Hi my name is Ciara Cardona and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I’m 20 years old. I’m Puerto Rican but was born and raised in NYC. I’m really focused on getting my associate’s degree in psychology before my baby is born. I’m taking this course because I wanted to expand my knowledge. I don’t have any specific topics I’d like to cover honestly because I don’t know much about these kinds of things. 

I think I experience some privilege because of course, I do not need to walk miles to go and get water just as the women said in the video. We have a safe space to sleep in whereas others don’t. We also take for granted that some of us wake up everyday with no worries of food or shelter. Many people do not have that blessing. There are a lot of jobs available here with good enough pay that not everyone experiences. We have health care which makes sures we get what we need. I don’t have to worry about the rent going unpaid.When it comes to privilege you need to know this means religion, racial, gender, sexual orientation, wealth, social class and many other things. White privilege sets people way ahead of life just because of their skin orientation. They can get into any job, school etc plus be able to get out of many things without consequences. Gay people have some privileges now such as same sex marriage which they did not have before. Social class varies when it comes to privilege and oppression because me being low class I never really had the opportunity to do as much as others like i.e see the world whereas, upper class could do a lot more and has a wide range of opportunities.  The Way I experience oppression is with mental health issues because of things such as anxiety where I can not do anything without getting really anxious and hiding. I also have bipolar type 1 where it makes it really hard for me to maintain any kind of relationship including friendships. Also, it makes it harder for me to be in a workspace as well. It kinda just stops everything in my life. Another way I experience oppression is when I’m a female and an example of what I mean is both genders could get paid for doing the same job but only the female will get paid less. The video mainly helped me define privilege more as something which holds you back from some life experience compared to others experiences. I used to believe it was just something I could not understand. Before watching the video I only related privilege and oppression to white people or black people. I always assumed it was more of a racial thing than gender or even social class as I mentioned. 

To move beyond the gender binary for Alok would basically refer to a man or woman not just having 2 options but rather having an immensity of options. It is about acknowledging the other choices we have around us. Putting people into a box is not really the right perspective. There has never been just one or the other and the controversy of pronouns proves that. Expressing ourselves in how we walk, dress or talk should not always suggest the person is automatically liking the same gender. We are stuck with the idea that depending on the gender you are, it would mean you need to be girly or considered weak if it is a female whereas, guys have to act masculine and strong willed. In my case, I am a tomboy female who also wants to dress as a girl in some ways. I am more comfortable being sporty but sometimes I am also really sensitive. I was always told I need to act like a lady and dress like a lady. People have told me I’m too loud or even I eat way too much for a girl. I’ve constantly been put down and have been attempted to be put in a bubble by other people. I’ve never felt comfortable with really dressing with more feminine clothes until recently. I have always been told that in the future I would like girls because of how masculine I was before. I never understood it at all because sometimes I just never really cared for my appearance which resulted in me dressing more masculine. I kind of tried to change how people perceived me but eventually I also let nature take its course. Eventually, I started to be comfortable in dressing girly but I also have not lost my roots so I would disagree with the fact of fitting the binary norm. I know that everyone has experienced the million questions because of how they dressed or acted even if it was one day but as you all know we have continued to expand on our differences. It might take a while but we are making progress so hang in there as we go through these times where we are put inside the box because one day we will escape and roam free with no judgment. Always remember we must not assume someone’s gender or sexuality in the way we perceive them. You can’t always tell if someone is gender binary or anything along those lines so respect them as you would anyone else.