My Take Away Message

Before this class, I had never taken a gender or social issues course. For the first time in my academic life, I had to closely examine the world around me and unearth the factors that create our norms and beliefs. It was great to have an opportunity to hear new ways of viewing things that I had previously accepted so readily. One of the things that most impacted me was our discussion about sexuality. I had known that female beauty was portrayed in one very specific way about the media, but I had not considered masculinity and our culture's aversion to blatant sexuality before. I found it really interesting that our perception of sexuality, in some ways, affects and is affected by patriarchy. I also liked hearing about the fear of sexuality that culture has linked to childhood.