan university has argued, being
transgender and going through the transition process is a
spiritual one, rather than a psychological one. They say that it
is the way in which they physically embody the spiritual truths
within them.

5:24

Foucault explains identity formation as actions that are both

intentional and voluntary and the person seeks to transform
themselves and make their life into a piece of art which will

(5:24)

hold certain stylistic and aesthetic values.

5:35

So if we think back to that last definition of queer as more of a

analytical process that aims to undermine normativity in all its
forms, then we can think of spiritual pedagogy as a queer
concept.

5:44

Queer pedagogy in sex education would expand sex ed to

more than just risk management and disease prevention. It
would augment the current curriculum with ancient Greek
procedures of care of the self, a spiritual experience.

5:52

For the ancient Greeks sexual conduct was not just the act of
sex in the various forms it took. It was the acts gestures, and
any form of contact that produced forms of pleasure for an
individual.

6:03

For them there was no single overall system of sexuality that

imposed itself on all people in the same way. Isnt that
amazing, a system that does not aim to force people into
boxes.

6:11

Spiritual pedagogy, in its core values, aims to find ultimate

meaning and complete truth through its three central concepts
of spirituality, humanity, and power.

6:17

This is why spiritual pedagogy is essential to sex education in

providing youth with the skills and language that is needed to
negotiate their way through the process of identity formation.

6:24

It is pivotal for spiritual pedagogy that the knowledge garnered

through its process is not just applied in that moment but
rather that the learned knowledge is applied in the daily life of
the student.

6:34

It is in this perspective that the classroom is conceptualized to

be an environment in which new possibilities of identity and
expression can be invoked and related to. Giving greater
emphasis to equity, diversity, and understanding through
critical analysis.

6:43

Giving this new meaning to classrooms and curriculums is

immensely beneficial to the students as they will gain
invaluable critical thinking skills, have a more inclusive
environment in which people can feel represented and
appreciated, and they will have a more open space where
dialogue is encouraged. The end goal is of course that this new
generation of students will be equipped and ready to take
down dominant systems of oppression. Thanks for listening
yall.

Justice Dumlao
Writing 2
WP3
What The Hell Did I Just Do?
Queer Pedagogy in Sex Education by George Drazenovich, is all about taking the quite
pedestrian and outdated curriculum of sex education and revamping it to make it: A) More
inclusive to the diversity of people who will encounter the class, B) Deconstruct the normative
and harmful systems that are perpetuated by it (namely heteronormativity, heterosexism, the
gender binary, and homophobia), C) Give students the tools to critically analyze media and
critically think about identity in ways that are liberating for the self. The article discusses doing
these things by means of teaching and incorporating a mixture of spiritual and queer pedagogy,
which can also be considered as inherently linked.
For my transformations I had some trouble picking which genres I wanted to create for
both my younger and older genres and I switched it a lot, but finally I ended up with a Ted Talks
script and a Titter feed thread.
The last genre I thought of, but the one I did first was Twitter. I think that I executed this
genre first because of how easily I can identify and relate to it. I have been using Twitter for
about 3 years now and over the course of those three years I think it is safe to say that I can
easily identify the conventions under which twitter operates:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

It has to be posted on Twitter.

There is a 140 character limit.
You will sacrifice the spelling of a word for character count (if need be).
Fancy language is only tolerated when in regards to school.
You can rant.

F. Only say what you need to say.

G. You can be as opinionated as you want.
H. There will most likely not be sources with the tweet.
These are some of the basic conventions which dominate the Twitter universe (at least in
the United States). The first thing I had to do was get a twitter account for this scholarly article
and post the tweet tread on there. Without posting it to Twitter a tweet thread can never really be
a tweet thread, because publication/location of a piece is sometimes part of the genre.
The second thing I had to do was condense the information in the article. Without having
pieces that represent a whole idea and that are 140 characters each then the writing cannot even
be considered form twitter. This part actually turned out to be the easiest because all I really had
to do was literally highlight all the important parts from the article and tweet about those.
In doing the moves I did always have to keep one thing in mind, and that was the
audience was for younger folks. That gave me the exigence for my genre of Twitter, which is just
to keep people (a younger audience) entertained through tweets. In order to keep the people
entertained I had to make sure the tweeting was concise and to the point (aka, only saying what
you need to say), I would check to make sure that it was short enough but also understandable by
testing to see if it made sense when retweeted. So as most of them passed that test I knew that I
had completed and successfully created a twitter feed for a younger audience.
The next two things were also fairly easy because I have also been practicing with them
since I first got Twitter. The sacrifice of spelling for the sake of character count is evident in my
use of the B/c or because short cut and in my ed education shortcut, both are very long
words which can be easily shortened to reduce characters and maximize words to say.

Next is the rant (aka the stuff you listen to when your friend is having bad problems).
What pretty much happens is that you get emotionally charged about something and then you
tweet about it by using short quick messages that can be either very hilarious or very serious. In
this case we had a somewhat serious and somewhat playful context because Twitter attempts to
capsulate the both academic and fun-loving nature of people. The formal tones came from using
elaborate words and retweeting and referencing other peoples works and efforts, like when I said
McLaren and Dollarhide -those are some of the names referenced in the original article. As well
as when I retweeted the quote from Dollarhide. The more playful/informal tones comes from
using the shorthand of words, funny punctuation (or lack thereof), and use of extra capitalization.
For example I used an excessive amount of question marks in one tweet to convey more of an
emotional response. I capitalized Everyone, So, and Themselves in order to highlight
certain words and create more of an informal, but angry tone. I do not use periods in many
tweets, because it is an obvious lack of formality. While that is not a huge move it is more like
one of those things that you notice are there than are not there.
All of these things are not conventions of an academic english essay so, writing outside
of such conventions helped to get the message across that tweets have their own genre that
classify tweets as tweets, because like Dirk says in Navigating Genres, [We should] think about
genres as tools to help people get things done (Dirk). Which was a great way to conceptualize
how to formulate a tweet thread genre, as the goal of a tweet thread genre is to entertain and
inform the audience.
The genre I picked for the older audience was a Ted Talks, this one was much easier to
execute than the first, but that might have been because I just had some practice. Ted Talks were

a bit harder to pinpoint certain conventions and moves that made the genre. I had to look at one
of the scripts from a Ted Talks by Bren Brown in order to fully grasp what conventions I had to
transform to create a Ted Talks.
The first thing I did was create a format that followed the some conventions and
formatting as the official Ted Talks website. This just consisted of me putting the Ted Talks
header at the top, using a playful but easy to read font, putting a preview of the (non existent)
video, and creating a timed script format that was easy to follow.
In looking at that example I found that this genre could use a lot more of the original text
because of how academic this platform is. This made it very easy to actually write the piece
because not much language had to be changed, in fact it was mostly just things that I added to
make it more like a real Ted Talks. What I added was more personal and anecdotal writing
because the Ted Talks always talk about themselves as evidence for the audience as to help be
more relatable/vulnerable with the audience, they need to keep everyone engaged. In the
beginning I added a large part about my experience in sex education class as a child, which I had
to fabricate in order to make it feel like more of a Ted Talks and not just a boring lecture. This
also served to add more of a playful tone to the very academic language that surrounded it,
because after all it is an informational lecture.
These genre transformations really helped to show what things are important when
considering makes a genre that genre. I have seen that a big part of that is tone, exigence, and
formatting. If you get those three things right then you can slide by as replicating genres pretty
well. You just have to realize that the rules are not always the same, as Dirk says, the rules
change as the genre changes (26).

Works Cited
Brown, Bren. "Transcript of "The Power of Vulnerability"" Ted Talks. Ted Talks, Dec. 2010.
Web. 30 May 2016.
Dirk, Kerry. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor, 2010. Print.