Language, Gender and Healthy Eating

[Lucy Horder]

Dear colleagues,
Thanks for the volume of responses on this topic. I'm encouraged by the
Jane's suggestion that the group might usefully function as a pressure group
of some kind. It strikes me that we have a pool of wide and varied expertise
here and that to harness that could prove highly productive. Valentina's
suggestion of setting up a website to log these kinds of examples of
stereotyping seems like a good starting point. I suppose the next question
needs to be...does anyone want to volunteer their web hosting/design
services?
Best wishes,

Lucy

On 07/04/05 3:43, "Amy Sheldon" <asheldon at TC.UMN.EDU> wrote:

> Valentina,
>
> I don't specify their response for that assignment. They pick a variety of
> things to repair. I ask them to repair something they care about. Some
> repairs are a conversation with a family member.
> Some ARE letters to corporations or their workplace; one was to a
> dictionary, etc.
>
> It's their last assignment of the semester, something they can use to wrap
> a few issues up for themselves by doing something concrete.
>
> I do give them some examples of what previous students' write-ups of what
> they did. But I make it clear that it is up to them to decide what to
> repair. The ones who take it seriously seem to find it cathartic.  Some
> people are perfunctory. It's about 5% of their final grade. So the payoff
> is largely in their own satisfaction, but since I can't monitor what they
> really do unless they give me something like a letter, it's a small risk
> to take, gradewise, that some may not really do the assignment but make it
> up.  I do ask them each to tell the class what they did, however.
>
> I could see using the juicer example as an exercise requiring some
> write-up, perhaps in the form of a letter, however, during the course.
>
> An interesting twist on this assignment: last year, one of the repairs
> turned in sounded fishy; the student reported what they did to the whole
> class and in the written report. I usually take people at their word but
> this one didn't add up and it bugged me. I looked into it further and
> discovered that the student had invented both the situation and the repair
> and lied about other people in the organization as well as their own
> actions.  Pretty brazen. That resulted in their taking a trip to the
> office of Student Academic Integrity and talking to the Director, etc.
>
> I still believe in and give the assignment though.
> Amy
>
> On Wed, 6 Apr 2005, Valentina Pagliai wrote:
>
>> Do you ask the students to write response letters?  Like, letters to
>> the juicer's company?
>>
>> Valentina
>>
>> On Apr 6, 2005, at 5:44 PM, Amy Sheldon wrote:
>>
>>> Another angle on this:
>>> I have an assignment in my Language & Gender class called "Repairing
>>> the
>>> World".  Responding to an item such as the juicer info would be a way
>>> to
>>> do this assignment. It also requires the student to do some analysis
>>> about
>>> what's "wrong' with the world wrt the matter that they are repairing.
>>>
>>> Amy Sheldon
>>>
>>> On Wed, 6 Apr 2005, Jane wrote:
>>>
>>>> And it raises the question of whether IGALA could usefully play a role
>>>> as a pressure group in response to this sort of thing.
>>>>
>>>> Jane Sunderland
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Jane Sunderland
>>>> Director of Studies, PhD in Applied Linguistics by Thesis and
>>>> Coursework
>>>> and New Route PhD
>>>> Dept. of Linguistics and English Language
>>>> Lancaster University
>>>> Lancs. LA1 4YT
>>>>
>>>> j.sunderland at lancs.ac.uk
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: International Gender and Language Association
>>>> [mailto:GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Valentina
>>>> Pagliai
>>>> Sent: 06 April 2005 21:48
>>>> To: GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>>>> Subject: Re: Language, Gender and Healthy Eating
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Wonderful example to use in my class when on language and gender,
>>>> thanks! As to what to do, I am not sure. What about a website
>>>> dedicated
>>>> to these kinds of stereotypes?
>>>>
>>>> Valentina Pagliai
>>>> Oberlin College
>>>>
>>>> On Apr 6, 2005, at 4:39 PM, Lucy Horder wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Dear List members,
>>>>
>>>> Recently, I decided to buy a juicer. According to the literature,
>>>> juicers are a great way to fit in your RDA of 5 portions of fruit and
>>>> veg if you're like me and don't really enjoy eating fruit.
>>>>
>>>> The juicer I ended up buying included a leaflet that gave some tips on
>>>> healthy eating, as well as a few recipes and ideas. I was stunned by
>>>> the
>>>> inclusion of the following paragraphs in this guidance:
>>>>
>>>> "The average woman - say someone who weighs 10 and a half stone - uses
>>>> in an average day around 2000-2200 calories. Of those calories,
>>>> 1400-1500 will be burned by her body performing its everyday bodily
>>>> activities - heart pumping, tissue renewing, general maintenance and
>>>> functions.
>>>>
>>>> A mere 600-700 calories will be burned by her preparing and taking the
>>>> children to school, going to work all day, cooking tea for her
>>>> children
>>>> and dinner for her husband, followed by perhaps an hours ironing!"
>>>>
>>>> No mention is made, incidentally, of men who might wish to eat more
>>>> healthily, and the kinds of activities that they might engage in to
>>>> help
>>>> them burn off calories (although perhaps that's for the best...)
>>>>
>>>> I have written to the manufacturers and protest heavily at the
>>>> inclusion
>>>> of this statement in their leaflet, but, unsurprisingly, have not yet
>>>> had a reply. I'd be interested to hear some comments from you all if
>>>> you
>>>> are as alarmed by this whole episode as I am.
>>>>
>>>> Yours (fuming),
>>>>
>>>> Lucy
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   _____
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>