Critical Thinking, Social Media, and International Women's Day

March 8^th was International Women's Day. This is a day to celebrate the accomplishments of inspiring women, the on-going march towards fairness and gender equality, and to spread awareness about challenges and injustices suffered by women worldwide.

Is this the message consistent with the image below? The image was re-tweeted by one of my cousins. At first I thought, “Oh, that's nice!” But then I looked at it a second longer and felt a slight churn in my stomach. I realized that these images are not representative of the message of International Women's Day. The whole point is that girls and women acknowledge their own potential. When I showed the image to one of my friends, she said, “Oh look! Girls can be either a mom, or a grandma!” The more I shared the image with friends, the more I got the same reaction. One comment was, “It looks like it was made by Disney – and not in a good way.”

We will never be able to close the gaps in gender inequality without educating all people about the implications of the messages that are posted/shared/retweeted/favorited.

When I am teaching my grade 9s this summer, I will use this in a lesson for our media studies unit to include the importance of using one's critical thinking skills before sharing or re-tweeting. I encourage teachers, parents, and anyone who has young people in their life to have a meaningful conversation about the implications and intents of the messages that are posted and shared using social media. Critical thinking is not a skill that develops on its own; it requires practice and guidance.