Below is a bulleted list of points to consider when doing future Reading Reflections. This is a general list based on my reading of all of your reflections. I also included a sample reflection that I wrote below.

• Your reflection should be 250 words (roughly). Many of you wrote much longer reflections. For a classmate’s reflection that is a good example of length and depth, see Samantha Rojas Reflection 1.
• You do not need to separate the readings and respond to each separately. You can give a holistic response.
• REPLIES ON REFLECTIONS ARE NOT REQUIRED. You can read and respond (which is a great idea), but it won’t be counted in the same way the discussion responses are.
• Reflections should give your impressions and thoughts, not be an outline of the readings.

Sample Reading Reflection on Week 1 Assigned Readings

One reading dealt a lot with defining terms and making sure we know the difference between gender and sex, and how gender is learned through socialization. The other reading was focused on defining feminism and advocating for a specific kind of feminism. In Sex & Gender 101 I learned importantly that gender is who we feel we are, how we express that to the world, and how those connect. We learn gender through socialization – which means learning how to behave in socially acceptable ways. Sex is the biological features of a person’s body. It is most frequently determined by genital morphology – or the form a baby’s genitals take when they are born. But other things makeup sex including chromosomes and hormones, which we don’t see, and may impact sex. In the bell hooks piece we learned that feminism isn’t man-hating, but it is a movement to end sexism. We learned that all people are complicit in sexism because we are taught it through socialization. hooks also makes a distinction between reform and revolutionary feminism. Reform is wanting equality and for women to hold the same positions as men, make equal money, etc. It is within the system of capitalism and marked by conflict. Revolutionary wants to change the system because there are no chances for equity in our current systems. So it wants to change the system to one of cooperation. Its interest is equity, justice, and inclusion, not equality. I included this graphic to help explain the difference. Hooks wants us to move to the right side.