#kp05s16

[inessy120world-blog]

Recognizing Microaggressions!

During today’s plenary, I had fun, but at the same time saddened by all the microaggressions that exist in society. One thing to take into account is that microaggressions affect many minority groups and individuals on a personal level. I understand the feelings of jokingly being called out on because of my culture, but some individuals don’t realize that it’s not acceptable to do so. The part of the plenary, I liked the most was when many of my fellow classmates started sharing their experience and ideas on how to deal with microaggressions. Stopping microaggression, that existed for a long time, overall is going to take time and awareness. Awareness because how can a person stop making the same mistake, if they don’t realize it themselves?

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Feminist Definition Reflection

At the beginning of the semester, i defined feminism as a theory that aims to equate two sexes by allowing equal opportunity to any individual regardless of the stereotypes made against them. 

As the semester comes to a draw, I can only add onto this definition by broadening the spectrum behind the word: sexes. Feminism is not about sex. Its not about gender. Its not about orientation or identity. 

Feminism is about learning to look at someone as a human being.

This class has taught me more than any other course in my life. It taught me to evaluate someone’s worth for their character and what they do for the world. Feminism taught me that everything we thought makes us up, has just been a card we were dealt. My tools in life are only mine because of chance. I could've so easily been born into your family, your neighborhood, your world, but I wasn't. So I was raised differently, I was treated differently, I was assigned value differently, and I take this with me wherever I go and attempt to navigate through a world that was clearly made for a straight, white male. When I struggle, they ask me why I make poor decisions, but they don't see I have none of their privileges. These poor decisions are the only ones I have available to me because you see, I never had a life that was a meant for anything more than poverty.

K&P has taught me how to respect and listen to others. All our lives, we were taught respect one another, but you don't see what respect means till you experience its absence. So to those who are reading, thank you for respecting my words enough to care what I have to say. Feminism is based on consideration and a desire for reframing society to where we can all obtain our own goals. teamwork makes the dream work. spread positivity. we got this ladies! thank you for a wonderful semester 

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Final Plenary

Today’s plenary led by the mentors was different than the rest, but nonetheless very enjoyable. It was very creative of them to create a political debate skit and humorous to watch “Ronald Clump, Milary Minton,” and others. This sparked the rest of the discussions about feminists issues and everything else we have learned in class. The rest of the conversations were about micro aggressions, something so common most women have experienced. I was amazed to see how many courageous girls spoke up and shared their stories. It was very engaging to hear about everyone else’s experienced and the different perspectives that were shared. Even on political correctness, there were various viewpoints among the audience. Personally, I think it is key to be respectful towards other people’s opinions, ideas, thoughts, and more especially when they come from different cultures, genders, minorities, sexualities, or other groups. Overall, today’s plenary brought together a lot of the concepts we have discussed in class and gave everyone the opportunity to contribute their opinions to the discussion. 

[drcknowledgeandpower]

My Thoughts on Political Correctness

As we discussed this in plenary #5, I felt the need to speak up but I was a little nervous to express my opinion in front of everyone, especially with my seriously clogged sinuses. 

However, I think that political correctness is super important in leadership, especially during presidential elections, because candidates represent the country as a whole. When someone runs to become leader of a country like America, they aren’t just representing themselves and their personal beliefs. They are representing the entirety of the United States, which is not an all-white, all male, Protestant nation. People of all ethnicities and races, genders, religious backgrounds, sexual orientations, etc. are responsible for who represents them. If someone cannot be respectful of all of these variations of citizen, they don’t deserve their respect either.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

The Big Ol Spectrum of Gender & Sexuality

Ah one of my favorite class discussions and topics! Educating people on just how fluid sexuality is honestly one of my hobbies due to the fact that I love seeing the lightbulb go off when they finally get that it’s more than just being gay or lesbian or straight. The spectrum of sexuality is literally one of  the most confusing yet simple concepts we know of in terms of identities. Whether someone chooses to label themselves as this or that, it can always change and they have every right to change it. The little genderbread that was provided to us was also something that fit the nature of the topic. Having each aspect of identity being broken down into separate parts hopefully helped people to understand and differentiate between identity, attraction, expression and sex. It was also nice to jump right into a topic I’m so familiar with

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Job Description: Full Time Mom??

In class today we discussed one of the most talked about issue in the big wide world of feminism, the wage gap *cue spooky music* I always knew that men were paid more than women and that always frustrated me, but what I learned today was that women are actually penalized for being a mother while men are legitimately benefiting from it. Not only is that absolutely absurd, what sense does it make? With the excuse of “Oh she’ll want to spend more time with her children blah blah blah”, many employers are forgetting that sometimes the dad decides to be a stay at home dad, or there are two mommies or two daddies or just one of each. Can employers really expect lesbian parents to survive on an income that is being cut down due to the fact that they are mothers? That just wouldn’t fly now would it? If anything, should both men and women who are parents get a little bump in their paycheck since y’know...there’s one or two more mouths to feed and provide for? But that’s just my opinion...

[drcknowledgeandpower]

The Struggles of Getting Out of the Struggle

One text that I would recommend to every person I love and adore is the little chapter from Linda Tirado’s Hand to Mouth. The one excerpt we read was absolutely phenomenal. My goal to become a teacher who changes the lives of children just as mine did began to tremble as I read about her struggles in trying to pay the bills, maintain her jobs and sanity. It’s always a weird thought to realize just how privileged you really are. I’ve never seen my parents work more than one job each to pay the bills, I’ve always had a roof over my head and I never had to worry about whether I was going to eat one day or not. Just reading how she slept for maybe 4 hours a day and ran on that for more than one job had me speechless. But I loved that she maintained her edge and personality when the systematic loop she was stuck in was trying to bring her down and keep her all the way down. Tirado honestly inspired me to keep on going no matter what and to be a badass while doing it.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Something That Would Have Interested Me...If I Had More Time

One class that had me the most confused and quite frankly upset, was the class where we traveled deep into Douglass (in a monsoon I might add) and witnessed the Poverty & Sexuality symposium. I honestly wished I enjoyed that class more than I did. The fact that we came in the middle of one discussion and left in the middle of another left me feeling quite unsatisfied with the information I was given. The subject of poverty is one I find quite interesting as well so I was left with so many questions that I was too shy to ask due to the fact that I missed more than half of the speaker’s presentation. Having the class come and leave so abruptly and so poorly planned just had me frustrated and ready to head back to my apartment and wait for the next formal class to begin. If we had an introductory class period in order to be somewhat prepared for the information that would have been provided for us, maybe I would have enjoyed the experience more...