Fandom High School

Brennan seemed to be in a good mood as she waited for the class today. The suitcase parked near the lectern might give some hint as to why.

"Morning," she greeted. "Today we're talking about courtship rituals -- dating, if you prefer. In traditional terms, 'courtship' refers to the time period between when two people become aware of each other as potential monogamous life partners and when they solemnify their bond, either with an engagement leading to a wedding or through some other step. Typically the word 'courtship' refers to a relationship that is known to the community, as opposed to an illicit affair."

"Courtship traditions differ in different societies. In ancient times, marriage by kidnapping was the norm. A hunter would simply walk up to a group and grab the young woman who most appealed to him, and she was his wife if he got her home and to the marriage bed safely. Later, parents and other elders selected for arranged marriages -- as they still do in certain South Asian cultures -- and the couple were consulted only for a token consent. This began to change in late medieval times, when the concept of romantic love was glorified. However, it was several hundred more years before romantic love was seen as the most important element in a marriage, rather than a happy coincidence. And even now, there's data suggesting arranged marriages to which both participants agreed are as happy or happier than love marriages."

"Modern courtship -- or, again, dating -- takes several forms. A traditional first date is coffee or dinner and a movie, and a normal modern courtship in the U.S. takes roughly a year to five years to get to the point of engagement. Most couples meet through friends, work, social activities such as religious services or community groups, but personal ads and online matchmaking services are growing in both popularity and acceptability. Also, many people, myself included, eschew traditional dating in favor of other arrangements that don't include the expectation of marriage as a goal. And, of course, gay couples also court and date."

"You've been assigned to pairs, and I would like for each pair to participate in some sort of mock courtship exercise to report back on during the next class. Dean, I assigned you a partner as well to make the numbers even. Your dates can range from a token gift or conversation during this class period to a full date to any of the tactics described in your handout. I know some of you may be otherwise committed or paired outside your normal gender preference. If you cannot do the assignment for personal reasons, please see me after class to discuss alternate work, though there is nothing in this that should threaten your boyfriends or girlfriends."

"Also, please don't assume that the person in your pairing who is physically male has to play the male role for the purposes of this assignment, or the same for the physically female. This is a class exercise, not a true courtship; play the roles with which you are most comfortable."

"You have the rest of the class period to find each other and discuss how you wish to fulfill the assignment. Also, if you anticipate needing me this week, I'm going out of town and won't be in my office on Friday. Talk to me after class or send an email."

"Good morning," Brennan greeted the class once everyone seemed to be in a seat. "Today we're talking about the role physical attraction plays in sexual selection. You'll often hear that everyone has his own taste, but, in fact, there are certain signifiers that are universal across most cultures."

( Cut because Brennan is talky meat. )

[OOC: Images of Paul Newman and Heidi Klum may be somewhat NSFW -- his is shirtless, hers is in a Victoria's Secret show. Please see my OOC note on selecting photos, which is still valid even though it's from last term, OMG.]

Books were arrayed along the table in the front of the class room today, and a few extra laptops had been brought in and set up for Internet access.

"Good morning," Brennan said, hands firm on her coffee mug. "Today is your last class. You were almost all entirely acceptable, and mostly mature about the topics we were discussing, so I wanted to thank you for that."

It was Brennan. That was high praise.

"Today, I'm turning the class over to all of you for a final assignment. I know there isn't much time for a proper research project, but I would like each of you to pick a topic related to sex or sexuality that we didn't cover in depth in class and make a brief presentation on it. I've brought in resources; Wikipedia is fine if proper primary sources are cited. You may work in pairs, but if you do, I'll expect the work quality be twice as good."

"If none of you have questions, we should probably begin." She clearly didn't expect too many questions.

There were signs posted in the classroom today asking the boys in class to sit on one side of the aisle, and the girls on the other.

"Today," Brennan said, as she passed out posterboard and markers to the two groups, "we're talking about gender roles, identity and stereotypes. Those are really big subjects; I can't do much more than glance at the stereotypes here in class today. If you're interested and want to keep reading, I can recommend some books after class."

"Gender roles are the set of perceived behavioral norms associated particularly with males or females, in a given social group or system. It can be a form of division of labor by gender, as in classic hunter/gatherer societies in which men go out to hunt and women watch children and gather fruits and grains, or in a modern single-income family in which the woman stays at home and the man acts as a breadwinner. Almost all societies, to a certain effect, have a gender/sex system, although the components and workings of this system vary markedly from society to society." She went on to briefly review current research into the establishment and reinforcement of gender roles in society.

"Gender identity, meanwhile, is how a person defines him or herself in terms of gender. While this usually matches physical gender, some people identify as transgendered -- a male brain in a female body, or the reverse -- or as neither male nor female. Someone who believes their mental gender does not match their physical gender may be said to have gender identity disorder."

"The last thing we want to talk about, and the basis of your exercise today, is gender stereotypes. Stereotypes are simplistic generalizations about the roles of individuals in groups that help to feed into traditional gender roles. A simple gender stereotype is 'boys don't cry' or 'women can't drive.'"

"What I would like for you to do today is, working in your gender-segregated groups, come up with lists of male and female stereotypes and what reinforces them. For example, if your stereotype is that women are bad drivers, you might write down that popular jokes give that message. At the end of class we'll probably handwavily compare the lists and see where they differ and where they overlap. I'm around if you have questions."

Brennan seemed to be in a good mood as she waited for the class today. She'd used part of her long weekend to solve a murder; that always got her cheerful.

"Morning," she greeted. "Today we're talking about courtship rituals -- dating, if you prefer. In traditional terms, 'courtship' refers to the time period between when two people become aware of each other as potential monogamous life partners and when they solemnify their bond, either with an engagement leading to a wedding or through some other step. Typically the word 'courtship' refers to a relationship that is known to the community, as opposed to an illicit affair."

"Courtship traditions differ in different societies. In ancient times, marriage by kidnapping was the norm. A hunter would simply walk up to a group and grab the young woman who most appealed to him, and she was his wife if he got her home and to the marriage bed safely. Later, parents and other elders selected for arranged marriages -- as they still do in certain South Asian cultures -- and the couple were consulted only for a token consent. This began to change in late medieval times, when the concept of romantic love was glorified. However, it was several hundred more years before romantic love was seen as the most important element in a marriage, rather than a happy coincidence. And even now, there's data suggesting arranged marriages to which both participants agreed are as happy or happier than love marriages."

"Modern courtship -- or, again, dating -- takes several forms. A traditional first date is coffee or dinner and a movie, and a normal modern courtship in the U.S. takes roughly a year to five years to get to the point of engagement. Most couples meet through friends, work, social activities such as religious services or community groups, but personal ads and online matchmaking services are growing in both popularity and acceptability. Also, many people, myself included, eschew traditional dating in favor of other arrangements that don't include the expectation of marriage as a goal. And, of course, gay couples also court and date."

"You've been assigned to pairs, and I would like for each pair to participate in some sort of mock courtship exercise to report back on during the next class. This can range from a token gift or conversation during this class period to a full date to any of the tactics described in your handout. I know some of you are otherwise committed, and others of you are paired outside your normal gender preference. If you cannot do the assignment for personal reasons, please see me after class to discuss alternate work, though there is nothing in this that should threaten your boyfriends or girlfriends."

"Also, please don't assume that the person in your pairing who is physically male has to play the male role for the purposes of this assignment, or the same for the physically female. This is a class exercise, not a true courtship; play the roles with which you are most comfortable."

"You have the rest of the class period to find each other and discuss how you wish to fulfill the assignment."

[OOC: OCD on its way is a go!]

A brunette in a business suit waited by a lectern for the class to assemble. She wasn't smiling; her demeanor was that of someone with a serious task to do who expected to do it well.

"Welcome to Sexual Anthropology," she began, once everyone seemed to be in a seat. "I am Dr. Temperance Brennan. I'm the lead forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian, but I am taking leave this summer to finish a novel and teach this class. For anyone who doesn't know, a forensic anthropologist is an anthropologist who specializes in identifying the dead through skeletal clues."

"That said, this class has nothing to do with bones, as it were. We are going to be talking about sexual relations and sexuality from an anthropological point of view. That means we're interested in what sex means in the broader social context, rather than in the medical and physical side of things; if you want instructions on using condoms, I suggest you go to the clinic." She handed a stack of syllabi to a student in the first row and gestured for them to be distributed.

"We're doing introductions this week." Booth had suggested as much, and Brennan had decided it was only logical to do that here, even if she never did it at the college level. "I would like each of you to state your name, age, and one message about sexuality that you got from your culture while growing up. It can be anything, no matter how illogical you now think it is. For example, I am an American and I grew up in the late 20th century; I might say that I was given the message that women have to be slender to be physically attractive, or that I was raised to believe married couples should avoid divorce at all costs. Feel free to talk about each other's contributions, but I ask that you respect any cultural differences we undercover. We are here to discuss, not to judge."

"I will need two TAs, so if you're interested, please stop by and see me after class. Otherwise, I am in office number eight Fridays during business hours, and my phone number and email address are on the syllabus. And, um, hi, Angela assuming you're here." No, she still wasn't used to the 'my best friend is here and 17' thing.

She nodded to a student. "You can begin."