Intersex

When I was little, I used to watch this Taiwanese drama with my mother. It was a drama that composed episodes of short, real-life stories. I remember one of the episodes was about this little girl who was treated horribly by her parents due to their discovery of her intersex conditions (her ambiguous genitalia and etc.) She was called "monster" by her own family and the people from her village. She eventually left the village and moved into a temple and live a life of a nun. Many of the female Buddhists trusted her a lot because she was a nun (at least she appeared to be one). However, no one knows that she was actually a lesbian (I don't exactly know or remember how her sexual orientation was defined in the drama); therefore, the female Buddhists were willing to spend a night at the temple after a long day of worshipping. Then, the nun would used this opportunity to rape these female Buddhists. The drama ended with the conclusion that all intersex people are homosexuals and they are all suffering from serious mental illness. At that time I didn't think much about such conclusion and "accusations" about intersex people, but after this week's (week 8) lessons, I realized such statements are very harmful, unfair, and are just simply wrong.

In the reading "ISNA Materials," intersex is defined as "a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male." In other words, intersex people are the ones with "ambiguous genitalia" that makes it difficult for the doctors to assign a gender right after birth. However, it is also explained in the reading that surgeries are required to make the genitals look "more normal" (to look either like a female's genital or a male's genital). In the drama, the main intersex character was not given any surgical treatment to help her (him) with the ambiguous genitalia. Therefore, the main character should not have the ability to perform sexual intercourse using her (his) male genital as described in the drama. This would be another example (after countless examples) of media giving out misleading information to its audiences. People were being informed by this drama that intersex people are monsters and they are born with the ability to have sex both as a woman or a man, and even more ridiculous they can/will use this ability to rape both men and women. I am very shock to find myself living with such a misleading concept up until today.
I agree with many of the ideas from the Patient-Centered Model recommended by ISNA. I think it is essential to let the child choose for her or himself at a mature age whether she or he would prefer to have the surgical treatment to make the genital look more like one of a female or one of a male. It is the child's life; therefore it is totally reasonable to let the child make such decision. Furthermore, letting the child make the decision can avoid future conflicts, both internal or external. For example, if the parents of the intersex child made the decision to make the child completely a "girl," then what happens when what the child really wants is to be a boy? The child might not feel normal about him or herself, worse, what if other people around the child started to call her (him) a lesbian because she likes girls? Therefore, I think it is important that parents give the intersex child as much care as possible without further intervening with how the child should feel (whether more like a boy or more like a girl).

picture siting: blog by Desiree and Lars

I JUST WANNA HELP

After reading the assigned readings for week 7, I feel like I have changed my attitued towards disabled people. I think I will be more hesitated to help a disabled person when I encounter one. In the reading it states that disabled people are often perceived as in need of help or assistance, and they do not like that (OF COURSE NOT...). I do not even remember when it started, or who taught me such thing, but I always think disabled people are in need of help and that they are not capable of helping themselves. But what was said in the reading makes me feel like that is no longer a correct thing to do, because this offer of help might be perceived as looking down on the disabled people. However, something really struck my attention. One of the reading explains that if the disabled people (such as the blind and the deaf) are doing things normally like the abled people do, such as shopping, reading, watching TV, and etc, then why should they be considered and be labeled with the word "disabled?" Putting myself into their shoes, if I were a deaf person and I were just as capable at completing tasks as all the other people, I am sure I will be disliking the label "disabled" and will be thinking that I do not deserve to be called as such.
This is related to the idea of Social Model of Disability. The Social Model of Disability is "a way of thinking that understand disability as a function of the interaction between an individual and society." In other words, disability is not really definied by the physical conditions of an individual, but how "others" in the society perceive such physical conditions. As mentioned earlier, if a deaf person is capable of doing everything just like all the others, then why should this person be consiered as disabled? On the medias such as NEWS and some TV shows, the acivities of a group of disabled people that are being broadcasted are always titled "The something something of the disabled people" and their physical inadequate conditions are usually pointed out by the reporters. An example would be a group of people on wheelchairs in Taiwan performing the square dance. Their dance was almost the same as the dance performed by the abled people, however, their performance was not title "The Square Dance Show" or something, instead it was titled "The Wheelchair Activity ---Square Dance." I think this is really pointless and unfair to not only the people on the wheelchairs, but all the other "disabled" people with different physical conditions.

here is a title of a wheelchair dance performance video: Youtube- Wheelchair Dance Sport

sites:
AOF: page 359-362

Class and Education

I think class and education is always an interesting topic to discuss about. I remember reading this one article a while ago, the topic of it is "From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work," and it is written by Jean Anyon. This article clearly stated the four different types of school, which are the working-class schools, middle-class school, affluent professional school, and the executive elite school.
According to Anyon, students from working-class schools are "allowed to do nothing but to follow the instructions given by the teachers," which means there is literally no thinking or decision-making involved in their learnings. In other words, "work is following the steps of a procedure." Anyon demonstrated the situation by giving an example from a math class. Anyon stated that math learning for the students from working-class schools is simply just following unexplained fragmented procedures, and students are taught that there is no alternative way to solve the math problems, one of the teachers from the working-class school even said to her student "Do it this way or it's wrong." In the middle-class school, "work is getting the right answer." Some choice or decision-making are involved. Furthermore, the students also get the opportunity to practice what they have learned, and the teachers will talk about the topics/concepts learned in class with the students, but will not take the opinions of the students seriously. The third type of school is the affluent professional school. In affluent professional school, "work is creative activity carried out independently." Anyon explained that students from this type of school are often asked to "express and apply ideas concepts." Last but not least, is the executive elite school. For the students in executive elite school, learning is not about finding the right answer, but about learning the concepts, said Anyon. Students are motivated to learn more internally compared to the students from working-class or middle-class schools. Moreover, the students from executive elite school are also taught to learn through reasoning, and they are expected to come up with their own methods for problem solving.
The way of how the students in the working-class schools are being treated kind of reveals a sense of discrimination to me. The teachers show little or no respect to the students (the way they talk to the students, for example), and the reason seems to me is due to the social-class background of the students. I think this is really unfair, I can understand the differences in education style (I mean if the students can afford to buy materials or things needed for school, then the school has to come up with an alternative plan to assist the students, such as limiting the amount of materials provided and have the students share them), but I still believe the way students are treated should be equal. For example, it is okay not to give every student a textbook if it is not affordable, but at least every student's opinions should be taken seriously by the teachers, and positive feedback should be given to the students. I really dislike how the working-class schools are teaching students. The type of education I'd received when I was in Taiwan was exactly working-class school style. I think it will bring negative contribution to children's mental development, for example, students will not get the chance to practive their creative and free thinkings. On the other hand, I think the education of the executive elite schools really gives the children the adventage to success in the future, it also makes them higher or "better" than the kids from other schools such as working-class schools. They get to practice many things such as leadershups that other students don't. I believe it would be too late for the children from either working-class or middle-class schools to fight for their equality when they grow up, because they've already lost all the knowledge that would help them achieve their goals and become successful when they are young. Therefore, this article also gives me a sense that we are doomed, it is kind of saying if you were born in a working-class family, then you are mostly likely to be classified as such for your whole entire life.


souce: "College Knowledge," article- "From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work" by Jean Anyon.

image: Jean Anyon, from e-Focus on Student Learning website

White or Asian...Banana??

I met this one Korean guy named Josh at my church on Sunday, and after having a conversation with him, I was really surprised by what he'd told me. Josh was born and raised in America, so he was pretty Americanized. He can not speak Korean and he does not like Korean. Because he is Asian, people usaully ask him where he was from (ethnicity) when first meeting him, and he told me that he often felt offended by this kind of question. He said he grew up in American and therefore he considered himself not only an American citizen, but also a "white" man. I found this really interesting. When I was in high school, I did see a lot of Asians who are born and raised in the states and they do not "act Asian" at all; however, I have never heard from any of them saying that they themselves are "white." Therefore I went on and asked Josh what he thinks about "white privileges" (I just simply thought that it would be interesting to hear from a non-white person his point of view regarding to white privileges). Not surprisingly, he denied the existence of such thing as white privileges and said no one in America holds unearned privileges or advantages.

Josh told me that some people think whites are being treated better than any other ethnic groups, and he said this kind of thinking is just simple wrong and should be discarded. He stated that if one examine carefully, one can see that some people (not necessarily whites, but any other races) are being treating better only because they work hard and they "earned" and "deserved" it. I remembered one of the privileges stated in the reading, which was "If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live." I told Josh about this one particular privilege, and he strongly denied it by saying anyone who works hard enough and saves enough money will be able to purchase housing at a place desired. He considered such thing as white privileges as ridicules and insisted that they do not even exist.

Josh is an Asian himself, so I am not quite sure if he has ever experienced white privileges before. However, the "whiteness" he expressed through the way he talked and through his point of view on white privileges truely suprised me. I did not know people other than whites can also reflect such a strong sense of whiteness. Josh also showed to me that whiteness is not just about white people, it can also be how one thinks of himself or herself. It kind of sounds like your skin does not have to be white for you to be a white person. This relates to an interesting term for very Americanized Asians--Banana, which means some Asians are really just "yellow" on the outside, and white in the inside.

Patriarchy and Women Robots

Last weekend I was invited to join a movie night by one of my friends. We saw the movie "The Stepford Wives" with Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick. The main theme of the movie is about all the men in this one town turning their wives into a woman who is "perfect beyond belief." These men from the movie killed their "real" wives and replaced them with a woman robot designed by themselves. The woman robots in the movie are capable of doing anything. They are good at cooking, taking care of children, serve their husbands, cleaning, and they are of course, capable of making a perfect house wife. This was not my first time seeing this movie, I watched it a while ago (before I take the Women Studies course), and I didn't even realize how many important concepts this movie displayed until I learned them from this course. Concepts/ideas such as patriarchy, women robots, femininity, body images, and male dominant.

In main settings of this movie took place in this one tiny town where all the men are rich with well respected social status and power. Their wives (the woman robots) only listen and do the things ordered by their husbands. They did not express a single opinions of their owns (partly because they simply can't since they are robots) and were 100% obedient to their husbands. The men controled everything in the movie, they even appeared to be owning their wives' lives (by making decisions on their own to murder their wives and replace them with robots). This is a demonstration of patriarchy and male dominant where men are the ones with all the power to do things. One more interesting I noticed from the movie was that most of the male characters were played by white men, I don't believe I saw any black or asian male characters in the movie.

Furthermore, this movie emphasized the perfect body images that is believed should be obtained by females. The female robots in the movie are all very tall and thin with huge breasts. They also talk softly, wear skirts, and have long beautiful hairs. I didn't feel it when I first watch the movie; however, when I watch it again the second time, I felt a strong sense of sexism and it is kind of giving women lessons on how they should be for men, which made me like the movie less (even though Nicole Kidman did stand up in the end of the movie and defeated all the corrupted men and saved her family).

Standard of Beauty

I have been pretty busy with school and other stuff ever since the beginning of spring quarter. Therefore, I didn't have much time for web surfing and to check what kind of blogs were on the home page of "Yahoo" (Taiwan). Finally, last weekend, after finishing my biology readings, I decided to take a break and "catch up" with what was going on on the internet. Not surprisingly, even after a few weeks, the blogs on the home page were still sharing about the same topic: how to lose weight. It shocks me how even a 15 years-old girl was talking about her weight losing experiences as well. I discovered that girls who write these kind of blogs are usually under weight already. They would post their personal information such as their height and weight on their blogs to show their progress. Most of them have an average height of 5 foot 3 but all of them weigh only around 100 pounds. One other interesting things I found out about these bloggers is that they usually write, "I will keep trying hard to lose more weight" or "Going to get rid of another 10 pounds by next month" as their way to end the blog entry. It seems to me women or even young girls can or will never be satisfied with their appearences and body images.
I often wonder wonder what would the motivation to lose weight be for a young girl. Could it be because she wants to fit in with rest of the girls around her? or because of her seeing other adults or friends doing so? or could it simply be because that is the kind of thing she is taught to do by the media (such as advertisements and celebrities' images). I realize that on "Yahoo" (Taiwan) home page, most of the products being sold are about how to make a girl's body look thinner. Products such as "skinny lotion," weight losing tea, and even clothes (the advertisement lines for clothes are usually "It will make you look 10 pounds thinner) are all very popular. It is almost like anything that is related to weight reduction is adored by females of all ages. This is closely related to the topics we have discussed about in class- like how the ideal image for a woman is tall and thin, and how that is why models always have to try so hard not to eat in order to keep their weight low. I don't really know when this started, that calling someone skinny or thin is accepted as a compliment, and there seems to have an equal mark between attractiveness and thinness. It is kind of sad for me to see this type of standard for beauty building up for women and young girls, and the struggles they are going through in the attempts to achieve such standard.