My name is Sydney Maldonado and I am a communications major at BMCC. I decided to become a communications major because BMCC doesn’t have a specific major for broadcasting journalism. However, I am very appreciative and thankful I did major in communications because I have learned so much through different COM classes; I have also had the opportunity to take other classes like gender women study classes and theater. Having the opportunity to learn from these different types of classes has helped me improve my writing, thinking, and understanding overall for different topics. I enjoy doing make-up, painting, reading, and writing. I dislike the winter, so you can imagine the type of time I’m having at the moment with the cold weather and mountains. of snow everywhere throughout the city. I also dislike clutter; I’m kind of an OCD type of person therefore, I am very organized when it comes to work, school, and my home. The idea of things being messy and unorganized in any area of my life really bothers me. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York my whole life, however I am Puerto Rican and Colombian. I value my family above anything else; I’m very close to my family and am a strong believer that family is everything. I have three sisters that I am very close to and rely on them for just about everything. I also value my aspirations, as I hold them to a high standard and try to push myself as hard as I can to achieve my dreams and accomplish my vision that I have for my life. My hopes and dreams are to not only have a career in the broadcasting journalism world but to also become an entrepreneur and have my own business as a make-up artist. I’ve always been interested in the world; the important things that go on and important stories that deserve and need to be told. I want to make a difference, meaning I want to be a voice for those who are not heard enough or not heard at all. I use the pronouns she/her/hers. I am taking this course because I’ve taken a gender studies class before and truly enjoyed it; I know this class will help me learn more about women and their history. Especially being a woman, I love to learn more about others, their stories, and what they have accomplished in the world or the ways in which they have changed the world.

Hello everyone! My name is Isamar but everyone can call me Isa. My pronouns are she/her and I am from Brooklyn, with a Mexican background. I am a Liberal Arts major and I hope to transfer to the School of Public Health at Hunter once I graduate from BMCC. I am passionate about fighting climate change, food sovereignty and having a more viable food system. I believe everyone should have access to healthy sustainably raised food and It blows my mind that there are children and people out there in this country, one of the wealthiest in the world, that don’t have access to a meal or clean water till this day. I wanted to take this class because I am hoping to learn about how femininity and masculinity affects us as women and as a society in general. Coming from Mexico, I am aware of the mass femicide that occurs in my country and I’ve always wanted to understand why that happens, where the problem is rooted, and how can that change. When I’m not at school I love to bike, read, and try different coffee shops and restaurants.

Hello everyone! My name is Catherine, and my pronouns are (she/her). I’m a psychology major and this is my last semester at BMCC. After my graduation, I want to transfer to Hunter to get my bachelor’s degree in psychology. I want to become a clinical psychologist and especially support immigrant LGBTQ+ youth. I also want to travel as much as possible, I love discovering new places. Some things that I like are Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, writing, listening to music, trying new dishes, and coffee. I’m also enjoying learning more about relationships and questioning monogamy. I don’t like closed-minded people and math.

I am originally from Guatemala, a country in Central America, and I moved to New York two years ago after my high school graduation. Moving to the U.S, was a very bittersweet experience since leaving everything behind, my friends, my home, my family, and just letting go of the place I always called home was uncomfortable, sad, and even scary. On the other hand, it was exciting because New York is a wonderful city, nothing compares to the rats under the subway lol. No, seriously, this is a gorgeous city. I love that it is like a little world, with people of so many different countries and cultures, and although we are very different, we all have something in common, which is courage and passion to work for our dreams. Something else that I love about New York it’s that it has some gorgeous places, and you are able to be whoever you want to be. In my natal country, marriage between same sex couples it’s not legal, as well as abortion, and there aren’t any laws protecting people of the LGBTQ+ community. Also, there are high rates of femicides, women disappear frequently, and the government doesn’t seem to care at all. Also, many people in Guatemala, still are very close-minded and conservative, which leads to the preservation of beliefs full of hate and disrespect, harming future generations. For example, I am bisexual, but I am not out of the closet with my relatives since they are homophobic, I am only out with people who are not my family. Another example is my friend who was suspended from my all-girls catholic school for months because they discovered she was in a relationship with another girl from my school.

This happened when we were 14 years old and it really touched me because I think it is so unfair that a school denied education to a child for her sexual orientation. Issues like this make me very passionate about social justice and psychology. Also, made me curious about learning more about sexual orientation, gender, and women. Therefore, I am taking this course. I am interested in taking further my knowledge about what does it mean to be a woman, the big spectrum that exists between the masculine and feminine gender, women throughout human history, and I want to know about things I am not aware that I don’t know. Wish you all the best this semester!

Hello, my name is Gisselle; I am in my third semester at BMCC and working as a medical assistant in a private office. I enjoy baking, reading, and learning other languages; I am fluent in Spanish and English and have currently been taking private courses to learn hangul. I enjoy learning and embracing new cultures and trying new foods, such as Korean culture. I think I have learned many things since I have been interested in traveling to South Korea for a long time. I think of myself as a good baker but would like to master my mother’s cooking skills as it is the closes I get to authentic Mexican food. I also really enjoy swimming as well. I have been swimming since I was 16 years old and gained my lifeguard certification. I dislike social injustice, prejudice, and misogynistic attitude towards women. Some of my dislikes also include lack of concentration when I am in a loud setting. I am majoring in science for health and taking many science classes this semester and this class helps me give myself free time to think of something else besides science. I want to be able to help my community and family, so I want to be able to graduate to become a physician assistant, that is my main goal. I am Mexican American and currently live in the Bronx, I was born and raised there. I really value friendships, loyalty, and honesty. I also value the kindness of other people and the knowledge they provide when I need help or have questions. My hopes and dreams are to become a physician assistant and be able to practice in a hospital setting in Boston, I want to open a business along the way such as a bookstore café or something that has to do with books and pastries. My pronouns are she/her. I am taking this course because I would like to get educated on topics that I might not know of; I tend to debate with my friends and siblings on topics that have to do with gender equality and women’s rights. I hope to learn areas in where I do not know much about and can hear other people’s point of view on those topics. I do not have suggestions for any films, but I am open to suggestions as I like films I could relate to or learn from. 

Hi My name is Natasha Luciano, I was born and raised in the big apple. I love and hate it here sometimes. My pronouns are she/her. I love great conversations with people who actually have life stories to tell. I have a hard time talking about myself. I will share that I love making people feel confident and beautiful, That explains my love for hairstyling,make-up and skin care. I Have been in the beauty industry for about 12 years now. During the pandemic i was bascially without a job and looking for other interests of mine that I had put in the back burner to concentrate on my career. I have always been into movies,how they are written and story telling. I hope to one day write a book that will be converted into a big screen movie. I am excited to start this class and to get into some deep conversations with you all.

My name is Ashanti Prendergast. This is my fourth semester at BMCC. I’m a communications major. I’m not sure what I wanna do in the future but if I had to narrow it down I’d either be a broadcast journalist or a creative director at an advertising agency. I think the media gets a lot of hate for being harmful and exploitative but it can be good. Most importantly I’ve found that there is a lack of black women in the media. It became very discouraging but for there to be representation we must create it. So for whichever path I choose, I want to help fellow black students get into the field. I’m from Queens, New York. I’ve lived here my whole life but most of my family lives in jamaica so I find myself visiting constantly. I love to travel. I’ve only ever been to Jamaica but I’m hoping that after I graduate I can take some time to travel across the world. I’ve always wanted to go to Paris. That’s my dream destination. In my spare time, I like to read, practice my french, and take walks in different areas. I dislike math, close-minded people, and being stuck in one place for too long.

I took this class because it was recommended to me. I don’t know what to expect if I’m being honest. But I hope to learn more about the revolutions that took place to get us where we are today. I also hope we get to touch upon the women’s liberation movement in the 70s. I watched a lot of documentaries about it in high school and I know how impactful it became especially regarding women’s fashion. And a film I’d love to discuss is 2019’s Bombshell. It’s about 3 different women working at fox news who faced sexual harassment from their boss. What drew me in about this film was the trailer. It left me feeling anxious, intrigued, and interested. Another thing I hope we discuss is the AlRawabi School for Girls. It’s about a girl who decides to take revenge on her bullies. It tackles sexual harassment, abuse, assault, and the harsh treatment of women. It’s a limited series on Netflix but it touches upon so many different important topics. I recommend it as a must-watch. As for books I recommend the confessions of a video vixen by Karinne Steffans. It details the life of a video vixen in the early 2000s and how the men in the industry treated her.

My name is Giselle but i preferred to be called Gee professionally speaking i am currently a Case Manager at a homeless shelter for youth I just began this professional journey. Prior to that I worked 8 years in youth development. I began as an intern and was promoted as a youth counselor then a member ship coordinator finally a program coordinator and briefly held the title of interim director. Now that I am older i prefer to experience different places during my leisure time and i like nature. My pronouns are she /her. I have always been interested in women throughout history and otherwise especially women that influenced rebellions. Women liberators and revolutionaries. I am a lot of things but i feel my most prominent experience has been that of a woman. Broadening my experience is that i present as masculine. I am taking this class to gain knowledge and understand women with different experiences. I am involved in social justice and I dislike people who are indifferent or participate in other people’s suffering, math and heights, I’m also not a fan of sharks. I am interested in getting a degree in psychology or social work to continue working with young people and supporting their growth. I was born and raised in Brooklyn and my father migrated here from Puerto Rico as my mother from Colombia. I value community and believe in a collective society and living by my own set of morals. I also value peoples freedom and individuality, i hope to one day own my own non-profit. Things that i enjoy to do is listen to all types of music but country music, I am not fond of that genre. I also enjoy different art mediums like poetry and dance. I believe that people learn the most through experience and that is where they are able to empathize with others that may be experiencing the same things and people who have been oppressed throughout history have been put at a number of disadvantages . I am an only child born to a Latino household and with all the expectations and stigmas for the women in Latin household any type of freedom I had to challenge norms for and that made me and my parents at odds for a long time. It also made things hard on me but in the end shaped who I am. I am excited to see what we will learn in this class and how i can apply it to my life and experiences.

Hello everyone, my name is Anna Serbina. I am comfortable with both she/her and they/them pronouns, and this is my second semester at BMCC majoring in science. I have a wide range of hobbies, such as skiing, dancing, cooking, and traveling. I also have two part-time jobs, making these hobbies nonexistent during the semester. One of my big values in life is having enough time for self-care and keeping my mind clean. On top of that, I highly value personal space, because I quickly get drained from social interactions. I moved to the U.S about five years ago from Ukraine. Since I spent most of my teen years in New York, it had a major influence on who I see myself as. I rarely think of myself as an immigrant from Europe, and sometimes even forget about this, though I don’t mean to abandon my roots in any way. Growing up here allowed me to be more aware of the entire concept of gender, as it is very stigmatized and rigid in my culture as of now. I am also convinced that I would not be so aware of feminist movements and the issues regarding that, if not the influence of the American society. Given that, I became very curious about the origins of gender, its role on human behavior, and my inner stand on this topic. I spent quite a lot of time exploring myself, which allowed me to feel more liberated and comfortable with who I am. I needed to fulfill one of my elective requirements, and this course seemed like an excellent opportunity to learn something actually interesting. It was really hard to fit a live class in my schedule, so the asynchronous mode of this course seemed perfect because I can slowly work on the assignments in the little windows of free time throughout the week. I hope I feel as positive about it at the end of the semester.

Hello, my name is Food Taang Zheng (you can call me Food, Taang or Food Taang, everything is fine), my pronouns are She and Her. This is my last semester at BMCC, my major is Psychology and I will continue my studies at CSI as many of my friends are there and they convince me to take the same path. It sounds a bit strong for the very fact that this university is in Staten Island and I barely live in Brooklyn, but I think it’s something I would like to experience. Maybe I’m rushing into this decision, but I feel like it’s something I can do, and I’d like to take this risk. I was born in Venezuela, and I moved to the United States (New York) 5 years ago. I am a mixture of races, since my mother is Venezuelan and my father is Chinese, that is why my name is strange. My name is a very funny story, it all starts with the fact that my dad doesn’t know much about pinyin, so he wanted to name me “fortune” in Chinese which is written in pinyin as Fu, but instead I put Food. Another funny fact about me is that I have two older brothers, who are also called ‘Food’ like me. It’s funny, all of us siblings go to one place and everyone is confused by reading ‘Food’, but something that differentiates us is our middle name, each one has a different one (for example, the older one is Ceng, and the middle one is Ciang, while mine is Taang). The reason I chose to take this class in part was because I was very interested in being able to see and learn more about gender, as well as I would like to know more about the studies that women have done. Since many times they show us more the achievements that men have made, so being able to know a little more about the achievements of women is like something that interested me. In a way, I would like to expand my knowledge a little more and know more about women who made a difference in education, since I have limited knowledge about it. Also, it is like a path that I am exploring to be able to make the decision of what I want to specialize in later. I hope we get along very well and thank you very much.

Hi everyone. My name is Miranda(pronouns she/her/hers) this is my third semester at BMCC. I am a mom of 1 and work full time. I am currently in pursuit of my associates degree in liberal arts (should be human services) something went wrong with my advisory. I will fix the situation shortly. I do believe the classes I am taking need to be taken anyway so I am not wasting time at-least. I work as a para for the DOE and am required to go to school to keep my job in good standing. Eventually, I would like to venture out of my current job and do something human services related. Family , education and honesty is what I value most. I dislike blatant disrespect more than anything. Currently I am taking this course as a requirement in pursuit of my degree, it peeked my interest most. I hope to learn many new insightful facts I can grow from and take with me on my life journey. One thing I have learned about college is you learn so many things you never would know went on in the world because no one ever talks about it. Looking forward to learning a lot!

Discussion #1