Question 1: How do systems of privilege and oppression function in our society? How do we combat these systems?

Social regulation is how systems of privilege and oppression function in our society. The social regulations in place by privilege authorities, they dictate how one can interact with one another, who can/can’t access resources, who is able to be seen and heard oppose to those who “shouldn’t” be listened to nor to be bothered with. Those who don’t have the luxury of power and money are seen as objects, things to pawn off like deals. For example, when a family doesn’t have the background of money, the parents agree to married off their youngest to a man of money. In America, everything is approached as a business deal. There is nothing humane in this process, “No human is free of social structures, nor (perhaps) would happiness consist in such freedom” stated in There Is No Hierarchy of Oppression by Audre Lorde. The social structures strengthen the oppression functions by furthering the discrimination in gender, culture, skin color, and social class. 

To combat these systems, we as community must come to a hard realization, that we all will have to come down from our bias realities. This includes people from multiple oppressed groups and non-oppressed people to agree on the claim that equality is something someone is born with not given. We must forget what we have been taught and listen to the information presented now in front of us. As a community we must set our differences aside to acknowledge times are changing so the people should be accommodating to change. We should be able to share the wrongs together and the wins, breaking the cycle together not just one individual. As a group, the cycle will be completely broken and won’t be able to repeat itself.

Question 2: What is the concept of intersectionality and why is it important in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies?

The concept of intersectionality is recognizing that all groups of people have their own experiences of discrimination and oppression, they all face disadvantages of inequality in varies or all types of environments. This is extremely important in women’s gender, and sexuality studies because women are already at a disadvantage through their gender. Women have had to fight for their equal right since before time began because men feel obligated to be in control of all including women. Johnson Allan states in Patriarchy the systems “The oppression of women happens because men want and like to dominate women and act out hostility toward them.” Women having the slightest of power threatens the man’s masculinity and hurts their social status of men needing to be in control and viewed as strong. This toxic mindset leads to women’s decrease and placement in the hierarchy of society. 

Question 3: Why is it important to recognize patriarchy as a system and not an individual identity?

It is important to recognize patriarchy as a system and not an individual identify because we will be able to see all the intricate parts and individuals that are corrupting the system. By viewing it as an individual identify, we will never acknowledge the depth of the issues rotting the systems. Is not just one, but multiple and varies of groups of people that create conflict between the genders of men and women. When speaking of patriarchy, men feel singled out. In Patriarchy the System by Johnson Allan states “a lot of people hear men whenever someone says patriarchy”, It’s not only men but women as well who demonstrate privilege through oppression. The oppression of women has been altered to signify that all men are the oppressive manipulators but, men are oppressed as well. It would help if men would acknowledge women as human beings as well so they can become recognized as a part of society and not seen as objects. Toxic masculinity has led men into believing they are the only rightful ones to be in power in all environmental structures. The way men speak on power and their rightful entitlement, they should have the same drive for women’s gender equality, rights, and way of life. Together, it will be acknowledged, and change could occur throughout society. 

Question 4: How is gender constructed and learned in our society? How do we perform gender?

Gender is constructed the day one is born, through what we come into the world with, and it is learned in society that we are one or the other. We cannot be both nor none, we must be identified as male or female. Kyles Myers claim “most distinctions of biological sex are made off the appearance of an individual’s external genitalia”. Gender can be used to discriminate one another and at times another form of patriarchy. Gender can be used in a system where society and the government can belittle and as well influence a toxic way of thinking. Society has in place rules and regulations that genders must fulfill to be identified as female or male. These regulations can restrict one’s way of life, opportunities, and creativity. By stepping out of the norms, it can create a target on your back for violence, backlash, and mistreatment. These regulations are in place for order, disciplines, and structure. Without structure, there is no organization and without organization there isn’t order. With order comes power, power is main component into why gender is so important to the hierarchy. Gender is performed the way genders are rated, men are seen as a dominant person who takes lead and charge of “hard” work, while females are seen as a submissive person that takes care of those around her and only needs to worry about their appearance. During the times of today, this structure has changed. Men can express emotions without being seen as less of a man and women are able to care for more than just for their appearance. Women can work, present themselves as leaders and show their dominant side without it signifying war on men. Yes, there is still people who view this as an act of war on men’s masculinity but those who can overlooked that toxic way of thinking can see how rewarding and freeing it is to not have a gender standard. Men can freely express themselves and not have to hold everything in together for their families, and women are able to carry weight for themselves and their families. Women and Men can share the workloads, power, and control. 

Question 5: What is the difference between sex and gender? How are sex and gender conflated (converged and confused) within our culture?

In our social construction, we are taught that a person’s biological sex is what they’re gender will be. “Male, female, and intersex are the terms we use when referring to biological sex” stated in Kyles Myers article. Males have xy sex chromosomes which indicates the development of a male and females have xx sex chromosomes which indicates it will be a development of a female. With this indication, society has created gender to be the final depiction of what one is. Sex is what you have, and gender is what you are. I think sex has a lot to do with the construction of genders. Genders revolve around what type of sex chromosomes you have, and it helps to strengthen the ideals of gender. It also helps people to easily discriminate when one alters their gender to another. Sex and gender are conflated within our culture through the need to associate gender with sex, and to maintain a structure of some sort. Culture adds another element to it, it can be used to either strengthen the ideals or to discriminate between genders. In today’s time, it is used to discriminate because now there are people who either identified themselves as multiples or none. Which is hard to understand to those who are more traditional and taught that there can only be one or the other. 

Question 6: What is a double bind? How do double binds function within our society?

A double bind is when someone is in between two major problems that cannot be avoided nor be overlooked. If overlooked or avoided, it can result into bigger and messier issues for this individual at hand. In Marilyn Frye article, she compares a double bind to the oppression of women to a bird in a cage. The bird symbolizes the women, and its cage is society, society in traps women who don’t fit their ideals of a typical women. A typical woman is a quiet, manageable, nice, and beautiful person. Manageable for men to pick and marry, quiet in the sense she will not fight back nor for her own rights, nice to all even those who mistreat her, and beautiful to attract “good/deserving” attention. Women who have different ideals of what a woman is, are seen as rebels, “bitches”, non-deserving of a “good” man, disrespectful and a threat to man’s masculinity/power. 

 The way a double binds function in society is through women issues. For example, a woman dressing the way she likes to/must can capture the unwanted attention from a man. By capturing this attention from a man can led to unwanted touching, catcalling, and sexual courses. A women’s no, is not a no but a maybe or a yes, and within this statement women aren’t able to feel free, feel safe nor respected through anything they wear. If a woman looks for justice, it is seen as cries for attention and not validated because women’s clothing or the women herself wanted it according to what a man claims. This is what we called a double bind; Women aren’t seen as humans but objects. When women are cooperating with the ideal of clothing they should wear, they are still tortured and raped.