When reading, “It’s Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women”. I began to think about how discrimination towards trans women affects cis-gendered women. Cis gendered women who don’t look like your typical societal standard of a woman get treated terribly. It’s because they have features that resemble men. I’ve seen this a lot with women like Serena Williams and Teyana Taylor. And female bodybuilders. While they are all beautiful women, they are at a disadvantage because many deem them as “manly looking.” This is why feminists need to advocate for trans women.

I’m the firstborn daughter, so I look just like my dad. At first, I never had a problem with it. But as I hit puberty, I realized I didn’t want to look like him anymore. Most first-born daughters often take on the masculine features of their fathers. I took on almost everything. It made me sick when people told me I looked like him because let’s be honest when you’re dressing up to go somewhere, the last thing you would want to hear as a girl is “wow, you look like your dad.” He’s a man and I’m a woman, and when I hear things like that, I feel less of one. My sister looks a lot like my mom, so she gets plenty of compliments. I often wear dresses and skirts because, nowadays, it’s the only thing that makes me feel like a woman. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to see my features look more and more like his. It’s hard to feel feminine when you have your father’s face. Sometimes I look in the mirror and all I see is a man. That’s why I think this is an issue that feminists should fight for. Because there are so many women in this world, none of us look the same. That’s what makes us unique. But because we don’t all look feminine and dainty, we’re referred to as men or told that we look like men. 

Activism has really changed over the years and has impacted so many lives. One being all of us because for us to have voice was because the people who made a change back then. Much like Act up the women suffrage movement voice out their wants for change for us women. One thing in the video “Untold Stories of Black Women in the Suffrage Movement:” was how some big names like Susan b. Anthony stood for such a big cause like the women suffrage movement but didn’t see no wrong in the discrimination African Americans were facing. I guess I truly don’t understand how she supported one movement but not the other, she is a big figure but once again this brings up the point where people only help and want change for something that benefits themselves. Susan b. Anthony was making a change but also adding to the discrimination African American were getting because she refused to have them vote before women specifically white.  

After reading this week’s readings, I would like to be honest and say that I am seriously ignorant of the entire women’s rights movement. I was very surprised how the movement is named after waves, and how they stopped counting it that way in the third/fourth wave so to speak. But I wonder why they classify it this way? As far as I know (and sorry if this also happens with other movements) most of the movements are called by their names instead of “waves”. I’m not criticizing the way it was classified, but I can feel a bit out of place that it is named this way. Likewise, reading Katz Jackson’s “Guilty Pleasures Pornography, Prostitution and Stripping” got me thinking about whether porn or stripping itself leads men to take advantage of women? Since in the reading, he talks about how he has seen or even gone to stripping but has never thought about oppressing women, but if we think about it another way, pornography and stripping are a way of oppressing women. women. I know, there is also porn or stripping based on making men more vulnerable, but regularly they only show women in a position of submission. That makes me wonder if this actually affects the thoughts of man, or is it that most of us are capable of knowing what reality and fiction are? I also found Vasquez Tina’s reading “It’s Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women” very interesting, who explains a very strong reality for women and men, who go through the process of changing their sex in order to feel comfortable with themselves. That she explains, about how transgender people also go through strong moments, where they are discriminated against, criticized, and even attacked for having made this decision. Which is extremely sad, since they just want to be able to be what they feel they really are. This week’s readings were very interesting and informative, to learn more about what happened in history and even today.

To many people, the fight for women’s suffrage is synonymous with the fight for women’s rights. It is often forgotten, however, that the women’s suffrage movement was also a fight for racial equality. Many of the white women who led the suffrage movement were outspoken supporters of racial equality who worked alongside Black women to fight for women’s suffrage. Today, we are still learning the stories of Black women in the suffrage movement. 

The fight for women’s rights has been one of the defining social movements of the past century. The story of the women’s suffrage movement, which culminated in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, has been told and retold over the years. But the story has typically focused on the experiences of white women in the movement, leaving untold the experiences of Black women. This is a significant omission, given the vital role that Black women played in the suffrage movement. 

When most people think of the women’s suffrage movement, they think of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other white women who led the fight for women’s voting rights. But Black women played a significant role in the fight for women’s rights, too. In fact, some of the most important strategizing that led to the passage of the 19th Amendment—which gave women the right to vote—was done by Black women. The untold stories of the Black women in the suffrage movement are important because they help us better understand the history of the women’s rights movement and because they can inspire others, especially young women of color, to get involved in the fight for women’ 

This week’s readings gave me much to think about I was most taken back at the reading out of “The Macho Paradox”, where they focused on the role porn plays in boys/men lives. I begin to question myself for feeling like well women watch porn too why are we only focused on the men?. However, when I continued reading and saw some of the examples they used I was wide eyed and wondering why I had not felt this way prior none of it alarmed me prior to reading this. This made me Question if what the author Is saying is really true. We all have our guilty pleasures but given the context of the examples I agree something needs to change. Then there is the aspect of the world progressing and this kind of material still being made it becomes a POOR choice in a sense for women to subject themselves to the disrespect. I don’t believe the same narratives from 50 years ago are being pushed onto women and if they are the women are and can rebel against it so at what point do we recognize this is a choice being made and focus more on lack of self-love aside from then blaming porn for how they portray women. Why are the women still doing and allowing it in a progressive world!! I want to be clear I am not speaking of the way it encourages rape or any of that I more-so want to understand why women are still ok with participating in degrading porn in 2022.!!

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.

When looking back on the waves of feminism, although it seems a little confusing at times, I can also see why it has been in waves and hasn’t been linear. As we’ve been learning, there are so many layers to oppression and when you’re underneath them all it seems impossible to sort through to find out what is the root cause.

I can see how initially Feminism got traction through identifiable goals like legal rights the suffrage movement. Kind of like the low hanging fruit, not to say these were at all easy, just much more obvious than the nuances that came later.

In fact I was shocked to find out how hard it has been to make these changes. In the article, Virginia Just Became the 38th State to Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Here’s What to Know About the History of the ERA by Tara Law for TIME Magazine, Law reveals that although the fight for the vote and equal rights act began a century ago, there are still loose ends. And, it wasn’t until 1965 when there was full voting rights for African Americans.

This goes to show that although movements that can change can start with just one person and grow into something that inspires for centuries to come, it has to start and it might be a long road ahead.

The second and third wave seem to touch more on the abstract than the concrete. Sexism, cultural inequalities, gender norms, and the role of women in society. Oppression runs deep and it can take a lot of time and constant change to chip away at what has held it together. I assume this is why the second wave was criticized by the third wave, and so on. It’s a long process to understand how to deal with issues that are so deeply woven into fabric of life.

 There is a video on youtube that is called “Kids meets a gender non-conforming person. The video is about kids asking questions and being educated by a non-conforming. Nanta would begin to talk about gender non-conforming and gender nonbinary, some of the kids get confused and wants to be educated more while others support are interested in the topic and ask questions to Nanta about life being non-conforming. They would also ask kids questions about what makes a person identify as a male or female, during the video the kids were confused but they explains more about hearing the terms pink is a girl’s color and blue is a boy’s color. It’s interesting for the kids to learn about non-conforming and nonbinary along with sharing their own opinions and thoughts about non-conforming.

“Hmm, are women maybe human beings?” that single line from the waves of feminism discussion is enough for me because it encompasses what feminism is. The simple understanding that women are human and have just as much writing to live in liberty and have autonomy over themselves and their life. Historically woman have been made to seem as possessions so we need permission of our husbands to get our tubes tied or permission front from the state to have an abortion. Fighting for permission to vote as if we first need to seek council to have rights that this country claims everyone to have and in the article guilty pleasures we delve deeper into the male gaze of sexual desires and that raises some questions for me because  I have spoken with  people that are activist for sex work and one of their points is that they to not want the work demonized and the article says the culture influences how men view and treat women so I’m a bit confused, I guess in this part of the course would be how we would go about dismantling patriarchal views even within ourselves. The article waves of feminism brought up some important points to process and also noted that the making of those terms can also be divisive but important to understand that until we do the work to understand intersectionality in feminism that feminism will not mean liberation for all women. 

Something a lot of these topics have brought up for me is where did all of this start? How did the patriarchal system develop and how did we become so entrenched in it. In my mind I have always linked it to religion and property, though religion most likely served to reinforce a system that was already in place. But surely the development of property and our need to provide a clear chain of inheritance set in motion many of the problems we see today. Is there any point in analyzing its origins, or are we so far beyond them that they are irrelevant.