Watching Disclosure certainly opened my eyes to how we saw transgender in television and media when I was younger. We were shown transgenders as ‘plot points’ or a big shocker in a show or movie. They were used as comedy like Mrs.Doubtfire and Big mama’s house, It’s only recently that we are getting movies that are more about transgender people and the queer community like The Danish girl or Boys meets girl.

I remember when I was younger I didn’t understand the transgender community, like many others I wasn’t taught much about the LGBTQIA community. The concept of a woman or man wanting to change themselves, a concept I didn’t understand.

The only people who benefit from problematic depictions of transgender people are the people with an anti-LGBTQIA agenda, the ones who want to depict them as ‘crazy’. They use movies and media as examples of their rage to fuel their case. On the other hand, watching documentaries like Disclosure benefits the transgender community, it teaches many people who don’t understand them a little more about what they go through. Just how much what the media has out there isn’t what it’s really like.

If we want to challenge the misrepresentation of any race or group that is often the front for discrimination or hatred is easy, just don’t watch the movie, listen to the music, or read that book. Don’t give those people more money and show them it’s not okay and take a stand. Things are now changing when it comes to representation because we no longer have our mouths closed, we speak up about things we don’t like.

Personally, I’ve always been secure about my gender but as I grew up in the internet era I became more open and secure about my own gender. Growing up in a Hispanic household being a part of the lgbt household was something that was never spoken about, it was just something that wasn’t really discriminated against but also not talked about. It was only with the growing community online and finding friends who understood themselves more and helped me understand myself more was where I realized that I was also part of the lgbtia community.

I can confidently say that my awakening didn’t come from any form of movies or tv shows because growing up women were only shown as lesbian as a sexual fantasy for men. Which I never understood but it’s what sold tickets and got viewers.

The media has influenced the way I see gender expression in men specifically, again growing up in a Hispanic household men wore jeans and worked, had a beard and short hair. They either had a beer belly or wanted strong muscles. But nowadays seeing men become more gender-neutral, truly showing that clothing has no gender or painting their nails because nails also have no gender really opened my eyes. Because it’s true why must men be these ‘manly men’ beasts, why did we put gender on pieces of fabric?

I would have to agree with many of the other snapshots that came from the other students. Many of the image posts are of women in protest holding up signs that say “Our body our choice” But my favorite is “If it’s not your body it’s not your choice”. It’s hard when you think about society and just how much control stuffy old men have over people with ovaries bodies. It’s not just them it’s also been carried down by generations by some of the younger men nowadays. The youngest generation is absolutely changing and trying to change the mindset of not only themselves but also the older people. We still have a long way to go before a woman can control their own body.

In the video The Abortion Divide by Frontline PBS they interviewed a woman named Christine and her husband Micha. Even when they went to the clinic Christine knew they couldn’t keep the babies. After finding out she was going to have twins it hit her pretty hard because now she had to make the decisions for two embryos. The point I want to make here is that Christine was making her choice for her and her husband was understanding because they knew as a family that their younger son, who is on the spectrum could not deal with kids. So why put a baby or babies into a dangerous situation. Christine was deciding what’s best for her own body and her own life. The child she already had and is raising is more important than the embryos who haven’t even had a chance to develop yet. The video also followed other families like the woman who had 4 kids already and recognized that she was nowhere near financially stable to raise more kids.

The volunteers and workers help protect the women who go into places like planned parenthood. What going on in our bodies is already terrifying enough but to be hounded by people yelling at us that we are murders or yelling bible verses at us is over the top.

The people who don’t have ovaries can’t make these decisions for us in a closed-off supreme courtroom because they don’t live our life, they don’t understand what could be happening behind our own closed door, so why do they get to make decisions for us?

I’ll be honest I didn’t finish watching the video Hobby Lobby: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. It boggles my mind that corporations that have nothing to do with woman’s bodies actually think they could control it under the disguise of religious rights. We let these corporations and these men control our bodies for far too long and it’s time this changed.

While many of the African American men and women, as well as people of color and the lgbtq+, are all fighting for the same equality there are times when the voice overlapped each other or worse they focused on just cis men instead of the LGBT and women of the same groups. That is why the groups had to separate and create their own groups so they can be heard as well. Examples of this are shown in the pictures uploaded by Nancy Susano and Jaisely Dominguez. Nancy uploaded a picture of what seems like a march and someone holding up a sign saying “Black Woman Matter” while of course all of the black lives matter sometimes we focus so much on the big picture instead of thinking about how much further African American women need to push up further as well. The same is to be said about the picture posted by Jaisely, there is a person depicted holding a “Dykes against racism everywhere” Many of the LGBT persons are also a part of the fight for equality but they are also a group that has to be pushed up further.

The Combahee River Collective Statement by Combahee River Collective stated “We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual” This proves that my previous statement that separate movements have to be had for different groups of people. While many people often experience the same kind of oppression or inequality doesn’t mean we are all fighting for the same fight and ALL are going to be heard as sad as that is.

In the video, Paris Is Burning showed many of the categories that were part of the ball, things as, School, military, businessmen. Ordinary queer people in stereotyped ‘straight’ activities and careers. It was said in the video “In a ball room you can be anything you want. you’re not really an executive but you look like one and there for you are showing the straight world I can be an executive, if I had the opportunity I could be one” This shows just how much society caters to cis white men, black and people of color have to work harder and be smarter for the same job position as a white man but they are often overpassed for the said white man. Even if the person of color is more qualified for the job.

I love the picture posted by MeiQi Chen, it does a great job of depicting just how much women are ‘supposed’ to do in their life. According to society, women are supposed to not only cook but also serve others, clean up the home and raise the children. It seems like women also carried a vice like drinking, smoking, or even shopping to somehow self-soothe from their hectic life. Even now after so many years while things are slowly changing it isn’t by much. Women still take the bulk of the responsibilities spending twice as much time in the domestic work in the home than men even though nowadays women are working 1 to 2 jobs just like men are in our ever-growing economy.

In The Myth Of The Vaginal Orgasm by Anne Koedt “Foreplay is a concept created for male purposes, but works to the disadvantage of many women, since as soon as the
woman is aroused the man changes to vaginal stimulation, leaving her both
aroused and unsatisfied.” It shows just how much women were somehow supposed to cater to men and their needs.

In The Politics of Housework, Pat Mainardi wrote “I know that men have caused
that sore-if anyone visits and the place is a sty–they’re not going to leave and say,
“He sure is a lousy housekeeper.” You’ll take the rap in any case.” She talks about how women are guilted into doing the housework and how women have something called “Guilt over a messy house”. We sometimes forget that people have different personalities, society push women to clean up the home while the men go out and work. But we as a society forget that some men genuinely like a cleaner home to they clean it themselves or they don’t mind cleaning so they do it themselves. Yet we push it on women when some women are workaholics and love what they do so they put it ahead of ‘keeping the house’. Something that simple shouldn’t be pushed on either gender when it has nothing to do with it.

I would have to disagree with Betty Friedman when she says “The mistake, says the mystique, the root of women’s troubles in the past is that women envied men, women tried to be like men, instead of accepting their own nature, which can find fulfillment only in sexual passivity,  male domination, and nurturing maternal love.” Unless I am understanding wrong I don’t believe the root of women’s trouble was the envied men or women who tried to be like men. All women want is to be equal to men, seen as equal. We want to be valued in the workplace, in the government, and even in our own homes as equals and not have to fight and defend our positions.