Speciesism, Sexism, Anti-Semitism; Words, Looks

Monkey Shankar

GoalsEthics: The second goal of the required/ethics flag courses—learn to make real-life ethical choices—is closely related to the core purpose of the University of Texas, to transform lives for the benefit of society.

To experience by analogy a little of ethical dilemma presented by Anti-Semitism, especially the Holocaust.

To experience by analogy a little of ethical dilemma presented by Sexism.

To experience more directly the ethical dilemmas presented by speciesism, especially cruelty to animals.

To become aware of real life ethical choices made daily by all of us involving cruelty to animals.

To return to the traditional college goals of developing character and conscience.

To practice replacing fear and greed with love, compassion tolerance, and the sympathetic imagination.

Lesson Plan

Meditation.

Sunny and Cloudy.

Quiz?

Discussion.

Themes

Categorizing ourselves only separates us further.

Gender is used to assign roles and characteristics.

Gap in language causes humans to believe that they are superior.

General sense of internal conflict/frustration (family, religion, societal pressures, upbringing).

Violence caused by both genders.

Everybody hates society’s stereotypes. Let’s break them!

Stereotype GameWhat’s a gender stereotype that you’ve felt has limited you?

Or, what stereotype do you hate the most that you’ve dealt with?

Crumple it up.

QuestionsShare recent experiences in which you’ve felt conflicted about eating meat. (Hint: Thanksgiving)

What do you think the role of language is as humans continue to to display animal cruelty? How is our communication a barrier? What do you think we should do to fix this?

How are gender stereotypes perpetuated in our society? What can we do to fix this?

What is one thing you can do today to change how people view animal cruelty?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWc1e3Nbc2g&feature=related