Sex and Gender 101 by Kyl Myers gave an overview over the difference between gender and biology, as well as the definitions for them. Biological sex explains purely physical attributes that people often confuse as the very things that contribute to a person’s gender and identity. Gender, however is a social construct that doesn’t have anything to do with a person’s biological sex. It is easy to confuse the two because we assign gender to our children based on their biological sex thus raising people to think that there are only two ways to identify. Alongside gender identity is gender expression which can sometimes confuse people because it may challenge your assumptions on what a “woman” or a “man” should look like. Sexual orientation is also something that people align too much within gender stereotypes, there are many sexual orientations and they don’t have anything to do with someone’s individual gender.
In Bell Hook’s chapter in “Feminism is for Everyone”, she writes critically about how society treats people based on their gender as well as how to radically shift your perception to challenge the status quo. She explains what feminism is as well as what it isn’t and talked about some of the earlier movements as well as branches of it. I like that she spoke about how women can be sexist as well, as we are often raised to be so to uphold our patriarchal society. She spoke about how feminism isn’t an “anti-man” movement but an anti-sexist and a equal rights issue. People often miss the point and don’t realize how deeply ingrained these issues are in our society.
This response is ok. However, there are a few problems. First, it is 273 words and the responses should be closer to 500. Second, you don’t respond to another classmate’s snapshot in this response. Please be sure you include that in the future. Also, bell hooks’ book is called Feminism is For Everybody.