Blog 1 - Brianna Chancay
Prompt 1:
Our future as a society and as a community is non binary and our children will be lucky enough to have been born in a time where they will not need to worry whether being themselves is acceptable. I can only speak on my behalf about what it really means to be a woman, a young lady and a heterosexual girl. I feel adamant that my generation of individuals are growing up during a very influential and pivotal time period. This is a time when whoever or whatever you identify or consider yourself as, has no longer deemed down to just female and male. We are living and breathing products of how our society is allowing us to fluidly be and act upon the way we feel best as human beings. Dating back to biblical times, I feel as though we have always just said that a man was suppose to be with a woman and that there could only be man and woman. That is wrong. It is wrong in the sense that we are not just those two things but much more and from an even larger perspective we are all human beings. I chose a cultural artifact that I found heart warming and accepting because it displays a sense of fluidity. What this illustrated fluidity allows is for those who do not recognize themselves as boy or girl are able to look at this and with confidence feel and know that there is more to people than just boy and girl because there is a whole spectrum in between.
Prompt 2:
Regarding the cultural artifact I chose, as far as gender expression is concerned, it reveals that individuals are now able to freely express themselves as everything in between pink and blue, sweet and tough. This is because gender is not binary. Still, this illustration reinforces some traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity showing the figure of a male with the outline of a shirt and pants and the female with the outline of a dress. Also, challenging and pushing against these same traditional ideas by implementing a figure of what could either be the many identity options between male and female with the half outline of pants and a dress. This objection is basically defying all prior knowledge and rules that we have been told our the norm and acceptable.
Prompt 3:
Truthfully, I have not thought about my own personal idea of gender identity and expression too much solely because I have always been sure and secure with who I am and what I like. However, at some point or another this specific representation of gender in pop culture has definitely impacted the way I think not specifically about my own gender expression but more in a general aspect. I feel that living in today’s society has undoubtedly changed my mindset and stance on a lot of topics of conversation because there are now so many options and choices on who you could potentially be, who you could potentially reveal yourself as and what you could engage in and with.
Prompt 4:
Utilizing Wendy Griswold’s cultural diamond to examine my chosen cultural artifact, the cultural object would be the image illustration of my choosing more specifically identified in the prompts prior to this one. The social world in which the cultural object exists and acts could potentially reside within areas and places where individuals who stand differently or apart from what our society has set as norms. I feel confident that the creators who produced this illustration are those who either feel like the LGBTQ community is oppressed or rejected or those individuals themselves who have been and are not accepted by their peers and society. Lastly, their intended audience is to all those individuals who are struggling or going through a difficult time of discovering who they believe they are and just need the reassurance and support to know it is alright to follow through and basically commit without the worry of being rejected by the world.
Brianna, because of people like you more and more people are starting to feel comfortable in their own skin. A friend of mine’s gender pronouns are they/them and at first I was confused as I was coming from an ignorant background, it was something new to me. Since then, I have learned to be more accepting of other people’s identities and sexualities. It really touched me when you said “This is a time when whoever or whatever you identify or consider yourself as, has no longer deemed down to just female and male. We are living and breathing products of how our society is allowing us to fluidly be and act upon the way we feel best as human beings,” because it really is and it makes me emotional to think of all the troubles people have endured.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Brianna, I think this topic is always amazing to see because it exposes people that are comfortable with a binary system to see the injustice those who are not comfortable have to live with. The spectrum idea is a great one because just like some people might feel they are mainly feminine or masculine, others are not and it shows everyone alike that there are others who are not feeling exactly the same. This idea just shows people should be accepted regardless of what they identify as because it does not affect anyone in the first place and secondly, they have the right to feel whatever they like. Most importantly, no one should have to push their ideology onto anyone who does not fully agree with it. Pursuing a balance in some of these topics is so interesting because, as a respectful individual, I try to avoid overstepping on people's freedom of choice to believe in anything. This is very common when you speak to older individuals in your own family who grew up in different times.
ReplyDeleteHey Brianna, great post! I agree with you when you say that people can now express themselves and identify however they would like. As a society i feel that major improvements have been made to treat the LGBTQ community equally. I didn't really know about fluidity up until reading your blog and it really got me wanting to find out more about this subject. I believe that in order to keep making improvements in equality, both the LGBTQ community and society must take the time to understand each other and come to a realization that even though they might have different opinions on gender, they must at least be respectful to each other as human beings. It's a really positive thing that people are becoming more comfortable with themselves because in the end that will reduce the hate that goes around in the world. Great post, it really got me thinking.
ReplyDeleteHello Brianna,
ReplyDeleteGreat post, within your first sentence I totally agree with you. During past generation the LGBTQ community faced a lot of negativity because it was a topic that people did not want to accept. As of now, our society is improvising on this topic because we see certain movements that benefit this community. An example is having unisex restrooms allowing everyone to use this restroom. It is beneficial because their is a form of conformity, step by step our society is allowing this binary system. It feels good, when someone is being their true selves and coming out being who they want to be. There might be cultural challenges that families are unable to accept certain identities, but we are more opening as a community allowing people to label themselves more than just female or males. Really interesting topic!