At the beginning of this course, I had goals of exercising critical analysis, learning sociological theories, and developing my voice in writing, through blogging. Writing my thoughts, opinions, and questions on my blog was a helpful challenge in reflecting and wrestling with my opinions about the various sociological feminist issues. When I read my blogs, I see evidence of critical analysis in how I applied sociological feminist theories to ideas and issues and in how I would take stances on issues due to my understanding and research. Of all my goals, I was remiss in writing about issues in a way that I felt was expected of me rather than what I thought. At times, I found myself sugar-coating my beliefs and opinions so that they were more digestible to the modern feminist. For instance, I struggled to write a blog post about the Decolonizing Sex podcast with Kim Tallbear. I think she is a brilliant woman with complex and curious ideas and applications of sex. I welcomed her assertions and insights about the hierarchical structures of love in Canada and was grateful that she helped me understand my privilege in how I experience love due to my heteronormative attractions. But I struggled to write that blog post as I feel sexuality and relationships have great sensitivity in today’s world. I found myself resorting to a “you do you and I’ll do me” mentality that sought not to make waves or take a stance. However, I am proud of that piece because I practiced seeing the many perspectives on the issue.
My “Intersectionality” infographic is my most important contribution to the WGST 210 learning community. This poster explains a key sociological feminist concept that helps people understand the oppressive systems in our world. Understanding intersectionality allowed me to mentally dissect overwhelming problems and humanize the experiences of marginalized people and groups. This infographic helps people to visualize the compounding oppressions and barriers other people may face, which offers learners a tool for describing the realities of big social systems that disadvantage people.
Overall, blogging was a great exercise for honing my voice and perspective on feminist issues and offered a space for me to creatively express my ideas.