Well said!
Characters:
Theme: Expression and contrast of opinions.
Competencies
Competence in Linguistic Communication
Personal, social and learning to learn competence
Subjects and year by Educational System
Spain > English > 3rd ESO > Communication
Enunciation
ACTIVITY
In small groups, discuss a set of quotes by Helen Gurley Brown, who was Cosmopolitan magazine’s chief-editor from 1965 until 1997. Then, choose your favourite quote, read it and explain to the rest of the class why you chose it.
You can use expressions such as:
- I believe that...
- I think that...
- In my view,...
- I agree / I disagree with you on that.
- The way I see it,
- In my opinion,...
- I would say that...
- It seems to me that...
- What do you think?
- What’s your opinion on...?
- How do you feel about...?
- Do you agree?
| "Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere." | "Feed the alligators and you get bigger alligators." | "Do what's in front of you as well as possible. Keep going until you realize what you're best at." |
| "Don't use men to get what you want in life. Get it yourself." | "If you’re not a sex object, you’re in trouble." | “My success was not based so much on any great intelligence but on great common sense.” |
| "Beauty can't amuse you, but brainwork -- reading, writing, thinking -- can." | "The prerequisite for making love is to like someone enormously." | “Laugh a little when the joke's on you." |
| "I hope I have convinced you -- the only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren't is the willingness to work very, very hard." | "The happiest people I know are not those who are the most beautiful, rich or famous. The happiest people I see are simply those who stay cheerful and try to cheer up others while getting through their own bad stuff. " | "Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort." |
| "Even if sex isn't great every time, it's a unique form of communication and togetherness that can help you stay together with a good degree of contentment." | "You know you can't hope yourself a better life - you must take yourself there." | "If you do the best you can, no matter how bad the situation, you probably are going to come out okay." |
| "I never liked the looks of the life that was programmed for me -- ordinary, hillbilly and poor -- and I repudiated it from the time I was 7 years old." | "The faster you get back to people, the less brilliant you have to be." | "Feeling insecure is good for you. It forces you to do something better, drives you to use all your talents." |
| "How could any woman not be a feminist? The girl I'm editing for wants to be known for herself. If that's not a feminist message, I don't know what is." | "People's lives change. To keep all your old friends is like keeping all your old clothes -- pretty soon your closet is so jammed and everything so crushed you can't find anything to wear. Help these friends when they need you; bless the years and happy times when you meant a lot to each other, but try not to have the guilts if new people mean more to you now." | “Never fail to know that If you are doing all the talking, you are boring somebody.” |
| "I was mousy on the outside but inside I'm this tiger and I have to get on with it." | "Get up and do it if it needs to be done, even if you hate it!" |
Observations and context
This activity is carried out in small groups and then discussed in a large group. A spokesperson will be selected for each group. A few quotes (previously printed and cut out on small pieces of paper) are distributed to each group. Each group has 15 minutes to discuss and draw their conclusions about the meaning of each quote. They should also select which quote they liked the most. The spokesperson will take note of what is said and will be responsible for explaining to the rest of the class which is the group's favourite quote and why.
To make the activity easier, you can write on the board different categories into which the quotes can be classified according to their meaning. For example: quotes that help you make your way in life, quotes about feminism, quotes about sex, quotes about important things in life, quotes about success, quotes about independence, quotes that are life mottos....
In addition, each group could be asked to write a famous quote along the lines of the ones they have read. Afterwards, each group could read the author's quotes they have been discussing together with the one of their own creation, one after the other and in random order, without the rest of the class knowing which are the real Helen Brown quotes and the one the group has written. The activity would consist of the rest of the groups trying to guess which quote was written by the group in question and not by Helen Gurley Brown.
The important thing about this activity is that the students speak English. To motivate this, a grade can be given for the activity, where the grade is pass or fail based on whether they have participated sufficiently and in English.
Helen Gurley Brown's literary and publishing activity takes place during the second half of the 20th century in the United States, a context in which there are many women writing about women's rights and freedoms, as well as developing literary activity, and taking control of the business and publishing world.
This change of attitude was influenced by new visions that appeared during the 20th century in the field of science:
Margaret Mead published a study (Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies, 1935) that questioned the biologistic sexist view that the sexual division of labour in the modern family was due to an innate difference, which meant that men had an instrumental (public, productive) role and women an expressive role. Against this Margaret Mead proposed that, because the human species is enormously malleable, sexual roles and behaviours vary according to socio-cultural contexts. She was thus a forerunner in the use of the concept of gender, which was later widely used in feminist studies.
Gloria Steinem, journalist and feminist activist, was recognised as the spokesperson for the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Steinem worked as a columnist for New York magazine and co-founded Ms. magazine.
Dorothy Schiff was a businesswoman, owner and publisher of the New York Post for forty years.
Coretta Scott King, singer, writer, activist and leader of the 1960s civil rights movement in the United States. After the death of her husband Martin Luther King she also joined the fight for the rights of the LGTBI community and took an active stand against apartheid.
Subsequently:
Kate Millet, among other feminist activists, criticised the message conveyed by Brown and Cosmopolitan magazine.
However, Jennifer Scanlon, professor of women's studies and author of Bad Girls Go Everywhere, Brown's biography (2009), pointed out that her message made Brown a feminist even if the movement did not recognise her as such.
Description
Oral activity consisting of discussing the meaning of a set of quotes by Helen Brown and exchanging opinions. Total and partial agreements.