falseadvsam

[falseadvsam]

Gender Performativity

Within the children’s youtube video, i was surprised about some of the answers to questions. When I  watch the children talk about what it means to be a girl or boy and some of them not really having a response, it revealed that what it means to be a boy or girl revolved around society and what is imposed on children. Other than biological differences, there is not much different from a boy or girl because at the end of the day, we all bleed the same.

That lead me into Judith’s argument about gender performativity. A few examples i could think of are color coded toys. When it comes to toys, “girl toys” are usually pink and purple whereas “boy toys” are blue and green, more masculine colors. I feel as though that pushes the idea of colors being for a certain sex but at the end of the day, a color is just a color. Another example i can think of are chores between siblings. Boys usually take out the trash while the girls clean the kitchen after dinner since girls “aren’t supposed to take out the trash”. But it is just something that society has imposed on us because chores are geared towards one gender.

In society, girls are expected to do girl things and boys are expected to do boy things. In my sociology class we talked about beauty standards in the media and how a lot of skin care or anything that involves cosmetics usually has a women at the center of it. My professor was revealing that in society women are seen to be obsessed with beauty and nothing more, as if they cannot hold anything more than sitting down and being pretty.

In conclusion, I do not think that this is something we can just ran away from. The gender norms that are imposed on us within the society will always be here. It is so rooted within society and history that it cannot just be let go. I am not sure what we could possibly do to fix it but as generations emerge, parents are raising their children differently such as more so being gender neutral and their child just attracts to whatever side that they end up attracting to.

CItations: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2T-Rh838GA

https://theconversation.com/how-toys-became-gendered-and-why-itll-take-more-than-a-gender-neutral-doll-to-change-how-boys-perceive-femininity-124386

[falseadvsam]

Diverse Communities

Personally for my experiences my community was not diverse but I was. That may not make sense when it is first read but let me explain. I am from Philadelphia and just like every other city it is split into economic class. My mom and dad’s side of the family are in North Philadelphia. North Philadelphia is close to Temple and it is known as a more low class neighborhood with a lot of violence. There are a lot of African Americans and a lot of violence occurs in the area. That is where my parents were raised and where my grandma still lives so i often go there a lot. I also go there in the summer because i work at a summer camp and i know everyone in the community. Even though I have been to North Philadelphia and know it like the back of my head, I live in far Northeast Philly. It is more suburban and there are a lot of white people within the neighborhood. There are only three black families mine included so it is not very diverse. I do not go outside much because the people there do not look like me and I feel as though I would feel uncomfortable because I am the minority but I still interacted. I interacted through my schooling because i went to a predominantly white middle school and high school so i did not have much of a choice. Both communities were not very diverse in itself with north philly being mostly black and northeast being mostly white but since i switched from one community to another constantly, i learned how to code switch within each and adjust to being around black people and white people. Being in this community did affect my thoughts on mostly white people since i was bullied by them in middle school even now in college, it is hard for me to trust white people and even communicate with me because i feel as though they would not understand who I am as a black female and not understand the struggles i may encounter. I feel as though this is long term detrimental effect and i think i may need to go to therapy because of it due to how much trauma i have went through and could not see it until i got older.

Reference List

Jones, C. (2018, February 8). Growing up black in a white community - youtube. Youtube. Retrieved March 4, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odrjYAYzIqk

Haskins, D. (2020, July 16). Oregon Black Filmmaker discusses growing up in a white suburb. kgw.com. Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/black-filmmaker-discusses-growing-up-in-a-white-suburb/283-b9d286e3-e14a-450a-8346-c2ed2e6b25ee

[falseadvsam]

1. For the first image, my friend Kiana had made this piece of clothing during spring 2020. During that time, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery were just murdered at the hands of police. My friend Kiana is black herself and she was expressing how she felt about all the situation and poured it onto the piece of clothing. It is a piece of her identity because she is black and a piece of mine because i am also black. So it connects to my community on a personal level because my own people are getting killed and society needs to know that black lives also matter.

2. In the second image, the young lady got a tattoo that represents her roots. She got a tattoo of a black women from Africa with flowers and the sun surrounding around it. The tattoo was very meaningful to her and it shows a representation of black women. In society, black women are not represented as much and i think people seeing this gives a good representation. Especially as a young black women as myself, representation matters.

Works Cited 

50 tattoos on black skin that are surely worth your attention - tattoosfolder - best tattoos, sketches and meanings. TattoosFolder. (2021, March 6). Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://www.tattoosfolder.com/tattoos-on-black-skin/

Instagram. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://www.instagram.com/

[falseadvsam]

This piece of artwork is apart of the Palmer’s African Collection.The artifact came from Sierra Leone in the mid century 16th or they believe even earlier than that. The artifact represents the Sapi people and it is made out of soapstone and sometimes steatite. Within the Sierra Leone culture, they would use the nomoli figures to protect their houses or to have a great crop for the season. The nomoli figures are also said to represent chiefs in tribes. i think in todays society just as they used the nomoli statue to protect themselves and have good crops, its the same as people using crystals to protect themselves from spirits and so forth. this activity relates to social construct because the statue looks like a man so it shows that during this time, the man was the leader and was praised. Just as they used the figure for protection and good crops, that could be what they believe a man to be and that a woman was not really much just for reproduction. In todays society, there is a little bit of ease on the social construct between women and and men due to the feminine movement.

https://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/item/SLNM.1962.11.29/nomoli