Jamilah Dodd
5/2/14
Soci.170
What’s All this talk
about Race & Gender?
Having discuss chapter
13 in class which talks about Gender & Inequality I took more of the
chapter information in as a mental note when it began to talk about things like
feminism. I enjoy talking about this chapter most because it covers many
controversial topics like gender, gender stratification, matriarchy,
patriarchy, sexism, feminism, race, and ethnicity. Gender can be described or
defined as personal traits and social positions involving members of a society
attached to either men or women. When the
chapter discusses more about gender we get in to matriarchy and patriarchy.
Matriarchy is when you have women that are more dominant than the males and
Patriarchy is when you have men that are more dominant over the women. We also
talked about topics like sexism and institutional sexism. Sexism can be defined as a belief that one
sex is more superior to the other. Institutional sexism is the sexism that is
found in economy.
I also realized more
how much gender plays a role in the family. For example, when you have children
and you are deciding colors, whether it’s a boy or girl, and the handling and
expectations of the children. Gender also definitely exists in the school
setting simply by the way it shapes our beliefs and may even guide our areas of
study. Mass media also shows how women often times get the roles that have more
sex appeal and white male get center stage. Race and gender go hand and hand
when talking about inequality.
Both gender and race involve
inequality and discrimination. Race involves biological traits and although
many people may confuse race and ethnicity, ethnicity involves cultural traits
like languages and religion. More in depth, race also is linked to minorities.
A minority is any category of non white people distinguished by physical and or
cultural differences. An example would a
group of minorities like Mexican, Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, and Native
American. All of these races face racism, prejudice, discrimination, and
stereotypes. Like race, ethnicity, and minorities, many people don’t know the
difference between the four. I was one of those people who thought it was all
the same but learned that there is a difference. Racism is a belief that one
racial category is more superior to another. Prejudice is a rigid and unfair
generalization about an entire category of people. Knowing the difference
between the two helped me not have as many stereotypes against white people,
having always thought they were racist and prejudice.
I realized in this
chapter how much both race and gender play a role in my society today. After all
of the social movements we have had as a whole over time and fights for
equality, women will still have to fight harder for equal opportunities. For
example, my twin sister and I were voted most inspirational in high school and
were invited to attend the award ceremony the following week. At the ceremony
we were supposed to receive an award but because we didn't interact more with
our male faculty members, they did not vote for us even we put in a lot of
work.
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