Author: Kianna Holm

Kianna Holm Institution Artifact Final Portfolio

We live in a country where there is a high demand for equal rights for all. But still today there are still many women treated unfairly in contrast to men.  Men tend to receive higher pay and better access to promotions. This reality of inequality has been portrayed in the movie, “What Men Want” directed by Adam Shankman. 

The movie, “What Men Want”, starring Taraji P. Henson, presents a scene where Taraji’s character, “Ali, is overlooked for a promotion she thought was hers” (Rosa and Radloff), but instead was given to one of her fellow male coworkers. Within the embarrassing scene, “Ali’s boss tosses a football to the man who’s getting the [promotion], but Ali intercepts it” (Rosa and Radloff). This scene within the movie illustrates a feeling that many women know way too well, it’s the feeling of losing an opportunity over male privilege. 

In today’s society, women are more likely to be ‘top performers’, but less likely to be the boss. Only 5% of Fortune 500’s CEOs are women as presented in The Women’s Leadership Gap. “Institutionalized discrimination refers to the unjust and discriminatory mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals by society and its institutions as a whole, through unequal selection or bias, intentional or unintentional, as opposed to individuals making a conscious choice to discriminate”. Women are more likely to be ‘top performers,’ but less likely to be the boss. Why is that? If women work harder why aren’t we getting the recognition deserved. For example, my mother works in a school and she wanted to get a promotion, so she worked really hard, probably harder than anyone else in her job, just to be promoted. And when the promotion was given, she didn’t receive it and a male coworker, who barely attended work, received it. She was mad, but not only because she didn’t get the promotion, but because when she asked why she didn’t get it they said because the male coworker is more dedicated to the job because he doesn’t have kids. This made my mother later realize that your color and gender has an effect on the outcome of your future. This shows that even though women tend to work harder than men they aren’t rewarded nearly as much as men. But not only are women rewarded less than men, they are also paid less. 

Women’s median earnings are lower than men’s in nearly every occupation, according to another report released this week from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a nonprofit think tank. For example, “In 2020, women earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by men” as presented by PayScale. The evidence provided by PayScale demonstrates the gender pay gap or gender wage gap, which is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working. And the gender pay gap displays that women are generally considered to be paid less than men. For example, my aunt works in a business firm, she has been working there for over 20 years. And she wants higher pay and bonuses, but they won’t give it to her although she has been working at her job longer than anyone else has. She told me that most males at the firm tend to get higher bonuses and pay than she does. She was so frustrated, but still continues to try to get more pay. This displays the idea that gender privilege is present still today. 

Systematic inequalities are “patterns of differential group treatment repeated across time even in the absence of overt discrimination”. Systematic inequalities are policies that keep people of color and women from gaining power, which are enforced through laws and etc. For example, CEOs or people in headquarters of a company are mainly men, white men to be specific. About 46.9% of the labor force is made up of women. And only 5% of those women are CEOs. Of the companies that made up the 2019 Fortune 500 list, only 33 of those companies had women CEOs. This illustrates the idea that there is a miniscule number of women in higher positions in businesses. 

In brief explanation, women tend to be treated unfairly in the business world. We are paid less and given less promotions, even though they tend to work more than men. And institutionalized discrimination and systematic inequalities can be used to demonstrate the ideas of gender inequality from all aspects. Women are strong and hard working, we deserve to be treated fairly. If we live in a country where there is freedom and equality then why aren’t 50% of CEOs women? And why aren’t men and women given equal pay? 

Works Cited

Rosa, Christopher, and Jessica Radloff. “Taraji P. Henson Hopes Her New Movie Inspires Women to ‘Keep Fighting.'” What Men Want. Glamour.com, 

www.glamour.com/story/taraji- p-henson-on-what-men-want. Accessed 8 Feb. 2019.

THE STATE OF THE GENDER PAY GAP 2020. PayScale, 

www.payscale.com/data/gender- pay-gap.

The Women’s Leadership Gap. Center for American Progress, 

www.americanprogress.org/ issues/women/reports/2018/11/ 20/461273/womens-leadership- gap-2/

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Kianna Holm DB Final Portfolio

Hello, my name is Kianna Holm. I come from a large family. I have 4 sisters and 6 brothers. My dad has 10 kids and my mom has 5, 4 with my dad. We didn’t all live together but we were together often. I’m the youngest girl out of the group so that did come with some benefits but I also think that it has made me think differently about genders and their roles. Because of this I’ve gotten a sense of microaggression from young. 

Microaggressions is “everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.” Microaggressions may be based on socioeconomic status, disability, gender, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. I’ve had many experiences with microaggressions. I think the most common one that happens to me is my teachers failing to learn to pronounce or continuing to mispronounce students’ names after they have corrected you. From my experience the long, complicated, unique names usually come from black girls. It’s understandable that the name may be hard to remember or pronounce but intentionally or not it creates a bad environment for a teacher to keep mispronouncing a student’s name. 

During most of my childhood years I’ve been really skinny. I used to get teased for it but I had older brothers so it wasn’t often I’d hear the stupid “Do your parents feed you?” comment. But of course they can’t be with me all the time to defend me so I still hear it. When I got to high school I didn’t have my brothers. I was by myself. The girls at my school were thick, curvy and they’ve grown breasts and their bodies have formed and are still forming. Then there was me, still shopping in the kids department because that was the only thing that fit. I would wear a training bra everyday hoping to make them grow. I started to feel left out and just not the same. I started to question myself, trying to figure out if something was wrong with me. I was confused as to why haven’t I experienced any of these normal teenage phases.

I met a few girls at my school who were feeling just as insecure about their bodies as I was but in a different way. I didn’t get why some of them were complaining.  They looked great! They had everything I wanted plus some. But they didn’t like it. There were many reasons why, but the most common reason they all said was It brought them attention they didn’t like. They wanted what I had and I wanted what they had. I later learned that there isn’t a “normal” way to look. Everybody is different and everybody’s body is different. I realized that no matter how you look or what you do people would always have negative things to say to you.

This chart exercise really made me think about myself and how I feel about myself. In the first column I wrote my hair, my smile and my calves. My hair isn’t my favorite part of my body. I have coarse, think 4c type hair. My hair has always been a big thing for me and my family. My mom would take care of my hair and treat it so it would grow nice. I hated my hair when I was younger because I’m tender headed and my hair was always hard to comb  out. My mother made me realize that my hair is a part of who I am. She went on about how black peoples hair is always looked down upon but it’s actually beautiful. From the shrinkage to the unique curl patterns. So before my hair would make me upset but I’ve learned more about it and learned about what works best and I’ve learned to love it. I did cut my hair off but i still love it now. I look forward to doing different hairstyles and things because sometimes it helps build my confidence. My smile is my favorite feature on my body. I love how wide and bright it is. I love the effect it has on people. I’ve gotten complaints that my smile has made people’s day and the feeling that gives me is great. My least favorite thing on my body is my calves. I think I have huge, manly calves. I used to get teased about it when I was younger. I hated it. I still don’t like them but I think now that I’m older I’ve learned to just deal with it because i can’t change it. Looking at my calves or just having them exposed sometimes makes me really insecure. I feel like when people see me that’s all they see but I’ve learned to realize I may be exaggerating. While doing this chart after the readings i think that one of the theories that relate is the  psychological theory. “Psychological theories emphasize the internal psychological processes triggered by early childhood experiences with one’s body and interpersonal interactions with primary caregivers and close contact.” I think because I was teased and had so many bad experiences with my hair or calves, I think I’ve learned to dislike them. But because I’ve gotten so much good feedback on my smile that might play a part in my i love it so much. 

This is when I finally learned to just love myself and everything about me. Although I may not be happy with everything I have there are some people who are dying to look like me. I’ve learned a life lesson that you’re never going to be happy if you don’t love yourself. Self love is the best love, because if you truly love yourself, along with all your flaws, there’s nothing that anybody can say to take that confidence away.

 

Kianna Holm Discussion #8

  1. My perspective has definitely changed since the beginning of this class. If I’m being completely honest I was interested in this class. This is my last semester so I guess I’m just eager to finish. But as the class continued I really started to actually learn things. More importantly as a female I’ve learned more about myself and my body. 
  2. One of the most important topics that I will be taking away from this class is acceptance. I know that wasn’t entirely what our lectures were about but throughout the course we’ve read about people with different races and sexuality. We all know that discrimination is a thing and happens often but that doesn’t make it right. 
  3. The format of this class really helped me to. In this class we have to write our responses and respond to our classmates. I think this was very helpful for me. It helped me not only view the discussion from my point but my classmates too. And because this class had a lot to do with race and gender, it was really interesting that we had people from different places to give a perspective. I found it ironic how we all may come from different places and grew up with different traditions but for the most part we all go through similar things.

Kianna Holm DB #7

For the Institutional Artifact Project the institution I would be talking about is businesses , the artifacts is promotions within businesses  and/or pay rates. The three concepts I am using to support my writing is Systematic privilege/ systematic inequality, Institutionalized discrimination and Social structure or structure of power. “Institutionalized discrimination refers to the unjust and discriminatory mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals by society and its institutions as a whole, through unequal selection or bias, intentional or unintentional; as opposed to individuals making a conscious choice to discriminate.”  Women are more likely to be ‘top performers,’ but less likely to be the boss. Why is that? If women work harder why aren’t we getting the recognition deserved.  Institutionalized discrimination creates systematic inequalities. Systematic inequalities are “patterns of differential Group treatment repeated across time even in the absence of overt discrimination.” CEOs or people in headquarters of a company are mainly men, white men to be specific. Women’s median earnings are lower than men’s in nearly every occupation. The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working. Women are generally considered to be paid less than men.

Kianna Holm Journal #6

In this complex world, where people admire sex. It could be the upmost challenge to desire the sex preference that you want, more less harder to convey a conversation that doesn’t go left than what you originally wanted. In this article it tells you ways how to accomplish these steps and to speak the language of sex.

Normally, when all works out positively, commencements of sex appear as solicitations, not demands. Particularly when we are simply getting along with somebody just because, regardless of whether for an easygoing hookup or toward the beginning of a progressively genuine relationship, solicitations are an increasingly normal and ordinarily more suitable method of starting sex than are demands. According to Rebecca Kukla when you are involved with somebody, it’s not generally outside the  boundaries for you to demand sex, it’s an act of goodwill. When attempting to set up closeness with somebody as becoming acquainted with them, a greeting is  increasingly helpful for good, thriving sex than a solicitation.

Commonly, our open conversations center around just one restricted sort of correspondence: demands for sex followed by assent or refusal. Yet, notice that we use language and correspondence in a wide assortment of courses in arranging sex. We tease and rebuke, express interest and aversion, and lucid dreams. In a perfect world, we talk about what sort of sex we need to have, including which exercises, and what we like and don’t care for. We settle whether we will engage in sexual relations by any stretch of the imagination, and when we need to stop. We check in with each other and speak profanely to each other during sex.

In any case, I have contended that sexual independence likewise requires the capacity to participate in clear, sober mind perplexing, sexual correspondence including employments of language that work out in a good way past consenting to and declining demands for sex.

Kianna Holm Discussion #6

After watching the film, “Free CeCe!”, I saw  how gender, race, and sexuality of a person affects how they are treated in the criminal justice system. McDonald was arrested and then charged with second-degree intentional murder. She argued it was self defense which I agree with. In this case, CeCe McDonalds was harassed and physically harmed by Schmitz. Although there was clear evidence that McDonald had been acting in self defense the court decides otherwise.  Imagine having to live in a world where you constantly have to feel like your life is at risk, not only the risk of being African American but also being a transgender African American woman can you really put all the responsibility of this incident on CeCe McDonald? On the night of June 5, 2011 CeCe McDonald was walking with four friends while a group of about four white people began harassing her and her friends. While making several degrading remarks to CeCe they began to take it a step further by approaching her and hitting her in the face with a glass of alcohol. After being called racial slurs like “nigger” and other disrespectful remarks being made like “faggot” and a physical assault CeCe McDonald, she still tried to retrieve from the situation as she was in fear for her life but yet McDonald ends up being the only one who had to serve time for second degree murder as a result of the incidents that took place this night. Any reasonable person can see the unfair treatment of CeCe McDonald based on her gender race . Although McDonald was the only person who was responsible for the harm that caused a persons death she was also the person who was verbally and physically assaulted before the death took place. CeCe McDonald was obviously targeted and the criminal justice system didn’t do anything to address that which is the original problem here.

Kianna Holm Journal #5

The introduction of this reading really caught my attention. Many people have been bullied and harassed because of their sexuality. McDonalds case is one of the Many cases that have been brought to light. Not only was this a hate crime towards McDonalds sexuality. but also to her race. McDonalds retaliated out of and her actions, unintentionally, killing Schmitz. The whole case and trial proceedings was unfair. Information about Schmitz was being withheld from the court in order to discredit McDonalds. “While there are any number of legal justifications for including or excluding information from court proceedings, it is meaningful that McDonald was subjected to strategies commonly used to discredit people of color, women, and/or people who are poor…”

Kianna Holm Journal #4

Microaggressions is “everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.” Microaggressions can be based on economic status, disability, gender, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. Racial and gender are the 2 most common types of microaggression used today. For example, Assigning intelligence to a person of color on the basis of their race, Which is very common. Asking an Asian person to help with a Math or Science problem indicates that all Asians are intelligent and good in Math / Sciences. 

“Micropolitics refers to the negotiations over power in everyday interactions between people.” In other words, it’s the exercise of power in everyday life, Where individuals’ everyday actions and social interactions occur. Like deciding who is going to do housework or use the remote control. It Focuses on patterns of social interaction at the individual level.

 “Mesopolitics, mesa meaning middle range, refers to the power exerted by groups within institutions to ensure that individuals follow the institutions’ rules or to challenge those rules.” It’s Where individuals interact within groups. For example schools, communities, neighbourhoods and workplace. It Consists of larger groups that interact directly with the individual. Focuses on relationships between middle-level social structures and the individual.

“Macropolitics refers to laws’, policies’, and culture’s power to enforce social norms.” It’s the exercise of large-scale power, Where we observe the wider social structures, social processes and their interrelationships. For example, social institutions such as media, law, workplace institutions and government.  It helps to shape the social and cultural world.Examines how these collective groups relate to the wider society of which they form a part and is evident at national and international level.

Kianna Holm DB#5

Microaggressions is “everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.” Microaggressions may be based on socioeconomic status, disability, gender, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. I’ve had many experiences with microaggressions. I think the most common one that happens to me is my teachers failing to learn to pronounce or continuing to mispronounce students’ names after they have corrected you. From my experience the long, complicated, unique names usually come from black girls. It’s understandable that the name may be hard to remember or pronounce but intentionally or not it creates a bad environment for a teacher to keep mispronouncing a student’s name. 

Systemic privilege, also known as Social privilege, is a “special, unearned advantage or entitlement, used to one’s own benefit or to the detriment of others. These groups can be advantaged based on social class, age, disability, ethnic or racial category, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and religion.” I have experienced a few cases of social privilege. Most of the privileges I experience are more so like gender roles or social norms. Being that I am a female, that can sometimes be a perk for me. For example, when I go out, men like to do kind gestures. From carrying my bags to buying my drinks at the club. This is a privilege I receive because of my gender. But it is also normal for men to carry heavy bags for women. 

I don’t have that level of social privilege that is able to use my privilege in service of others, and reduce microaggressions. I am a black woman living in  the U.S. Sadly, we still do experience racism and have to deal with white privileges. The odds are against us, black people, so our power and level of equality is little to none. But with the power that I do have I can help reduce microaggressions in many ways. When I was in middle school, the kids in my class used to bully the younger kids for no reason. I never participated in these antics because I never saw the purpose.  I would just listen and watch, sometimes I wouldn’t even pay attention to them. Until one time they made a little boy cry and I stepped in and stopped them. I realized that not saying or doing anything to stop the violence was just as bad.