Gender till this day remains to be a problem. If you are female, you are already at a disadvantage. You face oppression because you are female. Not that it's your fault for being a female, males are viewed as dominants and who holds the power. Although I didn't experience this, my coworker, head cashier, and manger who were all females did. There was a man that came through and was checking out, and usually if they use our credit cards and it's over a certain amount or is a business card, we have to verify identification. When my coworker went to ask see an I.D. this man got angry and stated if she wanted to see his birth certificate as well. My head cashier who was standing nearby stepped in and told the man that this was protocol and a safety precaution. At this point, the man was not having it and asked to see a manager. My front end manager who looks pretty young came out, and the man I kid you not said, "she looks like she's barely out of high school." Granted my manager told the man that she did not appreciate him saying all of this and eventually the man went on his way. If it would've been any of the male managers that came out to speak to this man, he would've never acted this way. My front end manage is more then qualified for her position. But because she was female, the man didn't take her seriously. So to sum it up, working retail sucks and people can be really mean.
I engage with activism everyday when I go on Twitter. This is known as online activism. "The internet is one of the greatest things ever to happen to the modern feminist movement" (150). The feminist movement is gaining momentum by taking it to the internet and spreading the word quicker then they ever did before. Famous celebrities are coming forth about being sexually abused, and this has given many females a voice to step forward and tell their story. So when I go on my Twitter feed, the people I follow like these tweets and I see them, and a lot of them. I think its courageous for these women to step and share their stories, and reading these stories are heartbreaking. Mostly because most of them happened when they were young and it was written as if they were at fault, rather than being the victim.
I agree that people in general, but older men more often, do tend to take women less seriously in positions of power. They question why we are telling them they are wrong, and sometimes even going to the point of saying hurtful things about the women because they feel threatened.
ReplyDeleteThough I will say that not all male managers are taking with the same high degree of power, and can be questioned as well. There is a lot to be said about the intersectional dynamics of a service job, and how if you are too young or too old people view you as less of a worker, especially if you are a woman. I can think of when I worked a service job before I started work study how people would judge my work ethic on my age, and how young that I was. Service is the perfect place to see how feminism ideology explains how people treat certain groups of people, and even how these people interact with the customers.
That's a great example of how gender stereotypes play out in everyday situations. Online activism is an important venue for change--what kind of twitter accounts do you follow that provide insight on gender issues?
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