Friday, July 11, 2014

Upgrade Your Health and Sex-ed Curriculum with The Halls

Guest Blog Post: Arianna is a queer femme from the lakes and forests of Massachusetts, a student of plants, stars, and feminisms, and a fierce lover of The Beach Boys.

Alright y’all, if you’re a Netflix binger, sex educator, health teacher, or just have an hour to spare, I highly suggest watching this new web series called The Halls, about the lives of high school students living in Boston. In the span of time it took me to watch all 8 of the 8-13 minute videos, I had been on the edge of my seat laughing, crying, and feeling completely invested in the lives of the various characters.

Let’s be real, enticing dramas about high school students navigating puberty, gender, and relationships has always been my jam (I have a track record for watching copious amounts of Degrassi and Saved by the Bell). However, there is something unique about this series in particular.

The first episode starts us off with a group of high school boys sitting in the library talking about their friend, Jared, who was recently accused of raping Tara, a freshman. Heavy stuff, I know. Their conversation is full of confusion, denial, laughter, awkward silences, victim-blaming, and degrading jokes. This scene, among others in the series, might be triggering or discomforting to watch – it definitely was for me, especially because it is all-too-familiar.

As well as coping with this ambiguous and close-to-home situation, the plot relies heavily on following various characters through their own challenges involving family, relationships, sex, homophobia, gender stereotyping, social media, consent, trauma, and masculinity. Additionally, you never meet the accused perpetrator or survivor in the series. Considering that perpetrators and victims of rape are so often stereotyped, the anonymity of these characters is incredibly important in reminding viewers that, in reality, they could be anyone.

According to Nicole Daley, an organizer for the Boston Public Health Commission’s Start Strong: Building healthy Teen Relationships Program and one of the many geniuses behind this project, The Halls is meant to be a tool for high-schoolers to engage in conversation around the issues presented in the storyline. Through screening the series in health and sex ed classes, as well as youth education programs, young people can begin having guided and intentional conversations around the various challenges that the characters are facing, and that they potentially will or have already faced in their own lives.

Why is this important?

Well, I’m sure many of us can relate to the horror that is public school health class – the cheesy films; the less than satisfying, hardly accurate, and incredibly exclusive anatomy lessons; that one classmate that pronounces “vaginal” wrong…get me outta there!

It is quite obvious at this point that there are a range of topics that are hardly ever discussed in health class or are discussed vaguely and briefly. These ambiguous, brief, or non-existent conversations do not give justice to the histories, identities, or valid curiosities of the people in the room. They also do not provide any space for students to proactively think about interpersonal challenges that they will most likely experience in their lifetime if they haven’t already. Having these conversations is a preliminary phase of prevention, so why aren’t we having them?

This brings me to my next question: who is teaching these students? I’m not saying that the solution is to simply add consent and gender non-conformity to the curriculum. In my opinion, the educators that aren’t willing to go there don’t deserve to be there. It is incredibly dangerous to have multidimensional and potentially sensitive topics of conversation be facilitated by people who do not have a critical analysis of gender stereotyping and sexuality, or are not active practitioners of open, non-violent communication and healthy relationships. Otherwise, what’s the point?

What I think is so amazing and unique about The Halls is that it was made with the intention of being an educational resource that does provide space for students to discuss some of these challenges. It even comes with a facilitation guide that poses as a great starting point for discussion. The series is also entertaining and engaging without being overloaded with over-sensationalized and unrealistic drama. The challenges presented in The Halls speak to the everyday instances of interpersonal violence and conflict that are so harmful yet so normalized in our society. We can’t expect young folks to know how to navigate issues of healthy relationships, gender policing, and consent if we aren’t providing them with opportunities to talk about it!

So, if you are a health educator, work with teens, or know someone who does, please consider sharing this resource! It is free and available for your curriculum and viewing pleasure. At the very least, take your own journey down The Halls and see where it takes you. You might become inspired to create your own new-and-improved learning tool for young people!