Sexual liberation was a movement primarily from the 1960s to the 1980s that challenged the norms of behaviors to sexuality and sexual relationships throughout the United States. The point of the movement was to remove the guilt and judgment that was attached with freely expressing sexual needs. This was the time where sexual minorities were more expressive, especially in the summer of 1969 when the Stonewall Riots occurred. This movement was focused on more permissive rather than punitive attitudes towards sex, they wanted to make nonmarital sex and sex between teenagers to be more acceptable and not as taboo.

 

This movement was essential for the way that our current society views sex. There is still a mix of attitudes amongst teenagers and adults. Some are more conservative and wait until marriage, some are conservative but engage in nonmarital sex withs serious partners, some are more liberated and engage in nonmarital sex with people they trust and others are more liberated that they engage in “sex for fun”. The most important thing to take from this is that people have different views towards sex, which is perfectly fine.

 

Nonetheless, this sexual liberation that has been occurring for the last few decades has replaced the longstanding pressure to say no with the pressure to say yes. By that, I mean that this view of sexual freedom has been associated with sexual liberation and empowerment that in a way requires them to say yes. It has come to be that the older you get, the more shameful it is to be a virgin. From my own observation, people start caring about virginity from age 13, if you get to 18 and you’re still a virgin, you’re kind of looked at strangely. This is even worse for men that are viewed as having more sexual needs than women, and they are given more liberty to explore those sexual needs.

 

A perfect example of this is sexual activities amongst college students. There is a hookup culture that is emphasized in college, where students are meant to enjoy their youth and engage in short-term relationships with others. This is great for those that want to engage in that behavior, what is worrying is when people feel a sense of shame if they don’t engage in this behavior. One can make a comparison to drinking alcoholic drinks. If someone does not have strong moral ground then they will fall into the whole of peer pressure and social pressure.

 

Although sexual liberation has its faults, it has also been beneficial for sexual minorities (LGBTQ+ members, excluding asexuals) and people that wish to embrace practices such as masturbation and roleplay. The imperative yes has increased people’s tolerance for other people’s choices.

 

Nonetheless, real sexual liberation would mean that everyone has to right to make their own decisions without social consequences. Sexual liberation could be expressed through someone engaging in casual sex or someone waiting until marriage to have sex, it is all based on the person’s own definition of sexual liberation.

 

Sources:

• https://ncatregister.com/16735/theculture/what-is-sexual-liberation/#:~:text=Sexual%20liberation%20derived%20from%20a,with%20freely%20meeting%20sexual%20needs. 
• Wade, Lisa; Ferree, Myra Marx. Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions (Second Edition) (p. 257). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. 

Stereotypes.

 

The phenomenon that may be compared to air, the invisible yet always there. This topic came to my mind ins one of my classes called ‘Women of African Diaspora. Throughout the semester were talking about all of the challenges and accomplishments of women of African/Black descent, primarily those in the United States and the Caribbean islands. I found that many of the stereotypes and prejudices that were mentioned by the women that we read about were similar to what I had experienced. It created a sense of unity as it showed that I am not alone but it also angered me how I am not viewed as an individual before I am compared to the group. Recently, we watched a documentary about Muslim women and their specific experiences. I realized that some of the stereotypes they said are attached to them are some that I believed in. For example, one girl said mentioned that many people believe that women that wear a Hijab are extremely religious, which is exactly what I believed. This made me realize how hypocritical I was being. I was upset that stereotypes are being forced upon me but I was doing the exact same thing as those of the Islamic religion.

 

According to the New Oxford Dictionary, stereotypes are defined as “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing”. Stereotyping infers that a person has a set of characteristics that we assume everyone else in the group also has. Humans are so accustomed to categorizing things in life; stereotyping simplify our social world and makes it easier to process and understand people around us.

 

The reactions to being stereotyped are mixed. They may create assumptions that people may view as being positive for they can create damaging assumptions. Stereotypes are the backbones of many historical social events such as the Civil Rights movement, Colonization, and the Holocaust. All of these events involved a dominant group wanting to eliminate, persecute or discriminate against a minority group that was viewed as being inferior. For example, many whites in the Jim Crow South believed that skin color and race determines someone’s character, behavior, and intelligence. This just comes to show how detrimental stereotypes may be.

 

As previously mentioned, everyone is impacted by stereotypes and everyone embraces different types of stereotypes. They might not be one associated with a person’s race but they may be stereotypes based on a profession, skills, accent, and more. In American society, it is common for people to believe that just because they are part of a minority group they are shielded from the possibilities of labeling or stereotyping someone when in reality they’re not. Everyone is impacted by stereotypes and it is important for us to acknowledge that in order for improvement in social and political climate to improve.

 

Other sources used:

Voices of Muslim Women

Simply Psychology

 

 

The F word.

 

In this blog, I will provide some information on the Feminist movement and my personal experience with it.

 

Feminism is the belief in the social, economic, and political equality of sexes. It originated in the 19th century in the western world and now is manifested worldwide. There have been clear three waves of feminism and scholars believe that society is currently in the fourth wave of feminism.

 

The first feminist campaign, first-wave feminism, began in the mid-1800s and was focused on women’s suffrage, family rights, and the right to higher education. The second wave of feminism in the 1960s and 70s aimed at ending gender segregation in higher education, challenge job, and wage discrimination, make marriage and family law gender-neutral and give women control over their bodies in terms of sex and reproduction. The third wave of feminism in the mid-1990s took a broader approach. It attacked gendered norms such as gender binary and heteronormativity, and it reaffirmed its concern with peace, environmental protection, child health, and public education. The third wave feminism advocated for intersectional feminist activism, meaning advocating for different kinds of men and women.

 

I believe that for the longest time there has been a stereotype of who feminists are and what they represent. People believed and still believe that feminists are ugly, uptight, angry women that are upset with the world. We disregard that there are different types of feminist and feminisms. There are separatist feminists who want nothing to do with men, feminists who are men, a feminist who try to gain incremental gains, and feminists that are more radical. They are all aiming for equality between sexes, but they have a slightly different way of approaching the issue.

 

For the longest time, when I would argue about abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and more, and people would ask me if I was a feminist and I would always say no because the image of feminists that I had in my head was not how I viewed myself. However, now that I reflect on my beliefs, I am a feminist. I am someone that believes that everyone in society, no matter the age, gender, sexual orientation, race, class, and more, should have equal or fair opportunities in life.

 

As much as I believe in feminism, the feminist agenda does not accommodate people of color, more specifically, women of color. Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American Lawyer, civil rights advocate, philosopher, and self-proclaimed feminist has pointed out the intersectionality that women of color face that the feminist agenda does not take into consideration. Generally, feminism focuses on the issues of white, middle-class women; black women, Latina women, Native American women, Asian women, and more, do not have the same life experiences as white women. These women are pulled by two forces, racism and patriarchy, making them at a higher disadvantage than white women.

 

As much as the movement has made significant progress towards equality, adjustments must be made in the policies and rhetoric that is employed to ensure that women of all backgrounds are included.

 

Below are the sources used in this post: 

Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions (Second Edition) by Lisa Wade 

Forbes

Opinionfront

Kimberlé TED Talk

Mapping of Margins by Kimberlé Crenshaw

The older I get, the more I realize how weird this concept of life is. I used to view life with so much joy and positivity. I believed that the world was filled with great people and that you could become everything that you wanted. I had that naïve look at life that is expected in children, it would horrible to have children already worry about global hunger, hatred, and injustice. Now, I have come to understand how complex the concept of life really is. 

 

I am still very optimistic about life. I am a firm believer in doing what makes you happy and spreading joy into the world. I also believe that everything you put out into the world will be returned to you in full. As much as I want to only believe in that, I also know that there are so many obstacles that life throws at us; these obstacles could happen out of nowhere, they can be inevitable or they could be induced by human interaction. For example, obstacles that could appear out of nowhere could be like this Coronavirus pandemic that many people did not expect, obstacles that are inevitable is death (of others) and obstacles that are induced by human interaction is discrimination. All of these things can make life much harder.

 

Many people, and myself until recently, address life as a cycle. We believe that we are brought into this world, have to do something while we’re here meaning we might have some ups and downs but it is all part of living, and then we die. The cycle then repeats for everyone. However, I am beginning to view life as more of a big and fun rollercoaster. In the beginning, we are excited and maybe nervous about getting on the ride but you sit yourself down on the seat and prepare yourself for what is to come. As you slowly ascend, your heart rate increases and you begin to rethink your decisions but there is no turning back cause you’re on this ride until it ends. Each peak is a representation of the highs in life, the times where you felt like you’re on top of the world. Each trough represents the lows in life, where you begin to question all of the choices that you’ve made. The closer to get to the end of the ride, the more you wish that it would continue because you didn’t expect it to end so soon. This is how I am beginning to view life. We don’t have control over the turns that we experience on the rollercoaster but we do have control over how we feel about it. We can scream and cry, we can scream but laugh or we can even close our eyes until it’s all over.

 

My goal is not to force positivity but I do want to emphasize this idea of a roller-coaster. It is not that one must be positive throughout the whole experience but one should know that life is not a constant low, there are peaks as well as troughs that are meant to teach you lessons.

 

Another thing that I also came to realize is that the only thing that is guaranteed in life is death. It’s quite sad honestly. All of us that are brought into this universe has an expiration date. This is a very indifferent way of addressing death, it takes away the emotion of the activity and associates us to a thing like milk and cheese that are bound to expire. As detached as that may seem, it is the truth. Once we come outside of the comfort of our mother’s body, we must confront the world, we don’t know what is in store but all we know is that one day, it’ll all be gone. So might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

This blog post will be a continuation of a post that was published in the first semester on the foreigner’s perception of African nations. That post focused more on a video that I had seen where Black American women went on a rant about how African countries, specifically Nigeria is “dirt poor”. As a proud African/Angolan, that video irked my soul. I found her comments to be completely ignorant and represented one side of all of what African nations have to offer. In the blog post, I tried to be as least biased as I could by confirming that living conditions and the standard of living in the average African country was worse than developed countries and even developing countries in Europe and the Americas. However, I made sure to point out that Africa is not poor, it is exploited.

 

This blog post is a response to another video that I saw. This one was actually of a young Angolan/Portuguese/British artist (quite a lot of nationalities, I know). She is an aspiring rapper/singer that used to be a part of an Angola group but broke away a few years ago to pursue a solo career. She was invited to perform for this YouTube channel called Colors that focuses on showcasing rising stars. Her performance was great and there were quite a lot of people from Angola that were cheering her on, it was the interview that she did afterward that had many Angolans upset. When asked about how Angola was like, her response was focused on the fact that Angolans suffer. She said, “Here in Angola we’re so comfortable, in Angola you literally see kids on the street begging for food“.

 

My issue with her response was not that she mentioned that Angolans struggle, it was the fact that her response revolved around that struggle. This is already a notion that is clear to foreigners; the media and news outlets already convey this reality. This one-sided story makes people ignorant of the other aspects of African nations and what they have to offer. It is tiring always hearing the same assumptions and line of questioning when it comes to Angola. Yes, we have absolute poverty. Yes, we have corruption. Yes, there are children begging on the street. But also, yes, we are a new country that is only trying to figure out how to survive. Yes, we have an amazing, festive culture. Yes, we have beautiful scenery. I wish that her response focused more on the aspects that other foreigners wouldn’t know about just by googling, rather than the same overused script.

This blog post was a lot less informative and much more personal as it refers to my homeland but I believe that it is important to shed light on how people can use their platform for positive reasons. By saying what she said, the artist has essentially dissuaded people from visiting Angola and perpetuated the notion that African nations are “dirty poor”

Sex. Sexuality. Sexual Education, the topic that makes many parents cringe and avoid. This avoidance is what causes many teenagers and young adults to still be confused about topics such as consent and sexuality. This is not to say that these are straight forward topics, but steering clear from the topic is not going to make it any easier to understand. Quality sexual education is vital for a society to make smart and safe sexual health decisions.

 

A large misconception of sexual education is that it is merely about sex and sexual organs. Sexual education comprises several topics such as human development (reproduction, sexual orientation, and gender identity), relationships (platonic and romantic relationships), and sexual health (sexually transmitted diseases and contraception). These are crucial topics to talk about as one transforms from a child to a teenager and from a teenager to a young adult. Sex education can occur in schools, at home and for many children, they occur online which could cause more misconceptions about sexual health and etc.

 

I never had the “talk” with my parents. I kind of learned about sex and sexuality from different places; I learned a little in school, a little online, and a little from conversations with friends. I pride myself in having very intelligent and curious friends so many of our conversations were informative and were based on the research that we would do. However, the things that we found were not always accurate because the internet is filled with false and confusing information, which is why we needed clear, quality sexual education.

 

My school did provide a few quality workshops on sex, sexuality, and relationships. One of my favorite workshops was one where we went through several scenarios and decided if they resemble a healthy relationship or a toxic relationship. It led to informative conversations on gender roles and expectations, what is acceptable and what is not. Many teenagers don’t have access to these types of exercises, which makes them more vulnerable to involve themselves in toxic relationships. Another workshop that I enjoyed was where we were all encouraged to go out and buy condoms (with the consent of our parents). They explained that there is a huge stigma attached to teenagers purchasing condoms because in a perfect world, we shouldn’t be engaging in sexual activities but the reality is that we do so might as well engage in safe sex.

 

A major topic that I believe has only really come to light in the last few years is consent. There are several people that don’t know what consent looks and sounds like. Some believe that not consenting to something is only when the person says “no”, however, an “I don’t know” and nonverbal cues such as pushing away can also mean no. More talk about consent could prevent future cases of sexual harassment and more.

 

Something that needs to improve in sexual education is the focus on heterosexuality, specifically when the topic is sex. The majority of the information that I received in school, and I believe many people receive, has to do with a woman with a vagina and a man with a penis. This is the norm. As a result, those who don’t identify as heterosexual or “straight” are excluded. Sex between gay men is very different from sex between lesbian women. There needs to be more conversation about how to engage in safe sexual practices for those outside of the norm of heterosexuality.

In my previous post, I talked about how femicide (or feminicide) is a major issue in several countries including South Africa and Mexico. In this blog post, I want to go into more depth about this phenomenon.

 

Feminicide is the killing of a woman or a girl because of her gender. It is generally committed by a man and it is the most extreme form of gender-based violence. This word became popularized in 1976 by the late South African feminist activist and scholar, Diana Russell. The term was first documented in 1801 but it wasn’t used frequently until Russell began to use it. This made it easier to address this social issue as it provided the heinous phenomenon with a recognizable name.

 

As much as the world’s society has taken great strides towards equality and has slowly stripped open the curtains of patriarchy, those curtains continue to provide much darkness to our everyday lives. There are different types of femicides that all have to with the traditional gender-based ideologies, they include intimate femicide, honor killings, dowry-related femicide, and non-intimate femicide. The ones that I am most familiar with are intimate femicide and honor killings. Intimate femicide is femicide committed by a current or a former husband or boyfriend. Murder is the most extreme consequence of domestic violence. Honor killing is femicide that is committed by a male relative or other family members. The main reasoning for this killing would be because the woman engages in sexual or adulterous behavior that could tarnish the family’s honor. Honor killings occur mainly in the Middle East and South Asia, but they also occur in immigrant communities residing in Australia, Europe, and North America.

 

I personally believe that the main reason why this continues to occur is due to the continuous belief that women subordinate to men and that there are rules that we are meant to follow. Only someone that feels entitled to themselves will be ok with taking the life of someone else. The most frightening thing is that women are constantly being told to engage in relationships with men (if heterosexuality is the case) but in reality, being in a relationship could heighten your chances of being in danger.

 

The first time I heard about this term was at the beginning of 2020 for several reasons. There was an unfortunate killing of a young girl, about my age, in my hometown. She was celebrating New Years’ at a beach party that happens every year when she and her friend were attacked by two men. She fought but was stabbed and unfortunately didn’t make it. The second time that I heard about this term was on social media from the several protests and demonstrations people in Mexico were having against gender violence.

 

As a young female, I am constantly fearful of what could happen to me. I live my life to the fullest but I always have one foot back because I am afraid of all of the dangers of the world like this one. 

A few days ago, I found myself watching a YouTube video by Jubilee that had fathers and daughters come together to discuss topics regarding parenting and the difference between raising a son versus a daughter. This has always been a topic that I have felt very strongly about because I have personally felt a difference in the way that my parents treat me vs my older brother.

 

One of the prompts in the video was “Daughters must be raised differently than sons”. I agree with this prompt to an extent. The reason why I agree with it is because, unfortunately, the world is much more dangerous for women rather than men. In the United States and in several other countries, women are seen as the inferior gender. People have been socialized to believe that women are weaker, more emotional, and less capable than men. As a result, women are more subjected to violence and harm such as assault, harassment, and rape. In some countries such as South Africa and Mexico, feminicide is a major issue. These are crimes that are generally committed by men towards women that they know or don’t know. Consequently, parents take a different approach to how they treat their daughters in comparison to their sons. Daughters are generally more shielded from the world. Parents end up controlling and protecting their daughters more because they know of all of the dangers of the world. I completely understand this view because parents don’t have the power to change the world but they do have the power to control their kids (even though I don’t agree with the idea of controlling children, most specifically adolescents).

 

Nonetheless, this treatment can get excessive and lead to issues between the parents and the children. Due to how society views women, there are some parents that become, what one can say, obsessed with protecting their daughters, whether that is the daughter’s social life and sexual life. For example, parents, especially fathers, somewhat praise their sons when they lose their virginity or get a girlfriend (assuming that they’re heterosexual) but become upset when they find out that their daughters are doing the same thing. It doesn’t make sense to me how decisions and attitudes so common such sex can be viewed so differently depending on your gender. If your daughter is losing her “innocence”, isn’t your son doing the same?

 

Moreover, something that I have noticed within my family and other African/Black families is the lack of division of house chores. Living in a more patriarchal community has in a way made parents transmit that patriarchy to their children. For example, my friends and I were talking about our parents, especially our mothers, who have made it seem as though we girls have the obligation to cook and clean for men. Although these skills are essential life skills, parents have made it seem as though it is the women’s “job”, which I completely disagree with.

 

In all, there are so many levels to this topic that I can’t elaborate on at the moment but I can speak from experience that there is a major difference between how daughters and sons are treated.

 

Link: http://Should Sons Be Raised Differently? Fathers vs Daughters | Middle Ground

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women

https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a32998348/mexico-femicide-crisis-what-to-know/