The movie Frida (2004), inspired by the life of the famously know Frida Kahlo, demonstrates a strong feminist role that Frida took part in during her lifetime. The young women was a role model for feminism and going against social norm. As she was born in 1907 and died in 1954, she was considered one of the feminists at the time in how she expressed herself throughout her life.

Frida Kahlo was known for her paintings as she started after her accident. She was self-taught and was inspired to paint and make something of herself even after getting into an accident at the age of 18. This shows the strength of a young women not giving up on the possibilities of life even with a tragic accident. Painting was a way to express herself in a different way than the norm at the time and pulling through and not letting anything stop her. She demonstrates inspiration to many and myself that you can truly do anything you want in life no matter the circumstances as if there is a will there is a way.

She was also known to break the expectations of society when it came to her appearance. She was known to have a unibrow and unwaxed upper lip, as it was statement of going against the social beauty rules of a women at the time. She expressed herself in how she felt comfortable with herself and not by how she was expected to appear. She was a big believer in being one’s self and embracing it without shame of standing out. Which should be something everyone aspires to, as one should feel comfortable with whatever decisions one makes about themselves without the fear of expectations.

Lastly she was known to be bi sexual as she had lovers of both male and female. She was true to herself even at a time when most hid their true selves because of what society thought. Once again demonstrating the importance of being one’s self regardless of what people think as we are all equal. She was a true inspiration for women and anyone else who felt that they shouldn’t conform to the norm of society, especially in that era.

Frida Kahlo was an inspirational woman who was the definition of a feminist. She was true to herself in what she felt comfortable with and with what she believed in. She aspired in what she loved to do and did it regardless of the circumstances. This is why I personally find her inspirational as she shows how one should embrace one’s self no matter what people think, as long as you are happy.

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This week I attended a presentation called “(Re)imagining Gender and Sexuality in the healthcare Field through Ancestral Inquiry. The presenters name is Emil Briones is a successful person who teaches at McGill University. He talks about the course he teaches to dentistry students, which includes gender identity, gender expression, biological sex and sexual orientation. He mentions that his students sometimes find it difficult to understand these topics as they are usually concerned with the scientific fact of people. What he answers to that, which is important, is how sometimes even if you can’t see it with science it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Another important point made is that one must look into his own roots of where one came from. He meant that you must look back at your own culture to have a better understanding of one’s self. He then continued in talking about two spirited people, which is someone who has both the male and female identities in one body. As he mentions that they are healthcare healers and spiritual healers, showing that there are many other ways to help people. He ends by explaining that anyone who’s profession involves helping people must understand that in order to understand a patient’s needs, one must understand their culture.

After talking to other students, they agreed that it is important to consider other ways of explaining thing in only the scientific way. Along with it is important to know your own culture along with others so you can better understand people.

From what he said, I do agree that somethings can’t only be explained by science and one must have an opened mind to things. With that said I do find it important to look at one’s culture to get to know more about yourself. For example, in my personal life, to have a better understanding of my own culture I travel to the country that my mother came from and learnt a lot from my grandmother, which I found very useful to know.  With that being said I strongly believe that in order to actually understand someone even as a friend you must have a sense of what their culture is about. This can help you understand why and how they think or even do certain things.

After researching Emil Briones, I found out that he is also very talented. As he is a researcher, writer, musician and he is also an educator in Tiohtià:ke. He is vey talented in many aspects in life along with being an educator at McGill University as mentioned.

After listening to this presentation, I would recommend it to my friends because it talks mainly about having an opened mind to things. Which is something that is important to have along with the fact that one must research about their own culture while getting to know other cultures as well, so one can have a better understanding of our multicultural society.

At the beginning the author’s opening anecdote was to show the role of women in a specific culture. As people tend to have the idea that women only recently gained power within society, which is true if looking at our specific culture. Which is why the authors point is to demonstrate that women actual had power in the sixteenth century and it was completely normal in the aboriginal society. It also shows how advance their culture was compared to the Europeans, as mentioned, women didn’t have any power, adding to the shock Europeans had when they found out that in that specific period of time women had a great deal of influence over men.

In the aboriginal societies men and women had different roles along with having a better sense of understanding when it came to equality compared to Europeans. Along with that they had a better acceptance about premarital relations and sexual orientation. Taking that into consideration, it is just to say that aboriginal societies where more advanced in their thinking and open minded as people tend to be in today’s day.

In the Innuit society, it would be considered the most related in practice to our modern-day society. As men in women had roles yet they each had their own important roles, but at the end of the day men and women’s decisions and opinions were equality as important. Which can be said about our society, as we tend to still have certain specific roles, although both genders opinions matter when making decisions. The society that tends to be the least related to ours would be the Mi’kmaw, as men would hunt, and women would do the agriculture and take care of the children. Although women had a certain degree of power, the main leaders were men. Which in today’s day, we have a lot more women as leaders.

Two spirited identities we people who had both female and male identities in one body. As if they were men bodied individuals the would wear feminine clothing and vise versa. Along with they had important roles in society, as they were “healers, seers, and bearers of oral tradition.” The difference with two-spirited peoples and the LGBTQ+ is that they held specific ceremonial roles of the two spirited community. While the term can only be used by a first nations person, or else the term wouldn’t make sense.

As mentioned, women in aboriginal societies were more advanced as their opinion and voice mattered in their community compared to the Europeans. As Europeans men had all the power over women, whereas the aboriginals it was either equal power or women’s opinion had a great influence on men.

As colonization progressed, Europeans took more and more land leaving the aboriginals with almost nothing. Along with the abuse brought upon them, from the alcoholism to the kidnapping of their children to attempt to change who they are has had a large impact on aboriginals. To this day the abuse done to them still continues as an example that they’re many of them who still don’t receive clean drinking water. Which is to show how till this day aboriginals are still being negatively affected by colonization.

In the first article by Jessica Valenti, she describes feminism by the dictionary definition of: “Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. The movement organized this belief.” While in the second article Bell hooks defines feminism by, “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” Based on the two definitions it can be said that the similarities are that they both want to move away from patriarchal oppression believing in equality in the sexes. While similar, they still have a slight difference in being that in believing in the equality in the sexes while one specifically wants to  end sexism and other forms of oppression done by the patriarchal system.

With that being said, feminism is important to both authors as they both find peace in being a feminist. They find it liberating to know that they must not conform to the ideologies forced upon women that has being implied for centuries. With these implications if not conformed to the views of what society values in being a woman, they then put these women down making belittling them. Not only does it go as far as people not thinking that you aren’t good enough but eventually it takes a tole upon yourself with the constant thinking of not being “pretty” enough, “skinny” enough ect. The fact that feminism was a way for both of them to realize that there was in fact nothing wrong with who they were to begin with, it is why feminism is important to them. Not only did feminism make them feel liberated about being comfortable with being who they are, but also with realizing that they are just as valuable as men. Meaning that they deserve to have the same rights and end patriarchal oppression, with resulting in a world that doesn’t view sexism as a norm in society.

Based on all this information in both articles, my personal definition of a feminist is someone, (key word being ‘someone’ and not just a female), who believes in equality between the sexes, having mutual respect towards individuals regardless of gender, someone who aspires equality for all human beings. My ideas and definition towards feminism has remained the same after reading both articles, as I had an understanding that feminism is about equality of the sexes.

Although something very specific has struck me about the articles I  read that I haven’t thought about before. It was found at the very beginning of the first article when Jessica mentions that the worst thing you can call a girl is in fact a girl, while the worst thing you can call a guy is to no surprise a girl. That left me thinking of all the insults ever received or given and realizing how true yet wrong that is. As society in conclusion makes it seem that being a girl is the ultimate insult, yet it makes you wonder why is that the case? What can be so wrong with a certain gender that it lets people use it as the ultimate insult, in both genders.

After doing research on Jessica Valenti, she is known as one of the most successful feminists of this generation which can be shown through the article, I read prior. Along with Bell hooks who is known to be very talented and successful, ending with that both these authors show their success through their work as they are both very passionate about what they advocate.

To start the topic of stereotypes of feminism, we must take into account the actual definition of feminism; feminism is wanting political, economic along with social equality between men and woman. With that being said many men and women still don’t identify themselves as being a feminist as there are many stereotypes attached to that term. This is to show that many don’t truly grasp the true concept and definition of what being a feminist really is(“Myths about Feminism”).

There are many known stereotypes that can be attached to the term feminism, for example the most known one is women that hate men. This becomes a type of barrier that prevents men and women from wanting to be a feminist, as they say that it isn’t right to hate men. Although the previous statement is false, many people still believe that considering yourself a feminist it means that you hate men and you believe women are better than men. Also along with the misconception of the term, people believe that feminist can only be women, hence by the name, yet that isn’t the case as well. With those being the top two stereotypes that most people have on the topic of feminism, there are still many more stereotypes to add to the list which people still believe is the true definition of feminism(“Myths about Feminism”).

Along with the different stereotypes, I’ve learned that everyone should indeed be a feminist, including men. Which it has a misconception that if a man is a feminist he is less masculine than the rest. A man being a feminist is him believing that men and women are as equally to each other in our culture and society. This concept of men being a feminist has nothing to do with how masculine he is. Which is why all men should be a feminist because they all have women in their lives so why wouldn’t they want equality for them as well. To conclude, there are still barriers of stereotypes that the world views on feminism, which people need to be educated on to truly understand what it means to be a feminist and break these barriers, along with why everyone should be a feminist(“Myths about Feminism”).

Myths about Feminism. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.berry.edu/womens_studies/myths/