Todays session on Gender, Peace and Conflict was deeply informative and transformative. From starting the session with Mrs. Moorti asking us to introduce ourselves using our preferred gender pronoun to getting a better understanding of the third gender and how that is different from sex and the various associations and notions that our context and the environment in which we grow up in. The concept of how “sex mapped onto gender” and how historically traits of what it means to be masculine and feminine have been associated with male and female and how we need to view gender as a continuum spectrum was very interesting for me to learn.
The conversations we had about consumer culture and having to accept and deal with the consequences of the assumptions and associations with how we feed into and find ourselves falling victim as consumers engaging with the various products that we buy and why we buy them shows how media as industries cannibalize us. We need to be aware of and understand how we are under larger institutions and how we as consumers are guided in particular ways because of how the media feeds into certain stereotypes but also creates images perpetrating certain behaviors and ways of being and dressing as norms which needs to be address and questioned before they become deep rooted within us.
Thinking of words other than equality and replacing the notions we expect equality to bring with more effective ways of thinking about how to make affirmative actions to truly uplift women and other marginalized sections of society and not serve as a shock to the system where it completely backfires and promotes further disparity rather than gain and benefit for the intended population.
The idea of how what we see as individual choices and how we need to be aware of what role we are playing in the larger context of how gender and sex plays into how the created and constructed patriarchy further enhances misogynist feminism and the fact that it is women who further become victims because of women and not men who actually feed into the expected rules and regulations that women in certain societies need to follow.
Furthermore it was fascinating to hear Dr. Moorti talk about how historically speaking certain cultures had men dressing in certain ways (like wearing heels), partaking in society has evolved and changed over years and the role that globalization and colonization plays in how communities have been shaped and transformed over years. Another challenging question was thinking about gender free spaces in society and whether or not they exist- is their any space in society that is free of gender- and I am so glad that this session left me with more questions than answers.
