Understanding The Spectrum

  By Vivi Starting this blog as a mandatory assignment, I initially approached the topic of gender identity with only basic understanding. My knowledge was limited to simple concepts like the knowing the difference between gender and sex, as well as the existence of non-binary identities. However, doing further research on the subject showed a new side to this controversial topic. What I discovered was a complex issue, something way different from the oversimplified portrayals that I see on my phone or on the news.  Other than gender identity, I was able to learn how to use different platforms when searching for information through the Internet. Even if a website looks legitimate, by factchecking and crosschecking with different websites, it can turn out to have false information. Using surveys and questionnaires were a first for me as well. I had never thought to create my own data instead of looking for them.  Reflection on Presentation Although I believe we did a good ...

 By Vivi In this post, I will write a brief history on non-binary people, mainly in the US. Early Times While it wasn't until the 1990s when the term "transgender" was used widely, there has been non-binary people throughout history.  ・ Gala and galli (priests assigned male at birth who cross genders in their worship of a variety of goddesses in ancient Sumer, Akkadia, Greece, and Rome) ・Two-spirit people within Indigenous communities  ・ Hijra (nonbinary people who inhabit ritual roles in South Asia) Mid-20th century During the 1950s, transgender rights activists started to push for wider societal acceptance in the US. ・1952 - Christine Jorgensen became the first visible transsexual in the media in the US ・1959 - Transgender people, drag queens, and others fought back against Los Angeles police who had been targeting trans women in random arrests at Cooper Do-nuts (a café popular with the LGBTQ community) ・1960 - Establishment of Transvestia (magazine for the tr...

 By Vivi In this post, I will talk about my observations on the image I attached below. This was created by Wordclouds.com , a Dutch Word Cloud generating site that allows you to produce attractive and informative images with ease. To create this, I have used an article by the Gurdian on anti-gender identity.  From this word cloud, we can see that the repeated words are "gender", "anti-gender", and "ideology." This seems obvious since the whole theme is about anti-gender ideology. I found the word "feminist" interesting to see within the word cloud. According to the article, this is because the LGBTQ+ movement coincided with the feminist movement.   Butler, J. (2021, October 23). Why is the idea of “gender” provoking backlash the world over? . The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2021/oct/23/judith-butler-gender-ideology-backlash

This is a PowerPoint presentation on our fictional NGO about gender identity. Please feel free to check it out. Again, this is a fictional PowerPoint. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1u8RhXyQIECjGH6UNwle8Uu200wO1kRe0b1Dr1OU0BSA/edit?usp=sharing

  By Kana I searched on COCA for the occurrences of the word "Gender Identity" and in this post, I'm going to show you what I got. From looking at this chart that I got as a result, you can see that the topic "Gender identity" is talked about a lot, especially, on the web and in academic papers. It is also frequently featured in the blog as well. However, the frequency rate in the sections of TV and Movies is extremely low, which I think is due to the fact that this particular topic is very controversial. They don't want to risk getting criticized for leaning towards one side over another. What is also interesting to note is the drastic increase in the frequency rate from the year 1990 to 2019. From 1990 to 2004, it is rarely talked about in any of the categories. The number started to rise gradually from 2005 and in 2019, the number hit 432 in frequency, which is the highest in the past 30 years. This is probably because about 10 years ago, the word "G...

 By Vivi      Media has always played an important role in shaping personalities, values, and other major human characteristics. For example, how many times have you watched TV commercials or seen a pop-up ad on your phone trying to sell you diet products because they want you to fit the "beauty standards" of today's society? Even though you might not notice it directly, the media does have a powerful influence. The same can be said for shaping gender identity.       Let's talk about gender stereotypes. The constant exposure to stereotypical content is incredibly effective towards teaching children what the culture expects of a boy and a girl to be. A poll done by CNN on about 1000 parents found that they believe the media has a significant influence on their kids, from the look and behavior of girls to how boys’ beliefs about themselves is affected through seeing violence. While gender inclusive movies and TV shows are being created, doing their ...