Gender, Sexuality, Race, And Religion Essay

“How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” is in the first story collection of Junot Diaz that was published in 1996. Junot Diaz was born in Dominican Republic, he moved to the United States at the age of seven. He is currently a creative writing teacher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Meyer 97). In the short story, Diaz describes how a teenage boy approaches romantic relationships and characterizes the girls based on their race and social class, instead of focusing on their individuality. The author also adds some sarcastic details to point out that a relationship should be built on trust, not massive lies. In the book Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, Barry defines narratology “as the study of how narratives make meaning, and what the basic mechanisms and procedures are which are common to all acts of story-telling” (Barry 214). Barry also introduces the narrative theories of famous narratologists - Aristotle, Vladimir Propp, and Gerard Genette. In Genette’s theory, he discusses six areas including narrative mode, focalisation, kinds of narrators, timing, types of narratives, and different types of speeches. The story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” answers six questions from the theory of Genette and has successfully depicted Diaz’s theme regarding the impact of gender, race, and social class on one’s behavior towards others,

An intersectional approach is an approach which seeks to demonstrate how race, class, gender and sexuality make certain experiences different. Intersectionality is the overlapping of social categories such as race, class, gender and sexuality that leads to further discrimination against a certain individual or group. To take an intersectional approach to understand race, class, gender and sexuality, is to consider hardships not as a similar element for all individuals without regards to race, but instead consider where in a specific hardship different races, genders, classes and sexualities are affected different. According to Crenshaw, “many of the experiences Black women face are not subsumed within the traditional boundaries of race or gender discrimination as these boundaries are currently understood, and that the intersection of racism and sexism factors into Black women’s lives in ways that cannot be captured wholly by looking at the woman race or gender dimensions of those experiences separately” (Crenshaw, 357). Crenshaw explains that the personal experiences of women of color cannot be fully understood by looking at race or gender discrimination as two separate factors, but in fact can be understood if both aspects are looked at together. When race and gender are examined separately, this causes for women of color to be “erased”. Crenshaw says, “ And so, when the practices expound identity as “woman” or “person of color” as an either/or proposition, they relegate

Race, Class and Gender issues are commonly brought up. Throughout history many groups have been stigmatized not just for their race, but for their sex, and class as well. People of lower class incomes get slandered for where they live and for not having the economical means to purchase most common goods. Women have been considered the weaker sex for centuries, and currently, some of the old fashioned and ignorant theories on women being subordinate to men prevail.

Within the last decade society has become more open to ideology and lifestyles that years ago were tabo. This is largely due to the fact that the millennial generation may be one of the most laid back and accepting generations of all time. One major lifestyle that was rarely expected was homosexuality within the last decade this issue is no longer in the closet. Most people feel comfortable being open about their lifestyle choice and even show it off. Shortly after the acceptance of gays by society a new issue presented itself and this is transgender people. The community as whole fights for their rights together and it is referred to as LGBTQ. LGBTQ means lesbians, gays, transgender, bisexual, and queer. The LGBTQ community has made great progress in the last decade they have become more open about their community and have gained rights that they should have always had. Even though the community has made progress they still have a long way way to go especially within the workplace.

Women are empowered, encouraged and even pressured into being involved in a sport or some type of fitness activities today; however, it hasn’t always been that way (Cahn 278). In the 1920s, also known as the “golden age” of sports, women and young girls faced obstacles such as rejection, gender discrimination, and stereotypes when showing interest in sports or fitness activities. One famous author named Susan Cahn, wrote a book called Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sports, and focuses on the decades between the 1920s and the 1960s. For most of the 19th century, females were accused of causing a great deal of danger to the moral and physical areas of masculinity. Through the research of multiple different aspects, such as media, appearance, and gender roles, Cahn puts together an idea and theme that athleticism is seen as a masculine trait because it was once constructed by society itself; which fortunately for the women, that idea can be changed. In the later centuries, Cahn writes about the progress of woman 's appearance in sports, however then describes the difference in respect, attention throughout media, opportunities and wages between men and women. Through both primary sources such as newspapers, interviews, and journals, as well as secondary sources like relevant literature, Cahn writes her book in a historical non-fiction genre. After reading Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sports by Susan

Many parents voice a fear about their child learning about gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. They think that hearing, seeing, or learning these things will influence their child. According to research, however, no matter how often children are exposed to these topics they still will make their own decisions later on in life on the matter. Often parents are upset when they hear their children are learning about these terms because they do not know the dictionaries definitions for these words are. According to webster; gender is the state of being male or female, the word typically used to reference social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. Gender identity is a person’s perception of having a particular gender that may not correspond with the sex they were given at birth. Sexual orientation is a person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they are attracted. Many times a person’s sexual orientation can be labeled as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. Diversity is an important lesson to teach children especially at a young age. To understand how to best teach diversity about gender in a classroom background information, teaching strategies, and student’s understanding of diversity is important.

Society should be more open minded with the topic of gender identity. Our society does not like rapid changes when they are publicly made; there is always a dispute or an opposition against those unexpected changes. The LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual) community is the “rapid change” that society finds difficult to deal with. Although, this community has always existed, but it has never been publicly recognized like it is today. Gender Identity is a very complicated topic to talk about because it has so many concepts that only those who find themselves as part of the LGBTQIA+ community can fully understand.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, also known as LGBT population have experienced a great deal of oppression worldwide. These particular individuals undergo discrimination from society, whether for reasons of ignorance, fear or intolerance, this population faces challenges in multiple areas of social justice sexual. Although the LGBT culture has made some strides in the areas of state and federal legislation, there is still a wide range of criminalization that takes place within our culture. Understanding the LGBT community and the history of their oppression may be the first step in becoming culturally competent. For many years this culture was denied their basic constitutional rights that were afforded to their equal heterosexual peers. Basic rights such as, adoption and marriage were uncommon to this culture until the 20th century.

Sex culture in modern day Japan has demonstrated to be an integral part of their cultural identity and is more progressive than any other countries. Japan’s sex culture has surpassed boundaries that are standardized in other countries. The West sees the Japanese as emotionless, controlled and even sexless. Publicly they are shy, reserved and terribly proper, however Japan is an extreme contradiction. If we examine the surface of their culture, the private life of these Japanese people can be a real eye opener. The role of sexuality and more specifically the role of pornography in women’s lives is perhaps the biggest debate among the people from the West. This paper will examine how pornography is gendered in Japan and the effects of this to the West. It will also delve into the Japanese cultural identity and its contradistinction to the American cultural identity. An important argument that people may debate about is the fact that Japanese people have the oddest sexual culture that outstands their cultural identity.

Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male

During the 12th century Reformation, the number of anchorites increased dramatically. Most of these anchorites’ gender was not recorded, showing the inapplicability of gender. According to theorist Judith Butler, “…gender can be regarded as a private and public behavioural performance.” Butler also recognizes that gender is a performance of “acts, gestures, and desire [which] produce the effect of a internal core or substance… that saddest, but never reveal, the organizing principle of identity as a cause.” Due to a shift in gender roles, gender characteristics were abandoned through social, spiritual, and physical transformation. Gender was becoming a twofold term, it was initiating flexibility. During the Middle Ages, women had the ability to socially transcend their gender and the superficial weaknesses of their bodies through devotion, chasteness, and asceticism.

What does it take to be a man or a woman? Our sense organs alone do not determine whether we are men or women. Our gender includes a multifaceted combination of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do we act, behave, and talk like a man or a woman? Each one of us has a sex, a gender, and a gender identity that are all aspects of our sexuality. These aspects describe who we are, in different personalities and attributes but related. Society’s categories for what is masculine and feminine may not capture how we truly feel, how we behave, or how we define ourselves.

Males and females are classed differently from the moment they are pronounced boy or girl. Gender determines the differences in power and control in which men and women have over the socioeconomic determinants of their health, lives and status in their community. Our society moulds how men and women should and should not behave and can be observed in all parts of our society. As a result of these Gender stereotypes men and women have issues which affect their health which are unique to each gender. Males for example are perceived to be greater risk takers as a whole in our society than that of females. We represent risk taking behavior with masculinity and violence, high speed driving and contact sport with the male gender. (Doyle 2005)

Society has clearly defined boundaries between what is considered to be male or female. The development of an individual’s gender role is formed by interactions with those in close proximity. Society constantly tells us how we should look, act and live based on gender. Family, friends and the media have a tremendous impact on how these roles are formed and the expected behavior of each gender role.

Gender and sexual orientation is a topic that has been and still today is not talked about in such a way it should be because of how society has chosen to structure and control it. Social stratification is a system in which groups of people are divided up into layers according to their relative privileges (power, property, and prestige). It’s a way of ranking large groups of people into a hierarchy according to their relative privileges (Vela-McConnell 2016). People, who deviate from the norm of the “accepted” gender and sexual orientation that society has placed upon us, are stratified below the norm of a dominating binary gender and sexual orientation. People who are queer face the struggle of mistreatment and an unaccepting society that has been socialized to see and act on gender and sexual orientation to being a dualistic system.