How do we engage young people in discussion about stereotypes and the influences on our identity formation in a way that is motivating? The following short film, “Slip of the Tongue” provides a visual performance to a slam poem and uses the type of language young people enjoy and respond to. The poem examines identity formation on two levels, gender and ethnicity, stemming from the question a young man asks a young woman at a bus stop: “What is your ethnic makeup?”.
Slip of the Tongue manages to pack some powerful metaphors and intense messages about ethnic and gender stereotypes into four minutes. Adriel Luis reads his poem with a visual performance by two actors, the film’s director, Karen Lum and William Tsang. It won the Jury Award at the Sixth Annual Media that Matters Film Festival a film festival open to young, independent film makers about topics of current interest, globally or in local communities.
The Media that Matters Film Festival website provides a higher quality video of the film than is available on You Tube. It also provides background information to the film’s creation and “take action” links, including to About Face "Empower Yourself 10 things you can do in your own life”, which is aimed at young women accepting themselves, rather than being governed by the ideals dictated by popular culture.
There are some disadvantages to using this pop culture film to stimulate discussion about stereotypes (including the short, cigarette smoking macho scene) and these might preclude its use in some schools. I believe however that if you look beyond this, the messages about identity formation and the rich metaphors used in the text make it a very suitable film for senior high school students.
References
About-Face (2011). Empower yourself [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.about-face.org/making-changes/empower-yourself/
Arts Engine, Inc. (2011). Media That Matters [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/
Media That Matters (May 4, 2007). Slip of the Tongue [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1zpX4R33CA
What an amazing clip! Imagine mashing the idea with the clip from the post Performing, Watching: Reaction videos to film trailers!!! How intriguing it would be, to have students critically analyse this in the way sj Miller advocates. Having learners promoting citizenship and "fostering interpretive tolerance... (as they examine) what it means to be a viewer and a consumer of media; how literature expands our socio-cultural awareness" while still considering their personal "entwined" "discourses" of their own "identities (that are) multi-layered, complex and fluid". (2011, p. 138) Powerful stuff!
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Miller, S. (2011). Demythologizing Reality TV: Critical Implications as a New Literacy. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3).