Games Based Learning MOOC

Loved this. Running out of time this Friday Afternoon, expect me to revise this comment on Monday. You gave me a lot to think about, I have three daughters, one son, three granddaughters, one grandson, so always thinking about gender. We do have strong women in our family, think in Colorado is "tough ranch girl." Both my son and grandson have one daughter. It is funny to watch them try to bar the door!

Ha! It's amazing how our perspectives change when we become parents/grandparents. Looking forward to more of your feedback!

Well I am back! In anthropology we look at gender roles and in anthropology of religion we look at creation myths, we do use the bible as a creation myth for discussion. There seems to be two basic creation myths, the bible and some others give "man" control of the earth and everything on it and a woman is part of that control. The other (Navajo Dene') for example is more one with the environment, they follow different paths in inheritance and living quarters. In the one where man has dominion the cultures are patrilineal and patrilocal, while in the one where the environment is shared and there is more equality it falls into more matrilineal and matrilocal.

The idea of knights in shining armor had to wait for well, er, ah, knights in shining armor, and thus the idea of romantic love. Prior to that, and even after in many societies it was the exchange of women as marriage partners between groups that solidified social and political alliances. Basically they were trade goods. There are few cultures where a woman has more than one husband, but many where a man has more than one wife. I

In America the idea of the "little woman at home" really started with strong industrialization and the need for the woman to stay home and take care of the kids as there wasn't "real" work for them in the factories. Even after Rosy the Riveter, where it showed women could do men's work, after WWII, they went back to being housewives in the new suburbs. I have a friend who says, "Every little girl wants to be a ballerina and every little boy wants to be a pirate.! (long before Pirates of the Carribean).

When you are kept in your place, the idea of rescue may be a fairy tale but it brings a glimmer of hope to a trapped existence. You are correct princesses seldom go around rescuing princes. It plays on the mobility of men and the stationary position of women historically.

I loved this video, will show it for my Gender chapter, to my class. It does point out that Zelda almost made it from a damsel to a sidekick in later versions of the game. I will be looking at the later videos she produces. I look forward to her second in this series. However she did do a look at has women's roles improved in film? The answer is not really...

YThe Oscars and the Bechdel Test

I had to remind my granddaughter, who is now 20 who wanted to be a neurologist in sixth grade, the first female NHL goalie at 13, a nurse at 15 and "marry a rich guy." at 17, that "trophy wife" was not really an occupation.

Pretty Woman, still remains a very popular movie, an of coures it isn't a hero's journey film, it is a damsel in distress.. . rescued by a knight on a white horse.

Somewhat tangential, but perhaps useful: Chinese lions are displayed in pairs, very similar except for the object beneath their paws. The male holds a sphere, which symbolises power; the female holds a cub, which symbolises the future.

Wow I didn't know that about the lions @michael barry, we do look at origin myths in our Anthropology of Religion class, and we do find some pattern in the way women/men are depicted in the myth and the status/responsibilities of women/men in the culture. I don' think there is anything too tangent for this MOOC, we are a "connectivist" MOOC and therefore any connections or information we can share is equally important. Thanks.