According to raising zoomer in the article entitles “ Sex & Gender 101 gender assignment is when a person is categorized as a man or a woman. However some people may think it is acceptable to change their sex. My least favorite part of this article was when the author was talking about sexual orientation. The conversation that I always have with my mom is that God created us a certain way for a reason. We have no right to change who we are. I know many people who follow the society norms just because they want to fit in with everyone. For example, for a long time a man that was born as a man can change his gender by going through various surgical procedures like removing their genitalia, beards, and even change their voice to make them seem more feminine. Women can also do the same thing, or many women choose to be bisexual which is liking both genders or they could also be strictly lesbian. As for men they could be also bisexual, or gay. I am a very religious person and things like these make me very angry because most people are following what the world is doing and following society norms. However, I disagree with this completely because when the world was created god made a man and woman. In conclusion not only are we taking a risk but we are also telling god that he does not know what he is doing.
Where to begin, first of all I wanted to speak my thoughts out about the concept of gender identity and sexual identity in nature. Based from the article “Sex & Gender 101” by Kyl Myers, gender identity express not only the structures of both sex chromosomes. Sexual orientation can change throughout a person’s life in general. The sex chromosomes develop differently, there are several variations of intersex that can appear at birth. A few intersex variations can be discovered through genitalia or rather go unnoticed throughout their lives. My thoughts on intersex people is that if a person is born with both sex organs, then they should be allowed to acknowledge about their condition and choose their gender instead of being forced to pick one gender. For example, a female can get modified to have her breasts removed from her body if she wants to become a man, or a man can go into surgery to have his penis removed in order to be replaced with a new vagina. Gender can affect the cultural roles of both sexes in society from time to time. When it comes to gender assignment, the children are being socialized according to the culture they were born in. For example in American culture, a boy must taught and learn about masculine role and and their attractions to the opposite sex. While girls are expected to learn about the feminine culture, personalities, interests in relationships and the responsibilities they were assigned to do. Of course not all children are treated equally due to stereotypical issues when it comes to gender assignment. Another issue in the gender culture is they think towards their gender, they also get uncomfortable with addressing themselves of either sex and they wish to be addressed as “they, them or their”. People choose their own way of gender expression because they change their looks based on appearance. For example, a man puts on make-up and dresses in feminine clothing and for a woman who grows out a beard and wears male clothing such as a tuxedo. In sexual orientation, a person has a right to choose to whatever sex they are attracted to. Sexuality changes many times throughout a person’s life and sexual behavior does not always match up with sexual identity because of conflicts towards same-sex relationships. To continue with my thoughts from the second book “Feminist Politics: Where We Stand” written by Bell Hooks, they explained the concept of feminism and some of the issues which still exists in this world today. In this culture of feminism, many people who are advocates did not understand about sexism. If they’re aware of it, they do not view it as an issue. One of the common issues is that people believe that women wishing to have equal rights as men, they often misunderstand that feminist politics reflects on the culture that they learn from mass media as a form of misinformation. Another issue with feminism is men who are privileged in general view women as they must be expected to do tasks like household chores and parenting. They also believe that mass media is almost like a guide to them because it focuses reinforcing gender roles in society such as women’s liberation and freedom. Feminists wanted to have gender equilty to work in order to get paid as much as men.
Based on “Raising Zoomer” in the article Sex & Gender 101, the definition of gender is when a person is categorized as a female or a male. Based on Bell Hooks, “Mostly they think feminism is a bunch of angry women who want to be like men. They do not even think about feminism as being about equal rights, about women gaining equal rights.” This exemplify a problem that we have in society right now. When it comes to women, a lot of people think that women are angry because it’s hard to “size up” with men, when this is really not the only dilemma. I feel like women are belittled because society always view us below men. When we speak about being a feminist, we’re talking about just living with in our own skin comfortably, doing what we feel is necessary for ourselves and not just to please society.
“Feminist: the person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes” – “***Flawless” by Beyonce
Feminism is not just equality of the sexes. Feminism is striving towards ending sexism and not solely targeting equality for women. I believe that people have tried to shy away from using the term feminist because they have seen extremists either bash men or abandon feminine roles overall when representing themselves as a feminist when that is just a poor representation of the movement. I feel that feminism strives towards equity more so than equality. We do not want to be equal with men when we still live in a society that systematically benefits them. We want to aim towards equity between the sexes as it concludes fairness with everyone.
A brief explanation that heavily resonated with me from the Raising Zoomer article was “Gender expression refers to how a person shows their gender identity. This includes clothing and other things like make-up, hairstyles, or even style of walking or dancing. It is the way we give cues to other people to show them how we perceive ourselves and how we wish to be perceived by others. Sometimes a person’s gender identity and gender expression may not “align” because of fear of how they will be perceived if they challenge traditional gender norms. ”
I personally have felt like I enjoy expressing myself in a feminine manner majority of the time, however there are other times when I would like to feel more on the neutral side or even the masculine side. I am not sure whether I enjoy it because it keeps me safe from specific types of harm or because I genuinely enjoy iy. However, given my experience I do acknowledge that expressing my gender through hyper-femininity does shield me from what I could possibly be treated like if I do not cater to the Male Gaze. The dangers that come with deviating from femininity especially as a Black woman can be especially terrifying. I have always wondered if this affected how my gender identity developed over time and how it altered my expression during adolescence and my early 20s.
Gender roles have been around for as long as humanity was created. I can agree with Feminism is for everyone. Society and the environment we grew in plays a big part in the stereotyping and how we see ourselves. We haven’t really experienced the acceptance of others no matter our gender, sexuality, and more. Others try to control too much of who we want to be. Men and women are equal, they already categorized what women should do and what men should but we don’t always get the fair advantage. Like growing up, my mother would tell me that I can’t go out late night because its dangerous but on the other side , my brother can go because he is able to defend himself. Gender roles plays a lot in freedoms of cultures, religion, holding back what we choose. Women’s right has been fought for a long time only so they aren’t categorized as a “stay at home mom” or not enough wage if women work. people need to understand we all deserve the same equal treatment and same rights. We generalize too much based on culture, religion, gender, color, and sexuality when we don’t give people the benefit of the doubt. Same way men are capable of so much more, so can women. Let the actions speak for themselves.
As I was reading gender 101 being a women it is hard for us just because we are born one doesn’t mean we wanted to be one. A lot of times they don’t understand how our lives are worked out back in the days we don’t even get to go to school back in the day’s we stay home and mostly do the chores and no education housewife while the school it is only for the boys they have most of the privilege. And even if women had earn more college degree doesn’t mean that we get to go to school like they do because the Us don’t value women’s education. But as we said women also have much more thing’s to do not only staying home and taking care of men’s. We can also have our own job’s and opportunity. This is why we still fight for freedom to do what we want and to also go to school and have an education and also have a job and have the same working hour and are pay equal hour’s as men. Also my mom said that our brother doesn’t have to do chores because he is a boy but to me that doesn’t mean that he should not be doing anything just because of how gender plays a role I literally had to explained reason to her is that the chores I do he could also do or help out because it wasn’t fair that my sister and I have to do everything. Also the way I sit they would be like as a girl you shouldn’t sit like that sit with your legs close while for my brother she would not care as much.
