In this week’s readings “The Politics of Housework” and “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” we got an insight into how such personal things as doing the housework and having sex are shaped by the heteropatriarchal system we are a part of. The statement by Carol Hanish “The personal is political” is evident in these two common things. In the first reading, the author makes a clear distinction between a liberated woman and women’s liberation. She defines a liberated woman as a woman that “brings sex without marriage, sex before marriage, cozy housekeeping arrangements (“I’m living with this chick”) and the self-content of knowing that you’re not the kind of man who wants a doormat instead of a woman”. In my opinion, a liberated woman is one who knows her worth and sees herself as an independent human being. A liberated woman is aware that she’s being oppressed by the patriarchy and it’s constantly working on deconstructing her own sexist and misogynist beliefs. A liberated woman is in charge of her body and sexuality, she knows that it’s her decision when and with who she has sexual relations, that she doesn’t depend on a man to obtain sexual pleasure, and she knows that she should decide what happens to her body. Also, a liberated woman it’s aware that she has the right to an education, to build her career, and earn money in the way she decides to. Basically, a liberated woman is one who knows that she has the right to be in control of her life. On the other hand, to the author, women’s liberation it’s related to housework and its distribution. Women’s liberation it’s explained by the same phrase, women who still need to liberate. Men who refuse to do housework to establish their position as beings superior to women and to prove their masculinity is a huge factor in women’s liberation. Even though it could be unconscious and men may are not aware of this, them not helping with house chores because they take for granted that women are going to do it, it’s a way to perpetuate women’s oppression by being servants of men. Liberated women are very important to women’s liberation because they can be an example of autonomy to them. Seeing liberated women can help women’s liberation by helping them to acknowledge that they are not inferior to men, and they are responsible for taking care of themselves, not of a grown man who has feet and hands to clean, cook meals, and do the laundry. Liberated women can also be great mentors for women’s liberation, and give them great advice and resources so they can transform into liberated women. In the second reading “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” it was explained how living in a patriarchal society shaped the way in which women’s sexuality is viewed. It is impressive how even sex it’s shaped in a way women only give pleasure to men, but they don’t receive pleasure in return. Even in human biology classes, it’s commonly taught how men reach orgasms, but not how women do it. Also, it’s not common to learn much about the clitoris and how it is essential for women to achieve orgasms, and that vaginal orgasms are not a thing. And this is not a coincidence, this happens so women can keep being oppressed and objectified by men.

Labor rights and working conditions are issues that have been debated over a long amount of time. Although currently there are organizations in charge of protecting workers and assuring their rights we have come a long way to achieve that. Meanwhile in the United States, this is a topic taken very seriously, in other developing countries, that’s not the case. There are workers that earn much below the minimum wage of the United States. This week’s videos and reading discuss this a little bit further and how did the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was an event that had a huge impact when it comes to labor laws and issues. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was a tragic event that took place on March 25th, 1911 in New York City. A fire in the building started, and the workers from the upper levels of the building had no way out. In the end, there were 146 dead people, and the majority of them were women. Because of incidents like this, where women are the negatively affected population, is why feminists were fighting for and still are fighting to this day. The lives of many women were taken away that day since the conditions they were working in were awful, the amount of hours they worked, and the small payment was completely inappropriate. Since we’re live in a patriarchal system and the government is ruled mostly by white privileged men, they mostly look for their well-being and not for the well-being of the minorities like the female working class. This means that there is no representation of the minorities in the government and the issues that matter to them, are mostly irrelevant for people holding the power. women having the right to vote means that at least they are available to choose who represents them, and address the issues that concern them in the government. The Equal Rights Amendment written by Alice Paul, National Women’s Party founder, aims for equality for everyone regarding their sex or gender. To date, 38 states have passed this amendment which is enough to consider it to be constitutional, even though 40 years have passed since the amendment was first passed by Congress and our society is more inclusive, making it constitutional could make a great difference. Labor rights are also gender issues since women are more likely to be negatively affected by them. History shows that the individuals who hold more financial power are men. Before, women were not allowed to work or study and therefore could not build wealth. Throughout time this changed, but women are more likely than men to belong to a working class. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory incident brought attention to labor rights issues creating more unions and organizations focused on granting better working conditions for employees.

It is impressive how the patriarchal system is so rooted in us and influences our behavior, thoughts, and ideas. It is not until we question our day to day actions and take the time to reflect on gender, gender roles, sexism, etc. that we notice how misogynistic our actions can be, no matter our gender identity. I thought that everyone was questioning this kind of stuff until I had a conversation with my mom about other members of our families and how they are still acting according to their gender roles without even questioning it. For example, my cousin is 30 years old and still lives with my aunt, there’s nothing wrong with that, but the only house chore that he constantly does is take the trash out. He doesn’t cook, he doesn’t clean, and my aunt is completely okay with that. In my opinion, if they both live in the same house, they should collaborate equally in house chores. In the conversation with my mom, we also discussed some of our behaviors that are rooted in the patriarchy. In my case, one of them probably is still focusing on the beauty of women more than on other qualities. However, women are gorgeous and there’s nothing I can do about it, but it’s important to not value beauty over values, morals, intelligence, etc. It’s vital to keep thinking about our behaviors and ideas, try to recognize when there is some internalized sexism or misogyny in our actions, and work to change them.

Activism can be defined as acting to be heard and create a change in a social justice matter. Everyone who has a voice and an issue they really care about can be an activist. Activism can be done in multiple ways, one of them is talking to family members, friends, colleagues, etc, about the issues that matter to us. Explain to them more about what is going on, try to educate them about the matter, and tell them why is it important to act. We can also give film recommendations, books about the history of the topic that explain better the context, or any helpful web pages and articles. Nowadays, most of us have access to the internet and have social media accounts, another way to be an activist it’s sharing content about the topic we care about on social media platforms. It can go from creating entertaining tiktoks with accurate information about the matter or sharing about your personal experience, to retweeting a tweet about an opinion about the topic you care about. There are millions of users on social media platforms, if you share about an issue that you deeply care about, I’m sure that someone else will feel identified and is interested too. Movements like Black Lives Matter and Me Too became viral and many people who felt identified got involved in the cause, and many allies shared information and spoke up as well. Another way to become an activist is by joining an existing organization. Becoming involved with an existing organization allows meeting other like-minded people and being part of any protests or activities they organize to actively fight for the cause. You can also create your own organization by finding other committed activists for the same cause. Activism can be done in many ways, we just have to speak up and be hopeful that a change will be done.

The film I decided to watch is “Girls Connected”. This film is about five activist girls from underdeveloped countries all around the world. Michelle, Josi, Ghazal, Latifa, and Ayesha, were constantly inspiring their communities to join them to combat social injustices that affect women in those countries. These issues are teen pregnancy, child marriage, and the lack of women in STEM. Also, one girl was destroying gender stereotypes since she was the first girl on her school soccer team, she proved to her community that a woman is capable of doing anything a man does. Another girl who is a champion in a self-defense sport was taking advantage of her abilities and teaching women of her community self-defense techniques to protect themselves against abusive men. Each one of these girls is an activist since they are fighting for their rights and standing up against injustice, I think they are an inspiration and if they keep fighting, they will see a positive change.

I didn’t consider myself an activist since before this week’s reading I mainly had the idea that an activist had to be part of an organization, be very active in it, and constantly do stuff to support their cause. Now, I guess that I am an activist in a way because I speak up about some issues that matter to me and share information on my social media. For example, back in 2019, there was an LBGTQ parade in my origin country, Guatemala, and someone brought a Guatemalan flag but with the colors of the LGBTQ flag colors. People were extremely upset about that because they thought it was disrespectful. On Facebook, I saw a lot of posts of conservative people complaining, and in Guatemala, that’s the majority of people. I got so tired of them and started arguing with them and sharing posts about why that flag was not disrespectful to the country. Also, I shared a lot of posts supporting my argument.

Another example is when on new year’s day, we were watching a music video with my family and my cousin made a comment discriminating against an artist that was crossdressing. My cousin was saying that men shouldn’t be dressing as women and made other dumb comments. I told him that clothes and make-up do not have a gender and everyone should dress how they like. I also told him that his masculinity is very fragile, and a man who is sure of who he is doesn’t rely on his appearance.

The last example is that I always talk with my mom and friends about LGBTQ+ and women issues, share posts on Instagram, and retweet on Twitter. Yesterday a law that criminalizes abortion, teaching sex education, and considers nontraditional families, not families at all was approved in Guatemala. Seeing all of this makes me very upset and sad, I feel plenty of impotence and so do other Guatemalan women and LGBTQ+ people. I can’t do a lot about it, but I share information on Instagram about the law and how it disenfranchises Guatemalans, I share my opinions about it, and I discussed it with my mother and some friends. Even though there is not so much I can do, I try my best to share my thoughts and create awareness, and I think that is activism.

To recognize patriarchy as a whole system and not as an individual identity is extremely important. Sometimes, when thinking about patriarchy, we think about individuals and their behaviors instead of thinking about the multiple components that make the patriarchy so big and difficult to end with. When we recognize that patriarchy is a system, we are able to see the full picture, and that there are rules or laws that keep women oppressed and contribute to keep normalizing sexist behavior. Every man is an oppressor and is part of the patriarchy. However, the system we live in normalizes that oppression towards women. Each one of us participates in the patriarchy somehow, it doesn’t matter what gender we identify with. When understanding that patriarchy is a system and not just individuals and their behavior, we know that to change that system, we need changes in the legislation and the people who write it. This way, the laws would promote gender equality, gender-based violence would not be tolerated and bigger sanctions would be applied to those who violate these laws, and so on. Even though patriarchy is a big system, individual actions keep it going. Being born and raised under the patriarchy cultivates sexist ideas in men and women. This can affect multiple levels like personal, interpersonal, institutional, cultural/structural. On a personal level, it can affect the perception we have about ourselves and our place in society. For example, a woman can believe that she shouldn’t pursue higher education because of her sex, and her role is to be a mother. It could affect the way she behaves around others, the idea she has of herself, and her body. The idea of the perfect body that is in our society, that women should have a big ass and breasts, and a tiny waist, it’s because the patriarchy objectifies women; on a personal level, can affect women’s perception of their physique. On an interpersonal level, we enact patriarchy in the way we approach other people based on their gender, how do we speak to them, and the idea of how they should be. For example, when I was younger, I and my friends used to think that it was disgusting when women didn’t shame. Because we verbalized those ideas, it affected the behavior of many of us. Another example is my mom when she cooks and serves food, she serves for men first, then for women, I tell her that she should serve her plate first since she cooked. At an institutional level, the patriarchy affects how laws, legal procedures, and rules tend to benefit more men than women. For example, the new Texas abortion law doesn’t prioritize women’s health, it seems that is only made to control them. Finally, on a structural level, the patriarchy normalizes women being in charge of home tasks and taking care of children, which affects their personal development and creates a development gap, the most developed countries are the ones with more equity between genders.