Non-binary people (people who are neither exclusively men nor women) and gender non-conforming people (people who visibly defy society’s understanding of what a man or a woman should look like) are amongst groups of people that are highly unaccepted and worse humiliated and/ or disrespected. Visibly, thy have been plotted against and abused. Laws have been formatted and some implemented to limit the rights and freedom of these groups of people. There has been constant misinformation given about these groups, that people feel entitled to behave appropriately to them, and claim it is because the gender non-conforming people “want” the attention.

Also for trans-feminine, there has been on countless occasions where we watch the news and hear that a trans-feminine has been kicked out of her work place, stabbed, or stripped naked in a public place. These groups go through many inhumane treatments, so much that they are scared to leave their homes and/ or safe spaces and go out in public. Imagine being in danger, unprotected or at unreasonable risks for wanting to be who you want to be, or wanting to look a type of way that pleases you. 

At most, society wants us to believe the norm that has already been set about there being only two genders, “the man and the woman”, “That is how it is meant to be and how it is supposed to go”. There is a saying that, some people only harass others because they already are in a dark place themselves. It is the same for people who constantly bully gender non-conforming people. These abusers are undoubtedly insecure and extremely lonely. They act the way the do to make themselves think they are useful. Right from the moment a baby is born, the baby is categorized as either a man/ male or a woman/ female. This gender identification emphasizes on how the baby is treated, the child whilst growing up is manipulated into believing the set rules by society. That men are superior and women are not, women always like bright colors, women are too emotional and so on

There are strategies people use to make use “to make the gender binary seem like a given, not a decision”. There is the “inconvenience”, where in some situations, people do not accept the gender non-conforming people, but rather they tolerate them. They know the existence of gender non-conforming people, however they do their very best to avoid any kind of association with. Gender non-conforming people fear to express themselves as they might lose anything they hold dear. There is the “dismissal”, where in this situation gender non-conforming people are always ignored or left out. People refuse to acknowledge their existence whatsoever. The “slippery slope”, this is a kind of strategy where people tend to add unnecessary topics in arguments. They use this approach as a way of diverting the main point at hand, so as to justify their thoughts / or statements. The last strategy is known as “biology”, this is where masses of people term gender non-conforming people as “artificial”. People back their sentiments by making it seem that, it is how science works. 

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.