#kil5

[drcknowledgeandpower]

The Pink Tax

The pink tax is one that only about half of the population is subject to. And they probably aren't even aware of it. Are you paying the pink tax?

This is an article I found further describing the ‘pink tax’. Even before this lesson I have been using ‘men’s’ products as I personally find them more effective. That being said, I know use them based on the principal that I shouldn’t have to pay more for a product that is altered in the smallest way so it’s ‘more appealing to women’. 

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Religion Panel

the The religion panel was very interesting for me as I am an atheist. Personally, religion has no impact on my life so it was interesting to see how professors and professional women deal with their religious beliefs in the workplace. I imagine being a female rabbi and a female pastor is difficult with misogyny and religious opinions on women’s bodies. For me, Ms. Reed had the biggest impact. Her experiences as a lawyer who happened to be Muslim spoke to how society sees religion and sex before they see the person and their intelligence. It’s truly upsetting to think about the labels society uses to classify people, as if we need classifying. I’ve begun to notice more and more that race identifies are incredibly common and are used to for the simplest thing, such as ‘The black guy on my plane was listening to rap music’. It’s entirely unnecessary and can be done in the same manner without using race as a factor. 

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Intersex

I really enjoyed the movie on intersex and it opened my eyes up to many different things. I never realized how traumatic gender picking could be for a person, especially for a child. Hearing ‘survivors’ stories made me think about my future and how common intersex children are born. With 1 in every 2,000 children being born intersex the likelihood of myself having an intersex child is rather high. The different categories of Intersex also led way to the question of whether or not I would pick a gender for my child. After watching the video the answer is most likely no. One ‘quick’ surgery can turn into dozens of surgeries before they’re old enough to walk and that isn’t something I’m comfortable subjecting a child to before they are old enough to make their own decisions.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Plenary

Sitting in the audience, listening to Caitlin Kenney, I found myself enthralled in her experiences. Being a woman in radio is no easy feat and there’s no doubt that at one point in time she was told that she should go into television because she’s ‘pretty’. But she stuck with radio and I think that says a lot about her character. 

What interested me the most about her talk were her experiences traveling and more specifically her experience in Bangladesh. When Caitlin was talking about the sisters in Bangladesh these women became very real and I imagined myself in their shoes. I imagined running away from home because my parents wanted to marry me off for money. I imagined living in a rough neighborhood, in a dank apartment, because that’s all I could afford. I imagined how differently my life could have turned out if my mom didn’t move to the United States. 

I commend these women for having the courage to speak about their lives and I’m especially impressed with the sister that ran away from home before her sisters fate became hers.