Failure to transform

This section is talking about homophobia within the black community. I thought it was interesting that the author herself is a black woman who is also a lesbian. She first explains that homophobia within the black community cannot be blamed on the whites. She believes it is the responsibility of the black community to admit their faults and choose to transform. She explained that African Americans after WWII began rejecting all “white values”. Manlihood or male supremacy was one of the white values that black people held onto. This can be seen as on of the reasons for homophobia. The author feels it is wrong to view homosexual lifestyles as a threat to the continued existence. Although homosexuals cannot reproduce with each other, most of them are still raising children. She also doesn’t think it is right to say the ultimate goal of families is to reproduce. I do agree with that. People should be able to do what they want to. Although I would not choose the homosexual lifestyle, I don’t look down upon those who do. I thought it was really interesting to hear the perspective of a black lesbian woman. I don’t personally understand why women choose to be lesbian so I liked reading about her viewpoints.

How men have sex

The little story at the beginning about the creatures who were many different sexes was really weird to me. It was crazy when he author explained that the creatures he was describing were really us. It is hard for me to understand the concept because I thought most human beings were distinctly male or female at birth. John Stonlenberg explains that instead, human beings are a mulitsexed species. Another thing that caught my attention was when he explained that the idea of the male sex is not real. The male sex is nonexistent. It has been socially constructed not chosen by human nature. I like how he addressed the issue of rape by questioning why “some of us with penises” feel they can do it. He explains one reason for sexual violence by men is because they have to prove their manliness so the lie of the male race seems true. I don’t agree with everything he says, although some of the points sound convincing. I do believe that there is a male and female sex and that certain people do belong in these categories.

opression: marilyn fry

When we as color people are not cheerful are smiling, we tend to scare people away. But we as color people always have to put that smile on just to get by because if we don’t, we won’t get by. I really enjoyed her writing because I feel that the author tells it how it is. Throughout the chapter, she challenges the thought that you do not have to be a person of color to be oppressed. She states that “human beings can be miserable without being oppressed and it is perfectly consistent to deny that a person or group is oppressed with denying that they have feelings or those that suffered”. The way that she put that opened me up to different views of oppression. Later on in the chapter she breaks down the word oppression into the word press. When she did this, the word oppression started to make a lot more sense to me. Another good quote that moved me was when she said that “it is often a requirement upon oppressed people that we smile and be cheerful”. I agree with that statement 100% because

occupied america

In this chapter the author talks about how everyone has it bad in the U.S but Chicanos got it the worst. I understand where he is coming from and why he feels that way. Everyone knows that no matter what people say, this land belonged to Hispanic first regardless of what is going on now. Throughout the chapter he really dwells on how bad Chicanos have it now a day and that it is not fair to them because they should not have to fight for what is there’s. A quote that really made a lot of sense to me was when the author said that “those who seek power are deprived of their humanity to the point that they themselves become the oppressors”

Privilege

Alison bouley describes how important it is to understand the role of privilege to truly understand what oppression means. When explaining oppression, I liked how she wants us to focus on the pig picture. Many people look at individual acts of oppression and are unable to see the true systemic cause of racism or sexism. I also liked how she clarified the difference between oppression and harm. “All persons who are oppressed are in some way harmed but not all persons who are harmed are oppressed”. Sometimes white students think black students have privilege because they get minority scholarship benefits and they may feel harmed by that. It upsets me when people say we are privileged because of the scholarship programs for minorities. I personally know what it feels like to be discriminated and denied certain opportunities because of the color of my skin and there is nothing I can do about it.

homophobia

The thing that really grabbed my attention in this section was when the author mentioned how a gay man was beaten and stabbed to death by ten teenage boys. It reminded me of the extreme racist acts performed by groups like the kkk. The author explains that there are different terms for being “anti-gay and the 2 most common are heterosexism and homophobia. Heterosexism is dealing mostly with the protection of heterosexist rights and privileges. He uses homophobia to refer more to “physical abuse and strong verbal, economic and juridical abuse against gays”. He does explain that both terms are political terms and are used differently in different situation. I really liked the statement “homophobia is a product of institutional heterosexism and gendered identity”. This again reminds me of racism because violent acts of racism can also be seen as a product of institution racism

gay sexism

I have never thought gay men were sexist against women. I always thought they loved women and wanted to be like them. The author talks about 3 ways that gay men can be sexist. The first is by ignoring them. The author says that gay men can ignore women easier that straight men because they are not attracted to women. The second way is mocking women’s attractiveness. One way gay men do this is dressing as a drag queen. I always thought it was just something that they did for fun. The author explains that drag can be a put down for women. The last type of seism he talks about involes gay men calling other gay men feminine names. I don’t really agree with his ideas of gay sexism. From my experiences, it has always appeared that gay men respected women more and can form better friendships with women.