Station 4: Let's be judgmental!

Read the following directions carefully, and follow them precisely.

1. Reflect for a moment on the following question: Do you think of yourself as judgmental? Do you make assumptions about people before you get to know them?
2. Discuss this briefly with one or two people sitting near you.
3. After reading the next two directions, follow the link below to the "Hot or Not" website. This is a website that presents the viewer with pictures that ordinary people upload, and the task is to judge the person in the picture on a continuum of "hotness."
4. Look at the clock and note the time. Spend no more than five minutes at the "Hot or Not" website. Choose to look at "Men and Women" in the age group that matches your own age. Click on the "judging bar" at the top of each page to give your assessment of the person in the photo. This will bring up a new photo for you to judge, while to the left of the new page you'll see how well you matched up with others who have judged the picture.
5. When the five minutes are up, return to this page and discuss the questions below with others who have just visited the site.

Questions for discussion:

1. Describe the process of making the judgments. Was it easy? Were you comfortable doing this?
2. Upon what criteria did you make the judgments? Are those criteria of your own making, or do they come from elsewhere?
3. What evidence did you see of conformity in the pictures? Did the people in the pictures seem to want themselves to be seen in a certain way?
4. Did you see any pictures that reminded you of characters, themes, issues, or symbols in Stargirl? Explain your response.