Reflection

In some ways my social location (my home) is a fairly gender equal location, but in other ways my social location is not as equal as I may have previously thought. I still feel that it is a space where I am free to be myself and be respected for that, but I am better able to see the less obvious things that are going on around me in the way of gender equality/inequality.

 One of the biggest examples of this is from my image and discussion of patriarchy, in which I included an image of my mom cooking dinner for us after coming home from work. I had never really thought about that unequal work division in our home before, and I had certainly never thought about how it showed a form of patriarchy. But using these definitions and understandings I have gained through class, I can see how this gendered division of labor, while not fair, is something that most people (us included) participate in everyday without thought. A way in which this example could be rectified would be if I or my father, especially my father, would help my mother with the dinner preparations. Even if he isn’t comfortable cooking, he could do something like set the table before dinner or clear the table and put away leftovers after eating. Expecting my mom to do it simply because it’s her “job” as a woman isn’t fair to her. Another example that I was surprised to find in my home was the example of sexism, which I portrayed through a video game I own. This example comes from something that I purchased in order to have, and that I must choose to devote time to playing. While the game may not be blatantly sexist, there are hints and tinges of some of the negative or false gender norms and roles that we are taught from a very young age. Knowing that this type of media that I consume contains sexist content, I can only imagine what sorts of things I would find if I closely examined my reading material or movie collection. While these things may seem harmless because they are simply for entertainment, they still help perpetuate gender stereotypes that devalue or place women below men when it comes to skill, power, etc. In order to not support this kind of portrayal, I would have to become a much more conscious consumer and make sure to not blindly accept media that contains these subtle (or not so subtle) messages about gender and gender roles. 

This exercise allowed me to see that while my home is not a perfect gender equal zone, it does have its strong points. The things that I identified as contributing to gender stereotypes or inequality, in most cases, are things that could be fixed through a little effort and awareness on my part and the part of my family. In most cases we don’t do the things that we do to be sexist or to follow along with the patriarchal agenda, but we do these things nonetheless. By gaining the awareness to understand what exactly it is that we are doing, we are able to make a positive change in our social location if we so choose.

Sexism

The images that I have chosen for this term include cover and booklet art from one of my favorite video games from when I was younger. I wanted to especially emphasize the appearance of the main female character, Yuna.

To explore the idea of sexism I decided to look through my collection of video games. I have heard on and off for many years about how sexist video games can be towards women - objectifying them, portraying them as helpless and weak, and them simply not wearing enough clothing. While I knew that I didn't have any games that contained extremely obvious examples, I wanted to see in what ways the games I had enjoyed so much as a young teen contained more subtle forms of sexism. I chose to examine the game Final Fantasy X, and its main female character Yuna for a couple of reasons. First I really enjoyed this game, and therefore I devoted a lot of time and energy into playing it. This also meant that I remember a good bit about the plot, characters, and other aspects of it even though I haven't played it in years. A few key things stood out to me as I thought about the character of Yuna and how she is portrayed. While she is not scantily clad she does wear an extremely feminine outfit (which seems rather impractical when it comes time for physical battles that she can participate in). She is also shown as young, naive, and in need of protection - even though she herself is capable of very powerful magic. This magical ability is somewhat downplayed in the game's fighting system and she is more often used as a healer rather than a fighter, which could be seen as a more traditional female role for her to take on. Yuna is also prone to emotional outbursts and at times seems to act like a spoiled child. All of these things seems to relate to what Lorber calls "components of gender," and more specifically "gender statuses" which are "the socially recognized genders in a society and the norms and expectations for their enactment behaviorally...emotionally, and physically." (30)  Thought her behaviors, physical appearance, and emotional displays the character of Yuna is presented to the audience in a way one could consider typical of a female. She fits the "gender imagery," which is the "cultural representations of gender and embodiment of gender in symbolic language and artistic productions that reproduce and legitimate gender statuses." (30-31) I would argue that video games are a form of "artistic productions" that are created by a select few (often men), for mass consumption by a diverse population of consumers. Even in subtle ways these games can perpetuate and reenforce the gender norms that our society has in place for men and women.

Refusing to Take the Path of Least Resistance

This is a picture of a few of the various computer programs I used during the many years I was home-schooled. There is a math, a couple of science, and also an all in one program. I'm not really sure why we still have these because no one uses them.

I chose this picture to represent the concept of refusing to take the path of least resistance in the social location of my home. What this image represents to me is the time and effort that was put forth by my father to provide me with an education through home-schooling. The reason I feel that this embodies the concept that was introduced by Johnson is because it was my father doing the educating. Johnson defines paths of least resistance as something that "define[s] certain behavior and values as appropriate and expected." (79-80) I feel that the expected behavior on the part of my parents, and my father in particular, would have been to either send me to "regular" school like almost everyone else or for my mother to take up home-schooling while my father worked outside the home. My dad chose to stay at home with me while my mom went to work outside of the home, and in addition to being a caretaker to me he was also my teacher. In multiple instances I've had people react with surprise (and perhaps uncertainty?) when they hear it was my not my mother doing the home-schooling. They seem to question whether my father was "fit" for that task, and also question why my mother would not want to stay home with me. By engaging in this behavior, my mom and dad took the path of least resistance when it came to how they chose to raise me and parent me, and they often faced questions about why they did it the way they did. As Johnson says, some people may feel restricted and even trapped by the rules that are put in place by the systems around us, but it is easier to simply go along with those rules rather than make some sort of change. (80)

Patriarchy

This image portrays my mom fixing corn muffins to eat with our soup for dinner (which she also fixed). As you may or may not be able to tell, she is wearing her scrubs, because she usually starts fixing dinner almost as soon as she gets home from work.

When looking for an image of patriarchy taking place in my social location, I at first was at a loss as to what I could find that would represent that concept. I always had thought of patriarchy as this hugely negative thing that only certain people took part in, those types of people who didn't believe in the value of women, etc. But I realized after reading the Johnson article that patriarchy is a system that we all participate in whether we realize it or not, and even simple everyday things can be examples of it in our lives. I feel like my image is one that could have been taken in many homes, it is "traditional" for the woman of the household to prepare dinner. As Johnson states in his article, "to live in a patriarchal culture is to learn what's expected of us as men and women." (86) My mother learned from her mother that it is her job to prepare dinner for the family, and more specifically, for the husband. This is the way it has always been in my house, even though my mother works a full-time job outside the home. With very few exceptions, my mother comes home from work, and immediately starts fixing dinner. She usually makes an effort to work the dinner preparations and final meal around my dad's news watching schedule, ideally having everything ready and on the table when the news is over. Even though my dad could fix dinner himself, or even help my mom, he rarely if ever does so. This ties into the idea that because my mom is who she is, a woman and a wife, she is expected to make dinner for her husband. Because the system around us typically operates this way, we do also because it's easier to do so than try and change things. By going along with the system that is put into place, we take the path of least resistance. (79) In some ways this makes sense seeing it lends itself to order and everyone knowing what they should be doing, but at the same time it leads to a feeling of unequal shares of work. This unequal work distribution favors the male in my household, my father, so it's my family own little version of the patriarchal system taking place in our home.

Intersectionality

In order to examine the idea of intersectionality I felt it would be best to do so with two pictures. The top picture illustrates my race, which is white. The bottom picture illustrates my assigned gender on my driver's license, which is female.

The basic idea behind intersectionality is that any one person is made of multiple identities that are all operating at the same time. Some of these identities may provide an individual with privilege, while others may take away privilege. Two of my identities that I chose to show here are my gender - female, and my race - white. I feel like these two categories interact in an interesting way considering the privileges they do or do not confer. While some could argue that being a woman places me at a disadvantage (relative to men), at the same time some could also argue that being white places me at an advantage (relative to members of other races). These conflicting statuses may at times cancel each other out, for example while I may be a woman I am also white so my voice may be heard over individuals of different races. When it comes to women's' issues, often women of color voice's are not heard because the myth of white experience as the "norm" may push them aside. My experiences as a white woman are not going to match up to the experiences of a African American or Hispanic woman, so to allow only my voice to be heard in representing all woman is not accurate or fair. As Crenshaw states in Intersectionality and Identity Politics, "the problem with identity politics is that it frequently conflates or ignores intragroup differences." (484) This notion of one woman being able to represent and speak for all women on issues such as feminism or violence is an example of identity politics gone wrong. Intersectionality must be employed in order to understand that categories of difference such as race and gender are not things that can simply be broken apart into distinct packages. (485) In order to appreciate my personal experience that has shaped me, one must not only look at the fact that I'm white, but one must also understand that I am a young, able-bodied woman, who is currently a student, who came from a  middle-class background. All these identities play into who I am as a person and cannot be broken apart to be examined as mutually exclusive facets.

Heteronormativity

To represent heteronormativity being active in my social location I utilized an image that came into my social space through an advertisement in the newspaper. This ad is for a Valentine's Day contest that Windsor Jewelers is having to "share your love story with us and our readers," for a prize of a "stunning diamond hear pendant." It was a fairly large ad that probably took up about half the page that it was located on.

I knew that if I looked I would easily be able to find an ad like this one seeing it is almost valentine's day. I felt that this advertisement was a good instance of heternormativity taking place where one might not even think about it. Before learning this term in class I had no knowledge of it, although as soon as I learned it I could see it happening around me everywhere - and especially in mainstream media and advertising. This ad encourages people to share their love story, and uses an image of a smiling, happy, heterosexual couple to capture one's attention. While nowhere in this ad does it state that the couple must be heterosexual, and it only states "significant other," it is implied in many ways. The image obviously points towards an expectation of heterosexuality. Also the prize for winning this contest is a "stunning diamond hear pendent," which seems to be the sort of thing that a man might give to his wife/girlfriend/etc, not so much that a man might give to his husband/boyfriend/etc. This idea of a push for heteronormativity in subtle (and not so subtle ways), reflects Martin and Kazyak's definition of it, which is "the multiple, often mundane ways through which heterosexuality overwhelmingly structures...'everyday existence.'" (316) One might not think much about this advertisement at first glance, it is simply a call for a Valentine's Day themed contest. But if one thinks a little deeper, one can see that the way this contest is presented to us is an example of a mundane way heteronormativity is active in our lives. The very fact that heterosexuality is the norm is why this ad seems unremarkable at first glance, and also why it stands for a lot more if one examines it closer. I can't help but wonder how the individuals running this contest would react if a couple outside the "normal" scope of heterosexuality would enter this contest.

Privilege

This image is of something that is with me whether or not I'm in my social location. It is a picture of my hand, and more specifically of the fact that I identify as a white individual.

This image is one that I feel represents not only the concept of privilege well, but also my awareness (or lack of) of the concept. At first when I had to think of an image for this term I had a hard time thinking of something in my social location that could stand for the idea of privilege. When McIntosh speaks of privilege, and in particular white privilege, she says that it is "an invisible package of unearned assets that [she] can count on cashing in each day, but about which [she] was "meant" to remain oblivious." (1) I personally can relate to this description of white privilege in my day-to-day life. Until I got to college, I was fairly oblivious to the ways in which being white impacts my daily experience. Through various classes I became more aware of what my whiteness was doing for me without me even knowing it was happening. Even now acknowledging and understanding white privilege is still something I have a hard time with. Coming back to my image I feel like it accurately shows the relationship I have with my white privilege - it's there every day no matter what I do, but I often don't even think about it. The very color of my skin imparts an unfair and unearned advantage that other individuals may or may not have, simply based on the color of their skin. Being aware of this unearned privilege forces one to think about the world around you in a whole new light due to the awareness you have gained. It is something that I must come to terms with seeing it is something that I carry with me every day, much like that invisible knapsack McIntosh references.