Gender is... A SPECTRUM!

What is Gender for you? For me, it is something that is culturally constructed and its meaning changes over time and different across cultures.  There is no a universal meaning for it, but a just sociological image on our mind. Gender helps us to see the relationship between sex and personal identity/expression. But it also limited us to express ourselves in ways that we want. Should we keep the word gender or should we teach our kids more about 'identity' and 'equality'

Sex Education and the Promiscuous culture in the US

I remember I didn't have any formal sex education in my life except a 'lesson' during my first week at Juniata College, and I was 19 at that time. I remember that I learned what is 'sexual harassments' , 'alcohol abuse' and 'rapes'.

But before that, I didn't know anything and my schools didn't teach me anything related to 'sex.' Maybe one reason is I skipped the last two years of my high school or maybe I went to three different elementary school. I didn't really know anything except reading about sex differences in the biology book.

Overall, I would say I didn't know anything about sex when I was in Hongkong. When I was 17, I moved to the US and I got a free condom from the college newspaper when I was going to college in Seattle. I was very curious and took a few. I didn't know about condoms have different favors because sex is a topic that people avoid talking about in their daily conversations in Hongkong (Maybe thats why we have the lowest birth rate). So, i opened those condom and read the instruction and realized how 'complicated' that it was. I had lots of questions all of a sudden, for example, what should i do with the top part, how to put it on correctly?... what if it breaks? should we use it for oral sex? I didn't know who to talk to about all these.

After living in the US for a while, many of my friends started to talk about 'sex' in our daily conversations and I was very surprised that they were very open to talk about all these topics and answer all the questions that I have. I also remember meeting a guy who is HIV positive and he told me he never use condom for oral sex and his partner is still HIV negative. I first thought kissing with someone who is positive would give me AIDS. but I found out I really didn't know anything.

I think our culture plays an important roles in sex education. In Hongkong, where a place has the lowest birth rate and the people is conservative about these issues, kids don't know much about sex. But meanwhile, less underage kids have sex and less people have active sex partners. It seems to me that the less we know, the better we might be?! But on the other hand, kids in Hongkong don't know anymore and they will not be able to handle the situations when they experience these issues.

Should me spend more money to educate our kids about sex in which might make them to have more sex? OR should we not to promote sex education (or a I remember I didn't have any formal sex education in my life except a 'lesson' during my first week at Juniata College, and I was 19 at that time. I remember that I learned what is 'sexual harassments' , 'alcohol abuse' and 'rapes'.

But before that, I didn't know anything and my schools didn't teach me anything related to 'sex.' Maybe one reason is I skipped the last two years of my high school or maybe I went to three different elementary school. I didn't really know anything except reading about sex differences in the biology book. 

Overall, I would say I didn't know anything about sex when I was in Hongkong. When I was 17, I moved to the US and I got a free condom from the college newspaper when I was going to college in Seattle. I was very curious and took a few. I didn't know about condoms have different favors because sex is a topic that people avoid talking about in their daily conversations in Hongkong (Maybe thats why we have the lowest birth rate). So, i opened those condom and read the instruction and realized how 'complicated' that it was. I had lots of questions all of a sudden, for example, what should i do with the top part, how to put it on correctly?... what if it breaks? should we use it for oral sex? I didn't know who to talk to about all these. 

After living in the US for a while, many of my friends started to talk about 'sex' in our daily conversations and I was very surprised that they were very open to talk about all these topics and answer all the questions that I have. I also remember meeting a guy who is HIV positive and he told me he never use condom for oral sex and his partner is still HIV negative. I first thought kissing with someone who is positive would give me AIDS. but I found out I really didn't know anything.

I think our culture plays an important roles in sex education. In Hongkong, where a place has the lowest birth rate and the people is conservative about these issues, kids don't know much about sex. But meanwhile, less underage kids have sex and less people have active sex partners. It seems to me that the less we know, the better we might be?! But on the other hand, kids in Hongkong don't know anymore and they will not be able to handle the situations when they experience these issues.

Should me spend more money to educate our kids about sex in which might make them to have more sex? OR should we not to promote sex education (or a promiscuous culture )?

Sexual Assault

Some people think this is an uncommon topic but I was told by a social worker that 'it is common as hell.' According to the U.S. Department of Justice, somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes. Plus not all cases were reported. The situation her in the US might be much better than some other developing countries where laws do not really protect its citizens.


But why is this still happening in the US? Have anyone thought of it? 


I think it is because of lack of sex education. If we all know what Sexual Assault is, maybe we will avoid it. Some people rape the others because of the use of drugs and have been drinking. And some people thought it was okay to do so, as they guess the others were okay with it. This is NOT good.... 

Oppression

Our society is like a system that limits the way we act, think, and learn. And one most important factors that shape different personal experience is our social location. Sometimes I feel like it is not fair for some people receive different opportunities based on their sex, gender, or sexual orientations.

The article You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down by Alice Walker that I read for class was very interesting to me and it gives me a new perspective looking at oppression.

True, black people were slaves in the US history, but I never looked at how black women felt about their relationship to sex. Sex is one of the 'key' element of marriage and relationship and I cant imagined that black women have to experience this kind of issue every day. They were labelled by many others as sex slaves and sex machine. How could one easily adjust with these terms? 

This is a sad article to read.

Gender Roles in Relationships

We were talking about gender roles in relationships in class today. Relationships among people are becoming more and more complicated today, including come people enjoy being in an open relationship or never plan to get married. Because of these, roles within a relationship are also becoming more and more complicated. Roles of men and women are switching, or changing. and I think, this is a good sign. Genders become a less important factor in our relationship, women are not expected to be the cooks of the family or men are not expected to support the family anymore. 

It seems to be that we are becoming more and more open-minded about gender roles here in the US. but it also means the meaning of marriage, or relationship is changing among people. Do you think it is a good thing? or should we keep the traditions?  

Human Trafficking

We were talking about human trafficking in class today, but I didn't really have any knowledge about this subject before today. I cannot believe that this is happening all over the world. I was searching more information about the topic after the class and found a very good movie related to Human Trafficking.

This movie really made me to think more about human trafficking in a deeper way. What if this is happening to people that we know? In that movie, the man's daughter was being sold at the market in Europe after being kidnapped. We travel a lot these days, and this increases the chance that this may happen to any of us because these human trafficking groups are still very active. People who are trafficked have no way to seek helps and no way to find a safe place. They have no identifications, no money, and no supports. They are all alone out there waiting to be saved.

One thing really surprises me is that people these days still take advantages of people who are being trafficked and the system. Many of us ignores human rights and destroy the trusting network that we have among people. Meanwhile, the government is not actively helping people who are being trafficked but spend their money to building infrastructures.