2-WGST - Reflections PDF

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Reflections...

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After taking this course I feel I gained a lot of new important knowledge and improved on my researching skills. I also improved on my analyzing skills based on the different readings and articles I engaged in. One of the main topics that stuck with me was the masculinities unit. Going into this course I thought I would be mostly learning about the female movement but ended up learning a lot about males and how they are also held to standards that I didn't really take into consideration. Having a 5 year old brother the “Act like a man box” By Paul Kivel really stood out to me because of how much I felt it related to the way my step dad has been bringing him up. My mom , sister and I are very accepting and open people, while my step dad was brought up “to act like a man”. I don't like how a lot of young boys are expected to be tough and masculine growing up because not every boy is the same and should be allowed to act and be who they are without fear of being “not manly enough”. The man box is what leads boys into feeling powerful or violent at times when someone doubts their masculinity. It is concerning and something that I don't want my brother to fall into because of how negatively it impacts these boys and everyone around them. Another topic that really grabbed my attention was Misogyny in music which Libbie and I did our project on. Just like boys are held to some standards, so are women and there's no asking why. The way women are oversexualized and exploited in music is so degrading and holds women to these unrealistic standards. Not only does it affect women, it affects anyone who listens to songs with misogynistic lyrics, especially young people because they are very impressionable and can get the wrong idea based on what their favorite artists put in their songs. Rap is very popular amongst young people and is known for having a lot of misogyny in the

lyrics , women are viewed as objects in a lot of these songs with no other qualities besides their physical appearance which can lead women to believing they are not more than their looks. Before taking this course I had no knowledge on what intersecuality was. After reading “There is no hierarchy of oppressions” By Audre Lorde I realized that sexism ,heterosexism both come from the same place as racism . The intolerance of groups has no boundaries and intersectionality should be more widely taught about. It shows that systems and categorizations produce oppression within individuals and groups. I have always considered myself to be an accepting person but of course we all have internal biases and stereotype people without even realizing. This course has taught me to be more aware of how I choose to “judge” others because we as humans are so much more complex than we realize. Everyone is different and should be accepted no matter race, religion, sexuality , class or gender. The world we live in is not the same as it was 100 years ago and the only way for us all to keep growing is to get rid of old biases and to get rid of the old ways of thinking because racism and homophobia are no longer seen as normal things like it may have been centuries ago. In reality the reason our country is so full of hate and corruption is because we are holding on to the old ways of life still for some reason. We continue to preach acceptance and change yet don't change a thing because it's embedded in history. We need to learn from our wrongs and do the most to make the present better. If we have open and accepting leaders they can be an example for all of us, having had a corrupt unaccepting leader showed to take a toll on our country by dividing us instead of bringing us together. The United States is known to be the mixing bowl and was meant for diversity. If we embraced change and our differences it would be a start to bringing us together.

I hope to keep learning and growing so I can pass down topics like these to my children one day because all I can do is use my privilege to help others and use my knowledge to educate others. This course helped me grow mindfully and I am so grateful I took it....