222– Is this really the truth?

Keywords: Intersex, “Do Gender”, Androgynous, Gender Skepticism, Matrix of Domination, US Third World Feminism, Indigenous Feminism, Multicultural Feminism

Why so many different types of Feminism? How many are there?

Growing up, all I knew was male/female, males had penises and females had vaginas and breast. As I grew into a teenager, I learned that some boys liked boys and that meant that you were a fag or sissy. Homosexuality was not really mentioned in my home and “fag and sissy” were terms I heard from other kids or other adults. As I entered into young adulthood, I watched more television shows, met new people, began college and began to learn more about the world and the differences between gender, sexes, and sexualities. Catherine Valentine (2020) mentioned in the reading of The Prism of Gender “Most people in contemporary Western cultures, such as the United States, grow up learning that there are two and only two sexes, male and female; two and only two genders , feminine and masculine; and two and only two sexualities, heterosexual and homosexual (Bern, 1993; Budgeon, 2014 ; Luca!, 2008 ; Pfeffer, 2014 ; Wharton , 2005)” (Page 3). This resonated with me because this is exactly how I grew up except, I combined the them into one meaning, the sexes, male and female. Basically my mindset was if you were male you were masculine and if you were female, you were feminine. I never considered the sexualities until I was in my early twenties and I just knew that I was heterosexual because I liked men. I learned more about homosexuality because one of my friends shared with me that he liked boys. Hence my questions began about two genders, two sexes, two sexualities. Valentine’s discussion of the pink and blue syndrome and defining it in the reading was also a very strong point because it is so true when she says “This syndrome is deeply lodged in our minds and feelings and is reinforced through everyday talk , performance , and experience. It’s everywhere” (Page 4). Just think about it, for as long as I have known the color pink has been associated with a girl and the color blue has been associated with a boy. When a woman is pregnant and learns the sex of her baby, pink and blue are the first two colors that help to determine the sex. There are no longer just baby showers, a gender reveal also has to take place. If a parent wants it to be a surprise, they choose yellow or green as a neutral color, heck anything besides pink or blue. Valentine also says “pink and blue syndrome is so embedded within our culture and, consequently, within individual patterns of thinking and feeling that most of us cannot remember when we learned gender stereotypes and expectations or came to think about sex , gender, and sexuality as natural, immutable, and fixed. It all seems so simple and natural” (Page 4)

Valentine suggested the exercise of “turning on our social radar and examine yourself and the people you know carefully . Do all the men you know fit the ideal of masculinity all the time, in all relationships, and in all situations? Do all the women in your life consistently behave in stereotypical feminine fashion? Do you always fit into one as opposed to the other culturally approved gender category? Or are most of the people you know capable of “doing” both masculinity and femininity, depending on the interactional context?” (Page 4).

I must say that 20 year old Marea would have “always” fit men into one and female into one as opposed to the other. However 51 year old Marea cannot fit all men into the ideal of masculinity or all women into the ideal of femininity. I’m so grateful that I no longer do “so”fit” people. I no longer think 222.

The truth is just as Valentine stated “There is no single pattern of masculinity or femininity” (Page 5). I learned in this reading about intersex and immediately thought about an episode on Law and Order SVU when a teenage boy did not know that he was born with both body parts. I never heard the term but saw in the reading that “intersex” and my understanding of intersex is when a child was born with a male and female body part “a larger clitoris or a smaller penis”. Where you familiar with Intersex? In the Law and Order episode (Season 6 Episode 12 John/Joan), the genetic male was being raised as a girl and was sexually assaulted and the child was unaware until the sexual assault it the issue was raised during the investigation. My mind then began to wonder about the sexualities of people and what they all meant. I’ve heard of Binary, Non-binary, Fluid, but have no idea of what they really mean. Valentine touched on some of these terms and I am so excited to learn more about all of it. I’m hoping that someone will share if they have knowledge of the different terminology. Valentine mentioned “people do gender” and that caught my eye because I thought how does one “do gender”? She explains in “One of the fascinating aspects of gender is the extent to which it is negotiable and dynamic. In effect, masculinity and femininity exist because people believe that women and men are distinct groups and, most important, because people “do gender,” day in and day out, and enforce gender conformity. It is now common for gender scholars to refer to gender as a performance or a masquerade, emphasizing that it is through the ways we present ourselves in our daily encounters with others that gender is created and recreated.” (Page 4) I believe that as people feel comfortable with discussing the differences of their sexuality, gender, and sex, we will find that in this world, there is not only two genders, two sexes, or two sexualities. Valentine talked about how in other countries, men lactate and breastfeed their infants just like women. She goes on to discuss how men have breast and women grow facial hair and how men can have breast cancer. I would have never known about men and breast cancer had my mom not been diagnosed with it and she chose not to get a double mastectomy because she said men can get breast cancer too. I was 27 years old when I learned this.

Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill (1996) says their perspective of Multiracial Feminism “is an attempt to go beyond a mere recognition of diversity and difference among women to examine structures of domination, specifically the importance of race in understanding the social construction of gender. Despite the varied concerns and multiple intellectual stances which characterize the feminisms of women of color, they share an emphasis on race as a primary force situating genders differently. It is the centrality of race, of institutionalized racism, and of struggles against racial oppression that link the various feminist perspectives within this framework. Together, they demonstrate that racial meanings offer new theoretical directions for feminist thought” (Page 321) (Zinn and Hill also stated in Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism “Once we acknowledge that all women are affected by the racial order of society, then it becomes clear that the insights of multiracial feminism provide an analytical framework, not solely for understanding the experiences of women of color but for understanding all women, and men, as well.” (Page 330)

Acknowledgement is the first step. Accepting and understanding that this affects all women and men is what is needed to move forward. If this does not happen, I’m afraid that things will remain the same.

Do you think that this acknowledgement will take place in our society?

Gender, Feminism, all of the different types of feminism, as well as Multiracial Feminism are like onions. They have so many layers and these readings so far have me wanting to reread everything over and over again and I still won’t fully understand it all. These readings leave you wanting to dive deeper and learn more. I wonder if I’ll ever totally understand it all. Finally, listening to The Replacements “Androgynous”. This was my first time hearing this song. I must say that I loved the lyrics and chorus. Two people popped in my mind when I hear the song, Prince and Dennis Rodman. I also thought about the Dave Chapelle skit from his True Hollywood Stories from Charlie Murphy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff8LEx9Mw54 check it out!