The Various Gods & You, Monday, First Period

[ifwebeworthy]

Today, Don began their lecture by telling the students, "Pretty much every god you might be dealing with is the god of something. Unless you're dealing with a monotheistic religion, of course, but I've never met one of those guys so I don't worry about them." Solid plan, Don, no flaws.

( Jesus was probably a mutant anyway. )

Sex and Sexuality, Monday 3rd period

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Right." Jon nodded to everyone (not Hannibal). "Last week we discussed gender and sexuality being a nebulous thing, so naturally this week we'll try to nail it down a bit. As much as that's possible."

"As limiting as labels can be, it can also be useful to have them to refer to," Hannibal said. "Particularly in these topics, it can be validating to have words to use to describe yourself. You needn't feel bound by any of them, of course, or you may change your mind over time or from day to day."

"We discussed gender being a social construct," Jon said. "In modern American - and British, and many other Western countries - tradition, there have been two genders for decades: male and female. Ideally, men were meant to be the ones in control, the ones earning money - although that's largely a capitalist myth; women not in the higher echelons of society have long worked for a living, but that's the story told, anyway - the heads of households, the ones going to war. Women were meant to be subservient, the ones in charge of the household, the ones raising children."

"And those children were similarly gender-delineated," Hannibal said. "Boys were meant to play with trucks, building equipment, weapons. Girls were meant to play with dolls."

"Gender essentialism is a poison administered young," Jon said darkly.

Hannibal chuckled. "On that we can agree. In any event, more recently, people have begun to rebel against it. Women have taken on more jobs and engaged in higher education in much greater numbers, and have begun to take charge. Men have begun to take on more caring roles."

"Some of them," Jon scoffed. "It's a harder sell to get men to change when the patriarchy directly benefits them."

Hannibal sighed. "As you say. In addition to challenging the existing gender roles, people have also begun challenging the existing genders; we will leave that for another week, as it deserves more proper care. For now, let us discuss the gender construct as you understand it and where you feel you fit into it."

"And what we can do to break it down," Jon finished.

Fast Talking, Monday, Period 2

[jedigrammarians]

Isabela was alone at the front of class this morning, not looking particularly concerned about her co-teacher's absence. "Now, one of the first obstacles that people come across when attempting to fast talk people is the issue of trust. Some people are terrible liars, others are naturally suspicious and treat everyone like they're untrustworthy. Sure some of those people are, but is that really any way to live?"

The point, Isabela. "Anyway, while you can work on improving your fake sincerity, sometimes you just need to lean into things."

"Love the hair," Aphra announced as she entered the room, pointing at a random student. "It's so daring. I could never do that. Now, I'm either obviously lying and you're getting paranoid about your style choices, or maybe I'm being sincere and you're second guessing your snap judgement. In any case, you're completely distracted from my fashionably late entrance."

Or they just had extremely low expectations.

"So today we're going to work on lying to each other," Isabela said. "You can either try to convince each other of things that aren't true, or convince them you're lying about something that is. Can you catch each other out?"

Or just go down a path of increasing paranoia.

Food & Cultural Appreciation, Tuesday Third Period

[carbsliftthespirit]

"All right, guys," Raiden told his students, "today we're heading to beautiful Rome, Italy, where it should be cloudy and in the mid-sixties when we arrive, if my weather app hasn't lied to me. We will be arriving in the evening and going on a bit of a food tour, because unlike Singapore, Rome hasn't conveniently put all the delicious food in one place for us.

( Italian food: shockingly NOT just pizza. )