Hello! My
Name is Connor McKelvey and I am a Junior at UCF. I am majoring in Sociology
and minoring in Cultural Anthropology. I enrolled in Intro to Women's studies
as a part of the women's studies certificate, which compliments a few gender
centric classes I have taken within the Sociology department. My passions
within sociology have always been education, gender, and domestic violence, so
this seemed to be the perfect class that would combine those topics and relate
them to ideas and theories about why the certain institution are the way they
are. This class has already made me aware of how priveledged I am, being a
white, middle class, heterosexual male. Though I have friends and family who
are disadvantaged, I find it important to educate myself of others’ struggles
in order to gain a perspective of society and become aware of the injustices
and inequalities that exist. Feminism is the mind-set of
gender equality–for men and women to have equal pay, representation, power
and security throughout all systems and aspects of society. Women's
studies is the study of women and their struggles and triumphs in a male,
heteronormative society where women, people of color, and the queer community
are considered second class citizens. Though feminism is the dominate
theoretical perspective in women’s studies, the two terms are not synonymous.
Gender is important in my life and will always be. My gender is not the
important thing but the concept of gender is. I have never thought of myself as
the epitome of masculinity and I like that. Though I am a heterosexual male, I
like knowing that I still break away from the hypermasculine molds that we are
taught to embrace, with my thoughts, intellect and attitudes towards, women,
those who identify as queer, or not at all. I think growing up with a very
traditional family, in a very conservative town made me even more aware of
gender. When I was in middle school my brother came out to my family, had it
not been for him and my love for him, who knows if my views of gender, race, or
class would still be any different from what was present in that environment. I want to learn about what influences gender
and shapes individuals to identify with a certain gender. One day I would like
to have children and I want to make sure that their sexuality is free to
develop, that they are aware of gender roles, the inequalities that exist
between genders and teach them to accept people of all genders.
