I’ve still been thinking about the activism film I watched last week for Discussion 6 titled, “Girl Connected” and want to recommend y’all watch it! It’s only an hour. It is such a prime example of the new “wave” of feminism led by our younger generations, and the ability to spread the movement and make a bigger impact through the use of the internet.
The girls sharing their stories are all so young, they’ve gotta be between 10-14. I think the young age is part of what makes the story and causes all the more impactful, important and HEARD.
Like the Discussion 6 reading talked about, times are changing and people are starting to pay attention to younger voices. The “controversy” of young activists garners more attention (i.e. much like with Greta Thunberg going viral in part because criticism about her age, and as more people discussed this “controversy”, she was able to carry her message and influence further) It’s super important right now for the younger generation to speak out and use their voices. It is OUR future.

I watched the film “Girl Connected” which follows the stories of five young teen girls from 5 different countries, on their journeys of activism for women’s rights and female empowerment. Their stories touch upon issues like child marriage, denial of women’s access to any education, a lack of sex education and high rates of teen pregnancy. Each activist group began with a single person (each individual girl sharing her story) and often was driven by lived experiences with the issue, whether hemselves or someone close to them. They learned that power comes in numbers and brought more girls in to join their cause, and create a larger impact. One of the girls, Latifa from Bangladesh had been tried to marry off as a child and resisted. She now works to prevent child marriage by increasing awareness about the moral rights of the child’s lack of ability to consent. She is often asked why she is an activist and says, “We have faced these problems ourselves and we work so that no girl should have to suffer such a fate. So they can get educated and live beautiful lives.” She is passionate about this cause, and says that changing even one girls life/fate is worth the work.

Activism is about creating change (social, political, environmental). Activist movements usually originate within and are led by the people who are being affected. I think of activism as speaking up for a marginalized group that is being hurt, discriminated against and/or dismissed. In many activism causes, voices of white activists are the one’s being highlighted in media and listened to. The voices of the people actually being affected by the cause are frequently ignored.  It is the job for white people/the “majority group” to use their voice and privilege to speak for groups that are being hurt and killed through discrimination and ignorance. I think that this line from the reading summarizes it very well, “Decentralizing yourself within an issue is about more than keeping your mouth shut. You also need to seek out ways to give up some of your space to others”  

In my early years as a queer young adult, I was more active in my local LGBT organization. I participated in some LGBT summits and our Social Justice program, leading small groups. I personally want to focus on disability advocacy and animal rights activism. I think gender has a huge influence on both. Women/femmes are more likely to be dismissed around health and disability reasons, and it is life threatening. POC femmes and fat femmes are affected at higher rates. In my daily life, I try to share my experiences as a queer disabled poc person to counter ignorance and expand people’s understandings of my marginalized identities. I think I would like a part of my future activism to teach about Gender and Sexuality to our new generations. 

I watched the film “Girl Connected” which follows the stories of five young teen girls from 5 different countries, on their journeys of activism for women’s rights and female empowerment. Their stories touch upon issues like child marriage, denial of women’s access to any education, a lack of sex education and high rates of teen pregnancy. Each activist group began with a single person (each individual girl sharing her story) and often was driven by lived experiences with the issue, whether themselves or someone close to them. They learned that power comes in numbers and brought more girls in to join their cause, and create a larger impact. One of the girls, Latifa from Bangladesh had been tried to marry off as a child and resisted. She now works to prevent child marriage by increasing awareness about the moral rights of the child’s lack of ability to consent. She is often asked why she is an activist and says, “We have faced these problems ourselves and we work so that no girl should have to suffer such a fate. So they can get educated and live beautiful lives.” She is passionate about this cause, and says that changing even one girls life/fate is worth the work.

Activism is about creating change (social, political, environmental). Activist movements usually originate within and are led by the people who are being affected. I think of activism as speaking up for a marginalized group that is being hurt, discriminated against and/or dismissed. In many activism causes, voices of white activists are the one’s being highlighted in media and listened to. The voices of the people actually being affected by the cause are frequently ignored.  It is the job for white people/the “majority group” to use their voice and privilege to speak for groups that are being hurt and killed through discrimination and ignorance. I think that this line from the reading summarizes it very well, “Decentralizing yourself within an issue is about more than keeping your mouth shut. You also need to seek out ways to give up some of your space to others”  

In my early years as a queer young adult, I was more active in my local LGBT organization. I participated in some LGBT summits and our Social Justice program, leading small groups. I personally want to focus on disability advocacy and animal rights activism. I think gender has a huge influence on both. Women/femmes are more likely to be dismissed around health and disability reasons, and it is life threatening. POC femmes and fat femmes are affected at higher rates. In my daily life, I try to share my experiences as a queer disabled poc person to counter ignorance and expand people’s understandings of my marginalized identities. I think I would like a part of my future activism to teach about Gender and Sexuality to our new generations. 

Patriarchy is something we are institutionally born into. It isn’t “human instinct.” It is slowly taught to us in spoken and unspoken rules, expectations, ideas of what a female and male should be, and their respective roles in society.
In “Patriarchy, The System” Allan Johnson places emphasis on the Patriarchy not as an individual character reflection, but a societal structure/system that has consciously and subconsciously taught us to be oppressive. Johnson urges us to go beyond the individual and analyze Patriarchy in wider contexts like family and religion. (Go intersectionality!) Johnson states that although “It may not be us, it may be larger than us it may not be us, but it does not happen except THROUGH us”  (It being Patriarchy/Sexism) It may be systemic, but we are fueling it in what we do and how we act. Sometimes men are defensive about the patriarchy, because they see it as an attack upon themself as an individual. In a sense, perhaps it is an attack; because if a man is to admit to the consequences of a patriarchal society, then he must acknowledge that the ways in which he is benefitting from the Patriarchy are causing harm and death to others groups. John explains, “It is about defining women and men as opposites, about the ‘naturalness’ of male aggression, competition, and dominance on the one hand and of female caring, cooperation, and subordination on the other. It is about the valuing of masculinity and manhood and the devaluing of femininity and womanhood. It is about the primary importance of a husband’s career and the secondary status of a wife’s, about child care as a priority in women’s lives and its secondary importance in men’s. It is about the social acceptability of anger, rage, and toughness in men but not in women, and of caring, tenderness, and vulnerability in women but not in men.”
On a personal, individual level a man might feel women are inferior, sexual objects and their words hold no weight. On an interpersonal level, this man might sexually harass females he encounters, and also speak over them.
Institutionally, ignoring women’s voices is normalized, especially in the workplace. The majority of people in “Boss” positions are male, and usually white too. Men are more likely to be promoted, praised or credited at work. This view of women as “weak” and as objects, also leads to rampant sexual harassment of females in the workplace, usually by superiors. Socioculturally we are taught to believe that women are weak and submissive while men are strong, aggressive and dominant; that it is a man’s “right” to take from others.

I would say some of my main privileges lie in class. I am able to attend college. I’ve never had to worry about what or IF we would eat the next day. I live in a city where I have easy access to water and fresh food. My family (mother and sister) are supportive of me and my queer identity, which is one of the privileges I am most thankful for. I get very emotional and even feel “survivors guilt”, when I think about all of the LGBT people out there being physically, verbally, mentally abused by their parents/the world for their existence, and those still suffering in conversion camps. I am very lucky that there is something about me that prevents people from queer-bashing me on the street, or general street harassment. Every single LGBT person I know has experienced queerphobic harassment on the street, at least once, and many still deal with it on a regular basis, and it breaks my heart. Another privilege I hold is being able to be seen as a male in certain contexts, when I want or need to, for safety. 

My oppression comes from being parts of multiple communities: Asian-American, Latinx, Queer, Trans, Gender-non conforming, disabled, 2nd gen, etc. I go about my existence very aware of how I move, and how I look. I have to code switch in certain situations to make myself more “palatable” and likely to be accepted. Like dress more like a cis-male when I worked in an office. Being disabled, in New York City is a huge frustration as barely any of the train stations are accessible, making it a struggle for me to go places, as I also don’t drive.

The “What is Privilege” video is great because I think the visual aid makes it more impactful. I’ve experienced this exercise before and it leads to further conversation on difficult topics and is beneficial to everyone who participates. it is a very good idea to incorporate this kind of exercise in school. When you can physically, visually see how “far ahead” you are to someone in the line, it’s easier to quantify and understand the degree of your privilege. The exercise in the video touches on sexual orientation, jobs, poverty, health, religious holidays, supportive family etc. Even the people who participated in the video were very visibly emotionally moved. The Asian man said “It’s interesting being an Asian-American, you’re not really sure where you fall on the spectrum of privilege.” I relate to this as I notice that America is very White vs. Black focused racially. Even the “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” article, phrases it this way as the author prefaces her list as the things she is able to do with ease, that the African American people in her life cannot. The list can be informative and provoke self-reflection for other POC, and not just white people. We have varying levels of privilege, and many that are race specific.

No matter what kind of racial group or community you are part of you experience some degree of privilege. And that no oppression in one form negates whatever your overall privilege you may possess. I know someone who believed that because he is deaf it negates his white privilege. And the article “Unpacking the “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” was a resource I was able to show him to help expand and challenge his mindset, without having to use my knowledge as a person of color, to place the emotional burden on myself to explain big things like types of privilege.

To say someone has privilege, means that they are in a position of power. They are able to do certain things without giving it a second thought, like questioning their safety, and without experiencing discrimination for being a part of that group.

Someone being oppressed is being stripped of power. They are harmed or limited by others because of the community/racial group they belong to. There is a hierarchical structure to society and oppression would “set you back” like physically represented in the “What Is Privilege” video by people stepping backwards in the line. Oppression strips us of power. 

The essay, “Feminist Politics Where We Stand” bell hooks defines feminism as: “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” I like this definition as it aligns with my own idea/definition of feminism. My interpretation of it is the goal is to be able to eradicate all of the discrimination, difficulties and oppressions that directly stem from the idea of women being “less than” and “inferior”. This dismissal of women and their rights is pervasive in all aspects of life, most dangerously in healthcare. We must break down our gender beliefs and expectations we’ve learned from society to be able to defeat/”end” sexist oppression, as it can have life-threatening consequences. Gender equality is a significant part of the feminist movement, but feminism goes way beyond that. I agree with the author explaining that her definition emphasizes that “the movement is not about being anti-male. It makes it clear that the problem is sexism (viii).” It is important to note that the early feminist movement originated from white women for white women. Ignoring the nuances race brings into the feminist conversation, they wanted to gain equality to men, while continuing to uphold the oppressive racial sexism against women of color. 

I agree with the majority of the explanations of sexuality and gender throughout the article “Sex and Gender 101.” It highlights the important fact that biological sex, gender identity, gender presentation and sexuality do not always align. This is why it’s important not to base your assumptions off of your perceptions of someone’s sexuality, gender expression, gender identity and the gender you think they were assigned at birth (often referred to as “biological sex”)
I do feel the definitions of Bisexuality, and Pansexuality should be altered. Of course individual people can identify and define their sexuality as they want, however I think the definitions listed in the article are both inaccurate and non-inclusive as general statements. The article states that, “Bisexuality means someone is attracted to men and women.” This definition ignores the existence of non-binary people. Bisexual can be attracted to non-binary people too. I define bisexuality as the attraction to 2 or more genders. This could be a combination of: men and women, men and non-binary people, women and non-binary people, or all three categories. For some, the attraction to “men” or “women” can be more broadly expanded to the general attraction to “masculine” or “feminine”-presenting people. These words are still inclusive of non-binary people as not all of of them present androgynously. Some may have a gender presentation that leans to the masculine side of the spectrum, or the feminine side. Everything is on a spectrum. Some people may choose to identify as trans-masculine or trans-feminine, rather than calling themselves a binary trans man/trans woman (meaning 100% exclusively male or female)

The article states, “Pansexual means someone is attracted to qualties of a person rather than biological sex or gender.” I disagree with this definition. A common phrase linked to pansexuality is “Hearts not parts.” This can imply that people of other sexualities are driven mainly/purely by sex, and are dehumanizing people to just their sex organs, by prioritizing sexual attraction rather than overall attraction to the person (physical, sexual, emotional, romantic, mental, etc.) I would explain Pansexuality as an attraction to people regardless of their gender.
Either group can have a preference of what gender person they like to date, and still remain Bisexual or Pansexual. The mention that “some men have sex with men and remain but identify heterosexual”, reminded me of the idea that someone can remain heterosexual while dating a non-binary person. Ultimately it is up to oneself how they self-identify their sexuality and gender. Nobody can tell you what you feel.