Skype Enhancing Learning

    Like mentioned in the first post, our class has covered a decent amount of material. One part of the class that our teacher Dr. Abbey has incorporated is having guest speakers via skype. A couple of weeks ago we had our first guest who goes by the name Shark-Fu. She writes regularly on here blog entitled Angry Black Bitch. When she came and spoke to our class a good amount of students including myself found it difficult to align with her approach to gender issues. One of her articles that caused some discrepancy was called Battle Hymn of Dangerous Black Woman. We had to read it before class and as we were waiting to connect with her via skype, my classmates started talking about it.
    Shark-Fu's thoughts when it comes to her activism seems to be focused specifically towards African-American women. The post she made about the Battle Hymn is a perfect example of this as it defines the gender and sex issues she discusses as relevant only to "black" females. This upset at least one of my classmates including myself. Shark-Fu's approach towards these issues is limiting. She is certainly focus on the little-d discourse here.
The second guest we had via skype was Doug Gertner, Ph. D. Personally I really enjoyed listening to him much more than I did Shark-Fu. Focusing on Men's Movements, Doug took the time to explain the various groups that are related to gender and sex issues. My favorite part had to be his Gender Role Journey: Five Phases in Our Own Lives. The path describes how progress is made in reducing sexism in one life. Here are the phases themselves:

1. Acceptance of Traditional Gender Roles
2. Ambivalence about Gender Roles
3. Anger
4. Activism
5. Celebration and Integration of Gender Roles

    For whatever reason I love these things because it really puts it into perspective. At times I find myself in many of these phases and by looking at them I can better understand why. Usually I'd say I'm somewhat stuck in-between 3 and 4 but honestly I find myself in every phase at some point (not so much Phase 1 I hope). The Gender Role Journey also reminds me of the Kubler-Ross Model or the Five Stages of Grief. I think that Phases 1-3 of Doug Gertner's are heavily related to this model.
    So going back to Shark-Fu, it seems to me that she comes off as being stuck in Phase 3 as well. After all her blog is entitled Angry Black Bitch. I'm pretty sure she does some activism as well but can't say for sure. Shark-Fu didn't click with me because it seemed like she believed that only "black" women can achieve their freedom for themselves. However I think that it's more than that. These issues are just microcosms of the human condition. The Gender Role Journey is one that all people travel.

If the Models discussed here interest you, perhaps you will enjoy The Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements by Bill Moyer

Oh and here's another Free to Be for good measure:

Little Boxes on the Hilltop

So this semester I'm taking a Communication, Gender, and Sex class. As part of the class we have to create a blog and talk about the things we cover in class as well as anything external to the class that relates to it. This is the first post as you can see, but as far as the class goes we're a month in. Posts are going to be made weekly this first one may be a little more broad considering all of the topics we've covered up until this point. Anyway, enough is enough lets get down to it.

     The first thing I'd like to bring up is one of these articles that we read for class that really intrigued me. "X: A Fabulous Child's Story" by Louis Gould is a story about a child raised genderless. The parents do not reveal to anyone what the sex of the child is which upsets a lot of people. What happens is people wind up not knowing how to deal with the child. Instead of saying "oh what a handsome boy" or "oh what a cute little girl" they become practically speechless. So why is this important? Because gender is a social construction. As a society we judge each other based on our sex. By doing this we wind up limiting ourselves. We set boundaries for how we're supposed to look and act.
    To me it's important to be aware of these boxes that we put each other in. For the majority of my life I have been judging people based on the way I was raised. Even though I want to treat all people equally, the social constructs are son engrained into me that it can be difficult to escape. That is why I say being aware is what will really help make progress. It's one thing to make a mistake and it's another to know when you're making it.
     So even though I constantly am putting people into these boxes, I have to be aware of it and understand that not all people want to be put in them. Back to the baby x example, there is actually a family in Toronto who is doing just what was in the story (click here for a related article). They are not revealing the sex of the baby. It has become a huge story in the area and nationwide but it's making me ask why? In all reality it does not seem like a big deal but to the news it is. People do not know how to react to not knowing whether a person is male or female. It's certainly not something you encouter everyday. In fact I never have. I have encountered people of which I was unsure of their sex however. They may have looked genderless and to me I was unable to tell if it was male or female. Looking back, I can't say that I had any difficulty conversing with them. All people deserve to be treated equal and you don't have to use gendered language to communicate with them. Let's look at these boxes that we've been putting people in and see how they aren't meant for everyone.

Since taking this class, I've found that a couple of the people we read about often cite themselves as being raised on a television program entitled "Free to be You and Me". I started watching some of them on YouTube and have really enjoyed them. It's hard to believe that they were producing these kind of videos back in the 70's. Check this one out below, it's one of the ones I've enjoyed most.