Please structure your journal each week using the following questions and provide details that make your answers to these areas in each question clear:
(1) What did we learn about this week. (A couple sentences about each chapter/reading/ activity).
(2) Reflection on material in relation to how it impacts your own beliefs. (do you agree, do not agree, not sure, why?)
(3) How can I use this in my work with clients. (keep in mind diversity of ages, cultures, races, religions, and more intersectional identities)…(I am an RBT: work with clients with austims)
chapter 3: This chapter demonstrates that there are competing understandings of sex and gender that circulate in society, and this has a considerable impact on the rights, roles, and opportunities for women and LGBTQ-identified people. Through activist efforts, people offer new ways of understanding the meaning of gender and how we might build more a more inclusive world.
The issue of whether a person is a feminist is considerably more complicated than it first appears. The “women’s movement” is really a collage of many movements that span more than 180 years and include diverse ideologies. Whether or not you define yourself as a feminist, you have some views about how gender relates to human rights and nature. The analysis provided by feminist movements should inform your thinking.
chapter 4: Men’s efforts to define gender are diverse and even contradictory. Some men consider themselves feminists, work with women for gender equality in society, and attempt to become more comfortable expressing their feelings. Other men think feminism has destroyed families, twisted women, and diminished men. As this chapter has shown, men’s activism varies greatly in its foci and relationship to women’s activism. Historically and today, men’s groups are important in the cultural conversation about gender and its effects on individual men and women.
In this chapter and the preceding one, we discussed a wide range of groups that give voice to diverse images of women and men. As the conversation evolves, some of the current voices will fade out and new voices will emerge. Some people will tune out the conversation. Others will reflect thoughtfully on what different groups say about men and women. Still others will join the conversation and take active roles in defining masculinity, femininity, and the host of issues linked to gender. It’s up to you to define your role in the cultural conversation about gender.