While I was rereading my introductory post, I reflected upon the progress I have made since the beginning of this term. My first goal was to improve my writing skills so that I could communicate concisely and insightfully; I believe that writing blog posts helped me narrow down the most important messages while allowing flexibility …
The Power of Canadian Activism: Analyzing the Idle No More & Stop AAPI Hate Movements
Although much of the spotlight has been directed on activism in the United States, it is imperative to acknowledge and appreciate the influence that Canadian activism has had on challenging dominant, harmful narratives. In this post, I will delve into two main examples — the Idle No More Movement and the Stop Asian Hate Movement …
Unveiling the Transparency of Whiteness: Its Normative Status in Social Institutions
In the complex fabric of society, certain identities often operate invisibly, shaping the norms that structure institutions, behaviours, and policies. Perhaps the most important yet largely unacknowledged of these is whiteness. Despite being seemingly transparent, whiteness acts as the underlying norm within various social institutions and influences societal practices in ways that maintain its dominance. …
Disney’s Pocahontas: The Dangers of Romanticization
Pocahontas is a Disney animated film released in 1995 that takes place in 17th-century Virginia. The movie follows the encounter between an Algonquin woman, Pocahontas, and John Smith, an English soldier, and the ensuing tensions between the Indigenous peoples and the colonists. While the colonists, led by the antagonist Governor Radcliffe, set up camp in …
Ancestry.com: The Problems of Linking Identity to DNA
With the emergence and popularity of at-home DNA testing, scientific methods and findings are essentially used to further cement the notion of race as biologically determined. Services that provide DNA testing such as Ancestry.com have promised individuals the opportunity to trace their genetic heritage and to make their identities whole. Oftentimes, these services use advertisements …
Challenging Differential Gender Socialization
Gender socialization, as a continuous process in which people are socialized into and, consequently, naturalize the ideas of what is appropriate and desirable for their sex and gender, remains ever-present in our daily lives, largely due to extensive subliminal messaging and constant perpetuation by others (Prefontaine and Valle-Castro, 2024). Differential gender socialization, by extension, is …
Introduction
Hi, everyone! My name is Francine Bebita, and I’m currently in my second year as a political studies major. I’m originally from a small town nearly an hour and a half away from Saskatoon called Drake. For fun, I like to crochet, read books, sketch, and watch movies. I am taking this class primarily to …