My real name is Heidi Hosmer, but please, call me Gryphyn. I am currently a senior here at the University of Central Florida seeking two degrees -- a Psychology B.A. and a Political Science B.S. -- and as such will probably be spending another semester here and graduating in Fall 2010. I am also a Creative Writing minor, so I'm probably going to have quite a bit of fun with these blog assignments. If I can get into CRW 3211, I might even integrate my service learning in this class into my nonfiction assignments. I recently stepped down as president of Heavy Metal Knights, and am currently advising the newest batch of young officers. I am also an active member of Campus Freethought Alliance. I probably would have been more involved in student groups and such if it hadn't been for my job as a decorator at Publix; I recently quit, so I'm looking forward to getting involved in a lot of new activities as I finish up my college career.
I live off-campus with my boyfriend of five years, and a roommate of five weeks. My boyfriend and I have a baby together; a Bombay/Siamese mutt of a cat named Zarathustra. Our roommate has a tabby named Apples, but so far our babies do not yet get along with each other. When I finish school I would like to move up north, to New Hampshire, Massachusettes, or maybe even New York or Rhode Island. But, since my boyfriend just started school at Valencia East Campus last semester, I will probably be stuck in Florida until he finishes. I want to work with at-risk youth and juveniles either through counseling at a runaway shelter or though the Department of Juvenile Justice as a social worker. Once I get settled down somewhere with a real career, I hope to take my first well-earned vacation to either the fjords of Norway, Iceland, or maybe even Scotland.
And now, to the important questions: why take Women's Studies? You want the truth? Because I care even less about other minorities. Because that's what I have to study to fulfill my "diversity requirements" for my psychology degree. I was going to try to get into "Gender Issues in Communication" instead because it at least seemed a little more practical, but after I came to the first class for this class, I thought I might come to like it. The professor seems likable, the peer group seems energetic, and now that I'm not working a part-time job, I would really like to participate in a class with Service Learning. I am open minded about the material, but I have a feeling I'm going to be somewhat of a devil's advocate during discussions.
Now when we talk about "gender" here, I'm assuming we mean gender and not sex. The differences between the sexes can be summed up pretty quickly and simply: vagina vs. penis, menstrual cramps vs. blue balls, breasts vs. pecks, and verbal skills vs. visio-spatial skills. There are a few other petty differences between the sexes, but it's generally very, very simple. But when we talk about differences between genders, everything gets a little more complicated. Gender is more like an idea, a concept, nothing so concrete and easy to determine as sex. In humans, there are two genders, male and female, but a lot of people have characteristics that can be described as somewhere in-between. Sometimes someone's gender and sex doesn't match up, so that their sex is male, but their gender is female, or visa-versa. There are certain behaviors and attitudes we generally associate with each gender. Psychologically, gender can be a very complex and fascinating subject.
But beyond psychology, to the more political, I find a little less interesting. I know feminism doesn't mean what I probably think it means, but when I think of feminism, I can't help but think of crazy lesbians burning their bras and trying to tear down the established power structure. I know that feminism is about gender equality, not matriarchy, but then why call it feminism? Why not call it "genderism" or maybe "androgenism"? Even "sexism" would make more sense to refer to gender equality if it wasn't already taken to describe, well, gender inequality. Personally, I like androgenism. I might use that again later. Feminism seems even more like biased language to me than the word "mankind".
While on the subject of biased language, I would like to announce my unwillingness to use the word "humankind"; it just sounds stupid to me outside of the context of a science fiction novel. The Germans use the word "mann" to refer to the whole human race with an unbiased connotation, so I don't see why us English-speaking women should get so offended over the word "mankind". Woman is a type of man anyway, it's not like we're not meant to be included in that phrase. I'd also rather not use the phrase "he or she" because it's just too damn cumbersome; I'll probably use "they" instead. Though it is considered gramatically incorrect to use "they" rather than "he or she", it is slowly becoming an accepted use of the word.
Women's Studies seems a bit biased too, don't you think? I mean with all these diversity requirements, no one ever thought to open a class on Men's Studies? What about White Studies, don't we get to explore what white people exclusively have done? Don't they count when it comes to diversity? With all the emphasis in today's world on "diversity" and "cultural sensitivity", no one stops to think how this is affecting the white males of today's society. Now I know what you're thinking; "Well they've been the ones with all the power for centuries! They still have plenty of advantages, they'll be fine!" But seriously, how is that attitude supposed to promote "gender equality"? I'll give you a clue: it doesn't. Diversity certainly benefits minorities, both of race and gender, but because of this emphasis on diversity and minorities, it is somehow taboo to celebrate the accomplishments of the majorities. The majorities should be as free and enabled to celebrate their achievements and explore their own unique experiences as minorities now are. I think now is an especially critical time to start exploring the unique experiences of men, how they have been affected by growing up in increasingly single-parent woman-dominated families, and how their loss of sex-based power and status in society has changed them overall. For anyone who truly believes in gender equality, these are the real questions they should be asking themselves.
I could probably go on and on answering these suggested questions, but I think I've fulfilled the assignment prompt amply. Oh, I also read and understand the syllabus and agree to all its terms, except where I specified earlier in this letter that I plan to continue using some of the so-called "biased" language.
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ReplyDeleteYou appear to have a very interesting model of sex and gender!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I can't speak for the field of psychology, in sociology and anthropology one's 'sex' is determined by a collection of biological determinants while one's one's 'gender' is determined by a collection of social determinants. One's sex cannot be changed without altering one's biology; one's gender can be changed by changing how one presents ones self to society at large.
Of course, there is debate over which biological or social determinants should be used to differentiate between different sexes and different genders and over how many sexes or genders there are. Here, you argue that "there are two genders" and, so it appears, that there are two sexes (if I've misinterpreted your argument, please let me know! It's certainly happened before).
Although it may be beyond the scope of blog comments (and the scope of this course!), I want to propose some differing opinions.
First, sex: Why are there only two sexes? In her article "The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough", Anne Fausto-Sterling proposes a model that uses 5 sexes. Using a chromosome-based set of determinants, we have two predominant sexes (XX and XY) and a set of rarer sexes (XXX, XXY, etc), currently defined as different disorders. A hormone-based approach to sex differentiation, though now generally rejected, creates a continuum of sex dependent on the levels of testosterone and estrogen in an individuals body.
Second, gender: as you argue here, gender is generally considered to be socially constructed. However, there are quite a large number of people that fall outside of the dichotomy of "man or woman". Where do transfolk fall? Genderqueers? Guydykes and girlfags? For all of those people, simply asking "Are you a man or a woman?" is not enough.
Also, you may be interested in looking at Gender Studies. In many places, Women's Studies programs have been replaced with/renamed as Gender Studies to explicitly state an interest in not just the study of femininity, but also masculinity and queerness.
*edited for grammar
I am very aware that there is a lot of "grey area" in sex and gender, and that there are a lot of theories on the subject, and that gender and/or sex may go beyond just male and female, etc. etc. I haven't exactly taken a class focusing exclusively on these ideas, so I wasn't about to go into detail about them, but I am aware of the concepts and theories. Please understand, I was trying to be as simple and general as possible for the sake of brevity.
ReplyDeleteI probably would prefer a gender studies class -- or even as our professor mentioned in class today, a "masculine studies" class -- but this semester I was lucky to get into anything since I signed up last minute.
UCF, sadly, isn't one of those places that has changed from Women's Studies to Gender Studies. They only offer one or two classes on gender or queer theory specifically, though queer theory has been touched on in a few of the sex and gender oriented classes I've taken.
ReplyDeleteI definitely understand the inability to go into detail in these short little blogs - I tried to pack as much content as I could into my own, but I ended up having to edit out a good three fourths of what I wrote to get down to around 500 words. I spent all of last semester in classes that dealt specifically in sex, gender, family and society so I have a tendency to explode off into "TL;DR" comments on the subject at the drop of a hat now.
As a writing major, one of the hardest things I've had to learn is how to cut down my jabber.
ReplyDeleteHeidi , as a well developed write, tell me how my jabber is doing?
ReplyDeleteRyan