Being able to vote is power and the fact that women weren’t able to vote while men could shows just how much women are at a disadvantage. This didn’t sit right with women which led to the Women’s Suffrage Movement in which they demanded the right to vote. As much as women back then fought to be heard it took them nearly 100 years to finally reach their goal of being able to vote. This means years of protesting and nonstop work to prove that they are just as equal. The fact that they had to convince men that they were worthy of a voice shows just how low they think of them. Ida B Wells played a huge part in this movement for she was the first to form a suffrage group in chicago with the intention of bringing about both women and men voters. This inspired other black reformers to make their own group until the National Association Of Colored Women was found. In servrine snapshot it shows women protesting on the sidewalk asking president Wilson how long they have to wait. Protesting to the president directly was a good way of getting their point across because he is responsible for them not being able to vote. This snapshot made me realize how women were able to come together to fight for one cause, which is commendable. 

The fact that Ida was able to be such a great leader while she lost both her parents and brother not to mention being borned into slavery is remarkable. Not having any family in your corner to go home to or to even be there for you must’ve been tough especially during such a hard time. Then again I can’t help but think this was her motivation to keep going and to keep fighting. She already lost almost all her loved ones, losing another battle would’ve been too much to bear. Especially when she has so many people looking up to her. Watching the video “Untold Stories of Black Women in the suffrage movement” showed me how important voting is. I always knew it was but this made me see it in a different light. There’s a lot of power in voting, in knowing that you have a voice that can make a difference. Seeing how much women wanted the right to vote and seeing what they had to go through to get it made me much more appreciative and made me realize the power my voice has. This can make the difference between picking a good or bad leader to represent me and do right by the people. The Women’s Suffrage movement gave women the chance to get through to people that might have opposed them being able to vote. It still amazes me that it took 72 years for them to be heard or even acknowledged. This took dedication and commitment to constantly fight for something and barely see any progress. In the end everything paid off because this movement was successful and women were given the right to vote. 

Activism is taking a stand to bring about change whether political or social. A Lot of the things we are able to do today is a result of the work others have done. Some of these changes are the civil rights act, voting rights act, drunk driving being made illegal, and much more. These people were brave enough to fight to bring about the changes needed to benefit all of us. Making the change you want to see in the world is very important. For this reason I couldn’t agree more with Allena snapshot that “Actions speak louder than words”. We live in a world where talking alone will not get the job done, taking action is more effective because it shows people how serious you are and how far you are willing to go. You cannot want change and are not willing to do anything for it or make any sacrifices. A Lot of people died fighting for something they believed in, just to have their voice heard. Bringing about change requires you to put yourself out there. Wendy Syfret made a very good point about the power of youth in activism in the text How To Think Like An Activist. She mentioned how “One of the unique qualities young people can bring to activism is an ability to be heard. Fresh voices have a distinct ability to break through discourse, spin and entrenched agendas. They can reach the heart of the issues and make people really engage with old conversations in new ways.” (Syfret, 18). I agree with her on this because young people are able to reach a different audience than someone older. They bring something different to the table and get people interested. If I was to see a teenager protesting on the street I’m more likely to stop compared to seeing someone older because it’s so out of the norm. There’s more older activists which everyone is used to but hearing what someone younger has to say especially someone around my age group makes me more curious. She also touched on the role social media plays and I must say it plays a big role. It’s a really effective way of reaching a bigger platform and voicing your opinion for “With a phone in hand, anyone has the ability to educate, inform, expose and serve as a reporter.” (Syfret, 24). As effective as more young people becoming activists would be there are many that don’t have the freedom to. 

After watching the film Girls Connected I realized how much girls did not have as much  power over their lives. Their parents were the ones who made the decisions that they are supposed to make for themselves. This one girl talked about how they tried to marry her off at 12 years old, how girls are not allowed to go anywhere or do anything but stay inside. Another talked about how many girls feel like they’re place is in a home and they can’t study certain things like engineering. I believe their religion has a lot to do with this and their parents as well. A Lot of people’s religion doesn’t give them freedom to do whatever they like, there’s usually a set of rules they must follow. Their parents raising them the same way they were raised doesn’t help either because they feel as if that’s the right way to raise their children and they usually aren’t open to any other ways. This has a big impact on their kids because it affects the person they grow up to be. They won’t know how to make decisions for themselves because they never had to. Neither will they know how to get by in the real world.

Patriarchy is so much more than men having all the power and women having little to none. When people discuss patriarchy they don’t mention the role society plays in it and how we are in fact involved in it. Growing up we are taught that boys are stronger than girls and how girls are soft and weak. These ideas that were put in our head were normalized by society and as we get older it plays a bigger part in our lives than we realize. From how men see females down to how they treat them because that’s what they were taught. In the text Patriacrhy, the System Allan talked about how “Some of what we learn through socialization turns out not to be true and then we may have to deal with that. I say “may” because powerful forces encourage us to keep ourselves in a state of denial, to rationalize what we have been taught. It is a way to keep it safe from scrutiny, if only to protect our sense of who we are and ensure our being accepted by other people, including family and friends.” ( Johnson). Going with an idea because it was what we were taught and not trying to build our own opinion by examining both sides is one of the many reasons why this patriarchy is not coming to an end. We don’t have enough people that’s willing to fight against the system for the change that’s needed. Women have always been the ones fighting for a change to be seen as an equal to men. While men are so comfortable being dominant that they rather support a system that favors them. 

Vanelly’s snapshot brings attention to how many ways women are torn down by patriarchy. Why is it that a woman getting raped allows her to lose her honour? Making a woman feel less for going through something so terrible and beyond her control shows just how much we are looked down on. If it was a man in this situation I guarantee they wouldn’t face these same problems which is sad to say. Growing up I was always told I can’t do the same things boys do because I am a girl and it took me a while to understand what that meant. As I get older I realize more and more that men will always be at an advantage for simply being men. As women we will always be seen as less and there will be limitations to what we can do because that’s how society portrays us. However we can’t dismantle the patriarchy without examining our own privilege and realizing the role we play in it. As stated “All men and all women are therefore involved in this oppressive system, and none of us can control whether we participate, only how.” (Johnson). “Privilege is not something I take and which I therefore have the option of not taking. It is something that society gives me.” (Johnson). Being privileged doesn’t have to be a bad thing, the important question to ask is what good do I use this privilege to do? How do I choose to participate in this oppressive system?. Making the change we want to see is part of how we make the system better. 

Servrine snapshot showed just how much white people can’t relate to going through majority of the things people of color do. Not only that but just because something never happened to you doesn’t make it nonexistent. In Fact that is a very unfair way to think. White privilege gives people the green light to treat others that do not fit under that description like they don’t matter. Oftentimes when people of color bring up white privilege to white people they take it as they dont go through struggles or they have everything handed to them. When in reality it just means your skin immediately protects you and gives you an advantage above everyone else. To be able to walk on the street freely without constantly looking over your back, automatically being considered for a job without having to put in as much work, having a voice that can actually make a difference or even being able to say no. These are things that black people would get looked down on for doing or couldn’t even do. As someone who is black I can definitely say that white privilege is real because I’ve seen it my whole life. From Teachers playing favoritism to being the last pick for everything. Peggy made an interesting point in the text White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by saying “I want, then, to distinguish between earned strength and unearned power conferred systematically. Power from unearned privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or to dominate.” (McIntosh). This made me look at white privilege in a whole different way because I never thought of it as “unearned privilege” but I came to realize that it actually is. Being borned white automatically gives you privilege and power that you did nothing to deserve. She then began to explain how “It is an open question whether we will choose to use unearned advantage to weaken hidden systems of advantage, and whether we will use any of our arbitrarily-awarded power to try to reconstruct power systems on a broader base.” (McIntosh). I feel as if this was a very good question to ask. Why have power and not do anything to try and improve the system ? Marilyn Frye touched on a similar topic in her article about women being oppressed. She made some interesting points that “If a man has little or no material political power, or achieves little of what he wants to achieve, his being male is no part of the explanation. Being male is something he has going for him, even if race or class or age or disability is going against him.” (Frye). This brings attention to how men are favoriotized over women and seen in this perfect light no matter what they do. Their gender plays no part in anything because men always had more of an advantage over women for simply being men. Meanwhile “Women are oppressed, as women. Members of certain racial and/or economic groups and classes, both the males and the females are oppressed as members of those races and/or classes. But men are not oppressed as men.” (Frye). I feel as if the point Marilyn is trying to make is that women are always oppressed as women. Whenever a woman does anything wrong her gender always plays a part yet men are oppressed under everything else but their gender. 

Allena snapshot stood out to me because when i look at the picture its sending a message that Non-binary people just want a seat at the table. They want to be respected and not look down on. Which I feel like was one of the many points Alok was trying to make in Beyond the Gender Bianary. Society normalized so many things that people aren’t willing to accept or even consider anything that doesn’t fall under a certain category. Parents tell their kids that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up but can’t accept what they choose to identify as? It’s one thing to not support something but to go out of your way to bash someone because of it is not okay. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but people fail to realize you can not support something and still be respectful of it. Everyone should be able to express themselves in whatever way they see fit. Which can look like a man wearing a skirt and makeup or a woman dressed in a suit with a tie on. That does not make them any less than anyone else. I didn’t realize how hard it was for people who chose to express themselves in a certain way regardless of their gender until Alok mentioned how “I cannot go outside without being afraid for my safety.”.. they/them continued to explain how “They are few spaces where I do not experience harassment for the way I look. Something as simple as running errands leads to strangers interrogating me because of my body, trying to find some way to explain why I look like this. “Are you dressed up for a theater production?” “Oh, it must be Fashion Week again!”. (Alok, 16). This showed me how much someone has to endure for simply expressing who they are. It takes some people years to find themselves. Imagine finally understanding and knowing who you are and having to hide it because of fear. A friend was over my house one day and we were watching the VMA performances. It was going so well until Lil Nas X came on performing. He immediately turned off the TV. I asked why and his response was “Didn’t you see what he was wearing and how he was acting?”. His boxers were bidazilled and he was dancing too “lady like” i’m assuming. This is another point Alok was trying to make that clothes have no gender. What you wear shouldnt define you. Then again before we were born everything was picked out for us from our gender down to the very thing we would wear when we were out of the womb. As Alok said “If you remove our clothing, our makeup, and our pronouns, underneath the surface we are just men and women playing dress up.” (Alok, 17). Which just goes to show how silly it is to put a gender on clothing muchless shame someone for wearing a certain clothing item.