Class Videos: "The Feminist Paradox | Thisari Randunu | TEDxYouth@TWSDubaiWomen"; "The male identity crisis | Fraser Smith | TEDxGlasgow"

 Video link: The Feminist Paradox | Thisari Randunu | TEDxYouth@TWSDubaiWomen


I'm not really sure where I stand with this video. The thing is, I think I agree with a lot of her points and I will admit I learned a lot about the concept of a "feminist paradox" (a concept I was not previously familiar with), but I also think her argument was immensely shallow and way too black-and-white. Especially the line where she said "you're either human or you're sexist." That line really bothered me because it feels like she's straight-up dehumanizing anyone who disagrees with her.

That being said, I'm incredibly bothered by the video's comment section as well. Thisari Randunu did her best to explain her argument yet the comments are filled with such an immense amount of ignorance and many, many men attempting to justify their sexism. Whether or not Randunu's argument was well-structured, it's obvious that these people didn't even bother opening their minds to her ideas and that upsets me.


Video link: The male identity crisis | Fraser Smith | TEDxGlasgow


It makes me very glad that people are beginning to talk more about these kinds of issues. As a feminist, I believe that both women and men deserve deserve to have their identities respected and should be allowed to express themselves and their emotions however they feel fit. Women are often deemed as "sensitive" or "emotional" and are scorned whenever they step out of this box, meanwhile men are told they need to be stoic and are ridiculed whenever they let their emotions show.

I would also like to point out that Smith's argument definitely supports the idea that the patriarchy is harmful to both men and women. While a patriarchal society upholds the idea that women are weak, it also tells men that they need to be strong and encourages toxic masculinity.

One last thing though: I found that Fraser Smith's argument was significantly more widely accepted and embraced among the male population of viewers than Thisari Randunu's was. Just something to think about.

Comments

  1. David FouldsSeptember 19, 2022 at 12:28 PM

    Great points and I see what you mean, Mackenzie. I try to balance the video choices so that not all of them are uniformly agreeable. I want to use them to get you all thinking, as you have here. Fraser Smith's discussion that the patriarchy is bad for everyone is a more compelling argument to me as well.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Class Video: "Building Connections: How to Be A Relationship Ninja | Rosan Auyeung-Chen | TEDxSFU"

Video link:  Building Connections: How to Be A Relationship Ninja | Rosan Auyeung-Chen | TEDxSFU Being in my first year of year of college, making connections is a big part of my life right now. It's my first time living away from my family, my first time at such a big school, and my first time not being constantly surrounded by people I'm close to and comfortable with. So when I first got here, I was immediately confronted by the importance of learning to make connections or else my next four years would be really lonely. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at making connections. I'm really shy and introverted and insecure and I tend to get anxious and overwhelmed during social situations. So watching this video was actually quite helpful to me, as Rosan Auyeung-Chen was able to give me some decent insight and advice on the process of making connections. That being said, I would disagree with the idea that there's a step-by-step instructional process for making connec...
Read more

Class Video: "The myth of race | BBC Ideas"

 Video link: The myth of race | BBC Ideas Before watching this video, I didn't understand what people meant when they said that race is a social construct. I always thought that since people have physical characteristics that can indicate their race, that must mean that race is ingrained into our DNA in some way. I was blown away by the idea that I could have a closer relation of genomes with some random person of some random other race than I could with someone of my same race, but that makes the argument that race is a social construct make so much more sense to me. Since there's really nothing in our DNA that indicates our race then that must mean that race is something assigned to us by society. To be honest, race is something I've always been confused by in the sense that I'm not really sure what my race even is. I know I'm Hispanic on my dad's side and White on my mom's side. I've always identified more with my Hispanic side but am I Hispanic enoug...
Read more

Group Video: "Lock-Up: The Prisoners of Rikers Island"

There were many things that stood out to me while watching this film. The first thing I noticed was how a lot of the prisoners were still wearing their own clothes instead of some sort of prison uniforms. In a lot of movies and pieces of media we see prisoners forced to wear a uniform in order to strip them of their individuality (everyone's familiar with the black-and-white stripes or the bright orange jumpsuits) but that wasn't the case in this real-life prison. Another thing I noticed was the immense amount of segregation on Rikers Island. In the prison, not only are male and female prisoners separated but even gay prisoners had their own facility. Additionally, the prisoners would even separate themselves by race within their facilities. Lastly, it was somewhat disturbing to see just how many prisoners accepted the idea that that was their life now. We were introduced to some prisoners who had practically made homes out of their cells, with all their clothes and furniture a...
Read more