Photo Essay by Marisa Serna

Intro to Gender & Sexuality: Photo Essay

ssern015 — 2024-05-19 19:55:33 UTC

Welcome to my Intro to Gender & Sexuality: Photo Essay. My name is Marisa Serna and I hope you enjoy the following.

ssern015 — 2024-05-19 20:27:06 UTC

Through Judith Lorber I've come to understand that fashion has power and that with fashion also comes challenging gender norms. In this image of my brother he's intertwining clothing elements that are traditionally associated with "male" and or "female" such as wearing a purse, excessive jewelry, a backwards hat, all that demonstrate a real example of what Lorber argues. Arguing that gender is not an necessarily an aspect of who we are, but something we actively do and perform on the daily. And that clothing elements hold fixed gender binaries.

ssern015 — 2024-05-19 20:45:16 UTC

In the youtube video, Reproductive Labor Inequality, by Hannah Sage, Ashley Louds, and Renee Rifenberg, they unveiled the problems that come with reproductive inequality such as wage, the father figure works and does less childcare, intensive mothering and less time and energy for working. In the image above is a solution to the repeated cycle of reproductive inequality. Its an image of a father, my Tio, which was allowed parental leave along with the mother as well, my Tia. Both had the same amount of parental leave which allowed shared responsibilities and just better the overall family and work dynamic.

ssern015 — 2024-05-19 20:55:46 UTC

This image of my family is capturing multiple fathers playing the role that typically is associated with a women figure. Where as the men in the household are more associated with the "breadwinning" task and expectations. With the men being in the kitchen and nurturing for their kids, making lunch, its illustrating what Raewyn Connell discusses. That contemporary masculinities does indeed challenge long standing norms and embraces nurturing roles that are typically associated with a "women".

ssern015 — 2024-05-19 21:32:33 UTC

Both my brother and his boyfriend have similar experiences when it comes to them growing up, especially in high school. " Its ridiculous the amount of times someone called me a fag and or a faggot when I was younger" (Joseph, my brother) stated. Their both prime examples of what C.J. Pascoe talks about in his book, "Dude You're a Fag". That masculinity is enforced in young teenage boys and that homophobia is shaping the construct of masculinity and that's including the term "fag" being used. This book illustrates boys in high school behaving a certain way to be seem as masculine so that they wouldn't be called such a word as "fag". And that if any boy in such a prime age in there life doesn't fit the "criteria" of being masculine then slurs come into play. Which both my brother, Joseph, and his boyfriend, Steven, are both living examples of what Pascoe is talking about is indeed true.

ssern015 — 2024-05-19 21:44:34 UTC

We had watched a video of Asians talking about the beauty standards that were always forced upon them. As a Latina women I am extremely hairy. Its usual that as Mexicans we do tend to be hairier and that's just how we are. But as a women in my society, to be hairy isn't considered this beautiful thing to embrace but something to hid and or be embarrassed of. I remember when I was younger it wasn't until I was told I was hairy that i created this shaving routine to get rid of the hair on my body. So this image is more than just my products but the product that many women use to fit these beauty standards and or to try to as a women, and unfortunately I catch myself sometimes when my legs aren't shaved, where I'm hiding them because it looks "ugly" or I'm self conscious because people will see that I'm not just hair, but a WOMEN that is hairy.

ssern015 — 2024-05-19 22:04:04 UTC

Lorber, Judith. "Night to His Day": The Social Construction of Gender. 1994

Connell, Raewyn. The Social Organization of Masculinity. 1995.

Pascoe, C. J. (2011). Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School (Second Edition). University of California Press