Feminist Movement to End Violence

I agree with the fact that violence against women is rooted in male domination; however, men are not the only ones that are violent.  Women can be just as violent, but it goes un-noticed because the idea of violent women goes unrecognized.  The idea of white supremacy and capitalist patriarchy are the fault for the rise in violence against women.  I don’t care how masculine or powerful a man thinks he is, in my eyes, they are super weak and insecure if they go as far as to hit a defenseless women or child.  You are not strong because you cannot face the fact that you suck at something or that your wife is more successful then you.  If you truly respected her, you would be happy for her success rather than bitter about it.  In most social situations though, most women try to exert their dominance among a group a women because they feel the need to exercise what power they have and among women it is the easiest to do that.  Women may not enforce physical violence among other women, but we are just as bad when it comes to psychologically and emotionally inflicting pain.  Because most women are caretakers of the home, they instill a large idea about violence among their children.  Whether violence is bad and will not be tolerated, or that violence is the best way to solve your problems.  In my household, violence was not the answer and nothing good ever came out of it.  But with some of my friends I know that their mom taught them to stand up for themselves when they have been attacked.  This continuation of saying violence is okay needs to be stopped because the problem will never be fixed.  I agree that not only violence against women needs to stop, but violence against anyone in general needs to end because no good ever comes out of it except more conflict.

A New Way of Thinking

After taking multiple biology and psychology classes, my idea of what testosterone and estrogen consisted of was pretty concrete.  However, after reading Angiers chapters 14 & 15 my notions of these two hormones have changed a little.  These two chapters have challenged the way I understand testosterone and estrogen.  I did not really realize how over-exaggerated testosterone in males is but it is an overstated subject.  People tend to forget that women also have testosterone in our bodies; however, the degree to which it is expressed is minimal.  It said in the chapter that testosterone is linked to those umbrella terms under aggression.  There is not one significant way to say that just because someone is aggressive; it is due to the amount of testosterone in their body.  Women get mad and angry but we do not have high levels of raging testosterone in our bodies.  This aggression among females is learned at a young age.  There is a sentence in the chapter that says “the first job of being a girl is learning to survive in a group of girls.”  I couldn't agree with this statement more because even in kindergarten, if you couldn't stick up for yourself, you were screwed.  In my experience, every girl as the tendency to be aggressive among a group of girls.  It is this notion that we need to be heard before we are judged and if we are misunderstood that’s not okay because then people will judge us.  But in my opinion, people are going to judge either way so even if you do say something the wrong way, at least you got it off your chest and was blatantly honest with that person.  I believe that the use of indirect aggression is worse than direct aggression because at least if a person is willing to be blunt to your face, they have respect for you.  In high school, I would have rather called nasty names by my “friends” rather than find out from someone else who isn't really my friend.  Being stabbed in the back by your best friend hurts… a lot.  Because then where does the confrontation come in?  it would be hard to go to that friend and say well so and so told me this…but then nine chances out of ten, she will say “oh no I never said that,”  bullshit.  This is why I have a hard time believing in female solidarity.  To me there is no such thing in my generation because women are out for themselves and that’s about it.  There is always a competition between women that never seems to end.

Questioning of Femininity

The “ Ain't I a Woman” article brought to life the stereotypes of what it means to be feminine.  My opinion of the article was that femininity is the fault for women not having rights.  There was a quote from the article that states “If God had desired the equality of woman.  He would have given some token of His will through the birth, life and death of the Savior.”  This quote is basing the idea of that creation of sin by the women “Eve” is the fault for God not granting women rights.  I disagree with this statement because it is not fair to base the events of creation off of the sins of Eve.   Women are not respected or granted rights because of the stereotypes that are placed upon them.  In her speech, she asks the question “ ain't I a woman?”  She asks this question because to most men, she was not a woman because she was an “amazon” and “un-feminine.”  She believed that women do deserve rights and equality no matter how they exude femininity.  She also said that people are wicked in their opinion of women and I agree with this statement.  This statement is true because most people cannot get past the stereotypes of how women are and how they should be.  It bothers me that most people do not fully respect women because we have to work twice as hard as men and we barely are succeeding.  I hope that things will begin to change but right now in the workforce for women, the statistics are against us.

Why Is Homophobia a Threat?

The Gender Treachery article by Patrick Hopkins answers the question as to why homophobia is a threat to the idea of masculinity.  There is standard that men and society create for themselves to define their masculinity.  Personhood is a person’s personal identity and how one describes themselves.  Therefore, if there is a threat to manhood, then it is a threat to personhood.  Gender treachery is a new term to me because I did not know there was a term to describe homosexuality or bisexuality in a broader sense.  These types of gender treacheries are considered a threat to some people’s identity.  I do not understand why some men feel threatened by homosexuals because they are still masculine just in their own way.  Homosexuals still have masculine qualities they just define their personhood in a different way.  The term hetero-sexism is new to me because it is such an obvious trait that a person can possess.  Hetero-sexism is characterized as valorizing and privileging heterosexuality, but I believe that people take this term to the extreme.  An extreme form of hetero-sexism is when a person physically or emotionally acts on their idea of hetero-sexism towards a homosexual.  I agree with the statement made by Hopkins when he says that “Homophobia is a product of institutional hetero-sexism and gendered identity.”  Because if our society told us that homosexuality was normal, we would not have worry about the threat that homosexuality perceives.  Instead, we would just understand that homosexuals differ from us just in their sexual preference.

Men and Violence Video

The movie we watched in class was very interesting and brought to light many ideas about masculinity that I have not thought about.  The movie pointed out this new idea of masculinity and how men feel as though they need to wear this mask or “front” for people.  I agree that there is a correlation between begin tough/violent and to being masculine.  However, I do not agree that this should be this way because men should be allowed to be vulnerable just like women should be allowed to be tough and strong.  This violence begins at a young age with violence among boys or boys conflicting violence on girls.  People view violence as gendered issue, however the statistics show that men are the ones that committing the most violence in our society.  This gendered issue is rendered masculine makes it difficult for women to violent.  If women are violent it is viewed as a big deal but when men do it, it is invisible.  The most interesting thing from the movie was the idea that throughout the years men got bigger in the media and women became thinner and smaller.  This was created so that women take up less space and are pushed aside.  The rise in anti-gay violence proves men are insecure about their own sexuality which causes them to assert the fact that they are “tough guys” when in reality it just makes them hated among people.  The rap and hip/hop lifestyle in my opinion is the way men of color feel as though they need to hyper-masculate themselves.  This is because they have lost respect due to their race so they make up for it by intimidation and violence.  This behavior is caused by the constant message that manhood is connected to violence and control.  Video games and sports also have this idea of gaining respect by disrespecting other people.  This is not what organized sports should be about; however, among young boys their fathers instill this sort of competition among one another.  This was a very informative film and I agreed with most of the points that the narrator made in regards to violence and films among men.

Marxism and Socialist Feminism

In chapter 3 of Tong’s book, there is a discussion about what Marxism is and how it regards to feminism.  Marxism regards classism rather than sexism as a fundamental cause of women’s oppression.  However, socialist feminists are not certain that classism is a women’s worst or only enemy.  Social feminists believe that patrilineal roles play a major role in women’s oppression and without it; women would be able to experience themselves as a whole.  Marxism has a belief that “Men and women, through production collectively, create a society that, in turn, shapes them.”  I agree with this statement because men and women make a name for themselves in society without the help of anyone else.  However, I disagree because from the beginning women have been given an unfair advantage in regards to shaping themselves because they are constantly being defined by something else.  Both Marxism and Socialist Feminism claim that social existence determines consciousness.  This means that women are constantly being reminded of what they should be and how they should be.  This creates a negative self-conscious of themselves.  I agree that women should be viewed as a collective whole rather than fragmented beings.  This is difficult to instill in a women because we are constantly being pounded down by society.  This creates a feeling of alienation within a woman that makes them feel unaccepted and unappreciated.  The gender gap in the United States is terrible and hits close to home with me.   My mother pounds the pavement with her career and will stop to no end to get what she wants.  My mother now holds the position as the first female to ever be Frederick County manager of finance.  This is an amazing promotion for my mother because she makes twice as much as her male colleagues do.  I love the fact that I know a woman who has embraced the gender gap and didn’t let it defeat her.