#kmd303

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Course Topic: Sexuality

For Theater Appreciation class, I had to see the Rutgers production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” This production of the famous Shakespeare play was quite modernized but the language spoken and concepts were still of the era of original conception. One of the decisions that the director made in this production was to cast the role of Lysander to a woman instead of a man. This added another layer and meaning to forbidden romance through Lysander and Hermia with the inclusion of a queer relationship. In my head, I was cheering because “YES QUEER/LESBIAN REPRESENTATION.” Another thing noticeable about this production were the chastity belts that were buckled around both Hermia and Helena, which objectified them to only seeming useful for their status as virgins.The key to Hermia’s chastity belt was controlled by her own father and then subsequently tossed around between different people. I found the locked chastity belts and leashes to detain the girls, particularly Hermia, both interesting and disturbing, but leaning more towards the latter.

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Mentor Plenary

I thought that this last plenary was suitable in its timing and structure. The mentors had done a mock presidential debate with spoofs on the names of real presidential candidates (i.e: Bed Snooze, Donald Clump, Milary Minton). The moderator would pose topics of discussion and the candidates would respond to said topics in manners and views typical to the people they represented. After the candidates gave their responses, members of the audience would have a chance to speak about their experiences or thoughts. Gender and sexuality was probably the most popular discussion point, as it related to everyone in the room. This was a great way to end Knowledge & Power by calling on both experience and things that we learned over the semester.

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Wednesday Plenary: Bobbie Ridgely

Bobbie Ridgely is the Director of A Future with Hope, which is a non-profit organization for Hurricane Sandy recovery. Before working in Recovery work, she had a full time job working in Telecommunications. When her daughter was born, Ridgely decided to leave work take care of her infant. She said that taking time off of work with a good salary was scary.  A few years later, she moved to a project manager position in another company, where she gained budgeting experience. When she was working at this job, she managed/directed a group of men that were older than her; however, she does not think of that in terms of separating genders and being different. Ridgely said that perseverance and passion are indicators of success. She gave a great networking tip that seems especially doable for those with anxiety, like myself: start small and make it a goal to speak to at least 2 people at each event, gradually increasing each time. Her advice was that “it is okay if your job does not ‘touch your soul,’ but to stay involved with groups or people that do.”

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Wednesday Plenary: “Intersexion” film

On April 13, we watched a documentary about intersex people entitled “Intersexion.” This film went into detail about some intersex individuals’ lives growing up in a binary male/female world. Many intersex individuals have had surgery that they did not consent to due to their age and a doctor’s recommendation, saying that it would be “unhealthy” to not have surgery to “correct it.” Parents, especially if they are new and this is their first child, agree with the doctor due to their fear. Between 1 in 1500 and 1 in 2000 infants are born with “atypical” genitalia. Before that film, I had never heard of the term “Hermaphrodite,” which is an individual with both male and female parts that are apparent on the outside, or its usage by even medical professionals to describe an infant born with atypical genitalia. “Hermaphrodite” used to be utilized interchangeably with intersex, but has since been less common due to being misleading and stigmatizing.

This film made me realize how much items and places that we consider everyday and normal are gendered. As my group found out during our Feminist Tech Redesign project, there are not many personal sanitation products available to both genders. The only brand that has gender-neutral deodorant that we recognized was Arm & Hammer, so it is not as represented as the many types of deodorant that are “designed for women” or “designed for men.”

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Laci Green + Hookup Culture

On Wednesday March 2nd, I attended a RUPA program featuring popular YouTuber Laci Green, who is a sex educator. In her programs, Laci brought up many topics including anatomy, contraception for safe(r) sex, sexual assault prevention, and body positivity. I took “sex education” last year in high school and it bleaks in comparison to the Laci Green talk. In high school, they are more about heteronormativity of sex and prevention via condoms; we were only told the consequences of having sex and that abstinence is the best way to avoid unwanted pregnancy. I liked how upfront and sex positive Laci was when talking about this subject that seems so taboo in many places in society. I also appreciated that she made it funny in most parts. With the recent discussion about rape culture and society double standard, it has me wondering why it is ingrained that guys are celebrated for hooking up but women are shamed for it. Talking about the different aspects of sex is important because then people, particularly women, may feel more confident if they are not already and feel less ingrained shame from society.