Housework: The idea that it’s just a “woman’s” job

For years, women have been looked down upon as just a person who has to stay home, cook and clean and watch the kids. But, even with that statement, they’re just someone who is meant for that job while men aren’t. No matter what a woman’s choice, inclination, ability, education, employment, or financial or social status, tending to the home and family almost always falls in her life. Why is that? Just because of the gender we are that we have to do these things while the men just sits and relax because they’ve had a day at work? In Angela Davis’s “Women, Race and Class” she discusses this topic thoroughly along with other points of women suffrage through history. Davis discuses the difficulties women had in history and as unfortunate as it today, we still are going through today. “The countless chores collectively known as “housework”—cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, making beds, sweeping, shopping, etc.—apparently consume some three to four thousand hours of the average housewife’s year. As startling as this statistic may be, it does not even account for the constant and unquantifiable attention mothers must give to their children. Just as a woman’s maternal duties are always taken for granted, her never-ending toil as a housewife rarely occasions expressions of appreciation within her family. (Chap.13) Being a woman means more than just taking care of the house and the children and still having to be there to attend for children’s attention.

Women have the right to be able to go to work and get an education because they weren’t born to just be “slaves” in the house. Yes, I said slaves. Are women any different from a slave if they’re confided to doing one thing? Why should a man be able to go to work and kick back with his friends while their wife is doing majority of the main work in the house, trying to upkeep the cleanliness, food and children. Just the idea of a woman being a housewife has never changed over the years because even now the idea is still fresh and woke. Men truly believe that if they go to work and make their income then they have every right not to be able to help around the house  or with the kids because they go to work. Isn’t that what a woman does all day as well too though? Except without the income. If a man were to be a househusband, that would be a total shock to society because that’s not how it “supposed to be” but in that case, it should play the same role for men. Of course not, we’ve been labeled and that is something that still lives on till today.

Today’s society a woman is expected to live both roles, be a working woman and maintain the house and children. Apparently, men aren’t supposed to help out with that when they come home from work because of their own mentality. Personally, I know a lot of women who were forced to  marry and become housewife’s even after having a job and getting a degree just because their husband believed it would be better for their family in the long run. It’s disgusting how women are portrayed as in a man’s mind. Men are just as capable of cleaning, cooking and being there for their children as much as a woman is. “We must reject the home, because we want to unite with other women, to struggle against all situations which presume that women will stay at home … To abandon the home is already a form of struggle, since the social services we perform there would then cease to be carried out in those conditions.” This quote was said by Dalla Costa who advocated on the housewife’s strike. In this time period, women were so oppressed to being submitted to four walls all day, just being the title of a housewife with no type of income, which led them to advocating for their rights. Just because we are women, it doesn’t give anyone the right to label us and decide what our future is. Women have just the same abilities to do what men do like business, entrepreneurship, law, medicine, teaching, politics and so on.

Growing up and watching certain women in my family confide to this certain type of mentality raised me to be the woman that they could never be. I say this because I’ve watched them not want to do it and be miserable while doing it, spending their life in misery because a man told them how to live their life and that they weren’t able to work. Even though times haven’t completely changed with this mentality, we still have some kind of leverage living in a time like this to accomplish more than just being a housewife.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Citation: Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class. Vintage Books, 1983. 

 

Blog Post Draft- Valerie Kominer

Throughout time, people have clung to the idea of normalcy. People often treated normalcy as a standard, a sort of ingroup sense of belonging. While this may seem like a positive attribute in society, the reality is the completely opposite. Normalcy, as an idea, was set by the straight white wealthy man. As a result, it was in their favor to set the norm to fit their template. Therefore, anyone who did not fit that same template was left not only in the outgroup, but facing all sorts of discrimination. One community that has faced and continues to face scrutiny is the transgender community. For years, the trans community was not able to even be considered a thriving part of society, with their existence marked as unworthy of a seat at the table. From a twenty-first century progressive perspective, it may seem insane to think that people were seen as “not human” simply because of their sexuality, yet transphobia has been and continues to be a huge issue in our society.

In Julia Serano’s article, “Thoughts about transphobia, TERFs, and TUMFs,” Serano goes into great detail discussing the various types of transphobias and how they affect society as a whole. That being said, it was shocking to hear how the very movement that credits itself with societal progression, is the one that is feeding into transphobia. TERF is “an acronym for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists,” a subgroup of radical feminists (who sometimes self-identify as “gender critical” feminists) that are strongly opposed to transgender identities, experiences, and rights” (Serano 7). It was very interesting to hear how their reasoning for their inherent transphobia juxtaposes the one used by the alt-right community. Rather than using religion or societal norms as their justification, they reinterpreted progressive ideals to fit their own narrative. They believe that gender is a man-made class system that thrives through the oppression of women. While the toxic nature behind gender is an idea that is common in the progressive community, they managed to twist it to make trans people the oppressors rather than the victims. They believe that the transgender community reinforces the class system, specifically trans women who infiltrate the “women’s spaces” (Serano 4).

I have always known there are exceptions to every rule. We, as a society, do not have a definitive mold on how a group of people think. The right can have left-leaning views and the same can be said vice versa. However, the ideology behind the TERF movement was so bothersome to me, as it was yet another example of how people act high and mighty strictly for the sake of pushing their viewpoint forward. It is so disheartening to hear how women who stand up for gender-based injustices are not willing to do the same for people who go through the same issues. You would think that there would be some sort of compassion towards people who are clearly suffering, especially in the progressive circle. One mainstream feminist even went as far to say, “trans women are not women,” it is not because they adhere to a unilateral radical feminist perspective that asserts that the goal of feminism is to bring an “end to gender,” and that trans women (as well as sex workers, feminine women, sex-positive feminists, etc.) are “reinforcing gender.” (Serano 5). As discussed in class, there is a spectrum of thought when it comes to progressivity. However, saying that trans women are any less of a woman due to their genitalia goes against all ideas of inclusivity. Additionally, making these claims about sex workers and feminine workers is ironic given that these women are embracing their femininity/sexuality, which is exactly what started the feminist movement to begin with.

Reading this type of material only reinforces the idea that victims of inequality, such as the transgender community, face hardships that are very difficult to overcome. When you are scapegoated by the public from every side, it is difficult to find a safe haven to belong to. Therefore, it is important to remember that despite radical opinions, a human being needs to be treated with the utmost compassion and respect, no matter the genitalia.

Work Cited:

 

Serano, Julia. “Thoughts about Transphobia, Terfs, and Tumfs.” Medium, Medium, 23 Oct. 2019, https://juliaserano.medium.com/thoughts-about-transphobia-terfs-and-tumfs-b77a18c1a225.

Why Is “Housewife” A Thing?

Women are already given so many titles in this world; mother, grandmother, aunt, wife and sister. In addition to this, they were also given the title of “Housewife”. As Angela Davis discusses in “Women, Race and Class”, women are told to cook, wash dishes, do laundry, make the beds in the morning, sweep, go shopping and much more. On top of all this, women are also supposed to be a wife to their spouse as well as take care of a baby, if any. This can be exhausting for women, especially if they don’t receive any help from their spouse. These are all expectations placed on women from the beginning of time. 

The idea of a housewife has become much more prominent because of the fact that men believe housework is only for the women to do. Most men in society believe that women are supposed to stay home, while they go out and make money, and come home to a cooked meal at the end of the day. I’m pretty sure if you ask most men to do certain chores such as laundry, they probably wouldn’t know where to start. But why does it have to be this way? Why can’t men pick up the broom or do the laundry every once in a while, why does it always have to be the women? I believe that men are just as capable of getting housework done, just as a woman is able to do all that and more. I also believe that if men were to help with the chores around the house to keep it clean and tidy, it would give the women a break, a breather. It would also help them feel like they are appreciated by their spouse. I believe the “housewife” title restricts the idea that women can be more than just that. Women can be lawyers, doctors, nurses, electricians, just to name a few, but because of this specific title, they aren’t seen as being capable of becoming that. 

In today’s society, the title of “housewife” often comes with a negative meaning behind it and has changed since being used during the Industrial Revolution. There is a look of disgust when a woman mentions that she is a housewife, they see her as idle or may think that her spouse is rich, which allows her to be one. Some women have children, take leave and then resort to being a housewife, instead of going back to work. However, in today’s society, we see women that balance the idea of being a housewife and having a regular job. This helps bring extra revenue into the household, instead of it always being the husband. I also believe that many more women in today’s world are independent and don’t want to depend on a man for money, making them more motivated to go out and work. For one, I aspire to be a woman that doesn’t need to depend on a man for anything, whether married or not. I don’t wish to hear a man try to belittle me either, as to only being a housewife and nothing more, as well as think he has more authority over me because they bring home the money. I can’t speak for all men, but luckily, there are some men who help their wives with chores around the house and don’t leave it all to them. In all honesty, I wish the term “housewife” wasn’t a thing because it degrades women’s capabilities as a wife, especially since the word came from a man. 

 

Citation 

Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class. Vintage Books, 1983.

The Role(s) of Marriage

The Role(s) of Marriage 

By: Shannon Dyett 

The idea of marriage is for two people who are deeply and irrevocably in love with each other to realize that one day they are no longer one individual person but a part of something more, something greater, half of one heart. With marriage comes compromise and sacrifice that both you and your partner must be willing to do and accept in order for your partnership to work. Now the role of marriage that society has implanted in us for decades and centuries that came before was that women were ‘designed’ to fulfill their duties as wives by taking care of the house that she and her husband live in. Cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, taking care of the children(if there are any) and basically being a slave and doing slavery work while all her husband does is go to work, come home and expect dinner to be done, the house to be cleaned and not a problem in site. In the excerpt from ‘The Feminine Mystique’ by Betty Friedan she stated “Their only dream was to be perfect wives and mothers; their highest ambition was to have five children and a beautiful house. They only fight to get and keep their husbands. They had no thought for the unfeminine problems of the world outside the home; they wanted the men to make the major decisions”. Some women are so blinded by the idea that they must keep their man or they would be looked upon as a woman that isn’t capable of marriage or isn’t worthy enough or good enough to be someone’s wife. Not realizing that it’s better to keep a man that doesn’t treat you like a slave than to keep one that does. 

Women since the 1800’s were always subjected to doing one thing and one thing only which was to always tend to her husband’s as well as her children’s needs and she could never object to doing so because in everyone’s eyes that was her one and only job. Women were always looked upon as people that should’ve been more than happy to be married to a man that was wealthy and had a good paying job and in return they do house work without complaining because ‘they should be more than grateful’ and ‘they’re lucky enough to have a man that pays for everything they need, the least they could do is obey and return the favor’.  In the book Women Race & Class written by Angela Y. Davis, it states two thing “Well – situated women began to denounce their unfulfilling domestic lives by defining marriage as a form of slavery” (Davis, 33) and “They seem to have ignored, however, the fact that their identification of the two institutions also implied that slavery was really no worse than marriage” (Davis, 34). 

What turns marriage into an abusive relationship is when the women who are obligated to fulfill their duties as housewives get fed up and tired and start to do less work than usual around the house. Their husbands would come home and see either the house is clean and food isn’t cooked or vice versa and start verbally abusing them to do better and say ‘I come home from a long day at work to find the house untidy or no dinner on the table, so what are we supposed to eat?’. As time passes and the wives continue to slack at home due to the fact that they get tired all the time from cooking and cleaning and taking care of the children that will turn the husband’s verbal abuse into physical abuse to the point where it will no longer be a marriage for the both of them where they love each other dearly till death do them part, it will end up being miss treatment for her till death do her part. If she is getting physically abused by her husband daily because of her lack of work in the house that is displeasing him, she would end up with one of two choices: either leaving him and saving herself or staying there continuously getting abused by ‘the love of your life’ to the point where she ends up 10 feet in the grave. 

But some women are afraid to leave their husbands for four reasons; they’re afraid that the husband would either come after them while they’re on the run and try to kill them because in some men’s minds it’s “either I have you or no one can”. If they have kids with their husband they stay for their children’s sake and carry on getting abused. Sometimes their husbands are the only men that were ever in their lives intimately so to leave and start over would be foreign to them. Lastly, which is the most common one of all, they believe that their husbands who abuse them daily have the capability of changing back to the lover they once knew years ago, especially when the husband’s shower them hours after with gifts and apologies to let them know that ‘they’ll do better next time, they promise’ or ‘they can change, they will change for you’. 

When they first start abusing you, the first thing they say is ‘I’m sorry you know I’ll never hurt you, it was a one time thing I’ll never do it again’ until they do it a second time then a third, to the point where you stop counting and really start to feel it. As Jahmene Douglas once said “Women should know that love doesn’t abuse you. It shouldn’t hurt you. Love cannot be redefined into ‘He only hit me once, I’ll let it slide.’ Love is happiness, not being neglectful, caring, being respectful, providing, having standards, kindness, standing up for the right things”. Women should never lower their standards to be with a guy who can support them financially but in return treat them like they aren’t humans with feelings. They are supposed to be love companions that treat each other equally, not domestically, especially in front of children. Whether the wife feels enslaved taking care of the house or whether she’s physically getting abused it still isn’t acceptable to treat her like an animal or like a slave because once upon a time you did manage to say the words ‘I do’. 

Citation

  1. Jahmene Douglas – https://www.azquotes.com/author/41632-Jahmene_Douglas 
  2. Betty Friedan “The Feminine Mystique” – https://via.hypothes.is/https://wgst1001.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/17925/files/2021/08/Excerpt-From-The-Feminine-Mystique-The-New-York-Times.pdf  
  3. Angela Y. Davis “Women Race and Class” – https://legalform.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/davis-women-race-class.pdf

Hidden Rage – Eliza Gonzalez

Hidden Rage

Women for so long have had to hide and suppress their rage. To be angry is to be impolite. To be rageful as a woman is disagreeable. It’s controversial and almost always is never taken seriously. While men are applauded and revered for raising their voices on topics that they are passionate about, women are seen as crazy and unstable. While anger in men is seen as decisive or done with purpose the opposite can be said of women when angered. Why is it that when women express such an important emotion they are seen in a negative light? In the article, “How Outdated Notions About Gender and Leadership Are Shaping the 2020 Presidential Race,” the authors state  “Because we expect women to be kind and communal, we sometimes like them less when they’re assertive or forceful. In contrast, we expect men to act like this, so they don’t face the same pushback.” This can be noticed in women that run for any government position. When anger is presented the candidate is told she is uncontrollable and unfit to hold such an important position of power. While men are promoted to have such emotions because if they don’t they would be seen as weak. 

They would be looked at as a woman. 

The worst fear for men, something that keeps them awake at night, is the thought of being compared to a woman. To lack anger is to be feminine and to be feminine to men is the most shameful thing in the world. Men often say that women are too emotional and then go on to complain that as men they are not allowed to show emotions. What many of them forget is that anger is in fact an emotion. A strong and compelling one at that. Many men use anger as a substitute for all and any emotions they feel. While they have had full reign over the emotion women have had no opportunity to make use of it. Anger has been the leading cause of so much change in the world when used for the better. In the 1960s, women of the time used their anger and rage to push forward in their fight for equality. Anger and outrage are such important tools that when used correctly they can change the outcome of any situation.

While all women are taught to shy away from anger, women of color are the most affected when showing even the slightest form of it. Hurtful and harmful stereotypes begin to develop in communities that still exist today. Like the feisty Latina or the angry black woman. Each stereotype demeans the woman’s anger and puts their feelings and emotions on the backburner. They are seen as a joke and something to be wary of. 

It’s important to not only feel all emotions but have them heard by the people around you. Anger and rage are common emotions that all people feel and should be taken seriously no matter what gender one identifies with. 

Abrams, Allison. “The Power and Shame of Women’s Anger.” Psychology Today, Sussex            Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/nurturing-self-compassion/202002/the-power-and-shame-women-s-anger.

Chemaly, Soraya. “How Women and Minorities Are Claiming Their Right to Rage.” The   Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 11 May 2019, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/may/11/women-and-minorities-claiming-right-to-rage.

DeANGELIS, TORI. “When Anger’s A Plus.” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological              Association, Mar. 2003, www.apa.org/monitor/mar03/whenanger.

 

 

For The Love of Men: A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity by Elizabeth Plank

When the world seems completely doomed, coming across glimpses of light provides a sense of relief and hopefulness. This is exactly what it felt like when I came across Liz Plank’s book: For the Love of Men, A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity.

When considering the old fashion two-gender norm, we have seen traces of toxic patriarchy influence both parties. However, Liz Plank mentions, “I’ve long focused on the numerous consequences of the patriarchy for women because there’s no shortage of them.” And while there is no shortage of the conversations we have about the patriarchy harming women, we rarely discuss how it has affected the men from within.

For years, there have been countless hills women have encountered at the expense of the patriarchy. Even during some of the most insurmountable battles, women miraculously triumphed over them and continue to do so today. Women have shown a great deal of strength to fight off the relentless effects of the patriarchy by initiating conversations, movements, and reform.

In Plank’s words, “take a moment to put a gender lens on men … although the news often focuses on the threats of terrorism, natural disasters, and nuclear war, there is no greater threat to humankind than our current definitions of masculinity.” On the surface, masculinity may seem like a regular component found within men’s genetic foundation. The common knowledge we possess is that men produce more testosterone, thus being more masculine compared to their female counterparts. But how do we define masculinity beyond biology? An even greater question is how have we been enforcing it? 

Today, masculinity reeks of ego, power struggles, and entitlement; or what Twitter refers to it as, “big dick energy”. These three traits collectively intertwine to fuel and promote global toxic masculinity. It is an unfortunate reality that starts at a young age. “It presents itself in subtle ways, such as the way we raise boys differently from girls. It starts when we equate emotion with weakness and direct boys to display strength no matter what.” Some ideologies we have imposed for boys to follow are to not cry, suppress feelings, and dominate. This becomes dangerous because, “… when half the population gets trained to block emotions, they lose the ability for compassion.” Not being allowed to have compassion narrows healthy emotional freedom, while at the same time giving no other choice than to behave aggressively thus; prompting multi-faceted violence. Our society has constructed this behavioral and  performance manual for boys to follow well into manhood. We encourage it through many ways starting with the well known phrase “boys will be boys”.

We imply the acceptance of a boy’s aggressive behaviors by never checking them. We have accepted their behavior to be normal because we assume a male’s natural way of being rests on masculinity. We then turn a blind eye to the fact that men continue to have the unfortunate burden to prove their masculinity on a daily basis. And then, we act surprised when men go on mass shootings or create organized crime or partake in terrorist groups. Overall men have been deprived of emotional expression, constantly pressured into proving their masculinity, while at the same time surrounded by emasculating narratives. As Plank mentions, “when idealized masculinity scripts go unchallenged, emasculation doesn’t just become a tool of the state against foreign enemies, it can become a weapon the state uses against its own people.” The faulty definitions of masculinity have been the driving force to keep susceptible men in line with their aggressive behavior to permit violent actions, causing inevitable long term consequences.

Masculinity can exist but overlooking toxic masculinity cannot be allowed anymore. Toxic masculinity has become an insidious radical ideology that has claimed many men and counting. It is time for the world to take a good look at how dangerous toxic masculinity has become and accept that we can no longer allow it to continue. Plank states, “we do not know enough about what a world without toxic notions of masculinity could look like to be pessimistic about it.” We are fortunate enough to see changes in our world regarding gender identity go beyond the constricts of the binary norm. We have also seen women reshape the lifestyles they were once limited to, it is now time to welcome a new age for men as well. 

The concept of behavior equaling gender identity has proven itself to be immensely harmful. It is a firm tactic that is structured and maintained by the same people who benefit from it. As mentioned by Plank, “the conversation we need to have about men is not distinct or separate from the one we’ve had and will continue to have about women. In fact the gendered expectations holding girls back are born out of the same system that creates limitations for boys.” We can no longer tolerate structured limits on each other through any means. We can start by having mindful conversations around these concepts, prioritize emotional intelligence, and promote the idea of a “good man” while abolishing the ideas of what it means to be a “real man”.

Planks’ book challenges the way we have been perceiving masculinity and how we can keep an open mind about the way it’s been dominating our world. Women have been amazing at fighting back the toxic masculinity found within the patriarchy because they were strong enough to highlight their pain. But have we ever thought to think how the patriarchy could be harmful to its own members? After all—hurt people, hurt people.

A huge thank you goes out to women, including Liz Plank, for their endless advocacy and humane efforts to encourage a better world to live in. However, it is important that we do not forget about our male counterparts. Let’s provide a helping hand through mindful conversations created in safe spaces for men to break away from societal constructs. It is a social responsibility we are very familiar with so its only fair we show them how its done!

Marriage!? by Rukhshona Uktamova

Marriage?! 

Rukhshona Uktamova 

          What is marriage? Two love birds living together? Escaping oppression or walking into oppression? A form of punishment? A form of freedom? Liberation? A form of slavery? Paradise? The book Women Race & Class written by Angela Y. Davis brought up many good important issues and topics about women’s history. Some topics are legacy of slavery, birth of women’s rights, racism during the women suffrage movement, women’s education and liberation, rape, women’s role in housework and more. Throughout the book Davis show how women throughout history has faced many unfairnesses, they had to fight in order to have rights to education and to get job outside of their homes. In the book Women Race & Class written by Angela Y. Davis, it states “Well – situated women began to denounce their unfulfilling domestic lives by defining marriage as a form of slavery” (Davis, 33). I respectfully disagree to some extend with this thought that middle class women had because slavery is just more than working for less to no pay it is when one person is treated as property with no rights. Slaves are not free, women are. In the text it said, “They seem to have ignored, however, the fact that their identification of the two institutions also implied that slavery was really no worse than marriage” (Davis, 34). Slavery in my opinion was so much worse than marriage, being taken away from your home, getting separated from your family, forcing to work in difficult conditions for long hours less pay and less food, getting raped by white men, and getting whipped and chained for trying to escape, cruel treatment is not same as marriage. Yes, marriage can be challenging, difficult, especially when the wife is a full-time employee, full-time mother, and a house worker but at least you are at your own home with your family. You chose to get married, to have kids, to work outside of home, slaves did not choose to be slaves.  

          During slavery, White women and Black women couldn’t really get a long because White women believed they were superior to Black women when they were really not. They treated them poorly, Black women were maids, and nannies. When White women started working outside of home, they faced similar unfairness like Black women faced. Long hours of work but low pay. Because of the similar conditions White women compared their situation to slavery. Then they came together and fought for their rights. In 1833, Philadelphia Female Anti – Slavery Society was created and “…enough white women were manifesting their sympathetic attitudes toward the Black people’s cause to have established the basis for a bond between the two oppressed groups” (Davis, 34). You don’t know what somebody is feeling and going through until you wear their shoes, so after experiencing similar treatment White women understood what Black women were going through. “….they learned how to challenge male supremacy within the anti – slavery movement” (Davis, 39). By helping others, White women’s political involvement increased. 

      So, marriage is still not a form of slavery, it can be a blessing, there are people who are out there who want to have their own family, kids and loving partners. There are women who are infertile, who can’t have kids and wanting to have kids. Taking care of your kids shouldn’t be a burden and shouldn’t only be the women’s responsibility. Men did take action in bringing the kids to life they shouldn’t say I am babysitting their own child or helping their wife when they are doing the home chorus. Because cooking and cleaning are basic life skills that everybody needs to learn and use. Women are hardworking, patient, strong individuals if they think marriage is a form of slavery because they are moms, wife, cleaning lady, cook, nanny, worker in factory all at the same time, they should look on the bright side. They are going to advance their multi-tasking skills, they can be role models for their kids, they can increase family income, enjoy their salary by spending on what they want they don’t need to ask for money. If they couldn’t handle this God wouldn’t give them all of this. God gave them all of this because he knows women are capable and strong enough to do anything that they set their mind to.  

Citation  

Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class. Vintage Books, 1983. 

Gender Equality

Gender equality is having equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities for all genders. In some countries around the world, Men are given more power and have control over women. They believe that women should stay home to handle all the housework and take care of the kids while their husband goes to work. When the husband gets home from work, dinner should be ready, and the house should be clean. I don’t feel there is anything wrong with this if it’s what keeps a marriage in a good place, but I also feel that in a marriage there are many ways to support each other. Life today is very hard, and everything is very expensive. If there is more than one income at home, it is easier to cover the expenses.  In the S.T.A.R interview, Sylvia Rivera mentions that she doesn’t believe that a transvestite or a woman should do all the washing or all the cooking and do everything that’s forced on by society and the establishment that woman have to do this (12). I agree with what Rivera believes because if you are in a relationship and you really love someone, you will support that person in every way that you can.

 

Everything at home should be 50/50 like one day you will cook and the next day your spouse will cook. One of the first questions I get asked when I’m getting to know someone is, “Do you know how to cook?” I know many married couples who both the husband-and-wife handle all the responsibilities at home whether it’s cleaning, cooking or taking care of the kids. They don’t do it because someone told them they are supposed to, they do it because they love each other, and they are there to support one another. If we want to see change in the world, we must change the way we think. Growing up, I always heard “The man should always pay.” Why should the man always pay? Just because he’s a man? I don’t feel there is anything wrong with a woman treating a man to dinner or buying him a nice gift to make him feel special. I have been on dates in the past where I paid for dinner or movies. When you are in a relationship or married, you do anything you can to make sure that person is always happy. Just like women, men also love to feel appreciated.

 

Revealing the Truth about Science

TESTING As Stryker has said “Medical practitioners and institutions have the social power to determine what is considered sick or healthy, normal or pathological, sane or insane –and thus, often, to transform potentially neutral forms of human difference into unjust and oppressive social hierarchies”(pp. 51-52) 1. We, as a more progressive era of humans, have already started to blur the lines that separate humans into specific categories based on how we were biologically put together, in terms of sex, race, and body and how we present ourselves to the world after having experienced our version of life; while questioning, who gave the majority the power to enforce what is biologically right or wrong with human nature. We, as forward thinking people need to focus on “Dismantling a system that recklessly sorts all of us into biologically based categories of embodied personhood deemed more or less worthy of life” (Xii, Prologue) 2.

TESTING We tend to take on science as a fact without taking into account that scientists are humans with their own biases and perceptions which leak into the “impartial” data they are trying to convey to the public. However, science is not safe from the political nor how this “unprejudiced” data shapes our society and continues to be passed down through generations unquestioned. In the words of Stryker, “Society tends to be organized in ways either that deliberately or unintentionally favor the majority, and ignorance or misinformation about a less common way of being in the world can perpetuate harmful stereotypes and mischaracterizations” (p. 7-8) 3. To elaborate, even if it were possible to create a study that would include every human difference, be it biological, cultural, sexual, etc., there is still a group of scientists driven by their own thoughts or agendas deciding how they want to interpret the data and present it to the world. There is an audience that they intend to present to, or appease, and this could be for funding purposes, as a means to an end, or to support the belief of the majority in society depending on the social issues of the time.

TESTING If in some possible way we could have completely unbiased results of studies or tests, how that neutral data would be presented to the general public would still be leaning to appease the majority or risk being rejected, ignored, or tossed to the wayside regardless of factuality. Science has amended its facts many times over multiple eras and have deemed what should be relevant and therefore funneled to the public and also what should be retracted or disregarded due to ignorance, political shifts, or human error. My point being that medical science biases can make or break movements that lean toward inclusivity, to align with Stryker once more, “Medical science has always been a two-edged sword—its representatives’ willingness to intervene has gone hand in hand with their power to define and judge” (p. 52) 4.

TESTING In a society that profits off of exclusivity, it is necessary to break away from the social or cultural conforms, while focusing on pushing for the equity of all human nature rather than the equivalence of “lower” or “lesser” lives in terms of worth, be it class, race, sexuality, or gender also known as the minority being boosted up to the privileges of the “higher” or “better” or those more worthy of life, also known as the majority. Just as there are multiple perceptions, religions, and interpretations of the world we live in, there is also no way to measure which viewpoint is right or wrong or should be enforced or disregarded. Society tends to have a hard time identifying with the humanity of another person if they can’t understand what a person is trying to personify, especially if it is outside the knowledge of their life experiences. This tends to lead to an instant adverse reaction, usually resulting in a slew of negative emotions, to name a few, fear, panic, disapproval, disgust, contempt, hatred, dread or outrage. This then leads to physical violence, a couple of examples are genocide or murder, and/or emotional violence, directed against the person who is perceived as divergent. This leads to generational disparity, presenting itself in psychological traumas, the regression of the part of society considered outcasts, undeserving, or unfit to be a human amongst other human beings, and unconscious social biases that get perceived as truth.

TESTING I am not saying we should completely snub scientific fact, as we as a people crave recognition and understanding of the world around us, what I am saying is to use the information for inclusivity of all people, rather than to label, demean, or exclude any group or groups of people based on genetics, biology, psychology, or different ways we present our person. There is a historical pattern where science has been used to berate, disregard, or choose who is worthy of having the better quality of life, when we all begin with life and we all end with death and there should not be a need to categorize life, but learn about it and accept each other no matter the difference of person. Our goal moving forward should be to acquire acceptance of all through knowledge, be it scientific or experience based, and not to use this newfound knowledge for means of exclusion, politics, social agendas, the suppression or eradication of a people.