Gender Studies

[luis--soriano]

Response to *Questioning the terms: heterosexual and homosexual" by Kats

What amazed me about this reading is the origin of this two words. I always thought that when a new term came out its meaning was standardized from the very beginning, but from the reading I learned that by the late 1860s the term heterosexual was used to refer to the sexual intercourse between a male and a female out of marriage. Therefore it was a negative word, in my opinion more seen as people see the word "homosexual". Which is still seen as something negative for a lt of people (the homosexual intercourse) but since it first came out the term homosexual was defined as unnatural fornication". As in the second article "Gay man of color" by Han, I didnt understand much of it except for the idea that gay man of colored ambition to be treated as a complete white man which means a great variaty of privileges in society.

[luis--soriano]

Response to Paris is buring video

This is a very interesting documentary that shows how gay life back in the 1980s. As Usual discrimination has come along with homosexual, transgender and travesties, but there was a place where these people could show who they were "The Ball". I liked the ball because it was an environment where you can be whoever you wanted to, and it was a contest place where people dance act, modeled, etc, without the judgment of the straights. People who participated in the ball had dreams, dreams to belong rich, famous and respect. One of the guys said that he had a happy life, without the money, but if he had it it would be even better. He also said something that impressed me, he recognized that he was not a woman, he was just a man emulating one, but that will never be able to feel what women feel; he got not period, he didnt know what pregnancy was like. He also said that he never wanted to have his genitals changed because once you do there is not turning back. This indicates me that he wasnt really sure of being gay but that he wanted to be accepted as is instead. They also mention the "Shade" which was a dance competition face to face with somebody you didnt like. Instead than going out on the streets to fight they will compete in the ball and the person who showed the best movements will be the winner. It was a process of making the best moves but at the same time making your enemy look bad.

[luis--soriano]

Transgedering boundaries by McKenna

The articles talks about the emergence of the word transgender and its evolutionary use. Before 1994 the used of the word "transgender" was barely common in citations among articles and data bases. But after 1995 something happened and the use of the word increased and kept increasing in the following years. First it was used as a synonymous of "transsexual" since both words share the same prefix (trans) which essentially means cross or move. But despite the common significance of these words when writer used them they try to carefully clarify what they meant by the word; which commonly was defined as the change of ones gender to another one that they felt more comfortable being. McKenna argues that the used of transgender as a synonymous to transexual was wrong, because a person can change their genitals and become their desired gender but their biological sex will still the same. What I understand from this is that sex is how your body was born  but that gender is how you identify yourself. Here are some words from the reading I looked up: dichotomy: (noun)  a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different. axioms: (noun) a statement or proposition that is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true. unobtrusive: (adjetive) not conspicuous or attracting attention.

[luis--soriano]

Disabilities and justification of inequality in American History

This is something I kind of overview in U.S History while I was in high school. The article shows how the white men used their power to lower women and other races. It upsets me the fact that Africans were captured and enslaved  because of the white man assumption of disabilities. Believing that Africans and African Americans weren't mentally or physical developed as whites the white community prevented blacks from being free and when the north decided to free their slaves, people started to believe that the diseases they were acquiring were due to their freedom when evidently it was the climate. Making a short analysis, Africa for the most part is a very hot continent, therefore Africans were used to the heat not the cold of the northern part of the U.S. Also as Blacks were poor (free ones) they might not have been able to effort appropriate clothing for the bitter weather. In my opinion giving African Americans natural disabilities based on their color was a mere strategy to maintain the power within the same group, which remains me of the women's suffrage. Woman could not vote because they were considered disabled due to their "abnormal bleeding", their exaggerated emotions and their body weakness. All this factors key points to maintain the power among the same group.

[luis--soriano]

Response to Wannabes, Goths, and Christians: The boundaries of sex, style, and status, By Amy C. Wilkins

In this article I wanna talk about abstinence. I am a christian, but I'm certainly not a virgin. I know from the christian point of view you should wait until marriage to have sex, but I don't think I am not the only christian who isn't a virgin in fact I would say that I am sure that only a few percentage of Christians are actually virgin until marriage. Not everyone follows their cultural beliefs. I have lots of female friends that say the same thing about staying virgin until marriage, yet many of them ended up having sex with their partner. And I know that they were decided to stay virgin but in my opinion the situation determines what happens. If you have a partner and you are alone, and you start playing with fire well...both are gonna burn. Sex is view differently depending on the type of people, but in Christianity I dislike the fact they don't teach the youth enough about it, they just tell them to avoid it and ignore until the appropriate time comes. But certainly that doesn't happen like that and since the christian youth are naive about this topic many undesirable outcomes arrive, for instance an unintentional pregnancy, AIDs and HIV. Religions that promote abstinence should first educate the youths of how to protect themselves because young people are known for being stubborn and rebel so they in most cases will have sex anyway just for fun of it, or simply to go against their religion's rules.

[luis--soriano]

House labor distribution

I found this article very interesting because it talks about the house work and and the baby caring distribution among parents. And its a topic that concerns everyone who plans to get marry and have babies. In that group, I include myself, since the past few years I’ve been thinking on how it will be when I get to have a family. In my mind its my desire to be equally involved with the responsibilities of my future infants as well as the house work. I dont want a wife all the time at home, I want her to work outside as well. But as I read in the article it isnt always as we would like because the couple might have different schedules and even more (outside of the house) work to do. That makes it kind of unfair or enequal for the other person who might have to do more of the house work. In my opnion that scares me. I want to equally help my wife but I dont want to way more than her. The article mentions that sometimes only one of the partners wants to have babies while the other one just goes along with it. The person who just goes along with is probably afraid of the future responsibilities and might feel unprepared. Therefore in my opinion both parents should agree when to have the babies that way they will feel more comfortable equally sharing the upcoming duties.

[luis--soriano]

Domesticating Masculinity and Masculinizing Domesticity

This is an article that promotes the need of man in the family, which responsibilities should men handle as well as how they should relate to their children. In my opinion, fatherhood is very important but not fundamental for children. I was basically raised without a father next me, my parents divorced when I was just five. So my mom was kind of both Father and mother, She raised me, and I most say that although  I was raised by a woman i didnt develop any girly patterns, I suppose is because she raised me as a boy should be raised. I still got to see my father but obviously no very often. I enjoyed playing with him, although It barely happened because we didnt see that much and he was always busy with work and his other family. I honestly didnt really needed him. I missed him though, you get to miss that paternal figure but it wasnt the end of the world. My mom always guided me in the write path, she always tells me that a man a good, should respect one another, and should study to be someone usefull to society. And thats what I believe that fatherhood in family is very important because you get to have distinct experiences in your childhood, but what I truly believe is fundamental in a family is a good mother. They are simply the heart of it.

[luis--soriano]

"Dude you are a fag" C.J Pascoe

After reading this article helped me to get into a conclusion about thoughts I had on this topic but I that never stopped to analyze them and prove them right. I always thought "Faggot" was a word linked to homosexuality more specifically to be gay. But not really, because I remember in high school my friends called each other that but we all knew we werent gay at all. We tend to use that word to refer to silly or stupid actions, for instance leaving a book or notebook in another class and one of your freinds brought it back to you, he might say "you foggat forgot your stuff in the previous class" But this term is more common in man because it degrades masculinity. In the case of a female it wouldnt mean anything since they are not masculine it wouldnt apply to them since females are already considered weak and sentimental. I also found true that gay guys dont get called foggats, it just like a term to temporarily lower a male. In high school, during luch, I remember talking to someone and a friend (male )aproached  me and started rubbing my back with his hands. At the moment, I didnt pay attention because I was focused in my conversation until my friend started to yell "look at this foggat he likes to be rubbed in the back" No one at first listened and befire he repeated himself even louder, I turned around and punched him in the stomach. It was funny because he couldnt finish his sentence which was What I wanted. I didnt want to be in anybody's mouth.

[luis--soriano]

Men's club

his article mentions topics that I as a male have experienced myself, starting from my childhood to this present day. The first element that builds up hegemonic masculinity is the feeling detachments, were males are supposed to hide all emotions mostly the ones involves with sadness because it makes us look weak, because emotions in the male society are considered girly. Personally I had an experience of this type around 3 years a go. My girlfriend broke up with me and it was all my fault I admitted it but I regretted my actions and ask her to forgive me but no matter what I did  she wouldnt accept it. Then I turned into a talk to my male friends telling then what happen and I was almost crying, this is what they told me: “man stop bitching about a girl there are a bunch of them out there she aint the only one” “if you keep cryimg Ill punch you to give you a real reason to cry” these words basically meant that I was weak for showing my feelings and that girls are not even worth the tears. The other topic I want to talk about is competitiveness among males. Men compete to show the are worthy of calling themselves “men” that they have nothing “feminine” in them. For the most part males compete against each other because competing against a woman will mean the degrade of a male to the female level (in term of masculinity). But in my own opnion i have always like to socialize with girls more than with boys I remember as a kid whenever I started to play with a girl we will be separated as if the other girl had a contagious illness and all they will say was “boys dont play with girls” I mean come on I liked to spend time with the girls like any heterosexual man does, in my mind it didnt mean that Ill become girly, I actually felt atrracted to them. Therefore I belive that our society have to be more open minded and learn how to raise their children in a more liberating way. And men’s display of feelings should be equally accepted as women’s.

[luis--soriano]

The act like a man box

Before reading this short article I have always been thinking about all the limitations that we men have, Kivel in "The act like a man box" he talks about all the standards that men are taught to be since childhood. Those standars is what he refers as "the act like a man box" This is part of the social construction of gender, because it force man to behave in certain ways. According this "box" as a man you are not supposed: to cry, make mistakes,  show feelings , give up, be poor. Also you are supposed to be in control. To me all this qualities that society expects from man are just standard od opressions that most likely lead to a sad man. By not being able to be himself, in addition to that a man that makes no mistakes? What are we ? Gods? No! It has always bothered me when I hear that if a man cries he is a "fag" or a "bitch" or girly, all these terms that we sadly connect to woman because in our mind  (men's) girls are weak. But crying its not a sign of weakness its a sign of true feelings, its a release. And men should and must also enjoy of that. For the most part girls are able to do certain stuff that if a man do it, he will be considered as gay. A easy but very common example is in clothes, women can dress like a man shorts, a hat, office suit, and they will not be  judge, in the other hamd if a man dress like a girl with like a dress or something people will say that he definetly has a problem

[luis--soriano]

The Bridge

I wanna write about the determination that Cherrie Moraga had to create this book and the hardships that she and her “sisters” had. She used very encouraging words in the (Foreword to the second edition) She says:

“Lets abandon this autocannibalism: rage, sadness, fear. Enough of shouting against the wind all words are noise if not accompanied with action.Lets work not talk, let's say nothing

until we've made the world luminous and active.”

Although I am not sure she used these same words to encourage herself, she certainly was trying to get this words to the reader and leave a message, if we want something to happen we have to go and do it instead of waiting for someone else to make it happen. In the texts she explains what she had to do to be able to publish her book, her and her friend Gloria Anzaldua both obtained two jobs in able to keep these book alive, they were certainly poor yet they struggled and finally achieved their goal the completion of the book and furthermore the disintegration of racism among the feminist movement. Which in my opinion was her main goal, she wanted all women to be treated equally among themselves no matter their skin color.

[luis--soriano]

Housewives: Careers Vs no Careers

When I read the article it shocked me how submissive women started to be, the majority of them gave up on education and decided to become housewives. In my opnion this is what some man always wanted, a housewife to have babies and take care of the house while he is out there making money to sustain his family. Many women decided and loved the idea of getting marry in order to stay feminine, and after doing these housewife labor they will ge t sick of it. One of the housewife that was interviewed described how her usual day was, she basically stated that she will get up early in the morni g to make breakfast for her husband, then it wa and dishes then it was lunch then it was super dishes time followed by laundry then dinner and dishes again until her husband returned. That type of life seems very monotonous as a result the unnamed problem emerged. Woman with college education that opted to be housewife discovered themself in a prison made out this repetitive housewife labor, and the got really sick of all of that while woman with no college education tend to be more passive about the problem yet they were not happy. Studied women knew there was mlre out there, and they wanted to be part of all of that, while the wives with ni education didnt know what was their problem because they didnt expect themselves beyond being housewives. And certainly those women  who achieved to become equal with her husbands in terms of social labor and relationships were happier than those women that had no education.

[luis--soriano]

de Beauvoir "The second sex"

Why should man have won won the start? How is that this this world has always belonged to men and that things began to change only recently ? Is a good thing. Those are the questions that I loved from the reading. Man sees woman as an inferior living creature. Although we all know that women are as smart as men and capable of doing things men do. Women are pictured as the negative humans because man do not want to lose their power over them, therefore men try to make woman as lower class as the living that needs to be fixed. And yes! actually they are being fixed by studying and becoming more independent and no the typical household. But man do  not like that woman are walking out of the shadow of man because it might be a threat how? By competing when looking for jobs which eventually leads to power. Now the article says that we are losing woman but i think we have not. Thats just a way of saying that women are changing the way they are supposed to be according to man. Nevertheless I belive that this changes is what is leading towards equality of both sexes. And who knows maybe that's just what we need -potential and powerful women leaders like presidents that use new techniques that lead us to improve not a nation but the world we live in.

[luis--soriano]

Egg and Sperm Romance By Martin

I loved reading the article, in my high school biology class I was taught with the same masculine idea that sperms are fighters which struggle to get into the egg while the egg is just blocking the sperms from penetrating. But in this case we see that both egg and sperms are active and dependent livings. It is consider that the egg depends on the sperm  to proceed with the new cycle otherwise the egg will simply die and be removed. But the same happens to all those sperms that males create when they are not able to get into the egg. Men make more than a million sperms per day but just one sperm might make it inside of the egg when a male and a female have sexual intercourse that means that all other millions will just perish. I also disagree with the idea that women are wasteful livings because of the amount of eggs they start losing since their birth. Women have only  two millions eggs and that's all, they are not able to produce more, but as the reading said about only about 500 eggs reach maturity in a woman's life time. In the other hand a man produce about two trillion sperms during a life time which is way way more. But an average couple will only have about three kids which in theory means that only three sperms and three eggs were used and got fertilized. So if someone is to be call wasteful that'll be men. Because of the great amount of sperms that just die and are not even used for their main purpose.

[luis--soriano]

Kessler “Medical Construction of gender”

The article talks about how we generalize babies into the two sex categories known as male and female. We do this depending on the genitalia of the babe, if the babe has a penis then is a male, and if the babe has a vagina then is a female. But what happens when the babe has both, how do we tell the parents of the babe that her/his sex is  undefined. Most of the parents will freak out by knowing that their child is  intersexual therefore doctors must proceed to explain the baby's condition in a very careful manner that protects the babe from a premature category of female or male. Doctors have to run a lot of tests and analysis on the babe (Physical and Genetic ) to finally reconstruct the genitalia of the concluded sex. But there could be cases where the parents put too much pressure on the doctors forcing them to operate the babe as soon as possible because the parents are also being pressured by the intriguing society who wants to know the specific sex of the babe. As a result doctors might do the surgery based on which genitalia is developed the most, nevertheless the consequences can result in psychology issues because the babe could incline towards the same sex that he was put into. Therefore in my opinion these surgeries and procedures should be done with plenty of time and out of pressure.

[luis--soriano]

Patriarchy and Language stereotype

Patriarchy is the system that we are live in where the males are the dominant sex, due to this we set expected behaviors to each gender, for instance when we normally think of man when we talk about high labor positions such as “manager, boss, engineer” in the other hand when we talk about secretaries bartender and nurse we automatically picture girls in our mind. These examples connects to the language stereotypes. Language stereotypes are one big thing in my life, meaning it always catches my attention why we include girls into the males vocabulary when we refer to humanity as a whole.

And as you can see even the world humanity has “man” in it. I understand is kind of bothersome to say man and woman every time we refer to “humankind” but at the same time is more appropriate since males and females are two similar beings but in the end are not equal.

I would dare to say this concept of “man” has something to do with religion. In christian beliefs, God made woman (Eva) out  of a rib of Man (Adam) so therefore I think society has borrowed this terms from the religious perspective.

[luis--soriano]

Feminist theory- lexington debates

The text awakens the idea of female and male equalization in terms of labor, social view and other rights that should be vivid in our society. A comparison can be made between the female body abused and labor, girls are often rejected to join certain jobs because they are considered masculine, but that mindset in general lays on the group of power and privilege in this case, men. But women are more likely to get a job where they have to show off their bodies most of the times in advertisements where products that are for sell are being accompanied with the female body which kind of gives the impression that “she” is for sell as well. By doing this the dominant group “men” is abusing women and at the same time distorting their image.

It should be up to them to decide what they consider they are capable of, as any other men has the privilege to recognize what are their limits woman should also have it. Why? because everyone is different and they might be stuff that a female could do that a man can do but maybe another man could do it. The point is men should not set women’s limits. Plus it should be a global feminist, which stands that women will be free of these abuses when they get to be free in the entire globe, not just a couple of countries but the globe.