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I attend at college that would consider itself to be very liberal and as a young black American from the South there were a lot of learning moments from my freshman year. One thing that I never understood fully growing up until Wooster was Sex/Gender which may have caused for ignorance to grow within me over the course of 18 years. One day I was arguing about gender equality in America but, I was only focusing on biological male and female that are cis-gender. At the time of this argument “cis-gender” was not a part of my vernacular. Someone randomly came over and unprovokingly began lecturing me on how ignorant I was, and how only focusing on biological gendering is oppressive. Even though I was not even originally speaking to this individual,
The incident actually occurred in my home in a banal everyday interaction with a plumber who was fixing our shower. Firstly, the plumber who was Caucasian continually bombarded his younger, Latino assistant with racial insults mostly to the tune of "you stupid Mexican". When he realized that we were staring at his comments he explained that his assistant "gets it from his mother's side". This young man was in fact the plumber's son! He then went onto talking about how America is today, and how being a fellow American, I should understand that. Of course I immediately responded with: "I'm not American," to which he countered: "Oh! I thought you were white!.....I mean American."
Attending a predominantly white school, white people were very interested, or rather over interested, in the so-called black culture. Being in a space that had minority black people, oppression was felt on the highest level. Anything that may have remotely involved the black skin, was downplayed and undermined, and more cases than one, my voice was silenced. From this experience, I started realising that wherever I may go, the female black body was not correctly or remotely represented positively in the media and in general society. For many years, as a regular television watcher, I began to realise that the media and entertainment industry did not put black women in power or inspiration, but women who are needy, sexual objects or women who play second best to men. In my educational systems, I have not been exposed to black lectures or teachers enough, and I realised that we were not being correctly and rightfully represented. As a black body, I am aware that I occupy space in a white environment, and that much of what I do is under the scope of white supremacy. Much of the experiences I have at my university are very much related to my racial profiling, and my level of intelligence is marked according to how I look eternally. Daily, I am constantly reminded that I am black as if it is something to be ashamed of social elite environment. In the article written by Dill and Zambara,
One of the points that Peggy McIntosh makes that truly impacts me is when she states, “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege.” I must say that I agree with this point, but not in its entirety. In high school I was always taught that throughout history women were treated differently than men and that because of this, men have been able to attain a better position in society, mainly in the workforce, and in this way I was taught about male privilege. I believe that it depends on the type of education one receives that determines whether or not males are taught to recognize male privilege. I also believe that the way men view their male privilege is heavily influenced by race, culture, and one’s values, which McIntosh does not mention. For example: in my family we were taught not to treat the women in our family any different than the men and have always supported them in any care...
In recent years, a rise in verbal abuse and violence directed at people of color, lesbians, and gay men, and other historically persecuted groups has plagued the United States. Among the settings of these expressions of intolerance are college and university campuses, where bias incidents have occurred sporadically since the mid-1980's. Outrage, indignation and demands for change are the responses to these incidents - understandably, given the lack of racial and social diversity among students, faculty and administrators on most campuses. Many universities, under pressure to respond to the concerns of those who are the objects of hate, have adopted codes or olicies prhibiting speech that offends any group based on race gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. That's the wrong response, well-meaning or not. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects speech no matter how offensive its content.
Evelyn Couch in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe feels this when a teenager, without reason, knocks her down and calls her a cunt. In her own situation, she feels victimized by the world around her and attacked without any real reason or provocation. Despite her effort to avoid being called names such as 'slut' or 'bossy', she is still called a cunt, not because of her actions but rather because of her gender. (Flagg 233). No matter how hard she works to avoid the harsh double-standards and judgements of the patriarchal society, she cannot act or adjust in a way that negates her gender. She is left entirely defenseless against the attack since there is no real retaliation or equivalent of the word. There is no response to such an open attack.
My first confrontation with widespread racism occurred during high school, an experience that first motivated me to attend law school. Attending a culturally diverse school, racial differences had never been a problem until sophomore year. It was then I, an African-American, was confronted with the glaring realization that racism against persisted. My majority African-American cheerleading squad attended a football game where barraged by the home team’s spectators screaming racial slurs as we entered. At the end of the game, a racially motivated brawl ensued. I was livid, astonished and confused. That night I learned that although discrimination laws have changed, there remain pockets of society that have not changed with it. While it prompted me to learn about my culture, this event also pushed me to fight against the stereotypes weather through my own actio...
Equality is something Americans strive to provide and maintain. It has become an integral and necessary part of our mosaic culture. Even now to the point that when people think of America, they naturally think of freedom and equality. People of many different races, disabilities and creeds have come to the United States seeking the impartiality upon which this country was founded. The institutions of this country have relied upon it, just as it was the created by the events in the laying of moral foundations. The expression of America's citizens plays an extremely significant role in the history of equality in American society. In the pursuit of equality and the "American Dream," people have authored inspiring compositions and sermons to express their feelings of what their country should be like and how exemplary it would be were it like that.
Men and women are “correctively” raped, assaulted, or killed for presenting as the “wrong” gender. “[T]he Rules of Gender dictate that there are two and only two genders, and presenting in a given gender means that you have the corresponding sex” (101). Taking that a step further, the corresponding sex means that one shares the heterosexual desires associated with that sex. These assumptions are the reasoning behind the violence that plagues women, minorities, and the LGBT+ community. By presenting oneself as a gender other than that which corresponds to their sex—whether through clothing or mere behaviors—they are in essence misrepresenting themselves and attempting to confuse the people they interact with. According to Gilbert, “the physical mannerisms frequently presented by a sissy, that is, an effeminate male, must . . . elicit some sexual response programmed by the bigender rules” (101). This hypothesis is, by itself, problematic. It is based on the idea that we are socialized to associate certain mannerisms and body language to the opposite sex, so much so that we experience a Pavlovian response to them, regardless of who performs them. However, not all men are attracted to all women who flip their hair over their shoulder when they speak; not all women find all men who sit with their legs spread as wide as possible, or
In the article, I Won’t Make Their Lies My Truth by Otterbein senior, Kris Crews, she talks about her experiences growing up black in predominately white schools. When I was reading this article, I found a quote that really resonated with me, “For the longest time, I excused the people who made these comments and made me feel this way. I told myself that they weren’t personally at fault; maybe they had never been taught how to interact with people from different backgrounds and didn’t understand what’s offensive and what’s not. I let them off the hook because I figured their parents had raised them this way, and children are supposed to abide by what their parents teach them” (Crews, 2016). If we go back to the article, What Do You Say When
The issue of gender inequality will never truly be solved in the United States. This arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles as well as biologically through hormonal differences, chromosomes, and brain structures. Gender inequality is defined as unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on gender. One of the reasons for gender inequality is income disparities. Another reason is because of the positions in the workplace. Thirdly, the reason is because of beliefs that one another has. For these reasons is why these situations should be examined to get to the root of the problem.
The “Politics” section, from the UN’s 2008 report of the progress of the world’s women, discusses in detail how women’s roles in government and politics in general have expanded and can continue to expand. Moreover, it also explores different challenges and obstacles women may encounter when it comes to politics, and how these obstacles can be overcome. In discussing these issues, the author describes a “cycle of political accountability”. This so called cycle is a process by which women’s engagement in politics results in a positive “feedback loop” whereby a more gender-balanced political system may arise. According to the report, there are five stages: mobilization, representation, legislation & policy, implementation, and transforming politics. Of course, the cycle can also go backwards leading to the loss of rights for women.
In modern American society, men and women are not always completely equal. Men still get more benefits than women in important things such as insurance and business. This is unequal treatment because the men get more benefits. Women have always been seen as unequal to men, though. Women have barely gained the right to vote in the last century, and before that, women could not even own land or a business. Women’s rights are usually acquired later or, sometimes, even decades or centuries than men’s rights. For example, the right to vote. White men have had the ability to vote since our country’s genesis. Black men later gained the right to vote in 1870 when the 15th Amendment was passed, allowing them to vote for the first time. This is in stark
The videos that were displayed in class accurately depicts how our understanding of the social construction of gender is changing. Within the patriarchal system, males and females are constantly enforced to act as their intended roles. They have a strict set of rules and guidelines that they have to follow, or else, they will be punished for it. In other words, if they don’t perform as the gender that they are supposed to be, then they will face heavy criticism from those who “enforce” gender norms. Gender norms are the expectations of what your gender entails, meaning that there is certain way you are supposed to go about with your gender.
Outside of abortion, women also face political issues in the place they work. Gender equality in the workplace is reached when both genders are able to access and achieve the same rewards, resources and opportunities ("About Workplace Gender Equality). In order to achieve workplace gender equality, workplaces must impose equal pay for equal work, eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender, in relation to family and caring responsibilities, and let all genders have access to occupations and remove barriers on specific genders. ("About Workplace Gender Equality). Workplace biases lead to inequality elsewhere in life as well. If a company were to achieve gender equality, as a result they would see economic growth, increased production, and
Equality is a concept mankind never is able to grasp correctly. Of course humans will always search for different solutions to create fairness, but factors such as human greed, ignorance of mass populations, and even biological aspects stagnates the process of equality. The oldest and most relevant discussion on equality lies with the difference of sex; man versus woman. Initially, men, because of their physical superiority, were given the prospects many women never even dreamt to have. Conversely, as time has progressed, women have fought this unfair treatment with demands of suffrage and similar rights to those of their male equivalents. Greatly enough, this generation has done an exceptional job in the challenge of overcoming sexism and inequality. However, will this search for equality ever end? When can we say we have created an equal race of men and women? The fact of the matter is that it is truly impossible to have equality between the sexes because of predisposed circumstances that are not easily controllable in the slightest bit.