It is sad to say, but I think until a few days or moments ago, I was one of the people that had a misconception about what “Feminism” and “Gender equality” really entails. More light need to be thrown on this concept. This very much because, the media and many sites’ people rely on and trust, does not tell us what feminism really is. A lot of people out there think feminism and gender equality are the same still.
As per what I have understood from our week’s reading, Feminism is a movement that sets its center of attention on ending sexist exploitation and oppression. In the beginning, the movement was made only by women to end the sex oppressors (men). However, the movement came to a realization that not just women, but also our fellow women could be sexist. Some women actually supported the activities and the likes of sexist exploitation. “Sexist exploitation” could be any form of abuse by someone with authority and power to a less fortunate person, and “sexism” is a way of discriminating people based on genders, this mostly applies to women. It is believing that some people have a limit and/ or are inferior to another. Feminists came to change their concept after making this realization, they did not want to overlook this fact and made it accessible for everyone.
“Gender equality” on the other hand is not really misinterpreted but rather hard to achieve. This is a sad reality we are facing, not only in our homes, but sometimes in school, workplace and many more. A lot has changed. Yes! It nevertheless does not change the fact that the belief that men are superior to women is still unimpaired. Women are still struggling to have equal benefits as men in the workplace, still struggling to have dominance in school related activities and in their homes. Even after women liberation was enhanced.
I do have an idea of what sex and gender is, thanks to a biology class I took. Though they are a bit complicating to comprehend. “Biological sex” is said to be an assumption of the appearance of an individual’s external genitalia. “External genitalia and secondary sex characteristics can certainly be altered and there are medications that change an individual’s hormone chemistry or suppress puberty” (Myers 2). From what I understand of what this sentence is, based on an individual’s preference, he or she can decide to change his/her appearance or hormones or feelings through medications and what not. I have heard of something like this before and yet still fascinated by this fact. I most liked learning of the variations of intersex. The 46 XX intersex, 46 XY intersex, True Gonadal intersex and the complex or undetermined intersex shows how vast the topic “sex” can be.
I really found these topics to be very interesting and profound. I have been able to acquire a lot through the article and book presented. Being intuitive about matters like sex and gender is important.
Hi Fawzina, I really enjoyed reading your response and you did great work in explaining in-depth more about the reading which I really did not think about. You are absolutely right about the media not telling us what feminism really is rather the media sometimes lie to us about certain information that ought to be true. Feminism is not only for women, I would say is for everyone and we all need to work together to stop sex oppression.
Coming to your comment on Gender I think you did well in that too because everything you mentioned all still exists in our country today. A lot of women are really struggling in other to fit in into the society or workplace where men are seen as the head. Sometimes we see women who work much more hours than men but their still get paid little while the men get paid higher because of the belief that a woman’s work should be at home taking care of the children, cooking, cleaning, and so on. When it comes to education women are always the best, they come out with good results than most men but when it comes to giving out jobs men are more favored than women sometimes even if they have better qualifications than men. In the country where I come from(Nigeria) men are been worshiped, obeyed, and very much respected and women are been treated like their nothing but housewives, and it’s really hard for a woman to take up a job or work meant for men and I must say that is really bad.
So I think our country needs to accept women more and value them. Goodluck this semester
Thanks for these thoughts. I think you are right that the difference between sex and gender can be confusing – that is mostly because of what we are taught growing up. If we were taught differently, it wouldn’t be so confusing. Also, one does not have to change their hormonal make-up or their genitals in order to identify with a gender that is different than what they were assigned at birth. Someone can be trans or nonbinary and never have any biological intervention.
One last thing – be sure that you are responding to a classmate’s snapshot in your responses. That is one of the main points I ask for.