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Reflection 6-“BostonHealth: Toward Mutuality Relations Men”

This concept that men are seen as the dominant gender in eyes of society has been going for ages.  Where it seemed that men were holding complete control and power over women, limiting women to the role of “housewife” or “caretaker”. These women were expected to pretty stay at home, clean, cook and take care of their children; all so that the man would have a minimal amount of distractions. This urge of dominance went as far as a financial space between the two genders.  Where the man felt that the women was not able to provide enough for the family as well they were not built to make good financial decisions. The article also made a point about man always paying for the woman initial I never really saw the problem with that.  But, then I realized that in a way it is pretty much devaluing her because she is more than able to pay for herself and by me paying I am pretty much saying with out even saying that I have the power.  Thus, teaching me to ask if she’d like if we split the bill.

These actions of the past sadly finding a place in modern day society where men seem to have an urge to assert dominance over a women. Unfortunately, putting women in a place in society were they are seemed as weak and incapable of having some type of power if any. Suddenly, women as the article explains are not able to create their own personal power.  Personal power being this space of self reliance where the women is able to take care of herself and is in a position of asserting power as much as a man could be.  But, when you think of it in what ways is a women less capable of asserting her dominance.  She can work as hard as a man, she can make as much money as man and so many more things. With time women have proven them selves able to be dominant leading their own moments to equality so whats to say that it should not extend to the space of power distribution. The only way for this traditional distribution of is to voice that women have their place in society through hard work and that work should just go for them to be controlled.  

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Reflection #5–”Prison Industrial Complex”

When thinking about the world of being incarcerated my first choice of words would have never been racism it was more of a concept of you get what you deserve.  But, when you think about it even before relating this back to the article many activist movements today are against the false accusations of people color.  Cases like Travon Martin where an innocent young boy of color was killed because he seemed like a “threat”.  Now you may ask where in the world I am going with this but when putting the Prison Industrial complex into perspective it is rather racist and marginalizing.  The fact that private corporations used the prison system to incarcerate a targeted group of people or more specifically minority groups for labor seems rather inhumane.  Unfortunately, many people have fallen into these false beliefs that incarnation in numbers is a benefit to society but in reality it is not and ties back to racism.  This also leads me to realize that the government in a way sets up these minority and colored neighborhoods for failure because they strategically place things such as liquor stores.  One of the tougher parts of the article to read was along the lines of black of wealth-fare women producing criminal children and having to take these women off the streets.  I could not and still can not put my head around that concept because for one a child is not born a criminal and secondly, targeting a women of color for being low welfare as well as being deemed not good enough to be a parent makes sense.  In all honesty there is no true correlation between the low welfare and being a good parent.  This to me just seems like prison officials and government officials who are more than likely to be men decided that women of color from neighborhoods known for poverty are easy targets because they just want to clear the streets to stop the chances of a “criminal “child being born.  

Anyways it is hard to believe how misinformed and blind many of us are.  The prison industrial complex needs to brung further into the light so that everyone can learn the reality of the incarcerations, the prison system, the racism and marginalization behind it.  

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Reflection #4 – “African American Women and Abortion”

     Abortion as a whole seems to be an extremely controversial matter where often only the most fortunate are able to get an abortion.  Not only that but, the world of abortions was very controlled by men where they were the ones that made the decisions for these women.  In reality, this makes no sense at all because what true experience or say for that matter does a man have to tell a women she has to carry a child disregarding any circumstances against her will. 

     Now looking at the article African American women were one of the groups of women that were affected greatly by barely having the option to legal abortion.  We see landowners take advantage of these women by intentionally used their fertility for personal gain in respect to increasing land value and labor force.  Adding, to that landowners would detain information about abortions and birth control.  These women were not clueless though many had some ideas about contraceptives and abortions but, without the proper resources they have to look somewhere else. This is when the procedures begin pose threats because without the proper training and equipment these procedures become extremely dangerous.  All that I can think about reading this article is how can someone be so have the state of mind where a landowner can think that a pregnant women is a benefit to their land.  I felt discussed even further when Ross mentioned that essential women about abortions and birth control was withheld as if they didn't have the right to know.  One of the most discouraging points brought up was when African American Women were finally progressing in terms of being able to be in control but just because society felt that the population of African American was growing too much, too fast as a result taking away their right of choice.  How can the higher members of society even think of going backwards is okay.  I can not even get a grasp of what I want to say or if I can even put it into words.  What was done in this case of scenario is such an acceptable tease. 

     All in all, women of all races and class should have the freedom of choice.  Saying this in today’s day and age is kind of sad but there are still pretty tough laws restricting abortion although many say some states are allowing abortions.  This is not good enough until all women across the board are open to choice.  These restrictions even going as far as religion where often religious beliefs look down on women for their choice of abortion no matter what.  Men also play a part in this because since the beginning of time society has been male dominated and they are the ones that will never have to face the struggles of pregnancy.  Only thinking about their own well being and not putting women in perspective as well as thinking about how they feel.  With that being said it is time for change a change that needs to be immediate.

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Reflection #3- “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color”

Kimberle Crenshaw’s goes about explaining intersectionality as a a system based on social constructs and how these interlocking systems of power impact those that are marginalized in society.  Focusing mainly bringing up gender, class and race as big marginalization factors.  Where the focus of her article was women of color often of either middle class or low class wealth.  These constructs being the reasons for marginalization, that ultimately lead to domestic violence and rape towards these women by men.  This article really started to getting me frustrated because it brung up the point that women of color and lower class are limited to the help that they can receive compared to a white women of higher class.  This in my eyes represents a lack of social morals because how can someone become aware of such abuse but not being willing to help based on race and class.  Especially, considering the fact that a waiver was created to protect women in abusive relationships as a response to the abuse all for it to go to waste because it required different levels of proof such as, as psychological evaluation or a police report.  All of which, cost money and when thinking in perspective defeats the purpose of the waiver because the women in danger for the most part are not able to afford these services to prove their cases.  The situation of immigrant women in abusive relationships getting even worse considering that like Crenshaw brung up they often depend on their husband for a specific reason like having a connection to the outside world or information about their immigration status.  I then got to thinking about how much suffering these women go through not only because they are women but because they are of color.  I cant wrap my head around the concept of a women of color being less than a white women, all the more a women in general being looked down upon by a male to the point where he feels the right to abusive a women.  The concept of women of color and white women being on different spectrums kind of reminded me of a part of a book I read my freshmen year in English class by Bell Hooks known for being a feminist and social activist called “Selling Hot Pussy”.  Where women of color where more venerable to being sexualized being seen as more of objects compared to white women.  Despite the themes of abuse and sexualization being different the two pieces of writing seem to give off this idea that women of color are less than white women.  In summary, it is very upsetting to read Crenshaw’s article because of the fact that it seems that women of color and immigrant women are less likely to receive the help they need and deserve; becoming especially upsetting to read because of the much diversity I see around me and all the potential in each person of color and different ethnicity.

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Reflection #2–– “The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes”

Growing up playing sports all my life and the thought that a female is too masculine never really crossed my mind.  One of my earliest encounters of playing sports with girls had to be in my elementary school after school program where boys and girls would participate in all activities together.  There was also a select few girls that would rather play football with the guys instead of doing another activity like crafts and I remember when it would come down to playing I would never really think anything of it.  I’ve been doing mixed martial arts for about six years now and one of the very first things that I was taught was that on that mat everyone is the same the only difference is our rank something that is earned through hard work. During my first classes I would always look at the girls in amazement of how well they are able to perform because when I say these girls can fight they really can fight.  My first contact class I was paired up with a girl of higher ranking and she really beat me up this just growing my respect for women as equals.  With that being said I have grown a strong attachment to all MMA teammates to the point were we as a team are willing to support whatever any of us do.  The story of Dutee Chand a low class Indian female who was disqualified from her first international event because in the eyes of others Dutee looked “too masculine” really triggered me.  As the story of Dutee continues she was pretty much given a bunch of test that she had no understanding of which, first of is institutionally incorrect and on top it of all the test determined that she had a higher than average level of testosterone as result ruining her track career.  All of this just reminding me of me of my female teammates and those that I have watched step into the ring pouring their hearts out leaving everything they got in the ring.  If they were to go through what Dutee went through I cannot begin to imagine how demoralizing it would be. It is beyond me why someone would have the right to say you cannot compete because you look to masculine and have too much testosterone as if a female has control of her levels.  This really got me to thinking that males in general have it really easy in the world of sports because for the most part they are not questioned for any reason they receive the benefit of doubt because they are males.  The worst part of this all is that this problem is still very common amongst well performing female athletes today.  Society needs to open their eyes and realize that a women should not be discriminated for showing masculine traits or for having higher testosterone because ultimately, these things are not in their control.  

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Reflection 1––”Gender Education,”Fine, C.

The concept of raising a child as gender neutral rather than introducing a child to the world of sex differences further than that of a genders anatomy is a very great way to break the norms of society. At first I began to ask myself how effective can changing the gender in a book be or allowing a child to play with any toy they please but then I after reading further I realized this method of parenting was rather effective. This method of raising a child in my option removes all the stereotypes associated with gender that create false portrayals and restrictions based on gender.  Which is great because a child who sees a world where the only difference is a persons genitals creates a concept where each individual  should be more than able dress how they want to or play with what ever they like. I feel like the example where the child went to school wearing barrettes is a rather great example of true child innocence because when being told by the other children that barrettes are for girls the child rebuttals by saying that boys and girls are the same as well as proving he his boy by pulling down his pants.Going beyond that a mentality like this would be great at an older age because of how a man for example is more likely to see a women as an equal and not look down on her based on gender because of the fact that the concept that a women is exactly the same as a men.  Thinking about today’s society we see a lack of gender neutrality all throughout the board and because of this women are seen as less then men hence leading to a lack of women in positions of power.  Putting this method intro perspective it would be great to see all people no matter if they are a child or adult, male or female and no matter their race because it would diversify the workforce completely beyond just putting women into positions of powers it would remove gender associations with jobs making it more likely to see a male teacher or a female construction worker.  Ultimately, this concept of seeing things as gender neutral has lead me to wonder how different I would be raised seeing life through those eyes and more importantly how life for everyone would be today if that was the norm of society.