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#but i guess that's why women race and class has an entire section on feminist efforts historically often leaving black women behind lmao
electraheart2012 · 3 years
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What the concept "woman is wonderful" accomplishes is that it retains for defining women the best features (best according to whom?) which oppression has granted us, and it does not radically question the categories "man" and ''woman," which are political categories and not natural givens. It puts us in a position of fighting within the class "women" not as the other classes do, for the disappearance of our class, but for the defense of ''woman" and its reenforcement.
Monique Wittig, from "One is Not Born a Woman"
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jlcarpe2-blog · 6 years
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Jessica Carpenter’s Gender Studies Analysis
In this scrapbook, built on six sections, the entire gender studies class is portrayed through twenty-four different, thought provoking articles, videos, and photos; that I have collected throughout the semester. All of these posts have made some form of impact on me, whether it be funny, sad, or angry. Each post has a story of its own that convey the larger story of Gender and Equality. We talk about the gender binary, race and equality, feminism, and rape culture.
In part two, Ideas, we talked about how the general idea of how people can not be confined to two specific boxes of either male or female. While many of us have female or male sex organs, excluding the few that have traces of both, not many people fit into the specific category they are assigned to at birth. In my scrapbook, I found a video on facebook named, “We’re more than just our dresses.” It talked about how when girls are on the red carpet they are more times than not questioned more about their outfits and accessories, than their career or aspirations. I thought this fit in very well to the category of Ideas. I believe that it shows how our society teaches people to fit into their categories, however, as soon as you begin to rebel, and stand against those categories such as Taylor Swift, “I’m not going to walk home with any men tonight,” you are seen as rude, or laughed at.
In part three, Bodies, I very similarly found that a video was one of the more motivational pieces I posted. I find that when someone is speaking and sharing their stories with you it is very inspiring information to obtain. The video was named, Why I Must Come Out. It was about a very successful fashion model named, Geena Rocero, who was born a “boy.” This TED talk was very moving and I especially liked her opening line, “The world makes you something that you're not, but you know inside what you are, and that question burns in your heart” (Rocero). I think that this tied into our discussion of Bodies quite well. We talked about who a person is and how the “gender” they were born as is not the “gender” they are stuck with their entire lives. This talk very easily is pulled into the next chapter and how people of different cultures perceive themselves.
In part four, Performances, I found a deep interest in the Drag Culture. I have a few friends who actually take part in the drag performances and have fun being themselves and showing their inside personalities to the world. Once again I found a very inspirational video of an eight year old boy, who has his own drag personality, Lactatia. He has a facebook account, Life of Lactatia, where he posts videos, or shares videos of other young inspiring kids in the gender bending community. Another inspiring person is Asia Kate Dillon, who is and actor on “Billions” and “Orange is the New Black,” who goes as they/them pronouns. They talked with Ellen Degeneres and I really enjoyed Ellen’s comment, “It’s [gender/queer] really confusing, and I think people assume because I’m gay I understand all of this and I don't,”(Degeneres). I think that Ellen shared a very important lesson, because I think people get confused by the many different genders and sexualities and that is why they are scared and are not as accepting of these differences, because they do not have control over the fast, changing world.
Going along with the idea of differences among our community, Part Five was about intersections. I thought this section, while not pertaining specifically to gender was very important in the message of equality, and understanding of other people and their similarities and differences in your own personal life. I found this amazing article by Bitch Media called, “Sized Up: Why Fat is a Queer and Feminist Issue.” I thought it was a very thoughtful and powerful message about our community and how people of different cultures, bodies, and sexualities are treated. I thought this quote was very powerful, “Nor is fatness, as conservatives often claim about homosexuality, a “lifestyle.” Body size is determined primarily by genetics, and while diets and exercise programs may produce short-term weight loss, they have a 95 percent failure rate over the long term. Yet like queer people living with hiv or aids, fat people are stigmatized for a condition that is imagined to be their fault” (Mollow). I thought it was very interesting that a society will blame someone for being overweight because of their unhealthy habits, however, genetics and uncontrollable factors do contribute. It is often what occurs with people in the queer community, they are blamed that they are queer because of their own personal choices, however, inside they feel the happiest and most complete as a queer individual.
Part Six was all about Inequalities, in class and in the book we mostly focused on women, feminism, and finding equality between men and women. I found a comical post on Pinterest by @SciencePorn. It started out by saying,
“ First Woman on the Moon:
Houston, we have a problem.
What?
Nevermind.
What’s the problem?
Nothing.
Please tell us?
I’m Fine.” (SciencePorn)
It starts off as a woman talking and then interchanges between man and woman. I thought that this was very offending to the general idea of women. While, it was humorous and many people will laugh at it and find that they relate to this, in a greater more logical sense it’s underlying message to women is that they can not complete a higher position or more math and science related jobs, because their emotions will overpower any of their greater decisions. The post continued to have comments by Neil deGrasse Tyson who said, “haha, it’s funny because women did all the calculations that actually got men to the moon.” I thought this was astounding that a man was standing up for women, when for years women have been mocked and made fun of because of their “overwhelming emotions,” the most common one being women who run for President of the United States.
Lastly part seven was based on Sexualities, and covered a large portion of Rape Culture. I found this post that really struck me and opened my eyes to how girls are taught from a young age the wrong idea of “romance” and instead rape culture is romanticized. The post goes, “ the ‘woman is telling male romantic interest that she is upset about something and said male romantic interest shuts her up by kissing her without her permission and she struggles briefly but then melts into the kiss and she’s done being angry now because all she really needed was, not to have her concerns listened to, but instead to be sexually assaulted into silence, because men get to decide how valid women’s feelings are and how those feelings should be dealt with, I guess, and then they make out” (amazighprincex). I thought that this was very eye-opening to look at how our society portrays “romance” in movies or TV shows, and more often than not it is portrayed as the damsel in distress, that needed the “romantic” kiss from a male to help all of her problems go away.
Final Word Count: 1222
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