In the reading “Beyond the Gender Binary” by Alok V. Manon it mentions the situations of a non-conforming and non-binary people in how they are treated by society. Non-conforming people are “people who visibly defy society’s understanding of what a man or woman should look like” and non-binary people are “people who are neither exclusively men nor women.” Alok V. Manon explains different situations in how people in society have reacted to how a man or woman should look like. One of the situations he mentions is when a waiter came up to him and asked him if what he was wearing was his Halloween costume and he was wearing a skirt. This shows how people in society criticize what people wear when it’s something that anybody could wear regardless of their gender. For example, one of my favorite Youtubers Louie Castro sometimes wears skirts in his photographs or in his vlogs and it’s something that should me normalized. Another example is when Harry Styles wore a dress for his Vogue photoshoot, he received many negative comments about it and in one of the comments it mentioned that it didn’t make him look manly. This ties back to what Alok V. Manon mentioned about girls and boys when they’re young. Girls are taught to be nice, weak, and emotional while a boy is supposed to be aggressive, strong, and rational. It’s like a child is already labeled as what is expected from them and how to be. Another situation Alok V. Manon mentions is when he was in High School, he was bullied by a guy who was jealous of his freedom of expression and bullied him because he wanted to be seen as “normal” but years later wrote him that he turned out to be bisexual. This is a problem in society because sometimes people are afraid to come out of their sexual orientation and they feel like they’re going to be made fun of for it. 

            I like the image my classmate Isabella Celentano used because it quotes “My gender does not define what I can wear” which is true people can wear whatever they want it doesn’t matter about their gender. A girl can be comfortable with wearing clothes for men and as for men too they can be comfortable with women clothing. One time on of my younger cousins asked me if it was okay for her to wear a suit and I told her it was okay for her to wear a suit because if she was comfortable with wearing a suit then a dress or a skirt then it was okay. She had also mentioned to me that she wanted to dress up as her favorite anime character who is a boy and I also told her she can wear whatever she wanted it doesn’t matter what she wore if she was happy with it. I feel like sometimes parents label their children as girls should be wearing dresses or skirts at a young age and boys should be doing manly things but whatever people choose to do or wear it should be supported by others in society.  

In the reading “Sex and Gender 101” by Kyl Myers I learned the terminology for people’s sexual orientation. Biological Sex refers to males having a XY chromosome and females having a XX chromosome and how male and females develop when they hit puberty. The article explained the views of a boy and girl in which a girl should be playing and dolls and boys anything that has to do with male toys. For some people it would be wrong to see a boy playing a doll or a girl playing with a car. The article mentioned the difference between Gender assignment and Gender identity. Gender assignment would have to be when you’re already born as a girl or boy so you would identify yourself as boy/man or girl/woman. Gender Identity would have to be someone identifying themselves and transgender, non-binary, etc. I enjoyed leaning about the different terms and learning a bit more about what each meant. 

            In the reading “Feminist Politics: Where We Stand” by bell hooks she talks about feminism not being anti male but coming together as women from different races. Something that catched my attention was when she mentioned mass media. Bell Hooks stated, “The feminism they hear about the most is portrayed by women who are primarily committed to gender equality equal pay for equal work, and sometimes women and men sharing household chores and parenting.” I feel like mass media portrays feminism as women wanting the same rights as men and wanting equality, but it’s more than just that it’s about women empowerment. I liked the image that Jasmine Vargas used because it represented women coming together as one from different races. It doesn’t matter what color a female can be they all need to support each other and it doesn’t matter in what situation they can be.