Deconstructing Barbie (p. 187, 1st edition)
In the article, Deconstructing Barbie, Swapna Mukhopadhyay discusses how educators can use mathematics as "a tool to interrogate issues of importance to students, their communities, and society in general". Mukhopadhyay states that mathematics can be used to shed light on culture, history and politics. In this chapter, she presents a math lesson for middle school students that takes a closer look at Barbie’s body proportions while learning about averages and ratios. Using thrift store Barbie dolls, Mukhopadhyay asks her students to find out what Barbie would look like if she was their size. Students worked together in small groups to determine the average height within their group, which sparked a discussion about how the mathematical term average contradicts real life. Students then had to compute Barbie’s life-size measurements, and draw a life size picture of Barbie and the average height group member onto 1 piece of butcher block paper. Students are immediately able to see the unrealistic body type of Barbie. Mukhopadhyay, repeated the same lesson with super heroes to show that this issues isn’t confined to just female representation.
Mukhopadhyay closes the article by highlighting the conversations this activity sparked with her students.
They discussed the impact of popular culture on body image, eating disorders and self worth, Barbie sweatshops,
and the superficial diversity of Barbie. This article shows how educators can tackle social justice and
academic content simultaneously. I thought it was really creative and a forward thinking
way of making math culturally responsive.
They discussed the impact of popular culture on body image, eating disorders and self worth, Barbie sweatshops,
and the superficial diversity of Barbie. This article shows how educators can tackle social justice and
academic content simultaneously. I thought it was really creative and a forward thinking
way of making math culturally responsive.
Kelly,
ReplyDeleteThe images are fascinating!
Great post Kelly, she designed a creative activity to get the point across to her students about body image.
ReplyDeleteNicely put Kelly. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey Kelly,
ReplyDeleteThat's quite an image. So out of proportion, she is.
What can I say...a picture is worth a thousand words! The visual really helps but the ridiculousness of Barbie's body into perspective!
ReplyDeleteThis is great. No matter what size, shape we are we can all relate. I think using this as a math lesson will very empowering for girls, not just to promote positive body images but to show girls can rock math!
ReplyDelete