Blog Post #3 Visualizing Understanding

For my visualization, I created an infographic about the Gender Literary Theory. My idea behind this project was to make a poster that would be displayed in the classroom as a sort of "cheat sheet" for students to use while we do a unit exploring Gender Theory. The infographic has the very basics of understanding what Gender Theory is. I began with a textbook definition and a powerful quote from Sue Monk Kidd that states: "The problem seems to me is not that there are differences but rather how we value these differences." I would want my students to really consider this quote deeply as Gender Theory has everything to do with differences, specifically between men and women. The next section of the poster is the difference between sex and gender. It's important for students to understand that sex is a biological trait and gender focuses on the differences between men and women. I added some of the basic symbols of men and women. On the sex side, the colors are blue (men) and red (women) meaning that you are born either male or female. However, on the gender side I interchanged the colors. My idea behind this is that you don't have to be defined by your biological sex. Men can be feminine and women can be masculine. It's meant to encourage students to think about how gender is constructed in society. I want the mental cogs start turning as the students move their way down the poster.

Moving down the poster, I added another definition for gender theory, in an easier to understand way. I also included that Gender Theory explores the woman as the other. Since Gender Theory derives from the Feminist Theory, a lot of focus on Gender Theory is how women are often dominated by men in society. Which leads into the next focal point of the poster about binary oppositions. A big part of Gender Theory is how society has categorized the gender roles of men and women, or what it means to masculine and feminine. I gave a few examples along with the definition of binary oppositions. I also added a muscular arm under the men/masculine side indicating that males are strong, and hands with a heart under the women/feminine section indicating that females are more caring or loving. My idea with this table is that a quick glance at the words and images will get the students minds thinking about more binary oppositions and what they may see in the texts that we read in class. 

The end of the poster gives another definition for gender theory. I added multiple definitions to help the students really hone in on what studying Gender Theory means and the relevance in the students' lives. This final section gives the students three questions to ask themselves while they read. With the accessibility of the poster being on the wall, while students are reading in class they will be able to glance up while they are reading to ponder these questions. 

I think just by creating this infographic, I have a better understanding of Gender Theory. While my infographic doesn't have many images, I think it has the most important details of the theory. It's meant to be a quick read to re-familiarize students with the theory. I think that I highlighted the key components and it's easy to read and understand.

For better image quality go to: https://my.visme.co/view/epdq6r6r-gender-theory