Tag: Kianna Holm Portfolio

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 Gender Identity Final Portfolio

 Gender identity is a very relevant topic today. Many people have their own ideas about the correctness and error of each sexual behavior and these people are very precise about their ideas. Gender identity is defined as a personal conception of oneself as male or female, both or neither. Your gender identity is how you feel inside and how you express those feelings. 

I would categorize my gender identity as female. Sex is the labels of male, female or intersex, given to someone at birth based on their body parts. My sex is female. I was born with a vagina and overtime as I got older my body started developing as a women’s would. I started having my menstrual cycle, my breasts and butt were getting bigger. 

Sex role development begins in infancy. It is a basic factor of a stable identity. The key component to identity formation are the social influences. This includes parental expectations, peer relationships and social  experience. From the time children are born, parents tend to treat their child by their sex, from the name given to the baby to the toys they get to play with. This places the child into one category or another. The simple act of decorating a room or providing access to various play things is connected with factors of adult influence. 

Even toys and TV shows seemed to be gender analyzed. As a child, I loved to watch Dora. I had all of her toys and merchandise. I grew up with Barbie dolls and fake kitchen sets, things that girls would like to play with. Usually boys go for toy guns and action figures. This does play a role in one’s gender identity. 

When considering myself, growing up I was raised as a girl and I’ve always thought of myself as a girl. I did play a lot outside with the boys and I have always related more with boys rather than girls but that’s because I have a lot of older brothers and cousins.

To start it off with small detailed information about myself, my name is Kianna. That is a female’s name. Middle name, Felicia, which is also feminine. When I was younger I had a white room. White is known to be a mutual color not really masculine or feminine, but I had pink flower stickers all over my walls and dolls everywhere. Pink is said to be a color corresponding to girls. 

Gender expression is how a person shows their gender identity. It includes physical expressions like ones clothing, hairstyle, makeup, and social expression. Some examples of gender expression are masculine, feminine, and androgynous. These concepts are also related to the concept of gender role. My gender expression would be considered feminine. Usually when people look at me they consider me to be a girly girl. I like to wear dresses, skirts and crop tops like most women. But I don’t limit my closet to these. I have jeans and tshirts like men do too but that isn’t my main wardrobe. Based on my hairstyles I think anyone would be able to identify masculine or feminine. I like to wear long weaves and braids.

Orientation/ attraction is a term used to describe sexual and/or romantic attractions to others. This can be categorized as straight, lesbian,, gay, bisexual, queer, etc. I categorize myself as straight. I like men. People often ask how do you know you don’t like women and I find it weird because usually being gay, or liking the same sex, is looked down upon in many cultures. Mine , for instance, my family is Jamaican. So gay people are always being bashed and punished. There’s even several songs made about how gayness is not accepted. This is also how culture plays a part in one’s attraction. 

I have a sister named Salina. She’s older than me but we have the same parents and we grew up in the same house with the same rules. But she was always the opposite of me. She wasn’t such a girly girl. She likes wearing jeans and sweats. She comes off aggressive. She’s more of a tomboy. She’s also gay which I am not. This made my conclusion that although experiences may be similar the end result isn’t the same for everyone. 

To conclude my statement, gender identity is not simply defined by what we are but more so the combination of our physical appearances and our inner self. Often people have  difficulty identifying with either of the sexes especially when genetics factors of abnormal development are present. Gender identity is not a black and white matter, chromosomes, environmental factors, and psychological factors all influence the individual’s sense of being male or female.so the big question is what if I didnt play with dolls but trucks instead, or what if i had a unisex name, What if something in my life changed would that changed my identity from who I am today?