Remake of WGS 110 Midterm Assignment by

Intersection of Gender & Class

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article talks about how women experience poverty more than men and the causes such as the gender wage gap, occupational segregation, and lack of policies that support women and more specifically single mothers. This is linked to the lecture topic of sexism. Women are left in poverty because of the way that workplaces devalue women, so they earn lower wages and get less prestige jobs.

Boesch, D., & Gaines, A. C. (2021, December 3). The basic facts about women in poverty. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/basic-facts-women-poverty/

-Shelby Smith

Transgender issues

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article examines the way Americans view transgender issues such as acceptance, use of pronouns, and rapid gender shifts. Polls revealed that a lot of people realize transgender individuals experience discrimination and some believe society has come too far with accepting transgender individuals. This idea that people have become too accepting shows how strong heteronormative beliefs have harmed those that are transgender by keeping them excluded and dismissed.

Parker, K. (2022, June 28). Americans’ complex views on gender identity and transgender issues. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/06/28/americans-complex-views-on-gender-identity-and-transgender-issues/

-Shelby Smith

Impact of Gender Roles/Norms on Children

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

The article considers how gender roles have an impact on children. When the people around children act in certain ways that conform to traditional gender norms then that’ll influence the children to act in certain ways. One lecture mentioned how roles are assigned based on social values, so young girls may think that they’re not capable or supposed to engage in STEM careers in later life. Adults may also engage in social policing to make sure kids do what would be considered “normal” like boys not wearing dresses.

United Way NCA. (2024, September 25). Gender roles & gender norms: Definition & examples. https://unitedwaynca.org/blog/gender-norms/

-Shelby Smith

Gender Discrimination in Levels of Education

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

The article on gender discrimination explores how women are discriminated against by educational level. According to the article women with a higher level of education experience more discrimination than those that are less educated. This can be related back to the topic of sex and gender ranking. Since men see women as being more fit to work in the home and because they want to continue holding higher positions of power they discriminate against those women with higher levels of education.

Parker, K. (2017, December 14). Gender discrimination comes in many forms for today’s working women. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/12/14/gender-discrimination-comes-in-many-forms-for-todays-working-women/

-Shelby Smith

Gender Gap in Education

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article explains how girls getting an education are less likely to enroll in STEM fields, more likely to drop out from those fields, and risk being locked out of such jobs. This occurs because of the social values that people are pushed to follow like how women may be pushed to professions that are closer to housework like teaching. This also can be tied to men being more privileged because those fields involve having higher wages and power which tends to exclude women.

Bonfert, A., & Wadhwa, D. (2024, June 3). Tracing global trends in education: a tale of old and new gender gaps. The World Bank Group. https://datatopics.worldbank.org/world-development-indicators/stories/tracing-global-trends-in-education.html

-Shelby Smith

Intersection of Media & Gender Representation

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article discusses the intersection of media representation, gender stereotypes, objectification, and sexualization and the effects of these. The effects include shifting gender role norms, harming body image, creating eating disorders, causing an imbalance in power structures, and much more. This article overlapped with the concept of the beauty ideal mentioned in the lectures by talking about the harm on body image and how that effects a person like causing eating disorders to develop. It also relates to the discussion of norms constructed for men and woman as well as the harm of sexualization and objectification in media to please the male viewer.

Santoniccolo, F., Trombetta, T., Paradiso, M. N., & Rollè, L. (2023). Gender and Media Representations: A Review of the Literature on Gender Stereotypes, Objectification and Sexualization. International journal of environmental research and public health, 20(10), 5770. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20105770

-Shelby Smith

Underrepresenting Women in Media

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

The article on underrepresentation of women in the media talks about a 50:50 project to include more women in the media and reach the goal of having representation equal to men. This can be related back to the concept of gender representation mentioned in the media lecture. We learned about how men are the face of media more than women and this project is trying to change that.

Rattan, A., Chilazi, S., Georgeac, O., & Bohnet, I. (2019, June 6). Tackling the underrepresentation of women in media. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/06/tackling-the-underrepresentation-of-women-in-media

-Shelby Smith

Race Blind Casting in Media

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article on the new Harry Potter movie mentions the backlash received from a black man being casted to play Snape. Those creating the movie are trying to be more inclusive by engaging in race blind casting but are finding themselves having issues with it. Fans are pointing out Snape’s appearance described in the books as “greasy, shoulder-length black hair, a large hooked nose, and sallow skin with cold, black eyes”. Snape is depicted in the book as a white man, so people are finding issues with the race blind casting that’s occurring.

Donaldson, M. (2025, March 9). Harry Potter fans fume at “blackwashing” as HBO “closing in” on actor to play snape: “just horrible casting!” GB News. https://www.gbnews.com/celebrity/harry-potter-fans-outrage-snape-cast-paapa-essiedu#:~:text=Harry%20Potter%20fans%20have%20been%20left%20divided%20over,actor%20John%20Lithgow%20being%20cast%20as%20Albus%20Dumbledore.

-Shelby Smith

Male Domination in Film

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article discusses how the Marvel movies have little female representation and how their female characters are portrayed with motherly instincts or are sexualized. They throw out a lot of facts about the imbalance of female and male characters in their movies with around 30% of all characters being female compared to the 70% male. This article related to the topics of the male gaze and different gender representation in the lecture. The Marvel movies sexualize and objectify women to pleasure the male viewer while also making all the main dominant characters male to leave women underrepresented.

Insua, S. (2023, January 17). The feminine hero ideal: Marvel’s harmful portrayals of female superheroes. Medium. https://medium.com/@sophiainsua/the-feminine-hero-ideal-marvels-harmful-portrayals-of-female-superheroes-605ade32f4fd

-Shelby Smith

LGBTQ Exclusion from Media

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

The article talks about how the Great American Family channel tries to exclude LGBTQ relationships to cater more to their Christian audience. They do this because they have found that it makes more money for them. Thompson and Macnaughton write, “In the few holiday movies that feature queer characters, producers often avoid including moments that display same-sex intimacy.” The lecture on media had mention of this issue by discussing how sex perversion has been forbidden. This example shows how different television channels follow this by excluding sexual scenes between LGBTQ individuals.

Thompson, A., & Macnaughton, S. (2024, December 22). How excluding LGBTQ people from holiday movies became big business for the Great American Family Channel. Uncloseted Media. https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/how-excluding-lgbtq-people-from-holiday

-Shelby Smith

Intersection of Sexuality & Childrearing

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article goes over some of the assumptions made about lesbian and gay parenting. People think that these couples shouldn’t be parents because they think that these people are mentally ill, and they think the children will experience challenges with socializing and developing their own identity. I think these thoughts are rooted in a topic we learned of called sexual stereotyping. Some people have this stereotype of homosexual couples that they aren’t good parents which can lead to negative ideas of how their children may turn out.

American Psychological Association. (2021, September 13). Lesbian and gay parenting: Theoretical and conceptual examinations. https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/parenting

-Shelby Smith

Sexuality and Aging

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article examines how younger people have different views on aging and sexuality even though older adults regularly engage in sexual behaviors and it is normal. I believe one reason for younger people seeing this as something maybe taboo is because of the assumed social scripts that society has created. There’s this idea that once you’re old you’re frail and boring which has caused people to think that older adults aren’t and shouldn’t be sexually engaged (it’s a dumb idea though and makes a weird social script for how older adults).

Syme, M. L., & Cohn, T. J. (2016). Examining aging sexual stigma attitudes among adults by gender, age, and generational status. Aging & mental health, 20(1), 36–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2015.1012044

-Shelby Smith

Religion and Sexuality

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article addresses how people are becoming more accepting of homosexuality and aren’t seeing as much of a negative link between homosexuality and religion, but there’s still more progress to be made. 63% of people believe that homosexuality should be accepted, but obviously there’s still a lot of people that think differently. This is influenced by the value put into being heteronormative and the discrimination brought on by people being different.

Pew Research Center. (2015, June 8). Section 2: Knowing gays and lesbians, religious conflicts, beliefs about homosexuality. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2015/06/08/section-2-knowing-gays-and-lesbians-religious-conflicts-beliefs-about-homosexuality/

-Shelby Smith

Hate Crimes Against LGBTQ Community

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

The article discusses hate crimes against the LGBTQ community being on the rise. This article can relate to issues of inequality mentioned in the lecture including marginalization, powerlessness, and violence. This community is targeted for being different, but they’re smaller in number, so they experience loss of power and while being harmed by violence and discrimination.

Alfonseca, K. (2024, September 24). Hate crimes, particularly against LGBTQ community, on the rise: FBI data. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/hate-crimes-lgbtq-community-rise-fbi-data/story?id=113962673

-Shelby Smith

Challenges of Asexuality

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:13:04 UTC

This article talks about the challenges of asexuality including being misunderstood, viewed in negative ways and pressured to do things. The views around this can relate to gendered characteristics because people may expect men to be sexually aggressive as mentioned in the lecture, but asexual men will be the absolute opposite. These people are viewed differently, but they may express lots of love in other ways.

Nathan. (2023, April 6). Understanding asexuality: Meaning, challenges, and support. Rainbow Republic. https://rainbowrepublic.co.nz/understanding-asexuality-meaning-challenges-and-support/

-Shelby Smith

shelbyksmith — 2025-03-30 04:17:56 UTC

Process Question