Living in a world that is just black and white I never thought that I would be open to walking in the gray area. The readings this week really opened my mind to new thoughts. Not about who I am as a person, but allowing me an opportunity to learn something new. Now am I understanding everything that I’m reading and coming across absolutely not. However, I’m willing to take this ride in order to learn. The Prism of Gender written by Catherine Valentine started out by stating that “We are taught that a real woman is female -bodied, feminine, and heterosexual; a real man is male -bodied, masculine, and heterosexual; and any deviation is strange, unnatural, and potentially dangerous (pg.3). Now I’m not going to lie I was taught these things for a early age and I still live by this. However, I believe now as an adult that you are who you are and can love who you want and be whatever you want to be in live because that’s your business. Besides who am I to judge. Valentine goes further but stating that it just a United States thing where people are extremely critical and judgement about gender. In all honesty in the first page of the text I agreed with everything because become a former nursing student you view gender in biological terms because that is what you’re taught. I didn’t understand the sociological radar concept, and I never thought that I do gender on a daily basis. So on to the reading Theorizing Differences in Multiracial Feminism, this text pulled on how women of color are treated and discriminated against. Women of color have more to prove and fight for because in so many cases they’re overlooked. This quote in the text stood out to me, “Speaking simultaneously from “within and against” both women’s liberation and antiracist movement, we have insisted on the need to challenge the system of domination, not merely as gendered subjects but as women whose lives are affected by our location in multiple hierarchies. (pg. 321). The reason that this statement stood out to me is because women of color have always had to stand up and fight for the things that they want and believe in. As a woman of color this resonated with me. The main argument between the two text for me is equality. Everyone wants to be treated with respect and fairly without judgement or consequence.
4 thoughts on “Expanding My Mind”
Comments are closed.
I felt the exact same way. I have been out of college for so many years and my head was spinning when I finished reading but at the same time, I wanted to learn more. I was eager to write, wrote way too much, and then tried to scale it down. But back to your blog I agree with you are who you are and love who you love. I couldn’t imagine my life without my sister and best friend and I would never disown them because of their life choices. Awesome job on your blog!
Hi there
While reading the texts this week, I also thought about how judgments might be more crucial depending on what part of the United States that person is. I would imagine that in the south people are not as open to the thought of gender being anything more than male and female. I assume this because education within the south lacks compared to other regions. Also, thank you for stating that each text is connected by the desire for equality. I see that now.
I was also taught that women had to be feminine, hairless, and wear makeup while men had to be masculine, with muscles, and not shown any emotion. Not even cry! The more I learned and the more I was taught by friends and classes such as sociology, I strayed from those stereotypes. It’s a lot more for us to learn about gender, but reading all these blog posts are making me think more about these topics.
Good job on your personal growth! It takes a lot to break out of what we know, especially if we grew up on it and hold it as a personal belief. I kind of had a similar situation myself. I’ve grown and learned that anyone can be anything and love anyone. Because like you said, who am I to judge?
I also agree that the main argument in the texts seem to be about equality. Everyone wants to be treated fairly no matter their race, class, gender, sexuality, whatever. The idea of multiple hierarchies stands out to me too. One is not just their gender, but also their class. One is not only their class, but also their race. Everything is connected and people can be discriminated against at more than one hierarchical level.