The Dynamics of Gender Inequality

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MAID | Official Trailer | Netflix

One young mother's incredible story of survival and resilience as she navigates the world of poverty, abuse and redefining her worth against all odds. Inspir...

This video accompanies the blog post below. I definitely recommend this TV show for some insight on domestic violence and the effect it has on women and their lifestyle. 

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Domestic Abuse: What would you do?

In another installment of “Heroes Among Us,” find out how ordinary people react when they’re placed in an extraordinary situation. Undercover cameras are rol...

This video accompanies the blog post below 

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Women and DA

Again, this was one issue that I never gave too much thought to. I always knew it was a serious matter, but again, I was never too knowledgeable in the subject to know what potential solutions there could be for women in these violent situations. It wasn’t until my mother and I started watching the Netflix series Maid, that my eyes were truly opened to the murky situation that is women, and potentially their children in situations of domestic abuse. 

It completely stumped me to find out that the resources available to victims of domestic abuse are little to none. Though there are shelters available to women and their children escaping from such situations, our community cares very little for the funding and resources that come for running safe havens such as a domestic violence shelter. In our society, we also suffer a lot from the bystander effect. Though it can be rather risky to intervene in a situation of abuse occurring right in front of you, a lot of passer-byers not only do not bother to help a victim being abused, but some do not even call the police; assuming some other bystander will probably call the police or will intervene. In fact, in my textbook, The Meaning of Difference, there is a personal account included in the readings of a man (Tim Norton) who fell victim to the bystander effect. This man says, “I looked around at the other people in cars around me, mostly whites, and at the other people on the side-walks, mostly blacks, and I realized as everyone gaped that no one was going to do anything, no one was going to help, and neither was I.”. This young man, who lived in South Carolina, had witnessed a couple fighting in the street, when suddenly the man struck the woman. Though this man in particular most likely had no bad intentions by not helping the woman, this psychological effect gravely puts others, like domestic abuse victims in horrible risk. It has also been noted from other social experiments (that I can link below) that often bystanders choose not to help not because of the bystander effect, but some bystanders truly believe the woman is at fault for being struck. This mentality is actually not uncommon. When it comes to a lot of women suffering through domestic abuse, oftentimes the victim is blamed. Twisted, right? In fact, in William Ryan’s Blaming the Victim, Ryan actually writes of the issues and possible causes behind victim blaming. However, Ryan covers the issue when speaking of racial victim blaming. Needless to say, a lot of Ryan’s observations apply to all sorts of victim blaming. For example, Ryan states “The old-fashioned conservative could hold firmly to the belief that the oppressed and the victimized were born that way…The new ideology attributes defect and inadequacy to the malignant nature of poverty, injustice, slum life, and racial difficulties.” I believe both ideologies to be playing a hand in the matter of the stigma of domestic violence victims. I personally have heard people claim that women who find themselves in abusive relationships most likely are in that given situation because she was raised in a similar situation with her parents, learning to accept that sort of behavior from a man. However, I have also heard that women who find themselves in abusive relationships are often weak of character, which is why they end up with abusive men. Now, every person is different. The reasons behind why a woman has happened to be trapped in an abusive relationship could be a myriad of things. The important part behind this, is how do the rest of us use our privilege, and our voices to help these women (and their children)? 

Though the idea behind domestic violence shelters is wonderful, oftentimes they can be very hit or miss for women in need. According to the Family and Youth Services Bureau, in just one day in 2015, over 31,500 adults and children fleeing domestic abuse were able to find refuge in a shelter. However, of those 31,500 about 12,197 requests for services of a domestic violence program were unable to be fulfilled due to lack of funding, staffing, and even lack of resources. Then in 2009, a study conducted by Y Aratani found that between 22 and 57% of all homeless women report that domestic violence was the immediate cause of their homelessness. Though these studies and statistics are from roughly 6-12 years ago, a lot of these statistics have not changed to this day. Sadly, our society does not care to give time to those in need. Our nation’s mindset has been conditioned to leave those in need to fend for themselves, since “they’re the ones who put themselves in the situation”. 

Even as I am writing this, I am realizing that a lot of these issues are deeply rooted in victim blaming. If you look at systemic racism, gender inequality, social class etc. you will find that those more privileged than the folk who find themselves in these hardships or who happen to minorities in this country, are belittled and refused help simply because it is believed that they are the ones at fault for their own struggles which our communities, and even government love to perpetuate. Though there are many potential solutions or alternatives to some of these issues of not just gender inequality, but systemic racism or the class system, the state or federal government does not want to put their time into funding programs that help people of a lower social status or of different skin color. Though this is a rather cynical ending to the blog, it is sadly the reality we are living, and though in recent years the public has become less tone deaf the civil issues, we can only hope that we as a collective society can begin to put these issues into perspective to finally give those in need a voice. 

Family and Youth Services Bureau. Domestic Violence and Homelessness: Statistics (2016). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2016. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/fact-sheet/domestic-violence-and-homelessness-statistics-2016

Norton, Tim. He Hit Her. The Meaning of Difference, seventh edition, 2016, pp. 410. UNM Learn, https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/553769/sp/180858775/mi/575303707?cfi=%2F4%2F4&menu=table-of-contents

Ryan, William. Blaming the Victim. Creating and Maintaining Hierarchy. UNM Learn, https://learn.unm.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_7280425_1&course_id=_102643_1

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My Privileges

Upper class

Lives on NE side of town

Cis woman

Able-bodied

Passport privilege 

Heterosexual relationship

Transportation privilege 

Access to healthcare

Access to education

I have a stable home

Access to technology

Access to human necessities (food, clean water, medicine)

I have a reliable and safe place to study

I am a U.S. citizen

Clothing privilege

Light skinned Latina

Supportive parents

Therapy privilege 

Age privilege

Access to a gym

I have known little to no struggle in my life. I have gone through some personal struggles, as everyone else has, but when it comes to opportunities, citizenship, or poverty I have no experience in any of these areas. I have been able to lead a very comfortable life due to my privileges. 

I have always been able to have access to any food of my craving, access to clean water and the ability to clean myself at any given time. I've been privileged enough to buy brand new clothes from stores like Hollister, Urban Outfitters, Forever 21 etc. And I’ve thankfully been able to have access to primary care, and even therapy in recent years. I’ve also had the opportunity to travel around Italy. I do feel that since I have lived my whole life with access to some of these luxuries, if I had to live without any of these privileges like transportation, passport, technology, and a stable home it would definitely be a rude awakening for me, and my family. For example, to not be able to have a form of stable transportation for my parents to go to work, or for me to be able to go to school in would be a hard adjustment for all of us, especially for my step father who commutes from Albuquerque to Los Alamos since he works at Los Alamos Labs. Due to my step father and mother’s income, our net worth does put us in the upper class, which allows my family to be able to afford all of my baby brother’s expenses, some of my schooling, and of course bills. If for some reason all of that changed, we would be direly struggling. A working class income definitely could not support the expenses of a new baby, college education, and the bills of a house of a gated community on the NE side of Albuquerque. 

Though acquiring all the privileges I do grants me a comfortable life, it is always crucial to self-reflect and try to help all the other underprivileged folk. My family and I are usually good about donating clothing and toys in good condition to GoodWill. I also enjoy spreading awareness through debate when I am in social situations, which sounds a little annoying, but I think getting everyone’s views out on the table and having a mature debate is a perfect way to bring awareness to certain issues. 

Surprisingly enough, within my intersectional identity there are folk that approach their privilege in a much more entitled manner. Again, I live on the NE side of Albuquerque very close to La Cueva High School in a gated community. As a lot of fellow Albuquerque residents know, this area is known for its people of money. Of course, a lot of these people are in my neighborhood, and their social class really shows in their character or lack thereof. For example, our neighbors to the right of us are a white family with two kids attending La Cueva High School. Annoyingly enough, these neighbors have thrown countless parties throughout the pandemic, even at the beginning of the pandemic when the situation was still very ambiguous. Our street would quite literally be crowded with cars from each time they had a party. These were not simple family get-togethers. While this may sound like a very trivial matter, the fact that these neighbors feel entitled enough to throw parties while the rest of the world are having to watch their children die, their spouses, or their parents our neighbors could care less about the health risks they impose because dinner parties can absolutely not wait until a safer time. I see that as an abuse of one’s privilege. Simply because you have an open patio with lights, or a two story house to fit in 20 people, or the money to cook a feast does not mean it is the appropriate time to be doing so. Sadly, this is just one example of the sort of privilege that is displayed in a neighborhood like this. 

Though I myself do not have much room to talk when it comes to hardships, I am capable of acknowledging the effect of my privilege. I cannot lie, I am grateful that I have not had to worry about having a loved one deported, worrying if I am going to eat, having to miss out on an education, or not being able to have a safe place to sleep. My heart truly goes out to those who do have to worry about those matters on a daily basis, or even to families who have had to struggle in the past. As I continue to grow and mature, I plan to use the position I have to be able to help the folk in need. Though that may sound like a typical thing for someone in my position to say, I truly have given it much thought. Every winter when I see a homeless man or woman on a corner bundled in ragged blankets, it baffles me how people with even more privilege than me, and obviously money give no thought to people in need. Sadly, one of the only ways to really make a great impact is through money, but with my degree I hope to accomplish my financial goals and be able to do the job that other privileged folk turn a blind eye to. 

McIntosh, Peggy. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack". The Meaning of Difference, seventh edition, 2016, pp. 368-372. UNM Learn, https://learn.unm.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-7280429-dt-content-rid-63597669_1/courses/65130.202180/McIntosh%2C%20Peggy.%20White%20Privilege%20-%20Unpacking%20the%20Invisible%20Knapsack.pdf

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The importance of differentiating between performative feminism and feminism

Reading Penny A. Weiss’s essay, “I’m Not A Feminist But…”: Popular Myths About Feminism, was a reading that truly provided me a sense of comfort and relief. Though this may not be a typical blog post about advocating for female rights, male rights, trans rights, etc. I believe the following topic I wish to discuss is just as important. 

For most of my life, I never really gave much thought to the topic of feminism. Even as a pre-teen when I first was introduced to the history behind all the iconic suffragettes, I thought to myself: “That’s cool and all, but all those issues are resolved now. Women can work in pretty much any profession, we can vote, and we can get an education.”. This mindset continued into my early high school years. Except, during my freshman and beginning of my sophomore year I did not consider myself a feminist at all. I would see tweets about glamorizing sex work, KAM, people practically begging for forced diversity in movies etc. All of these online opinions and morals had turned me away from being a feminist. It sounds harsh, but that was where I stood on the topic. Yet, I found myself in a similar situation to Weiss when fellow classmates asked me about my stance on feminism, “‘I’m  not  a  feminist,  but  I  believe  in  equal  rights’;  ‘I’m  not  a  feminist,  but  I  wouldn’t  tell  my wife she had to stay home and take care of the kids’; ‘I’m not a feminist, but I think men and women ought to be whatever they want to be’; ‘I’m not a feminist, but I don’t think violence against women is right.’' as Weiss would say. I absolutely agreed on basic human rights for all genders, especially women. I never doubted that. Yet, the feminist movement was something that completely ruffled my feathers. 

Unfortunately for me, later in my sophomore year of high school, I was SA by a male classmate in my orchestra. When this first happened, I was confused by what had happened. Of course I knew what had happened was completely inappropriate, and it felt wrong. Yet, I told myself to shrug it off. I guess in a way I assumed that since the encounter wasn’t completely violent, then it wasn’t that big a deal. However, when I confided in a friend about what had happened, she told me that he had sexually harassed her previously, as well as sexually assaulted other girls as well. I did end up bringing it up with my mom later on when I had realized that what had happened was still a grave matter, even if the nature of the encounter wasn’t completely violent. My mother then also confided in me and told me about many instances where she has experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. It was then when I realized that most of the women in my life have had to suffer through SA and or SH. It completely baffled me. It was then when I realized that there is a fine line between feminism, and performative feminism. There are still many issues concerning women that have gone unsolved, there has been a light shed on the issue, but it really hasn’t gone away. The issue wasn’t that I wasn’t a feminist, the issue was that I wasn’t able to differentiate between performative activism to real activism. The truth is, I think a lot of people have this issue. Again, it is an issue I strictly see on social media. In The Gender Revolution: Uneven and Stalled by Paula England, England states that “ I will argue that there has been little cultural or institutional change in the devaluation of tradition-ally female activities and jobs, and as a result, women have had more incentive than men to move into gender-nontraditional activities and positions.". Again, this further proves my point that there are activists out there that really are identifying the issues still left to be dealt with within gender inequality in this country. What is shown on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok is not real, and it should not define or even be the advocate for certain dire issues that need the attention of folk that truly are working on bringing change. 

England, Paula. The Gender Revolution: Uneven and Stalled. The Meaning of Difference, seventh edition, 2016, pp. 415-422. UNM Learn, https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/553769/sp/180858780/mi/575303638?cfi=%2F4%2F4&menu=table-of-contents

Weiss A. Penny. “I’m Not A Feminist But…”: Popular Myths About Feminism. The Meaning of Difference, seventh edition, 2016, pp. 272-277. UNM Learn, https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/553769/sp/180858637/mi/575304011?cfi=%2F4%2F4&menu=table-of-contents

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Unpacking toxic masculinity

The issue of toxic masculinity has been one of the most overlooked issues within issues of gender inequality. Though in the last couple years Millennials and Gen Z have decided to resurface the issue, there is still a lot of progress yet to be done. For starters, the issue of toxic masculinity seems to lie within, you guessed it, men. Though, sure, there are women who follow the outdated morals behind toxic masculinity, it is men who have kept these outdated beliefs alive throughout centuries. We live in a society where it is expected of men to retain their emotions, endure physical and psychological pain, and maintain a strictly masculine physique. In fact, in Proving Manhood by Timothy Beneke, Beneke states “American  men  take  pride  in  handling  alcohol  like  a  man—getting  sick  or  drunk,  becoming  in-competent, too easily can threaten one’s manhood. Boys  and  even  men  feel  superior  to  women  and  other men through their greater capacity to handle ‘grossness’: unpleasant sounds and smells, insects and rodents, dirt, and so on.". Since when do men getting alcohol poisoning become a measure of a “great man”? Yet, whenever a young, successful, independent young paints his fingernails it is considered utterly disappointing, and is considered a disgrace to masculinity? The true mark of a great man and even his manhood, should be his character and ability to overstep toxic masculinity, and only men truly comfortable with their masculinity are able to experiment with nail polish, wearing pastel colors, wearing jewelry, or even treating women as equals. Though I know the issue of toxic masculinity is an issue throughout the globe, and it differs within each culture, I do personally find it to be rather more intense in the U.S ... For example, Eric Anderson shares an interesting statistic in his piece Adolescent Masculinity In An Age of Decreased Homohysteria. Anderson reports “In other research on 16-year-old boys in the UK (Anderson, Adams & Rivers, 2012),  colleagues and I show that 40% of the heterosexual youths studied have kissed another male friend on the lips.” later also stating that “ Regardless of how one theorizes these findings, the data is compelling: not only do boys bond over talk of cars, girls, sports, and video games; but they now also bond over disclosing secrets to one another  and supporting each other emotionally (Anderson, 2011c); shopping together and dressing in softer more metrosexual ways (Pompper, 2010); accepting sexual minorities  (Keleher  &  Smith,  2012)...”. Reading Anderson’s reports completely stunned me. That sort of male behavior is completely unheard of for the most part in the U.S., especially amongst male teens. Instead, male teens will complement their male friend’s outfit and have the need to add on “no homo” in “fear” of appearing less masculine if they show any sort of admiration or caring towards another man. I am sitting here trying to come up with a logical explanation as to why U.S. men have this sort of approach to masculinity or “lack thereof”. Besides the obvious fact that our country has forever shunned minorities, there is the root to every problem. Yet what started all this? The Romans themselves freely would express their brotherly love, and that was over 2,000 years ago. Yet here we are today. 

Like all the other issues we are faced with in today’s age, it is difficult to pinpoint a solution to this issue, besides solely bringing awareness to the issue. I personally think it will take a whole generation to be able to really bring the change we want to see in our society. The best we (Gen Z) can do now, is to raise our future children with new morals and norms. Most importantly, raise sons to respect all other genders, sexualities, and forms of self expression. 

Anderson, Eric. Adolescent Masculinity In An Age of Decreased Homohysteria. The Meaning of Difference, seventh edition, 2016, pp. 492-497. UNM Learn, https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/553769/sp/180858863/mi/575303735?menu=table-of-contents

Beneke, Timothy. Proving Manhood. The Meaning of Difference, seventh edition, 2016, pp. 267-271. UNM Learn, https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/553769/sp/180858636/mi/575303750?cfi=%2F4%2F4&menu=table-of-contents

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Putting the issue(s) of gender inequality into perspective

Gender inequality has been an especially hot topic for the past couple years. How do we combat issues of sexism in the workplace, or male dominated professions? How do we combat issues of equal pay? How do we allow our women to speak freely in their own society? These are some of the issues that women, the trans community, and even at times men have been trying to counter for decades, and the fight has continued to this day. However, the new generations have been having a hard time putting real issues of gender inequality into perspective. 

Today, the fight for gender equality starts with making a TikTok about encouraging women to use their feminine power and sexuality for sex work to take their “power” back, or tweeting that any woman with different opinions about feminism today or critiquing feminism today has internalized misogyny, or completely excluding male characters from stories/films like Mulan because any sign of women liking or confiding in men is completely anti-feminist. All of these “issues” are completely miniscule compared to the real issues at hand…Issues that if given the same amount of time and thought as tiktoks and tweets, would make a great difference for women, non-binary folk, and the trans community, and even men. In Gender Stereotyping in the English Language by Laurel Richardson, the author speaks of how the English language is quite exclusive of women and even feminine pronouns. Richardson makes the personal observation that “Man, then, suggests not humanity but rather male images.”. Yet, I have to disagree. Now, this is only one part of the article I am presenting, there are more examples and arguments presented throughout Richardson’s reading, needless to say I disagree with the piece in its entirety. However, I want to focus on this particular part of the reading since its central message also connects to the argument I want to present. When I think of the phrase “one small step for man, one giant step for mankind” I do not marinate myself in the phrase and think of how ridiculously biased the phrase is, as Richardson herself states in the reading. What comes to mind when reading Richardson’s writing is: I can’t believe this is what we as humans decide to label as an issue, instead of looking at the bigger picture. In early 2020, The New Arab reported that 47.2% of female Muslim workers have experienced religious discrimination in the workplace. In 2019, the Washington Post reported that more than 1 million discrimination complaints have been filed with the government since 2010, and out of those million 930,000 of those cases were closed, and of those 930,000 closed cases 268,660 cases were sex discriminiation cases where only 19% of those cases received relief, and 2% of those cases had a discrimination finding. In The Not-So-Pink Ivory Tower reading by Ann Mullen, Mullen reports that “currently, young, college-educated, full-time working women can expect to earn only 80 percent of the salaries of men, a ratio identical to that of 1995.”, pay inequality has always been one of the biggest issues and discriminations against women in the U.S., yet, instead of taking these heinous statistics into consideration, we as a collective society have decided to focus on more superficial issues like how particular people can find the word “mankind” to be discriminating against women. Yes, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I find it rather concerning when certain people decide to take “issues” or opinions such as the one stated above, and blow it out of proportion causing it to overshadow the actual political issues at hand. Even if I were to take Richardson’s reading into serious account, what I truly have to say about the issue she has presented is that in order for the issue of stereotyping in the English language to change, people have to change before the language itself. That’s what it really comes down to. The issue shouldn’t be whether or not the word mankind should be abolished because it has the word man in it, therefore the word suggests male image rather than humanity, or that certain professions are automatically given male pronouns. The issue at hand should be how we as a collective society can help folk like the 37 trans and non-gender conforming people who were killed in 2020, or how to help women in situations of DA that have increased during the pandemic. 

I think some activists/feminists have lost perspective of what actually is a priority and what’s really not. Again, we’re all humans living in this world so we all have our opinions, but deciding to be offended over the English language, being offended because Mulan had a boyfriend in the 1998 film, being offended because some chick on TikTok had the guts to say that purely relying on looks to fuel your confidence instead of educating yourself is shallow is really setting us back and allowing for all these tiny details to overshadow the big ones that really do need our attention. I thought that this is something I needed to state before getting into other issues I want to write about, because I really do think this is a critical point that not a lot of people make, or maybe are afraid to make in fear they’ll be outed or labeled as someone conservative, but really, being realistic and putting issues into perspective isn’t a bad thing or doesn’t make you conservative, as long as those ideals aren’t hurting anyone. 

Sources

Rahman, Sami. “Islamophobia is holding Muslim women back in the workplace. Employers should be doing more.” The New Arab. 20 March, 2020. https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/employers-must-do-more-empower-muslim-women

Jameel, Maryam, and Shapiro, Leslie, and Yerardi, Joe. “More than 1 million employment discrimination complaints have been filed with the government since 2010.” The Washington Post. 28 February, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/business/discrimination-complaint-outcomes/

Glaad. “Statistics about Discrimination Faced by Transgender People”. Glaad. 

https://das.ohio.gov/Portals/0/DASDivisions/EqualOpportunity/pdf/EEO%20Academy%20Matrix/GLAAD%20-%20Info.pdf

Mullen, Ann. “The Not-So-Pink Ivory Tower”. The Meaning of Difference, seventh edition, 2016, pp. 411-414. UNM Learn, https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/553769/sp/180858779/mi/575303741?cfi=%2F4%2F4&menu=table-of-contents

Richardson, Laurel. “Gender Stereotyping in the English Language”. he Meaning of Difference, seventh edition, 2016, pp. 444-449. UNM Learn, https://learn.unm.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-7280413-dt-content-rid-63597660_1/courses/65130.202180/Richardson%2C%20Laurel.%20%20Gender%20Stereotyping%20in%20the%20English%20Language.pdf

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Long Island- 11/28