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GWS 201 Final

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OITNB Piper vs. Pennsatucky

Piper and Pennsatucky are in conflict with one another because both view the other as a lesser being. This has a lot to do with class because Pennsatucky comes from the lower class and Piper comes from the upper or upper-middle class. Both view each other through a lens based on stereotypes they have heard or believe about the other group. Piper thinks that Pennsatucky is below her because she is not as educated and comes from a rural area. Pennsatucky on the other hand views piper as beneath her because Piper is not religious and has had a relationship with females. Pennsatucky also dislikes that Piper has talked back and disrespected her. Pennsatucky’s representation of Appalachia is very problematic because she represents many of the stereotypes that are associated with the area. She is not well-educated, extremely religious, racist, and overall would be viewed as a hillbilly or redneck. The issue with her character is that she only tells one story and over-simplifies how people are in Appalachia. We see no other characters that represent another side of Appalachia on the show.

Jane Caputi central question about Orange is the New Black (OITNB) asks whether the first season correctly portrays the lives of marginalized women or does it instead play into stereotypes? Caputi concludes that although OITNB aims at more representation of women of color the show falls victim to what Iris Marion Young calls “cultural imperialism” (1133). Cultural imperialism is when one cultural becomes the standard cultural due to its influence and control over weaker cultures. In America, white culture is dominant over other cultures. While the show has some good moments at showing the depth of characters of color, the show focuses on Piper and directs our compassion mostly towards her. Caputi is very convincing in her arguments because she uses specific examples from season 1 of OITNB in order to illustrate the effect of race and how the show represents it. Characters like Piper are shown in a more sympathetic light throughout season 1, while characters of color such as Susan fall victim to many stereotypes and their issues are not as fully discussed.

Prison Rape Elimination Act

It is very difficult for incarcerated survivors of sexual assault to find justice because of fear that it will cause more harm than good with other inmates and the correctional officers. Most prisons are not inept at protecting and counseling victims of rape in prison. Also, rape is often about power and rape in prison can often be about trying to obtain power in a place where one’s freedoms are being taken away from them. Prisoners are also treated as second-class citizens and because of this it is harder to fight for their rights because many view it as the prisoner’s fault for putting themselves in that situation in the first place. The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PRE) has not been able to accomplish what it wishes to do. The prevalence of rape while in prison is still a very real threat to some inmates. Too many youths are being sentenced to adult prisons and their ages put them especially at risk for attacks. The PRE has been effective in some states such as Michigan, by giving prisons a push to begin making changes, but there is still a long way to go. One reason why it may not have been as effective is because privately run prisons operate on what saves money and not what helps inmates. The PRE also took too much time to put together and the prisons are not forced to put any of the PRE into effect, they only need to tell the government that they are working towards it. This is a loophole that is being exploited at the cost of people’s safety. In order to make the PRE even more effective, government officials should do surprise run through of prisons and if they are not in compliance then their DOJ funding will be immediately cut. I think that gender based protections can sometimes cause other genders to become less protected or more stigmatized. Male rape victims are less likely to report a sexual assault because of the societal stigma that men cannot be victims.

Paltrow and Flavin - Arrests and Forced Intervention of Pregnant Women

The language of “pro-life” and “pro-choice” are inadequate because there is a lot more going on in this discussion than just life or choice. There are also a lot of misinformation and stereotypes surrounding both of these positions. We need to make a shift towards using the language of reproductive rights in order to focus on the rights of women and ensure that no rights are being taken away from women under the pretense of their pregnancy. This is important when discussing women’s reproductive healthcare because the laws claims to be protecting pregnant women, but instead it turns women into criminals and takes away their rights by placing a higher value on their unborn child than on the rights of the pregnant woman. The U.S. Supreme Court determined in Roe v. Wade that all women have the right to have an abortion if they choose. Despite this ruling, women are still having their reproductive rights taken away from them because of criminal charges. The Supreme Court stated that a fetus is not a separate entity from a woman. Despite this, many law enforcement agencies still claim that a fetus is a separate entity from the woman and has its own set of rights. This then makes it easier to arrest women and deny them their rights. Paltrow and Flavin adds to this discussion through their research in which they collected data on pregnant women who were arrested for using drugs when pregnant or other reasons. These arrests served the role of “forced intervention” and deprived pregnant women of their rights and freedom. Women can get caught up in the justice system and charged for crimes relating the to a perceived lack of care or abuse towards their pregnancy. For instance, Regina McKnight was charged with homicide after giving birth to a stillborn baby. The Jury found her guilty due to her cocaine use, when in fact the stillbirth was caused due to an infection. McKnight’s rights and freedoms were taken away from her. Wisconsin also has a law in which the state can take pregnant women into custody if they believe that the mother has a substance abuse problem. These examples illustrate how the government strives to control women’s bodies under the illusion of caring for their pregnancies. Officers use other laws as reasons for arresting pregnant women, despite no state legislature making it illegal for women to conceive a child while struggling with a drug problem or to punish a woman for the outcome of the birth. The laws also disproportionately target African American women and often relate to drug abuse claims. In order to solve these issues, everyone must let go of the pro-life and pro-choice rhetoric and instead focus on preserving the reproductive rights of all women.

“Can Women Still Have it All?”

I believe that societal views and stereotypes prevent women from being able to have it all. The imbedded beliefs that women must be the caretakers for their families prevents many women from believing that they will be able to have both a family and a career. I agree with Anne-Marie Slaighter on the fact that women are forced to make many tough decisions that men are not faced with. Women are harshly judged for the decisions that they make. A woman who steps down from a competitive position to spend more time at home is betraying the young women that she is supposed to be a role model for. Men on the other hand are deemed in a negative light for wanting to spend more time with their families, because their careers and value to society is based more on their work and not on their involvement with their family. The double standards that women face prevent many women from succeeding in society. I do not like that Slaighter’s views on “having it all” are all based around the fact that the woman are rigid in the stereotypical home maker role. While I agree that societal norms promote women as mainly mothers, society has begun to accept more women who put their careers first or chose not to have families. It has become a “one or the other” option in American society for women who wish to pursue top career paths. I find it interesting that she views most women as being unable to take the steps away from parenting their children and giving that role to their spouse. Despite the engraved belief that women must raise children, I think more women will be ok with leaving their children home to be raised by their spouses if they were not looked down upon for doing so. Slaighter’s article was extremely interesting but her scope is very limited to her own life and cannot see the struggles of other women in different socio economic statuses. Personally, I would like to believe that women can have it all because while I would like to have a family I know that if forced to I would chose a career over a family and the fact that I must make this decision is very depressing. No woman should be forced to choose between a family and a career, but societal views force these decisions upon women.

Visibility of LGBTQ Community in Media and on TV

Eliel Cruz’s piece in the Advocate points out many different media pieces in which people question the existence and validity of being Bisexual and the Bi community. Many people believe that coming out a Bi is a precursor to coming out as Gay or Lesbian. This belief is harmful to Bisexuals by telling them that they do not exist and that their sexual feelings are not valid. Bisexuals are also left out of most media pieces and when it comes to discussing LGTBQ issues, the focus is usually on gay, lesbian, and trans communities. Many people do not understand what it means to be Bisexual and this leads to either no representation or a misrepresentation Bisexual individuals

GLAAD, on the other hand, says that they have found an increase in the presence of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual in TV. While GLAAD’s statistics show an increase in representation, LGBTQ characters are still a very small minority of TV characters and make up roughly 4% of TV characters in 2014-2015. This 4% only includes Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender characters. This is a huge issue because it does not include all other sexualities that are not represented on TV. Women are also not being represented as much as men in LGBTQ roles. While GLAAD is appearing to remain hopeful for the outcome of LGBTQ representation, there is still a lot of lacking and misrepresentation of sexualities on TV. For instance, even when Bisexuals are discussed in media Cruz points out that it is often questioning their existence and the sanctity of being bisexual.

I do not think that the LGBTQ community is really visible on TV. While gay, lesbian, and transgender people have begun to become more visible on TV and in the media there are still misrepresentations and not as many people as there should be. Other sexualities are left out completely. As someone who identifies as asexual, people I can relate to are almost never shown on TV. I cannot think of one asexual TV character and this shows a major issue that TV and the media are still plagued with. I went to the Pride Parade this summer in Chicago and there were countless people who did not know what asexual was and I did not at any time see my sexuality represented in the Parade. I understand the importance of representing the LGBTQ community on TV but it angers me a lot to see this community of countless different sexualities reduced down to gay, lesbian, transgender, and sometimes bisexual. Even within that LGBTQ community, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual communities all get a letter while everyone else is squished together under the umbrella term Queer.

#LGBTQ Bisexual

“The New Jim Crow”

The prison industrial complex is the “new Jim Crow” because the criminal justice system often targets African Americans and after they are done serving their jail time they are then denied certain rights such as voting and serving on juries. This system is corrupt and serves a purpose of denying African Americans their rights in America. Due to the difficulty that ex cons face getting jobs and stable housing, most people labeled as a felon are trapped in poverty or low-income households with little room for upward mobility. Michelle Alexander therefore calls the prison system the “new Jim Crow” to illustrate the effects that prison and the justice system has on keeping African Americans as second class citizens within the U.S. due to the racial bias that the war on drugs and the police often have. There are many stereotypes that propel this system forward, such as the belief that drug dealers are most likely people of color. Race and class factor into the equation, due to media coverage and the perpetuation of negative stereotypes surrounding poor, mostly African American communities. During the Reagan Administration in 1985, the media illustrated inner city Black communities as full of “crack-dealers” and “crack-whores”. During this time the CIA was halting efforts to prevent the spread of cocaine into inner cities. Due to these events more African Americans are being arrested for drug crimes than their white counterparts despite using and selling drugs at the same rates. Not only are African Americans more likely to get arrested for drug crimes, but also they are far more likely to have harsher sentences. The U.S. has the highest rates of incarcerated citizens than any other global nation. This includes oppressive nations such as China, Russia, and Iran. Furthermore, prison does not rehabilitate and inmates who are released are likely to commit another crime that will land them back in prison. Mass incarceration unjustly affects Black communities more so than whites and works to ensure their permanent status as 2nd class citizens. Police are incentivized to partake in mass arrests and use racial stereotypes and profiling in order to target communities. From then on, lower class African Americans who are arrested are often given poor legal representation and threatened into signing plea bargains in fear of being faced with a long prison sentence. After release from prison, it is hard to find jobs and they are often left out of any meaningful government actions. This discrimination specifically targets one group of individuals and is continues due to the war on drugs. Mass incarceration is the new form of slavery and was created at a time when crime rates were dropping in order to suppress African American communities due to fears and racial tensions.

#new jim crow #michelle alexander

Orange is the New Black: Drug Addiction

After watching episode 8 of Orange is the New Black, I was surprised by how many women were incarcerated for drug use. Piper, Alex, Daya, Nicky, and Trisha are some of the characters that have been introduced on the show and have had past dealings with drug use or distribution. The amount of women shown on the show to be incarcerated for drug offenses shows a very large problem with law enforcement and harsh prison sentences. Drug use among men, and especially in African American communities, is more often discussed in media and law enforcement cases then with female drug offenders. The writers of Orange is the New Black do a good job at trying to make the show seem relatable to middle and upper class women who may have no experience with prison systems. The show does this by showing the audience only drug withdrawals and drug addicts who are white. Up to this episode the viewers have only seen two characters go through withdrawal and they were both white (Trisha and Nicky). Red also blames Mendez for giving the drugs to Trisha instead of blaming Trisha for taking the drugs. Nicky, who is a drug addict, discusses drug use being a chemical problem and not the users own personal fault. Despite Nicky’s beliefs though she allows for Red to isolate Trisha and refuses to help her through her withdrawals. I think that the presentation of drugs in and out of prison would be very different if told from the viewpoint of someone of color. Depending on the areas that people grow up in and the availability of drugs, it may come as a shock to some people to see the degree and vast numbers of how many white women are drug abusers. I don’t believe that prison is a space for rehabilitation because, as it is illustrated in the show, there are often many ways in which people sneak drugs into prison. It is also hard to get clean and stay that way in a constantly harmful and stressful environment such as prison. For some it may become easier to get clean in prison, but once temptation shows up outside of prison upon release they may relapse. There are not enough programs for rehabilitation in prisons and the harsh sentencing only goes on to make people’s lives more unnecessarily harder when they are not learning or becoming better people for their time spent behind bars.

#oithnb

Miley Cyrus & Taylor Swift

Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift appropriate other cultures by dressing and acting in ways associated with another culture that is not their own. This can be shown by white artists dressing as if they live in inner cities or from poor socio-economic backgrounds instead of living wealthy lives. White artists also tend to appropriate other groups of people into their work by using them as props in their music videos. This is dehumanizing to the groups represented since they are seen as items instead of people. When white artists decide to reinvent themselves or become more “edgy” by appropriating another culture they are using something without understanding the implications surrounding the appropriated item and the oppression that goes along with it. Miley Cyrus wishes to appear cooler by appropriating African American culture and attempting to distance herself from her privileged upbringing. She uses another’s culture in order to make herself appear differently. Taylor Swift may be worse than Miley in some aspects because while Miley partakes in the appropriation, Taylor appropriates black culture and fantasizes it through the white perspective. While both artists appropriate black culture in offensive and demeaning ways they are not the first by far. Many other artists have done this as well and Taylor’s music video for “Wildest Dreams” was just like others, which use Africa as a backdrop but keep everything and everyone white. African Americans take on characteristics of white culture as adaptation since white culture is dominant. In reverse, white people and artists can often fail at not acknowledging the oppression and significance of the items that they are using. Because white culture is considered the norm it is important for white artists to stop treating aspects of black culture as new play toys, because it can come across as trying to take credit for something of their culture or show a lack of knowledge about it. Respect is needed in order to appropriate a piece of someone else’s’ culture, as is learning the history and being informed.

#racial appropriation #miley cyrus #taylor swift

Gloria Steinem on Sexism in Advertising

Advertising is extremely gendered and more often than not risks being sexist as well. When products are designed for just men or just women there is a distinct difference. Gloria Steinem’s experiences at Ms. reveals the horror of how women are advertised to and the difficulties that come with attempting to change any form of the status quo. I was very offended when I read that advertisers would not target adds directly for women for certain products because “women don’t understand technology” and that women need to ask the men in their lives whether or not they can purchase an item. It is extremely patronizing and offensive when people think these ways. This misogynistic form of thinking is why women’s bodies are used as tools in order to sell items to men. It amazed me at how young girls were no longer, if ever, included in the marketing of certain items. Essentially from birth items are color coded and marketed towards boys or girls. When I was younger I always loved my Nerf Gun, but young girls were never the ones shown enjoying the toy. It is shocking how companies are willing to miss out on an entire market of buyers because they are female and either don’t know or don’t want to market to them. While women are being left out of marketing for certain items, what I find even more despicable is the way that ads that target women are put together. Many women’s magazines work ads into their articles and within every aspect of their paper to the point where they are more ads than articles by over fifty percent. Another issue in many women’s ads is the underrepresentation of African American women. Even Ms., which has a very diverse staff and editors, features mainly white women in their ads. This is another example of how black women are marginalized. Marketers are scared to use black women in their ads in case white women cannot identify with them. This is the same issue that all women face when advertisers do not advertise to them because males are the only ones that can identify with their products. Through reading this article I have come to the conclusion that advertisers struggle with marketing to more than one set of people and because of this they often cherry pick which groups they want to sell to and leave out all the others. Advertisers also feed a stereotype of women based on their looks and superficial aspects of their being. Magazines such as Ms., despite their lower circulation and recognition than bigger women’s magazines, give me more hope that the next time I sit down in my Dr.’s office I can pick up a magazine that is not simply one giant sexist ad but instead has interesting and relatable content.

#ms.#gloria steinem #advertising

“Transnational” Defined

While reading Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan’s paper, “Global Identities: Theorizing Transnational Studies of Sexuality”, I came to the conclusion that I have very little understanding of the complexity of the word “transnational”. Before reading this paper I would have defined transnationalism as someone or something that identifies or represents multiple nations.

The first explanation of transnational states on page 570, “it circulates widely as a more useful term to describe migration at the present time.” Originally I thought this meant that transnational could be used in terms of people who move from one location to another such as immigrating to a new country. What confused me was the addition of the phrase “transnational flows”, because I was unsure how looking past inequalities in society and people’s inability to do certain things in modern times really applied to this specific definition.

Furthermore, I was also very confused by the fourth definition because I was unsure how the money or capital played into transnational. I was wondering if the paper was discussing trading with other nations or instead who is economically on top? I did comprehend the discussion over the challenging aspects of this definition because the exchanging of capital often leads to inequality. I understand this term in situations such as companies moving over seas for cheaper labor, but I am wondering how individuals are able to affect this instead of large organizations and corporations running the show.

Despite having a hard time understanding most of the paper, I did understand the third definition because I understand the ability to keep one’s original culture going despite a migrating across borders. My family still has many ties to other nations and those cultures we are linked to play a role in our everyday lives. I also interpreted this as part of the reason why people of similar cultures when immigrating to the same area chose to live near each other, for example Little Italy and China Town in Chicago.

Overall, despite the paper being very interesting, I don’t think I fully comprehended what the authors were attempting to portray but I would be very interested in learning more about transnationalism because I think that I could apply some of these definitions to my own experiences. After reading this paper, I now have no one definition of transnationalism, which is what I think was one of the goals of this paper. There are many interpretations and understandings of this term and in order to use it I must be able to infer how people are using it within their context.

#transnational

Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference by Audre Lorde Reflection

We are taught to ignore or not acknowledge difference through surrounding ourselves with people that are like us. For instance, I am Jewish and I grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood outside of Chicago. It wasn’t until I came to school at the University of Kentucky that I realized that I was part of a minority and began to notice and acknowledge all of the differences between my friends and myself.

Another way that we are taught to ignore differences is by dismissing things that are different because we do not understand them. The feminist movement falls prey to this all of the time by focusing too much on the plight of white middle class women and failing to acknowledge the struggles of women with color as discussed by Audre Lorde. By dismissing a whole group of people instead of trying to understand them, we are ignoring their issues and treating them as lesser beings than ourselves. Ignoring difference is easier than opening up minds and having to learn to think and view people from a different viewpoint or from another perspective.

This ignorance not only applies to race but age, class, and sexuality as well. The differences between ages, class, and sexualities are very vast and lead to an array of different viewpoints and experiences. Without trying to learn from these experiences and empathize with the plight of others, then the inequalities that exist within society are going to remain there forever. In order to learn from past mistakes, we must bridge the gap between the young and old. In order to help the impoverished get out of poverty, the middle and upper classes must be able to empathize with their plight. The same goes for the struggles between differing sexualities. In order for problems to be solved as a society, we as people must come together and no longer focus on our own issues but instead on the issues of people who are unlike us and have lived different experiences.

It can be hard to relate to people who are different from us because we don’t understand them and may struggle to find common ground. This is why it can be very difficult for people to relate to one another if they are different sexualities. Someone who is heterosexual has never known what it feels like to be homosexual and neither has known what it is like to be asexual. In order for people to stop ignoring the differences between groups, we must make it easier to empathize with other groups through the spreading of knowledge and stories.

Those who benefit from people ignoring differences are those who make up the majority. Those who hold the most authority and power in America have the most to lose once we acknowledge differences. This is because once differences are acknowledged and accepted it becomes easier for groups to join together and fight for a common cause and become unified in their front.

Biological Sex and Gender Performance

There are many people out there who believe that someone’s biological sex determines their gender performance or how he or she will behave or act. I believe that this belief is due to societal norms that are engraved in us from the day we are born. From day one out of the womb we are wrapped in pink or blue and surrounded in the colors of our gender and from there on out it only gets worse. Girls are given Barbies while boys are given trucks and both genders are treated in different ways. While working for an elementary school district I noticed that when girls fell on the playground my coworkers and I were more likely to run over to them immediately and see if they were ok verses when a boy fell we were more likely to see if they could get up on their own and continue playing. Behaving like this may be subconscious due to our training to see one sex as the stronger one, but it is very wrong. People behave a certain way not due to the gender that they are but due to their own beliefs, personality, and environment. Those who still believe that identifying as a certain gender means that you must act in a certain way are stuck in an old model of thinking that was meant to make men feel more dominant while women were told to act submissive. I believe that we get so stuck in our old mindsets that it becomes easier to accept things as we’ve always believed them to be instead of trying to understand other people’s perspectives that may differ from our own. When I was younger my sisters and I would always steal my Dad’s prized G.I. Joe and dress him up in Barbie’s wedding dress and play with him. I remember my Dad saying, “Men don’t wear dresses” and further establishing rules for how we could play with G.I. Joe. When someone is born a certain gender we as society expect them to act a certain way and when they deviate from that belief it ruins our simple version of the world and becomes hard for people to comprehend. People are frightened of change and what that means for the world that they live in. This theory goes along with the belief that “ignorance is bliss”. It is easier for some people to view everyone as they are, meaning born in the correct body corresponding with their gender, than need to learn and accept people that are so different than they are.

#sex #gender

“Reading” A Film

According to Alan Singerman in “Reading” A Film, to “read” a film or visual image means to interpret the significance and meaning of an image in the same manor that one would look at words in a book. Images are very important to films because they are their main component. When reading a film it is not ok to only pay attention to characters and the plot, because there are many other fragments of the film that the creators use in order to get their message across to the viewers. It is more important to pay attention to how the characters and plot are portrayed by the camera and presented through editing. In order to properly read a film it is important to pay very close attention to all of the different pieces and aspects of the film and the relationship between these different elements. A film will work to get across its message across to the audience through different film pieces being used and how they come together. In order to fully understand how different images come together in a movie, one must look at what makes up a sequence or a scene. A sequence or a scene in a film can contain any number of shots of different images, which may also vary in length and camera positions. All of the different camera angles and the movement of the camera also add depth and meaning to shots through symbolism that the camera may add. One can also analyze deep focus by looking at how far away or close up the camera is located. Furthermore, film and continuity editing also add meaning to a film. Film editing organizes and puts together all of the shots, scenes, and sequences in a film in order to give the film meaning. The order of the film and different montages used are dependent on the filmmaker. In continuity editing, a cut may be a neutral transition but other forms such as fade out, iris in, and dissolve add deeper meanings to the scenes and cause the viewers to feel different things as well. Lastly, sound such as dialogue, music, and sound effects allow the filmmakers to add more depth to films and can be used in order to show metaphors and express different sensations to the film. When reading a film it is important to look at all of these aspects, because everything put into a film was done on purpose with a specific intention in mind. Finally, it is important to acknowledge all of those details in order to properly analyze the film.

#Alan Singerman #Reading A Film

White Privilege

Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” helped to open my eyes and make me acutely aware of all of the privilege that I have been given in my life due to the fact that I am white.

While taking McIntosh’s list I identified with a majority of the items. For instance, I have never had to be scared or worried that people would make generalizations about my race based on my actions or the actions of a few others. I have lived a very privileged life in which I have been surrounded by people of my own race and have never had my race used against me in a negative way. I have also been able to see my race fully represented in the media and in television and movies.

This list did a good job at identifying many aspects of white privilege but does not address sexual orientation, religion, gender or other aspects of a person’s life that may cause them to be discriminated against.

Although I am white and have had a lot of privileges growing up, due to my identification as a Jew I have not been able to identify with some of McIntosh’s list. This is due to my parent’s and my own concerns for my safety due to anti-Semitic issues and threats. My mother used to ask me not to wear my Star of David on campus due to threats that she had received when she was my age.

Also, due to my sexual orientation as asexual I do not feel “normal” in everyday life. I instead feel left out of many aspects of the public and social world because I cannot identify with a huge part of many people’s lives, which is sex and attraction.

McIntosh’s list has taught me that despite any struggles I have perceived about my own life I have been given a lot of privilege just due to the color of skin I was born with. I’ve never had to worry about people judging my based on my race or making assumptions of my race based solely on my actions. There are many things that people of color are subjected to on a daily basis that I was not aware of. I have never had to worry about people making assumptions about me based on my race or had to think about how my race will impact my life. I have led a very privileged life by never having to worry about any of these.

#white privilege #peggy mcintosh

Feminism

Feminism to me is the desire for social, political and economic change in order to ensure and create equality between all genders. There are many different forms of bad feminism. Some bad feminists are well meaning and agree with the ideals that feminists strive for but are not in agreement with all of the beliefs associated with feminism and are not well educated in feminist history. Bad feminism can also be more harmful when people use the ideals of feminism in order to promote themselves and do not care about the goals and desires of the movement. There is a fear that in order to be a good feminist one must be perfect in their stance and cannot deviate from what is scene as the feminist norm. My understanding of feminism has always been extremely black and white, you are either for the equality of men and women or ignorant to the issues caused by sexism across the globe. Reading Roxane Gay’s writing has allowed me to better understand the reasons that many people (women especially) are frightened to label themselves as feminist. Feminism isn’t perfect and because of that there will always be changing and new definitions made based on personal views. I identify as a feminist, but to many people that means different things that may or may not be true about me. For instance, many definitions that I read about feminism distinctly talk about women fighting only for the rights of other women. While that is a noble pursuit and still one that needs to be fought, I view feminism as wanting to put all genders on an equal playing field. This means that feminists must not only defend the rights of women, but those of other genders as well in order to ensure that no one gender ever becomes more powerful than the others. I also specifically disagree with Irving Weinman, who believed that men should identify as “profeminist” but should not identify themselves as just feminists because it would be considered a form of stealing since women originated the movement. I believe that anyone or any gender can and should identify as a feminist in order to unite people in the fight for people’s rights. My biggest problem with feminism is the exclusion of other genders that are not female, since people who identify as transgender or any other untraditional deserve to have their rights advocated for as well. As a whole though, I agree with Roxane Gay that feminism is a cause worth supporting despite its many failings.

#feminism #roxane gay

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