Author: mcarmona

Gone Home

Posted on by mcarmona

I watched someone on YouTube play it instead of playing it myself. At first, I thought this game was going to be a scary game because the house looks creepy, but the video game was interesting and suspenseful. I did like how by the time the game ended; we knew a little bit about each family member. I somewhat did not like how quiet it was in the house because throughout watching someone play this game I expected something to pop out and scary me, Especially when Katie read one note and it was saying how when Sam told the students in her class that her family had just moved into that house, they all looked at her like she was a mutant and when Katie found a ghost sighting journal I wanted to close my laptop because I don’t like playing scary games. I was interested in knowing where the parents went, and why it looked like the family rushed out of the house. I like how the story unfolds that Sam and Lonnie liked each other and how Katie and Sam’s parents did not approve of this because they feel she should be with a boy.

The girl movement started in the 1990’s. There was a poster in Sam’s room which tells us she was all for this movement. Washington band bikini kill, and the lead singer Kathleen Hanna were the ones to begin this movement. Theory voiced that women wanted to express themselves freely through music no matter what kind of music it was. Women weren’t seen singing punk rock music, it was really a guy’s kind of music. When we think about rock music, we think about guys singing it and loud, deep voices.

Lorde’s Argument

I think the argument Lorde is trying to make is that if you keep silent about something traumatic in your life or something that is happening to you that isn’t fair, or you don’t like, keeping silent will not fix the problem or protect you. “My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you” (Lorde, Pg.41). I think this is similar to the game because Sam, the mom, and dad do not speak up for themselves. My biggest question for this game is what will Katie do next? Will she speak out for her sister, or not say nothing at all?

My Comparison

The game Gone Home and the Riot Grrrl movement reminds me of the quote from the book “feminism is For Everybody, by Bells Hooks. “Imagine living in a world where there is no domination, where females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where a vision of mutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction. Imagine living in a world where we can all be who we are, a world of peace and possibility. Feminist revolution alone will not create such a world; we need to end racism, class elitism, imperialism. But it will make it possible for us to be fully self-actualized females and males able to create beloved community, to live together, realizing our dreams of freedom and justice, living the truth that we are all ‘created equal” (Hooks, pg. 10). I feel this quote related to the game and the movement people I feel that all Sam and the movement wants is to live in a world where they can love who they want and be free to express themselves how they want and not be judged by others.

My Topics for My Research Essay

Some topics that I am interested in talking about in my research essay are queer video games and sexuality. I think these topics will be very interesting and fun to talk about and these are topics that relate to gender studies and have been talked about in this course. I think I would talk about the importance of creating more queer video games because I believe games like these can really help people of all ages now that they are not alone. With the topic of sexuality, I think I would talk about the importance of understanding your own sexuality.

Sexuality artifact

Queer Artifact

The Oppressed

Posted on by mcarmona

The Combahee Collective

Combahee River Collective is an organization of black feminists who are involved with doing political work within their group in order to face racism, sexism, and class oppression. This reading goes on to talk about how, not only do black females have to worry about being females, but they also have to worry about being black and facing racism. Standing for female rights isn’t easy when you are black and female, it isn’t in your favor when it comes to racism and sexism. “We understand that it is and has been traditional that the man is the head of the house. He is the leader of the house/nation because his knowledge of the world is broader, his awareness is greater, his understanding is fuller and his application of this information is wiser… After all, it is only reasonable that the man be the head of the house because he is able to defend and protect the development of his home. Women cannot do the same things as men—they are made by nature to function differently. Equality of men and women is something that cannot happen even in the abstract world. Men are not equal to other men, i.e. ability, experience or even understanding. The value of men and women can be seen as in the value of gold and silver—they are not equal but both have great value. We must realize that men and women are a complement to each other because there is no house/family without a man and his wife. Both are essential to the development of any life.( The Combahee River Collective)” For people to have thought this way back then, there are many people who still think like this today. I feel that because of this thought, people had in the early 1970’s, it’s hard to think differently on something that was mostly everyone’s way of thinking, and they way of thinking is being taught to this day. Times are changing where women are taking on men’s jobs and being the breadwinner in the household, I feel that it has to be understandable that women do not want to be like the thought back in the 1970’s.

Ijeoma Oluo

Her introduction explained what she had to go through being black in society and how she had to put in more work than white Americans. Also, how she would have to pretend like a racist joke didn’t bother her and many other things. But she soon realized she was tired of going through those things and started questioning. I definitely agree with her when, during her introduction she says that people are not comfortable with talking about race and what stuck out to me most is when she said “Now that we are all in the room, how do we start the discussion? This is not just a gap in experience and viewpoint. The Grand Canyon is a gap. This is a chasm you can drop entire solar systems into. (Oluo, 5:14, 2018)” This quote goes to show how uncomfortable it truly is to have to talk about race and how the oppressed and the oppressor’s experiences are very different.

Audre Lorde

I really liked this reading. I feel that she was telling a lot of truth. Audre talks about how people who are oppressed, how it is their responsibility to educate the oppressor on how you’re oppressing them while the oppressor will still oppress and not take accountability for them oppressing the oppressors. “Those who profit from our oppression call upon us to share our knowledge with them, In other words, It is the responsibility of the oppressed to teach the oppressors their mistakes (Lorde pg.114).” I honestly never thought of it in the way she explained it. It is wrong for people who are oppressed to have to feel like they always have to educate the oppressor on how the oppressor is oppressing then, when in reality they already know, they just don’t want to admit it.

Audre Lorde’s Quote

“The threat of difference has been no less blinding to people of Color. Those of us who are Black must see that the reality of our lives and our struggle does not make us immune to the errors of ignoring and misnaming differences.” (Lorde, pg.119)

Ijeoma Oluo’s Quote

“I would try to make my voice quieter in meetings, but I couldn’t. I would try to laugh off the racist jokes, but I couldn’t. I would try to accept my bosses’ reasons for why I could have my promotion but not my raise, and I couldn’t. And I started talking. I started to question, I started to resist, I started to demand.” (Oluo, 5:03)

The Similarities

These two quotes from Audre Lorde and Ijeoma Oluo are similar because Audre in this quote talks about how people of color must face the reality that they live in and not blindside yourself into how people are mistreating you because of your skin color. I feel that Ijeoma was doing that but got tired of the way she knew she was being treated but got tired of it and started speaking out. I think Ijeoma would definitely agree with Audre’s quote.

Tupac “Keep Ya Head Up”

“You know what makes me unhappy. When brothers make babies and leave a young mother to be Ya Papi. (Tupac, 0.51, 2008)” This relates to this quote from the Combahee River Collective organization “We must realize that men and women are a complement to each other because there is no house/family without a man and his wife. Both are essential to the development of any life. (The Combahee River Collective).” These quotes go against what a lot of people think. If you believe that both a husband and wife are “essential to the development of life” and there are lots of single mothers who have to take on both the mother and father role, why should you be sexist against women? Especially women were forced to take on both roles.

My Key Words

  • Sexism
  • Racism
  • oppression

My Questions to You

What are your thoughts on people who are oppressed having the responsibility of explaining to the oppressor how they are oppressing them? Do you feel that the oppressor knows they are oppressing people?

What is Gender?

Posted on by mcarmona

      KEYWORDS: Gender/ Sex/ Femininity

The article “The Prism Gender” explains that in western culture, people grow up learning that there are only two genders, male and female. The western culture has developed what is called the “pink and blue syndrome” where we are taught about the physical and emotional characteristics of what divides being a male and female at an early age and how to associate colors with our gender, blue for boys and pink for girls. This article goes on to explain how “Sex is not fixed in two categories. Biologist Fausto-Sterling (1993) suggests that sex is more like a continuum than a dichotomy” (Valentine, pg.5). The article then gives examples on how men and women have similar physical characteristics in common such as, men have breasts and can develop breast cancer like women do, as well as lactate.

      KEYWORDS: Multiracial/ Feminist/ Privilege

The article “theorizing Difference from Multiracial feminism” talks about the hardships that multicultural women have to face and also having to have to be a female. One quote that I thought was interesting is “women and men throughout the social order experience different forms of privilege and subordination, depending on their race, class, gender, and sexuality” (Zinn, Bonnie, pg.327). I agree with this quote because for example a man has the higher up when it comes to privilege. Now, when you start adding on things to this man like race, class, and sexuality, the privilege shifts.

The video “Androgynous” is a song about how men and women switch the normal roles of wearing what they want to wear and doing what they want to do even though people may disagree with it because it isn’t a social norm. I liked the music and thought it was interesting because for this song to come out in the 1900’s it is way ahead of its time! If I didn’t know the date the song came out I would have thought it came out only a few years ago. I can somewhat relate to this song because when I was 12 I hated wearing flip flops, especially ones with rhinestones and I preferred wearing shoes. My grandma would get mad and say that girls are supposed to wear flip flops.

I do think the song “Androgynous” and “The Prism Gender” can relate to each other because as the article states “we have explored gender as a product of our interactions with others. It is something we do, not something we inherit” (Valentine, pg.7). In the video it says how a guy wears a skirt and a girl wears a chain and how people can get mad because it doesn’t fit the social norms, but what people don’t realize and want to accept is that gender isn’t something we inherit. We aren’t born knowing that the color pink is (in Western culture) for girls and the color blue for boys and that girls wear skirts and boys wear pants. I think the person who sang the song “Androgynous” would agree with the article “The Prism Gender” and agree that people shouldn’t be mad at the fact that women and men can like things that don’t fit the social norm when it comes to gender.

What are some of your first memories of learning about gender?