Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10am: POST #3
For your final blog post, I would like you to read and respond to the poem "I Want a Dyke for President" written by artist and act...
-
For your final blog post, I would like you to read and respond to the poem "I Want a Dyke for President" written by artist and act...
A connection in my own life that I can make to course material is that when it comes to my family, sometimes things are said that are very close-minded, and I feel that it is because of cultural contexts. I have a cousin who recently cut her hair very short, and my mom started talking about how she must be a "tomboy" now and questioning "what she's doing with her life". That really bothered me because she assumed something so quickly, and also acted as if my cousin's life was directly affecting hers in some way. And when I pointed this out to her, she got angry with me because our faith does not agree with "alternative lifestyles", and said that I should not be condoning such choices. But just the fact that she felt like she was in a position to say she knew my cousin's identity in that way just by her outward presentation just reminded me of the set expectations and gender roles created by society today.
ReplyDeleteIt’s astounding how something as simple as cutting your hair can offend someone. I remember when I cut my hair short, the first thing my little cousin said was “Ew, you look like a boy!” It would be nice to see a society in the future that doesn’t base worth on something as silly as a haircut.
DeleteAs a half-Korean, half-white individual, I feel as though I have a large amount of experience in both cultures. When we discussed the privileges and downsides of each aspect of intersectionality, I began to think about my own experiences within traditional Korean culture. My grandparents immigrated from Korea in their 40s, which means that traditional Korean culture is very much ingrained into them. This also means that they have kept some prejudices and ignorant ideas that are common with people from their time and region. For example, much of my Korean family is very much again homosexuality. While they may not openly say so, I know that if I were to identify myself as homosexual it would be, at the very least, disapproved of. At the very worst, I would be disowned. While these views are obviously not held by all Koreans, I’ve noticed that this isn’t a rare situation when talking about older Asian family members. I hope that our society can strive towards more open-mindedness, and that one day this situation will be a rare one.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you don't share the same views, even after being raised in a culture that often sees homosexuality as wrong, shows that there can be a constant shift toward open-mindedness. Even though it may be harder for older generations to accept, as homosexuality becomes understood and accepted by more and more people, it is likely that newer generations will accept it regardless of the beliefs of older generations.
DeleteI can relate to your post. My parents and I immigrated to the US from Asia and they also brought with them traditional values, especially the idea of a perfect nuclear family. My family is also against homosexuality due to those values. It’s interesting how older generations are less accepting of it, but just like Alyssa Allen said, our generation is starting to develop into a more open-minded community.
DeleteI think it's interesting that we associate certain aspects of our life (such as race, gender, sexuality, etc) to everyday items such as clothing. In actuality, clothing is simply something we use to cover our bodies, but for many people they choose to use it beyond pure functionality. It can be used to express taste, style, or even gender. I think it's interesting though that we assign certain things to certain types of clothing, often incorrectly. I began thinking about this when one of my housemates described her outfit as looking "really homosexual". There is nothing inherently hetero- or homosexual about any type of clothing, and yet we assign certain ideas about what it is to fall into those categories. While you cannot stare at a person and, based on their clothing choices, determine their sexuality, we think that these stereotypes that have been created speak for an entire group of people.
ReplyDeleteChoosing to be able to dress in a way that represents yourself is also a class privilege. For many lower-class people, clothing serves purely functional purposes simply out of necessity. They do not get to choose what color or style they would like to wear; they must wear what is available and, money permitting, what is enough to get them through the weather. They may not have the privilege of getting to express their personality or gender identity through clothing as middle-class and upper-class people do.
It’s crazy how something so simple as clothing can have many people speculating someone’s sexuality. It shouldn’t be like that. As a society, I feel that we are too judgemental and jump to conclusions real fast without getting to know the person. Hopefully, in some near future, we could move on and not speculate anything before knowing the person.
DeleteYou bring up an excellent point of clothing being a display of privilege. Not only do I agree with the point made about how a person's sexuality can be judged by someone's style of dress, I also think one should consider the concept of "lower-class fashion" being appropriated as "upper-class", whether or not it has to do with a person's subject position.
DeleteA connection of my life I can make with the course material we went over discussion is that when it comes to ability, my family does not take this seriously. For instance my cousin suffers from depression and at times she’ll feel the happiest but then there are days when you just can’t get her out of bed or simply to eat. I remember one day, my uncles were discussing this last thanksgiving and they were saying how she’s probably bored, doesn’t have anything to do, and should go out more. That she’s just making it up to get people’s attention. I realized that depending on your region or even ethnicity, ability isn’t something that some people pay attention to.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting. We don't really pay attention with ability, and do not realize how much it can harm a person. I agree that most people believe depression is for "attention" which is completely wrong. That is why most people would rather stay quiet and not tell anyone about their depression than saying it and getting laughed at for it.
DeleteI relate to this a lot. I don't talk to my parents about my depression because I know they would just play it off as me overexaggerating boredom or something.
DeleteFinishing Rory Dicker’s A History of U.S. Feminisms opened my eyes to not only the historical contexts of Feminisms, but also how much of its past has influenced modern day portrayals of feminisms. When doing the makeup assignment and reading the articles for last week’s discussion, I found a lot of archetypes of white feminism that were similar to many first wave movements (as well as some that coincided with second wave aspects). While it’s clearly obvious that we’ve progressed past the days of getting the vote, there are still biases that I feel are present when discussing feminism. Many “poster children” I would see that represented feminism in media would be women such as Amy Schumer, Emma Watson, and Jennifer Lawrence. Not that I’m bashing on the fact that they’re feminists, but from my own personal experience, I find it problematic to have only one type of perspective on what a feminist looks like. Even then, however, we’ve still managed to grow as a society and embrace a more intersectional image of feminism. I just believe there’s more work to be done in order to give colored women better representation in current day feminism.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting point. Often times, feminism in the media is portrayed through the lens of white women and their problems. It is much more rare to find intersectional feminism being talked about in the media. Having these celebrities proclaim to be true feminists is problematic and hurtful to the cause.
DeleteThere are some connections I can make with the course material, and one of them is the whole "you are a girl, you can't do anything". I come from a big family of 13 people, 5 sisters and 5 brothers, and I always hear the boys saying how the girls belong in the kitchen and that they should be cleaning the house. Even though some people think that this mentality was over, it really is not. I commute from home so whenever I am home, as one of the oldest, I hear "but she is supposed to be babysitting, I'm a boy". Sometimes it gets so frustrating, but at the same time I'm used to it. Eventually people will learn that there aren't specific things that one sex has to do, and the other does not.
ReplyDeleteI come from a house hold of all girls and one boy. The men in the family definitely like to do their "guy stuff" without including the girls. And there's been times when they've said we aren't capable or they assume we won't be interested because it's "for the guys". It can be pretty frustrating but just got to prove them wrong.
DeleteOne of the topics today, ability, relates closely to my personal experiences because my younger sister is disabled. My sister is and has been since birth, mentally disabled, causing turmoil most of her life where often people underestimate her ability. My sister is still capable of reading, writing, and learning, it just takes her longer and requires a higher level of patience. She is partially deaf and has learning disabilities, and often people cannot understand her at first when she speaks. The schools I went to did not want to try and assist her growing up, and for years my mother had to fight the school district to keep her out of classes that were not teaching her anything, or were not planning on teaching her, labelling her as completely incapable of learning. Often people make jokes about mentally disabled people and it is disheartening to hear them because they do not have an understanding of the situation that those people are in. With ability, I think, many people do not think about the topic or have it cross their mind every day, or possibly they do not have experience with disabled people. In my experience, many are insensitive to disabled people’s ability, and I hope with education more people can try to understand their situation.
ReplyDeleteSome connections with the course material I've noticed lately have been related to traditional boy and girl colors that children are forced to wear right from the moment they're born. I recently met this lady who is adopting a newborn through a private adoption agency. She was telling me about all the pink clothes she had bought her already, the pink toys, and the pink color of her new baby girls room. Everything is pink. I find it interesting but it makes me question some traditions and how I may deal with that one day when I have children.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, I'm glad that despite how things may seem extremely color biased that theres a movement against that bias. It's also good to remember that up until WW1 the colors were fairly neutral and many upper-class individuals dressed children neutrally and in white until they were about 6 or 7. Gender associations with pink and blue were also in reverse of what it is today because of Hitler's classification of homosexuals with a pink triangle.
DeleteToday in our discussion we learned about privilege and analyzed the different ways we do or do not hold certain privileges over others. For example, as a white person I admit to holding certain advantages in life over people who are not white. I have never experienced poverty, and that subject-position gives me privilege over those who have experienced it. One infamous topic in today's media is the debate over gender neutral bathrooms. As a cis-gendered woman, I have had the privilege of never worrying about which bathroom to go in or about someone caring that I am in it. However, non-binary anyone who does not conform to the binary gender identities have always faced this struggle that I will never have to experience. The world has been catered to people like me, and too often excludes those who identify differently.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have experienced a lack of privilege when it comes to my gender and safety. Sadly, we still live in a culture where sexual harassment and assault are prevalent. The "Me Too" campaign that has recently started on Facebook and other social media outlets encourages women to share their own experiences with this issue to promote awareness. Scrolling through my feed, I am always shocked to see so many women have dealt with this problem. It is incredibly dangerous to be a woman even today in this society, and we definitely have to consider our safety and health is ways men will never have to.
One of the topics that we have discussed that has hit most close to home for me in gender identity. I say this because up until recently, I had never seen how struggling with knowing one's gender can impact their feelings of self-worth and confidence. One of my younger cousins has very recently been undergoing a change in how she identifies. When she was a child, she was what you would consider very "girly" and feminine. Lately, she has physically altered her appearance to appear more masculine and her interests have shifted to what are more commonly associated with male hobbies. However, this is not the only change our family has seen in her. We have also witnessed her loose her confidence and hold a much smaller presence in a room. It truly seems she is struggling to find a sense of place and comfort in her own skin. I can only imagine what it feels like to be unsure of my gender identity, but I am beginning to have more of an idea of how much of an emotional toll it takes on a person. As a collective, I think gender identity, or lack thereof needs to be a topic deserving of the upmost empathy and patience.
ReplyDeleteThe topics that I closely relate to that we recently discussed in class are race and gender. Hollywood lacks female representation as well as Asian representation. I grew up watching American shows with little to no female Asian characters. Usually male Asians get more parts than female Asians, and Asians don’t get a lot of parts to start with. There were movies that portrayed yellowface like Mr. Yunioshi from Breakfast at Tiffany’s who was played by Mick Rooney, a white male. Others portrayed the stereotypical Asian who is used for comic relief like Long Duck Dong from Sixteen Candles. Also, when the media tries to portray Asians, they mostly show East Asians and often forget about the rest of Asia.
ReplyDeleteHowever, times are changing and Asian American actors in Hollywood (and all Asian Americans in general) both male and female have been pushing for more Asian representation in the media. Even though we are starting to see more Asian representation than before (Dev Patel from Lion, Ross Butler from Riverdale/Thirteen Reasons Why, Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead, Arden Cho from Teen Wolf, Chloe Bennet from Agents of Shield, the cast of Fresh Off The Boat, etc), it would be nice to see more leading roles set for a wider range of Asian American actors and actresses in the future.
Colorism definitely discriminates against the shade skin tone. My roommate is Filipinx and we were both talking about how there is little representation for south east asian actor/actresses or that Hollywood also tend to whitewash movies like Ghost in the Shell and Death Note. I'm Latinx, and its also something we notice in Spanish media. Usually white-passing or light skinned Latinx have more representation whereas dark skin, indigenous looking folks get the villainous roles or minor roles.
DeleteToday's discussion topic was about intersectionality. One of the identities we discussed was gender and sexuality. There are privileges in being cisgender heterosexual person because it is the norm, whereas if you're in the lgbtqia+ spectrum folks are most likely to experience discrimination and hate from family to community. Since we live in California, folks are generally accepting of lgbtqia community, but in other regions such as the South, folks lives are at a higher rate of danger and hate crimes. To me, this discussion reminded me that region is an important part of how our identities are also affected and shaped from where we come from.
ReplyDeleteThe conflict of gender identity really sticks out to me because I never felt the need to sway one way or the other. I was the first girl born in my family (out of all the grandchildren), so I was raised with the stereotypical gender roles for girls. I had to wash dishes, learn to cook, care for any younger relatives, never speak up, always follow directions, keep my hair long, dress feminine, etc. But I also grew up along five of my cousins who were all very masculine. So, along with being told with "how to be a girl," I was doing things that were considered masculine. I loved getting involved in sports, I wouldn't cross my legs, I would openly burp in public (gross, I know), wear baggy clothing, etc. My immediate family didn't have too much of a problem with how I acted besides the occasional "stop, girls' don't do that," but I remember last year when I first cut my hair short, a relative came up to me and said "I thought you were supposed to be a girl." I felt really angry about that statement and that was when I realized I was gender non-conforming. Even to this day I question my gender identity. I feel that having these kinds of discussions more often, whether in class or with friends, can really decrease the stigma around not fulfilling gender roles or for not acting your assigned sex.
ReplyDeleteA connection in my own life that I can make to course material is regarding ability. I thought this was an important subject to address because a majority of society sees ‘ability’ or lack thereof as a physical attribute—someone with a broken arm or leg, etc. that doesn’t allow them the same opportunities as someone who is able bodied. However, mental abilities are just as important to address. I’ve had family or friends in the past who have had severe depression and/or crippling anxiety and people don’t notice it as much as someone who has a physical disadvantage—many people don’t understand that when an individual has depression or anxiety at times they’re unable to get out of bed to go to work or school, they see it as that person being lazy or a low- life.
ReplyDeleteIn our group discussions today, we also went over ableism and its disregard for mental health. Not only are those with mental health disorders less visible, but there are even more stigmatized, which is incredibly unfair to those who suffer from these debilitating conditions. I completely agree with your standpoint.
DeleteWhen Peggy McIntosh transitioned her talk about white privilege to the belief that this country runs based on a meritocracy is when I personally started to resonated with her article. Of course, being an Asian American woman, during much of her article I found it to be a nice example of emerging self-awareness, but for me it also felt a bit superficial until she changed gears. One of the most toxic lies I was fed during elementary and middle school was that the American Dream is accessible to everyone equally, and that the meritocracy did exist in the American education system. It wasn't until I reached university that I realized for myself that this is abhorrently untrue. But because I took so long to understand this, I had by that point internalized any failures in my endeavors and any shortcomings in my work as entirely my fault. When my peers in a largely white, middle-class neighborhood obtained incredible achievements that I strove for but could not accomplish, I was wired to think that it was my own fault for not being able to create the circumstances that would lead to such success. If I had been more aware of misconception of the meritocracy, perhaps I would have been able to come to terms with my failures on a more realistic and emotionally-healthy mindset. I didn't understand what privilege was and that those around me already possessed keys to doors I was continually struggling to yank open. However, I was similarly unaware of my own unearned advantages. In university, I saw that my family's ease with class status allowed me to pursue many prestigious internships without having to worry about getting a job on the side to pay for tuition. I hope that as I further my education with this course and in this community, I become more self-aware of my privilege and subjection position as Peggy McIntosh does in her article.
ReplyDeleteDuring our discussion, we went over Peggy McIntosh's article about how, within intersectionality, we all have privileges and disadvantages. The biggest impact this article had on me is recognizing how we don't realize the privileges we have over others. We all notice our disadvantages, but view our privileges as normal, and overlook that others don't have it the same. In McIntosh's article, she points out how white people and men see their privileges as the standard treatment, rather than recognizing that in reality, they are advantages that other people don't have due to their race, gender, sexuality, etc. While I am a Latina woman and don't have the same privileges that McIntosh has/mentioned, after reading her article, it opened my eyes that I have other privileges I have never given thought to. For example, I am an able person; I don't have any physical, mental, or learning disabilities preventing me from going about my daily business. I never have to worry that I won't be able to climb stairs or struggle to learn in a classroom. In terms of sexuality, I am privileged. I identify as heterosexual, so I never have to worry about not being accepted or being judged when around my romantic partner. Though I can relate to many disadvantages, instead I made connections to the privileges I have always taken for granted, and becoming aware of that will make me more mindful and considerate of others
ReplyDeleteSomething I find very interesting in Chapter 1 of A History of U.S Feminism is the statement that common people tend to think that feminists are “ugly, hairy, wears no makeup, butch lesbians, humorless, etc.” I find this quite relatable because when I was having a conversation with one of my friends about my classes that I am enrolled in, I mentioned Women Studies. His response was “oh so there must be a lot of lesbians in there who can’t take a joke.” I had no idea what to even say towards that but just walk away. In my daily life my friends tend to tell me that I should dress more “womanly”, which makes me think of Bell Hooks statement that “domination is the root of the problem and feminism is a struggle to end sexist oppression.” I feel like with most people I know it is about a competition against each other in life rather than realizing it would be more beneficial to work together. I also realized that before taking this class, I never really thought about the definition of feminism, especially the different definitions of feminism. Also, being a black woman from a poor community I feel like I have many disadvantages. Sometimes people even say "oh you're pretty for a black girl". The readings definitely put many things in to perspective for me.
ReplyDelete