This week’s readings, “Feminism is for everybody” By Bell Hooks, and “Sex and Gender 101” by Kyl Myers, were very interesting and enlightening. “Feminism is for everybody” by Bell Hooks expresses the original idea of feminism, its progression, and how it has been altered throughout the years. While the second reading, “Sex and Gender” by Kyl Myers describes the difference between biological sex and the social-cultural construct of gender. I found both of these readings very interesting as these topics may seem very much like “common sense” at this point in our society, however, these authors brought to light the differences in both gender and sex, and how feminism has been altered from is true definition throughout the years. 

 “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” This is the true/original definition of feminism found in one of this week’s readings, “Feminism is for everybody” by Bell Hooks. This reading breaks down what feminism is and how it differs from the common misconception and misinformation we have been receiving about it. A very common misconception of feminism people may have, that is found in the reading by Hooks, is that a huge majority of the people – including women, believe that feminism is simply anti-men. Throughout this reading, we begin to understand that throughout the years of feminist activist, the movement turned into a ‘power’ movement were within the same movement, there was a competition within women and once there was just a small bit of economic power given to a certain group of women, in this reading we see the example of white women, they “ceased even to consider revolutionary feminist visions” which in simpler words means once they received the small portion of the power they were originally looking for, they back out of the movement and give it no importance. Now, the question that arose to me while reading this was, why would they settle with a small portion of what they have been fighting for when they can continue to fight to have these rights to raise more awareness to the issue that can, later on, lead to long term right. 

The reading “Sex And Gender 101” by Kyl Myers explains the social-cultural construct of gender. Throughout the years, we have been taught that little girls have to play with barbie dolls and house/kitchen sets while boys play with toy cars and monsters. A member of this course, Magaly Garcia expresses this in their snapshot. In their post, they included a written portion where they explain that kids should be kids and be allowed to play with whatever toy their heart desires without being frowned upon, as they are just kids trying to have fun. This post also made me think and connect how this connects back to the reading by Hooks. This social construct that is implemented at such an early age, later on, plays a role in today’s sexist roles where women are supposed to be at home with the kids while men can be out working and doing whatever they want. This also raises many other inequalities between the sexes, such as inequality in the workspace.