i)Normative Narratives

The assignment is to find 3 blog posts that have been written by my classmates; but they have to correspond with the topics of Gender/Sexuality, Class, Race, and our Canadian Identity. Picking which blogs to work on was difficult because of everyone having different pasts. Being able to relate to everyone in my class is something that could almost be impossible because I might have been through something similar but having the end result end up being completely different. I read through different posts of my classmates and I honestly only found a few that I could relate to. The blog posts that I have chosen do not relate to me immediately, and I do not understand the way that the writers of the posts would have felt at the occurring times of their stories, but I could try and imagine what they were going through. The similarities that the posts show is what I think our gender has taught us. We have gone through 3 different lives and they all impact us in a very similar way because we are females.

The main one that stood out to me was written by Jade. The one post that she had that I could relate to would be her “Class” post. She describes “Christmas being a stressful time”, and showing that a time of celebration, hope and love could honestly be negative in different households. My childhood at Christmas time wasn’t easy, but I defiantly didn’t have to deal with the things that Jade had gone through. I can relate to the way that Jade is living with a single mother and how much that it can affect the whole connection between mother and daughter. My mother and I had been alone for 13 years, and she was always having two or three different jobs just so that it would be possible for me to have a great Christmas; with the brand new presents under the tree.  Jade and I have minor similarities, but they could have affected us in the same way.

Then when reading Samara’s blog, I had many connections and or similarities, especially in the gender blog. We both have similar pasts when it came to birthday parties, I would often have girls at the parties unless we went to “It’s a Blast” or at the beach. Whenever I was having the party at my house it would always just be girls, simply because it would usually be a sleepover. Growing up from birth to about age 10 I was wearing dresses and Tiaras but after my tenth birthday, my whole appearance changed. I started wearing sweatpants and converse and baggy bunnyhugs. I never wore makeup or played with dolls. I was playing outside with the boys in the neighborhood. We would play basketball outside until it was dark out and nobody ever questioned it. I never realized that people could have possibly been questioning if I was a lesbian. I never realized that people could have had an issue with it, until moving to Vibank. A small town, like is described in Samara’s story. Everybody knows everyone. Doesn’t matter who you are, but you are known. It was and is still today, very old-fashioned. Which can be scary, if people were to “break” the childhood that Samara and I grew up with.

The similarities that Jade, Samara and I all share is very small, but we do all have a certain connection within our pasts. The female role models in our lives have a huge impact on the way that we were raised. Every story has demonstrated the ways that our mothers have influenced us to be a female in our society. Every blog that I have posted, I have always made a reference towards my mother simply because she raised me alone. She is the reason for who I am today. The titles for my gender, class, and race were made more me the moment I was born. I was put into the cute pink sparkly outfits because  I was a girl, but my actions were never questioned until I turned into a teenager because I am a lady. Between all the blogs that we have written for the class that is based on the topics ( race, Canadian identity, social status, gender, etc) we all have a very strong connection to being a female. We all describe how being a female is chosen for us. For Jade, she shows this in her The Impact of Gender Roles blog and she describes how “she could play with the dolls with her sister, but if her brother began to play with them then he would have been a F*ggot in her father’s eyes.”

ii) Creating Counterstories: Disrupting normative narratives

When I read this, I begin to think ” what in the world would cause this thought [the thought of boys wanting to play with ‘ girl toys’] to be such a disturbing idea to those who raise us?” Nobody has ever said that boys have to play with boy toys like trucks or skateboards, and girls can only touch barbies and makeup. It just became the “normal” within our society. Several people that I know, including myself, have broken these normal gendered and or class events. I know that when  I was growing up I played on a male softball team and there were only 2 other girls on the team. Most of the boys didn’t like us girls playing on the team ” because girls can’t run fast enough”… Well literally that week all of us girls got like 2 home runs and we were winning within our league. But because I grew up with a single mother, I couldn’t afford to play anymore so I had to quit the team. The boys on that team from what I comprehend, they all believed in patriarchy, which is: the belief in the inherent superiority of men and male norms and the organization of society based on this belief. (Sensoy & DiAngelo, pg 103)

The way that modern society is demonstrating ‘class” and ‘gender’ to the newest generations, is honestly fairly negative. I have witnessed an 11-year old that is on Facebook, looking at a video of a homeless woman, and all that was said was ” well she should just get a job then she wouldn’t be in that situation.” This showed me that the new generation doesn’t always think about the past of people. That woman on the Facebook video was a veteran who had lost her house, due to bankruptcy. She was dealing with PTSD and she didn’t have enough money to seek treatment, let alone get a job. The normal for society in today’s world would honestly be to shut your mouth and you’ll be fine. I believe that we should speak out for the people that can’t, maybe because of their skin or gender or religion. The perspective changes with every true story that one will read. The textbook say, ” When we think about what class positions we hold, we might initially focus solely on our economics- that is, being rich or being poor…” (Sensoy & DiAngelo. pg 160) This statement shows that teh current society that we live in is based on number and symbols, which would be the normative; that we all have to deal with in our every day lives.

Works Cited:

Sensoy, Özlem, and Robin J. DiAngelo. Is Everyone Really Equal?: an Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education. Teachers College Press, 2017.

Stenson, Samara. (2018) Life before I was born. https://samarastenson.wordpress.com/

Courtenay, Jade. (2018) Socioeconomic Status. https://jadecourtenay.wordpress.com/

Deck-Horvath, Carly. (2018) Self- Story #3- Gender and Sexism. https://cdh.home.blog/

Every since we did the privilege walk in class, I have always been thinking about the questions that have been asked. Especially one in particular “If you have ever been told that you have to work hard for what you want, step back” Now I did step back, not just in the class room but also in my life. I thought of every time I have been told that, and personally it sucked. I never enjoyed being told that because I already knew that I had to work hard to be successful. I have never thought about my  “class” before, because I never thought of myself in a class of society. I just thought that my family was constantly broke or poor; but we were always happy. We would obviously have the stressful weeks, but we as a family would figure it out.

 

My mother was a single parent for 13 years. She gave birth to a very spoiled, snotty girl when it came to things that I wanted. But she raised me to be as respectful as possible when it came to people and their feelings. Not everyone had the same past as me. Which we figured out in the privilege walk in class. We should all be able to comprehend the past of other, no matter how difficult it could be.  My mother has showed me that class/ social statues shouldn’t change the way we treat people. You could be living in a cardboard box under the ring road over pass, or be sitting beside the Queen of England, it doesn’t matter. We all deserve the same equality and same respect towards each other.

A moment in life where I was to be known as the perfect female, is whenever I talk about makeup or beauty. I love working on cosmetics and beauty etc, it makes me personally have confidence; but I know women that are straight that hate wearing makeup because it lowers their confidence. Make-up , now a days is an item that makes you feminine. The definition of feminine is ” having qualities or appearance traditionally associated with women, especially delicacy and prettiness.” (Google) Notice it says TRADITIONALLY, not what could be associated with identifying as a woman.

When I was growing up, I was always wearing sweatpants or boy shorts. I was never wearing what was ” in style” for females of m age at the time. Moving to Vibank really changed how I look at fashion and beauty. I now wear “normal” girl clothes that are in style and fashionable, where if I were to wear what I once did; I would most definitely been judged. There would be days where I would wear the ” boy clothes”, but have my face covered in makeup, and that would be okay.  But now I almost feel ashamed if I go anywhere public without makeup on and a nice pair of skinny jeans making ” my ass look bootylicious”. That is my normal lifestyle for me when I am identifying as a woman. I am judged for not wearing makeup and not having the ” proper female attire”.

1. Describe, in detail, your earliest memory of noticing that others have different colour skin that you – you may wish to write it in the style of yourself at that age.

As a child, I went to a religious elementary school located in the north end of the city. There were more students of different ethnicity, than students with white skin. I didn’t notice the diversity, until I was around grade 6. When the school was teaching us about culture and diversity within Canada. Then when I had moved to Vibank. There was no diversity at all. Everyone was white. It was weird for me. I had never seen that before. A class so so small, and so similar. No diversity of skin colour at all.

Both schools treated me equally, with kindness and respect. This made me realize that skin colour does not define us as a human. The way that we treat people and the way we act in total, defines us. We choose what we want to be like in our future, and we think about what we act like in the present, and we remember how we acted back in the past.

Looking back at my childhood, I know that I was not acting how I wanted to be towards people with different skin colours. I had “favourites”, I was racist. I wasn’t raised to be raised to be judgmental, but for some reason I was. I guess I just wants able to realize that they have a different history or life story. Now, I believe that I have changed. I don’t view people for their skin. I view them as human beings who have gone through a different upbringing. I hope that I continue to grow from who I used to be. The way that I once was, is not how I want to continue to live my life.

 

 

 

Hello World,

Home, what does that mean? Is it a place that keeps you safe? Comfortable? Warm? Home, for me, was always at school. School was the place I felt safe, comfortable, warm. I never wanted to leave my school, even though the air conditioning was always on, even during the winter, they had the most uncomfortable chairs, and sometimes I hated the people within the building. I loved school, why? Who the hell knows. For some reason, the school was the place that I could always be comfortable. Maybe it was because I got along with the teachers and I was possibly considered a teacher’s pet. I would always talk to them during my spare periods when I should be doing homework that was due for the next period, but I didn’t care. My friends and I would go for coffee runs all the way to White City, going 120km/hr. You are probably wondering White City is not far at all. For us, we only had an hour before we had to be back in class. It took 25 minutes just to get to White City, then another 25 minutes back.  It was great. We would laugh and watch the time, and every time that we knew we were going to be late, we would just buy the teacher a coffee too. That was the place that I could relax, even with the hectic coffee runs.

 

My household is always a fun environment, we have a different family history. My grandmother’s ancestors came from a very small country in Europe called, Lithuania. Ever heard of it? No? haha, shocker. Nobody really has. This Map below should give you a general idea. (Google Images)

 I still have family living there today, a bunch of cousins that I have never met before. I would love to go and visit them. Storytime, you ready? My one cousin, Remutay, her father was in a concentration camp. In World War Two, since Germany has taken over basically everything, most men were taken into camps. He did survive because he was captured closer to the end of the war. He passed away, about 5 or 7 years later. His daughter, my cousin Remutay, is now living in London England, as a registered nurse. My family moved from Lithuania to Odessa, Russia. They then moved to Canada. My great grandparents (Gustav and Emily Mazil) met on the boat while crossing the ocean. My great-grandmother (Emily), moved to Chicago the took the train up to Regina. My great-grandfather (Gustav) just arrived in Halifax, the took the train to Regina. They then settled in small-town Edenwold, Sask. They had 4 children.  They built a farm, cows, pigs, chickens, the stereotypical farm. Today the farm is still up and running, my second cousin is running it, which I find amazing. On my grandmothers 13th birthday, my great-grandfather had a heart attack. He passed away. In 2002, my great grandmother Emily passed away by old age. She was 94 when she passed.

My grandfathers family lived in Germany, but when world war two broke out they got out as soon as possible. They moved to a farm just outside of Vibank, Sask. When my grandfather was old enough he moved out and met my grandmother at a local dance hall. He asked her to dance and the fell in love right away. They got married in 1961, moved to Lumsden, Sask. They had 4 children, including my mother. In 2002, December 22nd, my grandfather passed away from Bone and Lung cancer. I was only two. My grandmother, in 2007 she has a 7 bi-pass surgery within her heart. Then in 2008, she was diagnosed with Breast cancer. She survived. My grandmother knows how to kick ass. She is my hero. She is still alive today and healthier than a horse.

My family history is pretty cool. I am proud of my family and my ancestors, for every single challenge they have faced. War, health issues, discrimination, moving countries. They went through so much, but without their bravery, I might not be here today writing this blog, that is probably way too long, but that is okay. To understand my history, you have to know it all. 🙂

So that is me, my family, my home. Hope you enjoyed. Stay close, more blogs will be on their way. See you then loves <3.

– Carly.