Practices: Talks & Workshops

The Set Up — Gender Roles and Assertiveness

How is it that a teen girl who excels at biology, soccer, the violin, and even the debate team can be the same one who doesn’t know how to tell a boy to take his hand off her leg or when to stop drinking on a Saturday night? How is it that a teen boy can end up facing date rape charges when he thought everything was okay with the girl involved? How is the concept of “hooking up” and technology changing how teens communicate and take care of each other?

All of these issues relate to the gender roles our kids take on. Regardless of sexual orientation, everyone plays a role in the gender game. Everyone has what Charis calls a “Fall Back Position” to which they retreat when they are uncomfortable or anxious and which are often ineffective. She believes it is important to teach adolescents to understand those roles and bring their own Fall Back Positions to a conscious level. Too often, without this consciousness, they will be set up to continue making choices that end in regret, guilt, or shame. This workshop helps participants examine their Fall Back Positions and identify skills and techniques that will help them make choices that result in pride rather than regret.

The Series

Learn more about other programs in “The Set Up” series. These talks can be booked individually or as a partial series.

• An Introduction to “The Set Up” — Emotional vs. Intellectual Literacy: How We Are Holding Our Kids Back from Personal Success.
• The Set Up — Gender Roles and Assertiveness
• The Set Up — Date Rape and Sexual Assault
• The Set Up — The Uphill Journey to Women’s Power
• The Set Up — Resisting the Boy Code