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Blog Post #5

Let’s talk about white male privilege and the topic of toxic masculinity. These concepts are continuously denounced by the people who meet the criteria, which ironically is exactly why they exist. Here’s an example of toxic masculinity: The dean at Harvard Law School during Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s attendance had once asked her why she thought she had the right to take a man’s place at the school. And here’s an example of while male privilege: A white male posting on Facebook, “It’s OK to be white” in response to the “it’s OK to be black” and Black Lives Matter movements. Kevin Dunn’s article titled “Interrogating White Male Privilege” is a prime example of non-toxic masculinity because he is self-aware of his privilege and, instead of either accepting or justifying it, he makes sense of it and acknowledges how it could harm other people in society. “I know I did not get where I am today by my own personal accomplishments alone. I benefitted from white male privilege. Whe...
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Blog Post #4

Does the rapid advancement in military technology offer a step toward reducing or exacerbating gender inequalities?   No. It does not. In fact, in my opinion, it will make it  much   more complicated. And there are three reasons as to why. One is more visible than the other, the third, I guarantee, has been and will always be denounced by somebody, and the one in the middle is a mix of both. The first reason In our lecture videos on this topic, it is mentioned that in the time of techno-war, men and women are now equal and are at odds with technology. This is technically true but is at best a surface-level view.  The first issue to be highlighted here is that, much like the weapons used by humans on the field, this technology is being gendered, which is by no means a new concept. Military technology, according to the lecture video and the interview shown, is considered objective, logical, calculated, efficient and shows no emotion. Suppose...
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Blog Post #3

Looking back on my personal interactions with people, I can certainly recall a few that absolutely apply to the point of this blog post. These examples were all things that have been said to me. Cynthia Enloe’s quote regarding the concept of the words “tradition,” “natural” and “always” plays a role in these instances because it perfectly lines up with how people have  always  thought. Things like being told by my male roommate’s mother (yes, that roommate from that one blog post) after telling her that her son doesn’t clean up after himself, she said, “He’s a guy, what do you expect?” The first example I want to bring up is a collection of four different instances, all about the same thing. One happened in 2013, another was four years ago, the third happened three years ago and the fourth was last year. In 2013, I was a senior in high school, and I was called “average” by my best guy friend who had just given me my first kiss. He said he had never kissed an “aver...
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Blog Post #2

The most prominent question I took away from classes this week was this one: Does the patriarchal system have anything to do with the roles women take in war and combat? I know this isn’t an original question, but I’ve been thinking about it all week and it was swarming my head during the readings, because it became so clear and so frustrating at the same time. My shorts answer is yes, it does have everything to do with not only the roles taken, but the fact that roles  are  taken. So, during today’s documentary, we discussed whether the FARC women join the guerilla movement due to personal or structural reasons. I originally believed it was structural, but after some thought, I realized that, even if it  was  structural (society based on class, gender norms, etc.), that it all comes back to personal issues. These issues, as we’ve spoken about this week, can have something to do with the personalization of societal issues like class or gender nor...
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Blog Post #1

I cannot believe that my first blog post for this class is exposing this experience I had. I also cannot believe I am talking to candidly about this because I worry that what happened between my roommate and I earlier last semester would not be taken seriously, both the occurrence and why I am still thinking about it months later. In other words, this experience falls in line with one issue that feminist theory touches on heavily: The question of whether or not this study is really about real-world issues and if it’s as important as security, etc. As somebody who has been gendered, it really backs a person into a wall. Last semester, I was sitting in my living room with a new male roommate of mine. He was going on about how we should hang out and do something other than watch TV. I had sent him a list of activities to do in and around Gainesville, and he pulled it up. Then he said: “Oh, paintball sounds fun.” Then he looked at me and blinked. “But guns are a guy thing,...
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