- How do systems of privilege and oppression function in our society? How do we combat these systems?
Systems of privilege and oppression function within our society through denial and obliviousness. Privilege and oppression are not taught to be seen as a systematic issues but as an individual issue. In White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh she states, “I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth.” All institutes of our society especially schools implicate the idea that having light skin and being a male equals dominance even if it is not intentional. We see this privilege and oppression in movies, and it is in all the history textbooks. We are always taught about the triumphs of the white man and not the powers of colored people. When something is embedded into young minds from such a young age it is difficult for those who experience privilege to notice the problem. This is where denial and obliviousness of the issue allow it to continue to function within our community. “Denials which amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages which men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened, or ended.” McIntosh said. A problem that is not acknowledged by society will never be able to come to an end unless the persons who experience it speak up and act.
McIntosh to confront the white privilege she experienced wrote a list of all the things that happen to her daily that she considers a white privilege. To combat white privilege, the dominant group must come to terms with and see the problem. White privilege and male privilege must be described to end the problem, once the issues are identified it is up to the dominant group to see their undeserved privilege and use it to reconstruct the system McIntosh suggests. The only way privilege and oppression in our society can be lessened or come to an end is for the denial of its impact on women and people or color to be lifted. “The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political tool here.” White people and males must acknowledge they do have privilege and that causes oppression on others. Then it is up to them to lessen their privilege or speak up about it as a collective. Cause only through numbers will it be able to reach a political level for reconstruction.
- What is the concept of Intersectionality? Why is it so important in women, gender and sexuality studies?
Intersectionality is an analytical system that looks at the individual, social and political identities of a person, such as race, sex, gender, hobbies, political and social views, and self-presentation. Intersectionality is used to understand how these aspects combined can lead to different levels of discrimination, disadvantage, and oppression. Internationality is important to women, gender, and sexuality studies because it highlights that oppression has no hierarchy, it happens to all no matter what. In There is No Hierarchy of Oppression by Audre Lorde, Lorde talks about the way she faces oppression and why. “As a Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, poet, mother of two including one boy and a member of an interracial couple, I usually find myself part of some group in which the majority defines me as deviant, difficult, inferior or just plain “wrong.” Lorde faces discrimination because she is a part of many groups that already face oppression. She speaks out about facing oppression no matter what because of the other aspects of her being. She talks about how many people struggle to live a “peaceful existence” because they are oppressed for just being them. It is important to understand that oppression comes in many forms and that is what intersectionality illustrates. when we understand all levels of oppression, we will be able to fight against the norms of society as a collective.
- Why is it important to recognize patriarchy as a system and not as an individual identity?
It is important to recognize patriarchy as a system and not as an individual identity because it is not the individual that has formed the patriarchy but the institutes they are surrounded by. Society finds it easy to blame individuals for the problems the world faces but they never look at the social systems that formed the ideas like the patriarchy in the first place. Patriarchy the System by Allan Johnson talks about how to see the patriarchy as just men and women behaviors and motives would mean to be oblivious of the institutes that caused that mental development in the first place. Institutes like Hollywood, the media, family, school, religion are the cause of the patriarchy. Patriarchy the System by Allan Johnson states, “We would not ask, however, what kind of society would promote persistent patterns of such behavior in everyday life, from wife-beating jokes to the routine inclusion of sexual coercion and violence in mainstream movies.” This again is where we recognize that the blame of the patriarchy is on the system and not on the individual. If movies did not promote violence against women, if platforms like Pornhub were illegal the patriarchy would be weakened. If toy companies did not promote baby dolls for girls and guns and cars for boys, the patriarchy would be weakened. If religion did not promote that women must be submissive and men must be dominant the patriarchy would not exist. It is important to see patriarchy as a system; a collective of institutes because they are what mold society and the people in them. An individual being patriarchal or misogynistic is a by-product of the teaching of these institutes. If we as a collective want to end the patriarchy we need to first change the institutes and get rid of the labels of society.
- How is gender constructed and learned in our society? How do we perform gender?
Gender is constructed by society and culture throughout the years to put expectations on people based on the genitalia they were born with. Gender is assigned to a person before they are even born. Gender is learned through the culture and society a person was born into. In most cases, boys are taught to be tough, strong, dominant, emotionless, athletic, and bread makers. Girls are taught to be quiet, “girly”, home takers, submissive, caretakers, and romantic. Gender is learned and used to put labels over individual heads to say she/he can or can’t do certain things. Gender is performed when we participate in the roles culture and society have placed on us. A man being chivalrous not to be kind but because it’s the manly thing to do would be performing gender, a woman wanting to wear a suit to prom but wearing a dress to please her peers is also performing gender because she is obeying the rules of society have given based on one’s genitalia.
- What is the difference between sex and gender? How are sex and gender conflated(confused) in our culture.
Sex refers to the anatomy of a being, which entails the chromosome makeup, sexual hormones, and reproductive organs of a being. Gender is a social and cultural construct that uses the external genitalia to assign roles to a being based on whether they present masculine or feminine at birth. In our culture sex and gender are often confused to be the same thing but this is false. Sex is scientific and set but gender when referring to an individual is subjective because it’s whatever that person feels mental. What the culture we live in does not understand is that just because a being has female reproductive organs does not mean they are a girl, and the same rule goes for people with male reproductive organs. This confusion happened a lot to gender non-conforming people and non-binary people. Society expects them to act and present a certain way based on their genitalia, but sex and gender identity are not the same. In Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon, Alok states, “we are taught that masculinity belongs to men, femininity belongs to women, and that these are the only two options of self-expression. Not true.” This is the confusion our society does not seem to understand. If a being presents feminine this does not mean they have female genitalia and are a woman. If someone presents masculine it does not make them a man. Gender identity takes place in the mind and has nothing to do with the sexual organs of a being.
- What is a double bind? How do double binds function in our society?
A double bind is when an individual is forced to decide between 2 conflicting choices. Double binds function in our society by always having a double standard, no matter what option you chose it will be wrong in society’s eyes. Let’s look at the sexuality of women and the double bind society gives them. In Oppression by Marylin Frye, she talks about the double bind of women and their sexuality. The article states that in the United States women who choose to be sexually free are punished by being called “loose” a whore and blames for having a lack of morals. On the other side of the bind women who choose to be abstinent from sex are seen as uptight and a snob, society tells her to “let your hair down” but once she does, she will be viewed as easy. Therefore, in our society double-binds, all lead to judgment.
