I must say that my perspective was different from the beginning to where we are now because I’m the type of person who gets frustrated easily when I don’t understand or can’t do something the right way I’m not saying I did everything perfectly but I can say it made me get out of my comfort zone with conversations about topics I barely speak or give my opinion about. I wouldn’t take out anything, the reading, the writing is what makes interesting the class because you are allowed to express yourself you can show your point of view and also see how others think too. The format was a wonderful and creative way to learn and get us to engage in every reading. I think I learned a lot and in a way, it helped me create new ways of seeing things. This class allowed me to explore content that one as a person who learns from what others do and say but that there is always something beyond everything that people usually say and do in the society we live in. Until now, I was able to connect more with many people around me after reading those stories that put me in the position of thinking about the people I love and how I would have acted while being in them. Taking this class was a very good choice at the end of the day
Author: Anaya A
Anaya Alcantara Journal 6
In these times the subject of sex is very normal, nowadays it is spoken without any kind of restrictions or filters on the subject but even so, there are controversies about it. This article shows how to speak the language of sex, how communication is essential in it. Usually, when this topic appears, you always end up insisting that certain things happen, but without directly asking if that other person is really on the same page. No matter what kind of relationship it is, it can be friends with benefits or a serious relationship, requests flow fast and are very common. The language of sexual negotiations is very important because hinting at different things depending on how that person says it and the words they use. In a way, differences are made in how that person asks certain questions or insinuations, for example; in the article, it says “what differentiates them is less their meaning than what they do, and what kinds of actions they call for from their audience. One calls for an answer, one conveys information, one demands action, and one suggests an action for consideration.” This shows how important it is to think before saying anything to the person you are with, everything someone says can react, but it might not be the one they are expecting to be, it can go as planned as well as the other way around. Also, sexual communication does not always have to be about asking someone to be with you, it is about getting along during the process by speaking about certain topics or things they would like to experience because having an open conversation it is not just asking for sex it is having a good negotiation where you can speak about anything or just even to feel free to disagree with it.
Anaya Alcantara Discussion 7
A social institution consists of a group of people who have come together for a common purpose. These institutions are a part of the social order of society and they arrange behavior and expectations of individuals. For example; family is the most basic social institution in a society and is a system of an organized relationship involving workable and dependable ways of meeting basic social needs. Religion also provides a foundation for the mores of society. Taboos in various cultures have religious sanction. Religion provides a means by which individuals can face crises and ups and downs in life with strength and fortitude. These two artifacts that I mentioned before sometimes depend so much on one from another, there is a song which is in Spanish it’s called “No Tiene la culpa” by Romeo Santos this song is about how a guy is being gone through a lot and people happened to be making fun of him because of being effeminate. There is a part where he says “He is the only son of Sofia and Don Miguel; she is very sensitive a woman of simplicity she always protects him and accepts him as he is. On the other hand, Don Miguel is very macho and anti-gay he tells him that no gay enters the Kingdom of Heaven It is written in the bible he goes straight to Hell” Religion played a big role on every family and that can take things to different situations, here is very clear how a father a child is judging his son because according to with he believes his son being effeminate or gay is just not right, that is not the way things were supposed to happen. Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. The lack of communication, how our society works, and how strong our belief in any religion can be can take a lot from a person, even their life. Not to mention, our Culture and roots from where we come from can also have an immense shock on people’s point of view of men or a woman and their gender roles within society, the workplace, and family.
Anaya Alcantara journal 6
“Transgender” is an umbrella term that describes people whose gender identity or expression does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. In the reading, Jonson explains that Transgender is considered an inaccurate presentation of their gender identity. Some people have faced discrimination before due to their nationality, their backgrounds root, and in this case gender, even though none of the things said above are reasons for a person to look at you or treat you differently from them. Its been decades, since transgenders have managed themselves in society, and society still does not get used to treating them equally. On the other hand, if we speak about privilege, I think it’s very obvious. Cisgender is important when it comes to forms of privilege, for example having a government-issued identification representing your identity or not been questioned about your breasts being fake or just not have to think about gender presentation. What CeCe went through, being the victim was never seen as something that mattered to them, refusing to give medical treatment, her serving her time in men’s prison let us know how big the ignorance and suffering of trans* and person of color at the same time while Schmitz’s had a background of physical assault and others, McDonald was more judged by being a person of color and her capacity. If it were not because of privilege, today her story would have been different. It is impossible to hide how having privileges can denigrate the value of another person. Our skin color, sexual orientation, social class can inhibit us from so many important things but also from things as simple as even the way they look at you and consider you different as if you did not have the same value as a person.
Anaya Alcantara Discussion 6
After watching “Free CeCe”, I understood that gender, race, and sexual orientation is a conviction that does not always positively go hand in hand. What happened to McDonald’s demonstrate the level of violence often imposed on persons who are transgender especially if they are persons of color. McDonald’s got arrested by the fact that she was defending herself getting charged with second-degree intentional murder, defending herself she said she did what she did in self-defense but unfortunately it was not something that the court agreed with. I can’t imagine how hard it must be in a place where you feel your life is at risk when it shouldn’t just for being an African American but also for being a Transgender. Back to June 5, 2011, when McDonald was walking with some friends while somebody else is saying awful things and because she said she will not “tolerate hate speech” confronting the attackers and showing up for herself and who she is a human being has to take all the blame and responsibility for what happened at that moment. Moreover, while I watched “ Out in the night” I got to understand that acting defensively against a person can cost you as much as your freedom. Sadly, you are judged by your sexual orientation and race as if that made any difference when defending yourself from any aggressor who comes to want to do something wrong to you. You feel helpless when you know that you only protected yourself, but that others are trained to see things from the point of view that is not. It is true, what is wrong is not indefensible but it is way more wrong when people want to put you in a position like you are the bad guy. This situations just makes me realize that social class, your gender has so much impact on how in this case trans* persons can go through life experiencing oppression and see how others enjoy a certain privilege
Anaya Alcantara Journal 5
Having privileges is having the advantage of many things, in a way having more exits and options than many people around you. having privileges can come at least as your skin color even for a last name. having privileges is having the advantage of many things, in a way having more exits and options than many people around you. having privileges can come at least as your skin color even for a last name. The fact of being Latin or African American in the US leads us to suffer from many things, including having privileges. As minorities, we lack certain privileges that are very important like when we talk about health care, or just going to any school and not worry about any type of discrimination just by being different. On the other hand, if we compare the few things we have as privilege with what white people has then we have nothing, they do not have to worry about things like not have a good insurance and healthcare wherever they go, or lack of education because they can freely go anywhere and not having to worry about discrimination, they do not have to work as hard as we do to get what they want.
Macroaggression is commonly defined as typical daily behavior, in spite of the fact that verbal communication seems to be inoffensive, macroaggressions are known as ways of everyday discrimination or covert racism. An example is how a person tries to “flirt” by saying things offensively because of the way it sounds to a woman passing by. While reading An introduction to gender in Social Institutions when it says “Even when it comes to gender/sex identity, to assume you act completely independent of external influence is to ignore the larger elephant in the room.” This explains that being a man, in this case gives you the benefit of expressing yourself freely and not worry about how things might sound and affect the other.
Anaya Alcantara Discussion 5
When it comes to privilege, there is a lot of things I can think of even more after watching the video. We don’t realize how lucky we are of the little things we own, and how those things can get us affected by the society we live in. Back to the Dominican Republic where I was raised people will say that that I was a whimsical girl, I always had everything that came out of my mouth that I wanted because the next day when I woke up whatever I asked for it will be there for me. Moreover, when I came back to the US, I got to understand that even though I never had to worry about anything, by watching people at school that they only were counting on the food they gave us, or they did not have the latest sneakers to go to class but they still happy and not embarrassed at all, I learned when you are confident and you know your heart that is all we need to be happy. I feel so lucky I get to show any affections to people and not having to worry about what might people think. On the other hand, having certain privileges does not mean that you are an immortal person, there will always be things that will be nothing before them. Since middle school I was bullied for having big ears, they used to give me names like “Dumbo” the elephant from the Disney movie.
Microaggression is a term used in a daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group, particularly culturally marginalized groups. I have gone through that and did not even know how that was called. Back in high school, I used to wear a uniform, a skirt and the fact it used to look short on me people believed that I put it on to get people’s attention by passing, the way they said things it was very uncomfortable for me because it happened everywhere even using the stairs guys will stay behind just to try looking under my skirt.
Anaya Alcantara Journal 4
In this reading, I got to learn about the feminist movement to the language and psychology of the language. Gender neutrality and feminism have been putting out how language has purposely created a conversation between others about a woman is not being taken into account during this process. Feminism can be known as the idea of freedom for women politically, economically, and socially with the same rights and opportunities for women as the same as for men. The main focus of the feminist language is to acknowledge the unawareness ways that language both minutes of silence and emphasizes gender in different ways. It is a very interesting topic to read, it gave a different point of view of the situation. Part of the theory focuses on words or phrases that make one gender, in this case, women, subjugated, or invisible compared to the other. Moreover, society determines and marks language by basing it on males, considering that it has importantly an essential use of language reflecting the necessity of society. The fact that people will negatively judge somebody else and discriminate their attitudes and points of view is considered a menace. Also, using a male as a reference to people has made women go invisible but at the same time emphasized their work. It’s very obvious on how dominant the language by males is, it does not matter in which language you speak. On the other hand, when we speak about language and its differences involving feminism, it takes me to the identity terms “People of color” vs. “Colored people” a single word can change a whole meaning. for example, when you identify someone by “people of color” you are highlighting the person as different than the rest, which is the same thing when it comes to language and its distinction.
Anaya Alcantara Discussion 4
After reading “Identity Terms” the term that most describes me is “Latino,” “Latin American,” “Latina,” “Latino/a,” “Latin@,” “Latinx” ” my parents are from the Dominican Republic and because I was born here I’m considered as a “Latin American”. As a Latina I do have an accent because I was raised out of the United States, but does that make me less than a Latin American or just a Latina? I would say that it is not like being born here does not have importance or validation, but I will always be considered as a Latina. At the end of the day, that’s how I grew up, considering myself as a Latina representing my roots, and where my parents and our roots came from.
One of the theories in the “Feminist Philosophy of Language” was “1.4 Sex Marketing” it really caught my eye, because it relates with a man being superior than a woman. In this case, pronouns cannot be used to represent an individual if you don’t know the sex of the person. Gender makes sex relevant, because when you think about it the first thing in your head is a man, us as woman became last in the conversation. On the other hand, the example that they provide us is great, because if we make gender a priority when it comes to this type of cases most of the time a male will be dominant all the time making females less in the conversation meaning that whoever wrote the book was a male due to the dominance it has by downplaying “person’s reproductive cells are the sort which produce ova” (3) to make another stand out. Moreover, if a female where the one writing, the review might not been as great as a female would like to but the book would have been a different perspective ana d very good book.
Discussion 3
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• Arms • Hair • Hands |
| · They are big, and I don’t feel comfortable with them if I don’t cover them up. People always have something to say about them.
· I love my hair; I’ve always had long curly hair. Since I was a kid people will always compliment my hair because of how long and beautiful they were even if made them straight. Also, it makes me feel good about myself. · I have tiny hands, people will compliment them when they notice the long nails on how nice they look on me and with any accessories like rings. |
| · About conversations and things, they said to me, like you need to lose some weight you have boxer arms.
· I grew up having long care and I just have so much love for but also it makes me confident and beautiful. People be saying I have small hands, and everything looks cute on them. |
| Unfortunately, people always have something to say about other people’s bodies. It became very common to walk by someone’s side and that person will not take their eyes off you because they have an opinion about how you look. In chapter 4 of Gendered/Sexed Bodies, “ People who identify as women are encouraged to be continually aware of their bodies” I can relate to that, because my own family who can spend weeks or more without seeing me they will come over and visit to say “ Anaya, you are getting fat, look at your arms, you are getting ugly, you have to do something about it.” This makes me feel bad about myself and think if I am enough just the way I am, that I am not just a “chubby” girl.
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It all depends on how that person says what he thinks, what bothers you most and makes you doubt yourself is when a person says an opinion that was never asked for but not that, it is that they say what they say in a mocking way. I have tried to ignore certain comments, but to be honest, some of them will be going around in your head, putting you in a position where you just might end up doing what that person wants looking for their approval. I would say that as a woman, I have to stop looking at myself with someone else’s perspective in order to feel secure and comfortable with our body.
