When we describe feminism as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression,” it means that the goal of feminism is to diminish the discrimination that is based solely on one’s sex. The objective here is to have them both held to the same standards and abolish unfair treatment based on sex no matter the circumstances. Initially before reading “Feminist Politics Where We Stand” I had this fixed definiton in my brain that feminism had this goal of achieving equality between males and females. But after reading the text, I was informed that the majority of the public “think that feminism is always and only about women seeking to be equal to men” (Hooks 1). Which solely is because of the inaccurate way feminism is portrayed in our patriarchal media. Another piece of new information I learned was there are multiple forms of feminism, contemporary, revolutionary, lifestyle, reformist and then it all adds up to feminism as politics. However, from what I could understand because of all these different forms and hybrids of feminism, the true definition of it has been blurred and almost lost through the years.

In contrast to the feminism that’s spoken about in “Feminist Politics…”, I was much more educated on the concept of gender even prior to reading ‘Sex and Gender 101.’ I knew gender was a social construct and that it differed from one’s sex, and that sexuality, gender, and sex were three completely seperate things that didn’t have direct correlation with one another. Gender is a word that we as a society came up with to categorize people, it’s just this concept, almost like a box that makes things ‘easier to organize’ but it’s not necessary. So reading this article was more of a refresher on the topic rather than a confusing eye-opener. Whenever I do think about gender though I always have this same question. “Upon assigning a gender, children are then socialized according to the gender roles of the culture they were born into,” (Myers). If we as a society didn’t assign gender to children as soon as they’re born before they can even speak, what would happen? How would things differ? I wonder this even about myself. Though I can’t speak for others I definitely do feel like my assigned gender aligns with myself perfectly. But this same question could apply to the heterosexual norms we overwhelm children with.

My name is Kayla Santel, I’m nineteen, (unfortunately I’ll be turning twenty this month) a writing major and my pronouns are she/her. Similar to most things during the pandemic that changed, I’m not too sure if I want to keep this major anymore but that’s for me to figure out in the future. I still love to write, get ear piercings (I have seven right now) do karaoke with my friends when all our schedules align and go to concerts. I’m just not sure if I want to follow my childhood dream of becoming a writer anymore and make a ‘career’ out of it, but the goal is to definitely have a job I love — but for now I just work in retail. This was supposed to be my last semester at bmcc but because I only took three classes my first semester, (I didn’t know you had to take four to be able to qualify for financial aid) my real last semester will most likely be in the Summer. It’s okay though, I’m not in a rush to finish college and I have no idea what the next steps are because I’m a very go with the flow spontaneous person, I’m not big on planning.

When I have to think about stuff I don’t like my mind tends to blank, or only trivial things really come up. I don’t like people who complain about the rain or snow, mustard, grammar nazis, or being late. (Despite being late everywhere my whole highschool career now I just show up really early everywhere and I honestly can’t figure out which is worse.) I’m from New York, more specifically Queens, I’ve lived here my whole life, but hopefully that will change when I move out. I’ve never traveled anywhere but when I finally do I would love to go to Malaysia or even Thailand, it’s a bit underwhelming having an empty passport. But I guess I really haven’t traveled because I’ve never really had the disposable income to do so. That and I don’t like being in places where I don’t know the language, I feel like that’s a complete disadvantage. I plan to learn the languages of the places I travel to in the future, atleast so I can be ‘beginner level.’ I actually have no idea how to put the reason why I chose this class into words but I’m truly excited to learn about the course itself.