Category: Uncategorized

End of Term Reflections

Posted on by hae640

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.

Colonized Love?

Posted on by hae640

What comes to mind when you imagine romantic relationships in Canada? What relational dynamics are commonly portrayed on your social media, tv shows, or in your friend group? Why is this the case?

For me, I imagine a relationship that is built upon faith, mutual respect, and freedom to be yourself. My upbringing shaped how I imagine relationships and what I pursue in them. My parents and grandparents have loving and committed monogamous relationships, and I have witnessed how safe, kind, and honouring relationships can be. On the other hand, culture has also shaped my understanding of relationships. Culture has portrayed relationships to be vastly diverse and individualistic, self-seeking even. Sometimes relationships are portrayed as committed and monogamous, other times it seems like it’s just about individual agency and freedom or non-committal sexual interactions. In general, there seems to be a desire to partner up – there is a perception of singleness as incomplete or deficient, especially for women. Mindy Kaling and the Duchess of Sussex discuss this phenomenon on the “The Stigma of Singleton” episode of the Archetypes podcast. Kaling describes the pressure she felt to find a partner and become a mother, and the waiting game she found herself in to be “chosen” by a man (The Duchess of Sussex). As a woman, Kaling shared the desperation that seeps in once your thirties come that your biological duty to reproduce is under threat, and one starts to question why no one has chosen her.

Ashley Nicole Black Ablss GIF by A Black Lady Sketch Show

I wonder if our culture of compulsory monogamy underpins these feelings of desperation or incompleteness for women. On the All My Relations podcast, Dr. Kim Tallbear asserts that heteronormativity and compulsory monogamy are settler-imposed ways of relating to one another that permeates Canadian culture (Wilbur et al). Upon listening to Dr. Tallbear speak about heteronormativity, compulsory monogamy, and polyamory, I was confronted with what relational social structures are in place and who they benefit.

From my perspective, relationships seem to be whatever people want them to be. But, after listening to the All My Relations episode, I realize this perspective is privileged and oversimplified. I am a heterosexual woman who desires a monogamous relationship, or, in other words, I am part of the seemingly “majority” or “norm”. But how does it feel to fall outside of heteronormative structures?

Tallbear’s discussion of decolonizing sex offered me a space to wonder about the hierarchical structures of relationships and how they serve or dis-serve society. These structures serve many Canadians who are heterosexual that desire life-long commitment partnership and dis-serve those who “deviate” from this norm. Those in the Queer community, single, or in polyamorous relationships, are “othered” for deviating from the expected heterosexual and monogamous relationships that historically permeate Canadian lifestyles. However, Dr. Tallbear explains a different way of living. She describes “all my relations” as the reality of society being in a relationship with the land, one another, ourselves, spirituality, and non-human things (Wilbur et al). I think “all my relations” is a beautifully interconnected way of relating in this world and see this practice as a way of decolonizing my understanding of sexuality and relationships.

 

Works Cited:

The Duchess of Sussex. “The Stigma of Singleton with Mindy Kaling.” Archetypes. Archwell Media, Sept. 2022. Spotify.

Wilbur, Matika, Desi Small-Rodriguez, and Adrienne Keene. “Decolonizing Sex.” All My Relations. All My Relations, March 2019. Spotify.

 

Attributes:

GIF: https://giphy.com/explore/why-are-you-still-single

 

 

Introductory Post

Posted on by hae640

Hi everyone,

I am Hannah, and I look forward to blogging my thoughts and curiosities as I go through this course. To begin, I have a few goals for my upcoming blogs:

  1. exercise critical analysis: I wish to learn how to engage my media consumption with lenses of analysis. I often consume short-form instructional or inspirational videos and listen to many podcasts throughout my week. I find it easy to take the information gleaned from such media without much thought, and this has struck me as quite concerning during the first few modules of this class. I want to acquire the tools to look at media through lenses that cause me to ask many questions (i.e., how the media was produced? what are the messages conveyed? and are there potential impacts from this information?) In other words, I wish to practice curiosity.
  2. learn sociological theories: I wish to understand sociological theories enough to apply them to my daily life. I think it would be transformational and inspiring to use sociological frameworks and case studies to help me shape the contexts I influence or participate in. This also requires me to improve my reading reflection skills…anyone else find it frustrating how quickly one can forget concepts!?
  3. develop my voice: I look forward to how this blog will help me assert my views and opinions regarding current events. I desire to contribute to conversations with friends in a meaningful way by being informed, well-read, and critical of what is taking place in our world. I am excited to learn from others and to be challenged in how I think about society, and in particular feminist issues.