Category: Discussion 4

      Like many people who come from immigrants or ancestry of displaced people I have struggled with how I identify. It became increasingly harder in recent years when I moved back to the continental United States. When people ask who I am and where I come from I never have a straight answer. I always say, “It’s complicated.” It makes it easier than going through the long jumbled up history that is my life. Until recently I didn’t really think of my identity as anything important. I never had the words to describe myself so I just didn’t. The reading “Identity  Terms” was very informative. Although these are not all the terms people use to identify themselves with, there are still so many of them. You never really think of all of them until you see them written down. 

       The theory I chose was “sex-marking”. This was by far the most interesting theory I read. In all honesty, I had to read it a few times to understand and even after I did that it still struck me as a bit ridiculous. However, I do believe the statement made is extremely relevant in today’s climate. “If I am writing a book review, the use of personal pronouns to refer to the author creates the need to know whether that person’s reproductive cells are the sort which produce ova or the sort which produce sperm” (Frye 1983: 22). In a time when everyone is very sensitive and in tune with their gender, sexuality, and identity it is careless to reduce a preference of pronouns to just their cellular function. It is not new however, I see it all the time. People make statements that refer to gender identity as strictly biological. Just recently JK Rowling referred to trans male to females as ‘people who menstruate’. It is demeaning to undermine someone’s identity to what it has very very very little to do with.

 

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.

 

Here some of the terms that describe myself, the first one is “People of Color” that is described as any person who is not considered white and I am not a white person, I am from Haiti where my mother and my father are Africa slaves’ descent. The second one is “Third World” like I said before I am from Republic of Haiti that is one of the s the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, so it is definitely as a third world according to Wikipedia because we are economically poor, and non-industrialized with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of $756 in 2019 and a Human Development Index ranking of 169 out of 189 countries in 2019.

Invisibility of women is considered of the feminist philosophy of language that was critical by the feminist movement and need to be change in philosophy of language. Philosophy of language in earliest times was considered as an issue to the feminist movement and it usually in a way considered to be unfair because of the male stereotypes, inadequately arranged to advance feminist purposes. Even though, the philosophy of language wasn’t unsuitable for the movement women didn’t try to erase it otherwise they did a revision on it, removed the male stereotypes and transformed into something that can be profitable at the feminist goals.

According to Geek Feminism wiki Invisibility of women is when people occasionally hypothesize a category and said there’s any woman even if they are a few or only one there. Feminist have also disagreed that the terms such as ‘he’ and ‘man’ devote to building women invisible, to bring woman down and interfere scrutiny from their presence. It is really important for woman to clash invisibility of women in many domains starting in the language one because it has a big mental impact in people.

One of the concrete example Invisibility of women that I have is from my personal experience that I had in quarantine in the past month and half. Because of the pandemic I stop going to work and to physical school, and I was super boring. As an online video gamer, I decide to buy and download Dying Light that is first-person action survival game set in a post-apocalyptic open world overrun by flesh-hungry zombies. The game was scary, crazy and super hard to play even if you choose easy mode the guests were still difficult to pass. The game also does feature co-op multiplayer, my player name was lisablamfort who was a girl name. I believe I was the only girl in my game section or the only person with a girl name. in the beginning a lot of male players always joined my tutorial and passed my guests for me, sometimes 3 came to team up with me, and when we are moving or fighting in an area usually my co-op or co-player always say let’s go guys but never said let’s go man and woman. Sometimes when I try to join other teams, they don’t accept me because I am girl they said. So, I decide to change my player name to gray and after that I got the same respect as a man the online game, I got accepted in many teams and other player don’t even help me for my guests anymore. I believe because I was the only girl, I was really visible, but I was constantly overshowed by my co-op male because they never said how are you Lisablamfort but hey dude or hey bro even though they know I am a girl.

A lot of area from language to women’s right contribute to overshadow women, but the language is one the most important issues that the feminist movement is trying to reform and used in favor of women. Terms like ‘he’ and ‘man’ is related to male than female and is contributing to the invisibility of women

 

 

 

 

 

There are many identity terms to describe people from all over the world, and most of these terms to some extend are rude or racist in a way. We come to a country to have opportunities and equal rights but is that really what we are getting ?.

After reading “Identity terms” I can cay that the terms/ category that best describes me in certain is “latino, latin america,latino…”. I am Latina/Hispanic woman and it is not easy being of a Hispanic background becuase people are easy to judge, especially in the U.S, in most cases as soon as someone sees a Hispanic/ latino the question of this person being legal or not rises. I love being Hispanic/Latina but people most of the time mistake where are we from for other latin countries which to some point is frustrating because it is not said in a polite way. For example my family is from Ecuador and most of the time I get mistaken for being Mexican and my friend who is Mexican is told that she looks Ecuadorian. Being told I look Mexican does not really bother me what bothers me is how some express themselves towards these countries. For example some say “all Mexican girls look the same” or Ecuadorian people and Mexican people are the same thing”. Just because we are Hispanic does not mean we are all the same, look the same, do the same. Like I mentioned every country is unique.

There are two theories that really caught my attention and interest in the article, “Feminist philosophy of language”. The first one is invisibility of women, this one stood out to me because in many cases the use of language does make it seem that men are superior than women, or even that they have accomplished more when in reality women have accomplished great thing if not more than man but the way things are said does not always benefit women. The second theory that stood out to me was sex marketing. Sex marketing stood out to me because it connects back to making women invisible and men superior, but in this case it goes a little beyond that, the example that Is used is great because it says that if someone wants to write a book review is it necessary to know, the gender and for most is no but if we make gender such a priority when it comes to these cases, if it was a man who wrote the book then the review would be great, not because the book was great but because I man wrote It, meanwhile if it were a woman then the review might not be great although the book might have been amazing.

In gender and community studies, identity terms refer to what a person perceives himself to be or what the society has decided on what gender a person should belong to. Commonly, there are two genders, male and female, with distinctive characteristics. However, the past decade has recorded many people identifying themselves as Bigender or gender fluid. In my case, I identify myself as a man with all the characteristics prescribed by society for the male gender. First, my physical structure and appearance are masculine and robust, unlike women, who tend to be physically weaker.

Furthermore, I have the reproductive system of a man with all reproductive organs. During my adolescence, I experienced broadening of arms and chest, deepening of the voice, growth of facial hair, and rapid growth in size. The physical features on my body plus my physical complexity, qualify me to be a man. However, society is a crucial determinant of how things should run or perceived. My dressing code and the roles I play in society qualify me to be a man. Some of my clothes include trousers, shirts, and suits, unlike women, who commonly wear dresses and head wraps.

I have gone through the stages of growth defined by the norms of the society in which I live. One of the significant rights of passage is circumcision, in which the foreskin is cut, to represent a transition from childhood. In society, lack of circumcision lowers your status as a man, and one cannot freely interact with other men. Other community aspects that qualify me as a man include the different gender roles I play in society. One of my most crucial tasks is protecting and leading the family. As the firstborn boy in our family, I have the second-highest authority in the house.

Furthermore, when I get my own family, I expect to be the leader and breadwinner to the family members. As for women, their most significant role is taking care of the family and raising children, but modern women are slowly evading their gender roles. Identifying myself was not a choice since I was born a male child with all the characteristics and features of a male child. In the modern era of technology and scientific discoveries, people can change their gender to a man or woman through medical procedures.

 

 Are we born equal? de we have the same rights as male and females ? are we offered the same tools to reach success ? is our language treating us male and females differently and unequally?

Identity terms and their existence in our daily life. As soon as I open my eyes in the morning and look at my phone to turn off the alarm I see CNN breaking news and their attractive titles: An African American men was arrested in a robbery, UN intervention in the third world countries to save the life on the children or be a mediator in politicals decision. 

”Third world, First world, Developing country, and Developed country have been problematized for their hierarchical meanings, where areas with more resources and political power are valued over those with fewer resources and less power (Silver 2015)”.

I wasn’t aware of these terms until I came to the United States of America. I started hearing African Americans, people of color, Latino or Latina, and other identity terms that characterized a specific demographic population. Since I come from Morocco that is considered a developing country because of lack of resources . I see myself surrounded by this term a lot  and even questioned a lot . How it is living in Morocco, do you have clean water ? do you have hungry kids in the street? my answer is always the same. do we have clean running water in  all America? no. do we have hungry kids? yes.

They are also other identity terms that I use a lot like the term Caucasian while filling forms and other paperwork. the term Immigrant for a  person who was born outside of the united states , and finally the term Women because my Biological body states that I’m a female. 

Feminist philosophers have analyzed and critic the language and its feminist philosophy and how it can contribute to representing the gender wrongfully and unequally. If we men and women can do the same job equality than language has to reflect that as well.

The invisibility of Women is one of the theories that stood out the most to me. Maybe because I’m a woman and I feel that the use of the language does not give me justice. It seems that women are always inferior to men.

for example the word of a master for men and mistress for a woman. we can’t say a master for a woman because it describing a powerful man, and the word mistress describing a weak woman with no courage or strength.

Another word that I can recall from the show called ”mankind, the story of us ”. It’s a great show that supposedly is about humankind and their evolution throughout these eras. This show is the greatest adventure of all time describing the history of the human race including women as well, but the title is reserve to men only because they hold the key to power.

I feel like words like these give a negative image of women and characterize them as followers ,weak, and never in a position of power while giving the men a positive and a strong image.

After reading “Identity Terms” I think the term that most describes me is “People of Color” vs. “Colored People”. When people look at me they say I am a colored girl. I don’t like any of these terms “people of color” or “colored people”. I like to be approached or recognized as a black woman. Some people say it doesn’t make a difference but for me it isn’t. “People of color” or “colored people” refer to a group of blacks and was created years ago, during slavery and the prime of racism. That term was used to belittle us. 

One of the theories in the “Feminist Philosophy of Language” that caught my attention was “1.3 Malesness as Norm”. In the U.S we do have gender specific occupations in the title. For example, we say garbage man not garbage women or mailman. But then there are titles that do have like a waiter and a waitress. This is probably the most common one used. One reason people don’t like gender specific occupations by the title is that the use of these terms seems “premised on the idea that maleness is the norm, and that women filling these jobs are somehow deviant versions.” But this is also a key objection to the use of ‘he’ and ‘man’ instead of ‘she” or “woman”.