Sexual Orientation in Ziggy, Stardust & Me
“SWEET BABY ZIGGY, WHY DO I ALWAYS WANT TO TALK SO MUCH IN FRONT OF YOU!?…"
- Jonathan
"I LIKE WHEN YOU TALK.” - Web
What is Sexual Orientation?
Sexual orientation is about who you’re attracted to and want to have relationships with. Sexual orientations include gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, and asexual.
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Sexual orientation is different from gender and gender identity.
Sexual orientation is about who you’re attracted to and who you feel drawn to romantically, emotionally, and sexually. It’s different than gender identity. Gender identity isn’t about who you’re attracted to, but about who you ARE — male, female, genderqueer, etc.
This means that being transgender (feeling like your assigned sex is very different from the gender you identify with) isn’t the same thing as being gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Sexual orientation is about who you want to be with. Gender identity is about who you are.
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Source: What is Sexual Orientation?
Race and Tribal Affiliation in Ziggy, Stardust & Me
“YOU MUST HAVE SEEN IT ON TV! SOUTH DAKOTA? THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT?? IT WAS A TOTALLY RADICAL PROTEST AGAINST THE MISTREATMENT OF THE LAKOTA PEOPLE!”
- Starla
Wounded knee II 1973, lasted for 2 months.
The government promised so many things when relocating people. Vocational training, job assistance, housing, financial help etc.
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Source: Resources from Direct Address Roundtable with Indigenous Theatermakers
The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Roots of American Indian Activism
Gender in Ziggy, Stardust & Me
From the Character Descriptions: "ZIGGY STARDUST. AGELESS. ALIEN WHO EXISTS OUTSIDE OF THE GENDER BINARY; A MANIFESTATION OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS WHO APPEARS TO WEB, JONATHAN, AND STARLA.”
Genitalia does not equal gender. “The sex characteristics a person is born with do not signify a person's gender identity. When people have ‘gender reveal parties,’ it really should be called a ‘genital reveal party,’” she offers. The concept of gender is a social construct, adds Golob.
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Forget about the two-gender binary. “Gender is a term that relates to how we feel about ourselves, the way we choose to express our gender through makeup, dresses, high heels, athletic shorts, sneakers, and more,” she explains. Our society has convinced us that there are just two options for gender identity, "male" and "female," based on biological sex. But in reality, there's more fluidity.
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Gender identity is on a continuum. It’s not just the male/female gender binary—there's a spectrum of gender identity. “[Most people] lie in between [the binary], with personality traits that relate to gender identity, expression, and biological sex. Gender identity can change over time, and it is not fixed,” says Golob. Just because you identify one way at one point in time, does not mean you will always choose that identity, or that your identity won't shift and evolve.
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Sexuality and gender identity are not the same thing. “Gender identity is how you feel about yourself and the ways you express your gender and biological sex,” says Golob. Meanwhile, sexuality refers to who you are emotionally, physically, romantically, or sexually attracted to, she says. In summary, “gender is how you feel about yourself, while sexuality is how you feel about others,” says Golob.
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Non-binary: “Non-binary describes a person who does not identify clearly or exclusively as male or a female, says Alexandra Bausic, M.D., a board-certified OB GYN, and sex educator at Let’s Talk Sex. “They can either feel both gender characteristics or feel different from them.” You may hear non-binary used as an umbrella term for various groups of people that don’t identify as male or female.
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Source: Here's Your Comprehensive Gender Identity List, As Defined By Psychologists And Sex Experts
Two-Spirit Identity/Indigi-queer Identity
“I GUESS MY PEOPLE REVERED PEOPLE LIKE ME ONCE. LIKE FOREVER AGO. BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT WE HAD SOME SPECIAL HEALING POWERS OR SOMETHING… LIKE, WE HAVE THESE TWO SPIRITS, MALE AND FEMALE, DANCING IN US.” - WEB
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Linking Activity
How to Start this Conversation...
Essential Questions:
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What makes me who I am?
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How are other people similar to and different from me?
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What do stories teach us about identity?
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Main Activity
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Pick one word to describe yourself.
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Identity vs. perception
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Form groups of five, write the word that you identify with in the middle and then pass it to four more of your classmates. They’ll write a word that describes you.
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Two spirit crossword. Them video.
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umbrella term that bridges indigenous western understanding of gender and sexuality; LGBTQ2.
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two-spirit
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“those who transform”
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NADLEEHI
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” To be as a women”
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WINKTE
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Each nation understanding of gender and sexual diversity is different and rounded specific spiritual_______.
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belief.
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What happened with the tribal law in 2016?
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Overturned
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