Welcome to A Mans World Feat. Women

There are a lot of rooms and spaces in this world that are sexist and gender biased such as the weight room at Troy high or the hot tub at Lifetime. If you expand your circle to include all public areas, then you could also say the streets of Detroit. But if you expand your line of vision to territories you could say the state of Texas and third-world countries are sexist. The entire world is a gender biased space; biased towards the male gender. I am not able to walk down the streets of Detroit in a pair shorts without being called “mami” or being told I have “sexy long legs”. Recently a 13-year-old transgender boy in Texas, who had been taking testosterone for two years, was told by Texas judge that he was not allowed to wrestle with the boys because he was born with female genital. He became the Texas women’s wrestling champion 52-0. Women are in a man’s world but if they try to act as equals or do anything, they get rejected. We cannot ride the bus without keeping an eye on every fellow male passenger. We cannot be expected to be treated the same. If we get a civil right that should already be assumed it is an accomplishment. Women are trying to step into this man’s world every day, we are trying to break this glass ceiling. Every space in this world is a gender biased space. I will choose one to talk about when there is only one to talk about.                                                                                                         

Not so Foreign Foreigners

According to The Department of Homeland Security, 13.3% of the population in 2014 emigrated from foreign countries (increasing the number by 2.5% from 2013). Every year the number of foreign born immigrants increases, included in this are my cousins. Two and a half years ago my three cousins came to America from France. This was a big transition because while we might find the things we do normal it is not for them. For example, the fact that we eat with our hands. I have a vivid memory of my uncle (their father) cleaning a half rack of ribs with a fork and knife and no mess. Then there’s me who had basically made a beard of sauce. My cousin, Illona Mathieu, said “The states are very different than France. In France people are more trusting but not as diverse. The culture in itself  is very different”. They moved to Ferndale, Michigan, a place that has a fair amount of African-Americans. In other countries, the US has a reputation of being fat,  racist, angry people who rely on other countries because our world revolves around commercialism. And yet people want to come here because we are the land of the free and home of the brave.

The contradictory stereotype

 “Dinner” seemed to be all that needed to be said in my house. My dad would yell down the stairs just as it was starting. My mom was not there a lot for dinner but when I heard her anxiety voice yelling down I prepared myself. My 15 year old blanket wrapped around me, slide on a pair of fuzzy socks and put my hair back as I marched up.  It started right after we would say grace. When I was young I would fight back, but as I got older I started to cave.  As I got older this was our only way of communication. But this is how we showed love. Her yelling at me about my grades was her showing me she loved me. She wanted to make sure I did well in school and succeed in life. She wanted to make sure I was ok. She was never taught any other way. In society women are thought as being the more affectionate ones and men as the more unsaid affectionate ones. This was proven in Mannings work with the line “To say goodbye, I kissed and hugged my mother and I prepared to shake my fathers hand”. My family is contradictory to this stereotype. My father wills how affection more than my mother.