Santa Monica College Gender Essay and Responses Assignment Your initial post should respond to both questions below and should be around 300 words. In your

Santa Monica College Gender Essay and Responses Assignment Your initial post should respond to both questions below and should be around 300 words. In your response, be sure to include reference to specific moments, language, and details from the essay. In other words, be sure to include specific textual evidence from the student essay.1. What do you notice about the student’s selection, incorporation, and/or explanation of textual evidence that relates to her key words and thesis?2. What writing moves that the student writer makes do you admire? In other words, what do you notice about how she writes that you would like to try out in your own essay?In addition, you will need to respond meaningfully to TWO of your classmates’ posts, and those responses should be at least 190 words. I will post two classmate posts after the discussion questions are done. Sing a New Song, James
“This is a man’s world,” you croon in the solitude of your car, radio blasting.
Admit it. You belt ’em out when no one’s within earshot, don’t you? “This is a man’s
world, but it is nothing, nothing without a woman or girl” (Brown). The classic’s
lyrics roll off your tongue, however off key, emphasizing an ugly stereotype: a man’s
place is in the working world and a woman’s is in supporting her man. Maybe as you
warble, James Brown’s 1966 ditty “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” evokes in you
the thought that truer words were never spoken. After all, extensive study indicates
gender inequality in business persists today due to lack of business and personal
responsibility (Coontz). But perhaps you react differently, thinking of the oldie as
dated. Does Brown assume his listener is straight and married? If so, does this leave
you unrepresented? If modernized, Brown’s song might be retitled “It’s a Straight,
White Man’s World.” People are far too complex to identify merely as men and
women. Both genders can be broken down into gays, straights, blacks, whites, abled
and disabled. Much like Brown’s ballad, the fight for gender equality makes dated
assumptions about the sexes. It’s time for the gender equality movement to modernize,
change its tune. While “man” and “woman” are seen as universal categories, dated
assumptions made about the sexes by the gender equality movement alienate those
who fall into excluded subcategories, resulting in little chance for the resolution of
inequality.
The gender equality movement means well and any alienation it causes is
unintentional. But that doesn’t mean alienation and dated assumptions about the sexes
don’t exist. The assumptions are documented, as made evident in countless studies on
the topic. In Stephanie Coontz’s essay “Why Gender Equality Stalled,” she makes
assumptions about gender: “The woman resents that she is not getting the shared child
care she expected and envies her husband’s social networks outside the home. . . . So
couples often create a family myth about why they made these choices, why it has
turned out for the best. . .” (Coontz). By choosing words like husband, child, couples,
family, as well as abstractions like “the woman” and “the man” to assert a point,
Coontz assumes that the men and women effected by the issue are married, familyoriented, and all the same, able to be generalized. Furthermore, her 2013 essay not
once mentions workers with different sexual orientations. Though Coontz makes
fascinating observations regarding gender work issues, I find myself unmoved by her
piece because I feel alienated as a gay, single man. The rights to marry and have
children are new to me, and the dynamic of a same sex relationship may be different
than that of a straight one. Coontz unknowingly stalls equality further by excluding
gays and singles through research conducted with dated assumptions in mind.
To be sure, not all studies on gender inequality exclude or make assumptions.
Some recognize a wide spectrum of subcategories when discussing men and women
effected. In Christina Hoff Sommers’ essay “The Boys at the Back,” she notes ethnic
and financial diversity: “. . . improving the performance of black, Latino and lowerincome kids requires particular attention to boys. Black women are nearly twice as
likely to earn a college degree as black men” (Sommers). The author highlights the
imbalance between minority boys and girls, men and women, while addressing our
school system’s favoring of girls. She later opens the topic up globally, mentioning the
school systems of Britain, Australia, and Canada as followable templates. I must
admit Sommers casts her net widely, her research well-rounded. Though I fight the
contrarian within me, aching to point out how brief these mentions are, I cannot deny
her essay stands to make an impression on a larger audience by merely including
them. Sadly, it often feels as if studies like Sommers’ are scarce. Should more
approach inequality as she has, without dated assumptions, the gender issue may not
be stuck in the past.
Many may argue that gender acts as an umbrella including all people, whether
assumptions are made or not. After all, a gay man is a man, a black woman is a
woman. Let’s humor these naysayers for a moment. Assumptions aside, can all people
identify with, and be recognized as man or woman? The emergence of transgender
males and females in the workplace forces us to look at the issue of gender inequality
in ways never imaged, adding great confusion as to where these workers lie. In Kevin
D. Williamson’s essay “Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman,” he dissects Cox’s identify:
“Regardless of the question of whether he has had his genitals amputated, Cox is not a
woman, but an effigy of a woman. Sex is a biological reality, and it is not subordinate
to subject impressions. . .” (Williamson). Cox, a working actress honored as the first
transgender person to grace the cover of Time, is rejected as female by Williamson,
who calls her a mere shadow. Though he views her as a man, he contradicts himself
with the usage of “effigy of a woman,” which also excludes Cox from the category
with which he associate her. So which is she? Suddenly the concept of gender acting
as an umbrella excluding no one seems inappropriate, doesn’t it? There are those who
do not identify as man or woman, as well as those who refuse to acknowledge that
person as either gender. “Man” and “woman” do not define us all. Therefore, opening
up the fight for equality to terms that define workers of every kind is essential.
“You see man made the car to take us over the road,” I screech. Hell, I admit it.
I rock out in my car, too. What’s worse, I don’t care who sees. “Man made the train to
carry the heavy load.” Though I love James Brown, I can’t help but reflect upon the
dated assumptions in the song’s words. I’m a big oldies guy, so I’m not suggesting we
give up our favorite songs. I’m simply saying take them for what they are: words and
views from another time, much like the assumptions made in the fight for gender
equality. Unless you can modernize a topic or issue in a way that includes everyone,
your movement will remain permanently in the past. Who knows how diverse we
stand to be in the future? So let’s enjoy our oldies, but we should throw in some
occasional indie rock to stay current and relevant. Sorry James, but sing a new song.
Works cited
Brown, James and Betty Jean Newsome. “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World.” 16 Feb.
1966. It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World. King. 1966. Azlyrics.com. Web. 15
Oct. 2014
Coonz, Stephanie. “Why Gender Equality Stalled.” Nytimes.com. The New York
Times. 16 Feb. 2013. Web. 2 Oct. 2014
Sommers, Christina Hoff. “The Boys at the Back.” Nytimes.com. The New York
Times. 2 Feb. 2013. Web. 2 Oct. 2014
Williamson, Kevin D. “Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman.” Nationalreview.com. National
Review Online. 30 May 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2014

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