Most significant takeaways and things I’ve learned in WGST 200
- Intersectional feminism is really crucial to the feminist movement.
- Most people don’t even have a clear idea of what a feminist is and my hope is to change that.
- We all have a race, class, and gender specific identity and in some contexts certain categories may become more or less salient than others.
- Intersectionality allows for different perspectives and voices to be heard and acknowledged. This aligns directly with the feminist movement which is all about the idea of speaking your truth no matter what it is.
- It can help to address more issues and can make the movement more powerful by giving people the opportunity to work together and optimize everyone’s unique strengths.
- All of us in some ways are unconsciously or consciously upholding someone else’s subordination. Intersectionality provides the opportunity to identify how this is done and also provides the best tools for how to combat it – hearing directly from those that are affected.
- The US really sucks compared to other countries when it comes to things like healthcare, paid maternal leave, equity in the workplace, etc.
- The only country in the globalized north that does not have national healthcare.
- Our society puts men and women in unequal positions by not providing paid maternity leave and giving preference to men or women who don’t have children.
- Those who are affluent will always find a way to get care or help or access therefore these issues disproportionately affect people of color, people of low SES, uneducated people, etc.
- Understanding gender as a performance.
- The comparison between gender and religion really stuck with me. In a way similar to which we develop a belief in religion through the act of praying, we develop a belief in our own gender or a sense of what our perceived gender is and then act accordingly – aka “perform”.
- Advertisements, media, social interactions, the thin ideal and body ‘norms’, and capitalism all define our gender performance, and we typically act accordingly and don’t question any of it. In reality, if we all stopped engaging with gender it would cease to exist.
- There are so many more ways to get involved and help make a difference in the world surrounding social issues that you care about. Even small bits of activism are better than nothing at all.
- Social media
- Online activism
- Local groups
- National groups
- Women’s rights are being threatened a lot more than the average person assumes.
- The Roe v Wade Supreme Court leaked decision helped with this and brought it to the forefront of most people’s minds, but day to day most of are unaware of the practices that are occurring my groups who want to restrict reproductive rights.
- Even as a self-identified woman who’s studied women’s and gender related issues before, taking this course I learned about things that I had never heard of that threatened rights that I care strongly about.
- Becoming educated on issues that you care about and then educating others is half of the fight. Most of us believe in equity and women’s rights we just aren’t aware of where we stand and how much collaboration is needed to make a difference.
