First and foremost, I’d like to state that before reading these papers, I knew very little about the issues that were discussed. I used to believe that sex and gender were interchangeable terms. According to Kyl Myers’ article “Sex and Gender 101,” these two constructs are not the same. When the author mentions sex, he or she is referring to anatomy and physiology. The appearance of a person’s external genitalia is used to identify biological sex. Male, female, and intersex are terms used to describe biological sex. Of course, I was aware that a male has XY chromosomes and a female has XX chromosomes. When they mentioned intersex, I had some knowledge of what they were referring to. What was new to me was that intersex people can have a number of distinct sex chromosomal variants. As we know, sex refers to your anatomy, so what does gender refer to? I’m still a little confused about the definition of gender, but what I gather from the reading is that gender refers to the social and cultural roles that men and women are expected to play depending on their biological sex. At a young age, we are taught that boys shouldn’t like the color pink, play with girls’ toys, show no emotions, and so on. Girls were taught to like make-up, dress-up, like the color pink, be emotional, caretakers, and so on. Growing up, I wasn’t your typical girl. Instead of doing all the girly things most girls would do, I was playing sports, getting dirty, and always hanging with the boys. I was what people consider a tomboy. Sex orientation is a topic that I hope we will cover in greater depth in the department.They are some sex orientations that I don’t know the meaning of.
“Feminist Politics: Where We Stand” by Bell Hooks writes about the real meaning of being a feminist. I knew the movement was about fighting for women’s equal rights. What I heard the most about the movement was people’s (mostly men’s) negative reactions to it. Things that were being said about those who took part in this movement were that they hated men, were angry, why did they want more rights, were crazy, and the list continues. The question is, if sexism wasn’t introduced to the world, would the feminist movement be part of this world? According to Hooks, sexism is the problem, but is it the only problem? At a young age, we are taught that this is a man’s world. With that kind of power comes benefits. Of course, these are to be let go. That is why a man would do anything in their power to not let that go. A long time ago, I learned that people can’t accept change. Most of us are what one would like to call passive supporters, which means that they understand the change that is happening but are inactive. Most of the time, the thing that’s stopping us from being active supporters is our fear of the unknown. What surprised me in the reading is that she waited 20 years for a book like this one to appear, but it never happened. Before this book appeared, we knew so little about the concept of being a feminist and the movement. People should be more willing to help with this movement now that they have this book.
