I think privilege is when you have things that others do not have, which makes me feel that it depends also on how people value the things that they have. For example, I do think I experienced a lot of privilege in my life especially looking at those who don’t even have clothes or food to eat when I can have it easily. In my religion, they taught us to always look behind us and see how lucky we are to have things that others have to fight for in order to get them. I grew up in a poor country and wasn’t raised by my parents because they had to travel to a better country with better job opportunities to provide for us and at least for their kids to have the bare minimum. I was never mad that I didn’t have the chance to grow up with my parents because they lived in a poor country. My siblings and I were able to have the bare minimum for a living. And I also do think that I had the privilege to have healthy parents. Most of the friends that I grew up with had one parent and it was very hard for them so I was always grateful. I believe you experience oppression when you are being treated differently than others with injustice. I dealt with some oppression when I was younger due to the fact that I wasn’t raised by my parents and would get laughed at when my parents doesn’t show up to school events It didn’t really upset me since I was okay with the way I was living but it gets annoying sometimes and would instead to participate in any school activities that included parents so I would sometimes miss school and stay home, but I was so glad that mine was not as bad as other because some people would get pick a lot just because they were poor or didn’t have much clothes to wear which was very mean because some people do not choose to be the way they are and some others might even be okay with the way they are. After watching the video it makes me think that privilege comes from a lot of angles such as an advantage that they only can access due to their gender, race, age, religion, and social status. Oppression means a group of people that belittle people by using their power or what they have better than them, making them feel like they are better in a cruel way. 

What does it mean to move beyond the gender binary for Alok?

I think what it means to move beyond the gender binary for Alok is that a person should embarrass their self and that what others think about you doesn’t matter but what you think about yourself and how it makes you feel as a person but at the same time it sad that people won’t defend those who look different because they look at them as if there they chose that path they should accept the consequences of their actions and wanted to draw attention to themselves as if they are doing something wrong. He quoted that “I learned about gender through shame. In so many ways, they became inseparable from me. As I grew older, people told me to stop being so feminine and grow up. Gender nonconformity is seen as something immature, something we have to grow out of to become adults. Overnight, so many of the things that I loved not only became associated with femininity but with shame. ” this is sad because even when I am neutral with the gender I do not like people to be treated any differently and should live their life how they want it. 

In what ways does your gender identity go against the binary norm and in what ways does it fit the binary norm?

Gender is a very sensitive topic to me because of my religion and I am scared to offend anyone because of how my religion describes them I was raised in Senegal West Africa 95% Muslim we thought of identifying ourselves based on our sex which was male/female I moved here when I was 16 years old and that’s how I learned that there’s much to gender and that it was not only male/female it was surprising to me, but at the same, I would not say that I feel any type of way regarding people gender because I stay neutral on that topic. I am a straight person and respect anyone who identifies their gender with whatever they want because it’s their life and has the right to feel and do whatever they want as long it is not affecting anyone I don’t think anyone should mind. 

“a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” Explain what you understand this definition to mean.

Hooks believe that feminism is for everybody for our equal rights and that some women make it about themselves and want to live like men. What I believe about this definition is that it speaks about men and women or any gender should have the same rights and that feminism stands for the change of positivity where there’s no domination. “See how feminism can touch and change your life and all our lives. Come closer and know firsthand what the feminist movement is all about. Come closer and you will see: feminism is for everybody.”(Hooks)

How does this definition compare with what you thought “feminism” meant before you did this reading?

I thought feminism was about women who demanded the same right as men and wanted to have the same equality, and the empowerment of all women to realize their full potential and rights. This might sound funny but I actually never read about feminism because of how bad social media makes them look. I think I learn more about its bad image or reputation than the advantages of strengthening human rights. I watch more about when women make it to their advantage and take it too far without acceptance of Men and women being born with different characteristics. Where I came from people judge badly the women who call themselves feminists clearly they do not have any knowledge about this topic because they think that those feminists are changing the culture and the reality of the role of men and women in society they believed that feminism is only about women who want to have higher power than men or want to do take domination over men which hurt their pride, unfortunately, both parties do not have any education about the meaning of the word and women in my country take it for their own advantage. 

How do the reading Sex and Gender 101 compare with what you thought about gender before you did this reading?

“Gender assignment means that a person is categorized as either a masculine gender (boy/man) or a feminine gender (girl/woman) based on their external genitalia. This typically happens at birth or in-utero. Typically, if a baby appears to be biologically female they are assigned a feminine gender. If a baby appears to be biologically male they are assigned a masculine gender.” This is how I always view gender because this is how I grew up and my beliefs are due to my religion. I was raised due to my culture and more about my religion. We only identify ourselves as male or female depending on our sex, a lot of people have a different way of viewing genders and I think everyone has the right to believe or follow whatever they want as long as it’s not affecting anyone’s life. 

Hey everyone, my name is Adam Saidi I am 21 years old, my pronouns are she/her/hers and I’m from Congo but I was raised in Senegal since I was 2 years old and never went back to Congo. I came to the United States it’s been almost 6 years now, I am a Bmcc student and this is my last semester, my major is children and youth studies I can’t wait to graduate to start my dream job which is working with children. I am taking this class since it was required to graduate, but I hope I will learn a lot from it.