When reading two of the readings and watching the video as a Hispanic woman with a learning disability, to me the word privilege means so many meanings. In ways, I have experienced privilege was being raised by a white Hispanic. When it comes to learning two languages and being Hispanic and white, people will only see you being white unless you were speaking Spanish to someone, and sometimes it’ll be surprised that people believe that you’re Hispanic. The article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” This article talks about white privilege and how white people (especially white men) are more comfortable with their privilege whereas people of color like indigenous, Hispanics and African American people are uncomfortable with the privilege and the little privilege that they have. An example of that can be a white person going to rehab for drug abuse whereas a person of color can be sentenced to up to a few months or a year in prison for the same reason. This is something that has been going on for a while and it’s unfair for other people who aren’t right. Being a Hispanic can be sometimes scary because people of color along with Hispanics can get attacked and killed by the police. Sometimes going outside being Hispanic is terrifying, the reason why is because Hispanic and Latinos are being harassed on the street while they mind their business. This can lead to an oppression experience when it comes to being Hispanic. 

When reading the article “Oppression” by Marilyn Frye, the article talks about the harsh and stern treatment whether it’s gender or a person of color. Earlier as I explain in the last paragraph people like myself who are Hispanics comes in an oppression term, an example is from my oppression experience where my friend and I were having a conversation in Spanish and there was a guy that comes out of nowhere and begins to mock the way we talk and told us to speak Spanish. When watching the video “What is a privilege” There was an experiment that goes on in the video that they have to step back or one step forward answering the following questions. Some of the results were disappointing especially the woman who was way behind the rest, and it shows that sometimes you don’t always get that privilege that everyone has and it either makes you feel unsafe or you have to fight for the privilege you need. 

What it means to move beyond the gender binary according to Alok means to be free from gender labels and do whatever and wear whatever we want in the street, that is whether a woman wants to wear a suit or a man wants to wear a skirt or a dress. It is to acknowledge that there is nothing wrong with existing outside of the gender binary. There’s always a thing in a society where there are only two genders: Man & Woman, and they need to act a certain gender but since there aren’t other genders like non-binary & gender fluid that aren’t articulated enough society would look at them in an uncomfortable way. This is very upsetting in my opinion because society feels like people cannot be creative in their own way leading to people judging gender non-conformity, on page 28 Alok explains that during his high school there was a bully who bullied him so he can prove that other people that he was normal. He was known to be jealous of how Alok expressed himself without fear. Sometimes it’s sad to know that people have to bully gender non-conformity so that they can be ‘normal’ and they are insecure with their identifies. Alok wants to be in a world where gender doesn’t have to be structured or assigned what you have to act or wear, whereas to break labels and start living a world where everyone can be creative with their gender without being judged.

I feel like my gender identity went against the binary form was growing up with my brother who is a professional wrestling fan I used to be a wrestling fan. Whenever I’m on the phone with my female’s friend, my brother would stop by in my room telling me what happen in either WWE or AEW, and my friends on the phone would have no clue what he’s saying or doing but don’t care about it because they don’t watch wrestling. Since I was little I was all about sports whether it was basketball or soccer I would be the only girl to play soccer. There were times when people thought I was a lesbian because of how I always dressed in jeans and hoodies all the time, but there are times when I dress feminine whenever I do my nails, wear a dress or a skirt. Most of the time my mother would want me to act “like a lady” but sometimes I think that it doesn’t matter if I act feminine or masculine.

In the essay “Feminist Politics Where We Stand” by Bell Hooks. Hook explains the definition of feminism as “A movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” What it means to me is to understand sexism and to erase sexism from the world, not that men are an enemy. Throughout history, women have to fight for equality, women weren’t allowed to work or vote but instead get married to a man; be a housewife; make kids. It was like a cycle that would never end, so it was time for women to make a change. What people believe the definition of feminism is “anti-male.” In reality, the true definition of feminism is having equal rights for men and women in the household, society, and workplace. According to the essay on pg 3, hook explains that males are not the only group in our society who support sexist thinking and behavior but women as well. “Males were not the only group in our society who supported sexist thinking and behavior – that females could be sexist as well – anti-male sentiment no longer shaped the movement’s consciousness.” This is true because in social media and everywhere you look, they’re women that is not only being sexist males but sexist to women, for example, a woman can go up to another woman telling them to get out of the beach or pool because their bikini is shown too much skin. Another part of the essay I would like to discuss is bell hook explaining the quote when it comes to white women and black people colliding to end sexism and patriarchy. On pg 4 she states that “It made sense that white men were more willing to consider women’s rights when the granting of those rights could serve the interests of maintaining white supremacy. We can never forget that white women began to assert their need for freedom for civil rights, just at the point when racial discrimination was ending and black people, especially black males might have attained equality in the workforce with white men.” This quote means that not only white women are fighting for feminism, but black people as well, they want equal rights when it comes to their workplace & Society. This describes in what bell hooks were talking about feminism is for everybody no matter if you’re a male or a female, the meaning behind feminism is to stop sexism and have equal rights for everyone. Before reading the article “Gender & Sex 101” I thought that Gender is a characteristic of a male or female. There are people who identify as nonbinary using pronouns like they/them. Sometimes there are people who don’t believe they are the gender they were assigned at birth. When reading this article explains the definition of Gender and gender assignment, meaning that “a person is categorized as either masculine gender (boy/man) or feminine gender (woman/girl) based on their external genitalia.” When reading the gender assignment category I thought about the world today and how people believe masculinity and femininity in gender can be opposite, for example, a woman can be masculine and a male can be feminine it doesn’t always have to be a woman can be feminine and a male can be masculine. What confuses me about reading this article is the meaning of intersex. Lastly, what the article discusses is that in America boys are supposed to be tough, like cars and guns, girls, and dress “manly” whereas girls they’re supposed to be clean, weak, and emotional. My thoughts about it are that this has been going on for decades and people believe that it doesn’t matter if you have a feminine side and you’re a male you’re still human that deserves to be treated with respect. In the end, it can be frustrating how society will treat you when you’re expressing yourselves with the stereotypes of gender. 

My name is Alexandra Diodonet. This is my last year at BMCC and I’m transferring to Lehman College in the fall of 2022. I am a psychology major (who’s planning on minoring in English). I am hoping in the future I get to work with children and youths with their mental illness or be a forensic psychologist. Either way, my goal is to achieve my master’s. I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, and moved to Manhattan when I was four or five years old. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I have a lot of things that are passionate to me such as skateboarding, talking about conspiracy theories, everything from horror, true crimes, and anime. When it comes to conspiracy theories, one of my favorite topics to talk about are the hidden messages in shows, also cartoon shows, the Simpsons predicting the future, and the meaning behind childhood shows/movies. My goal in life is to help people struggling with depression, anxiety, and other serious illnesses to give support to people that they’re not alone and that should not be afraid of getting help, not a psychiatrist but possibly a social worker or a forensic psychologist. I am the first person in my family to head into college and I am so excited to be the first generation in my family to graduate from college. My parents are United States citizens however my grandparents were born and raised in Puerto Rico. I am also Italian from my mother’s side of the family. Puerto Rican and Italian are the only cultures I represent in my family.  The reason why I am taking this course is to learn more about women and gender studies. Most of the time I’ve learned some stuff from TikTok, such as feminism and heavy topic that is based on women’s rights, also learning the history and the presence of gender studies and women from other countries not only the United States. Most of the time I learn about women’s rights through social media and sometimes on the news. I feel like once I take this class, I’ll learn more facts about gender and women’s studies. At first, I had no idea it was a class and a major when I first came to college. Once I found out about this class, I decided to see what topics people were going to discuss and the courses if you’re majoring in gender and women’s studies