Race...Ethnicity...Continuum of Gender?

What is race? Initially, I thought race was a term used to describe the classification of humans into various groups based on their backgrounds. In part I was correct; however to my surprise, I was also relatively wrong. My teacher explained to us that race is a social construction, a classification based on superficial characteristics (i.e. skin color, eye shape, hair type etc.). Some examples of race would include Black, White/Caucasian, Asian and Aboriginal. But then I thought to myself, okay so if race is based on what you look like, then where does your background come into play? That’s when my teacher went on to explain what the term ethnicity meant. She explained it to be like groups of people (ex. Clans, tribes etc.) where people of that group share commonalities in things likes history, heritage, traits, nationality, ancestry, geographical location/region and allegiance. Now those definitions taught me that my way of thinking was wrong, but that wasn’t what surprised me the most. My teacher went on to explain how every section of classification is categorized. Now you’re probably thinking, how so? Well instead of trying to explain how I would like you to imagine it, just take a look at these two examples:

The first one being for gender and the second one for race, however there are many more ways to classify humans (ex. class, sexuality, religion etc.). This interested me because I never really thought of it like that; it didn’t occur to me that we categorize humans in every which way. And sadly, what all we feminists go against, is that the white straight biological male will always be the one on top, because that is considered “the norm” to society. Does this seem alright to you? Do you think we should continue to categorize people the way we do? Or conform to thinking that just because "it is the norm" that it can't be changed? To me, everyone should be equal. No matter what gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity or nationality you belong to. No one should have privilege just because there white. Or be without privilege because there "of-race". Why can't everyone just be equal on all levels?

The Ideal Man?

The other day I was handed a small yellow post-it note, from my teacher, with the phrase “6 characteristics of an ideal man”. She wanted us to give her only 6 characteristics of our ideal man. For me, this question was quite difficult to answer because there isn’t really a way to describe my ideal man in only 6 characteristics. After taking a while to think about it I came up with, what I thought to be, 6 of the most important traits: Trustworthy/Honest, Respectable, Hard-working, Sense of Humor, Loving/Caring and finally he has to have a feminine-side, meaning he is in touch with his emotions. Now to me those are some pretty common characteristics, yes? However, when we put a list up of everyone else’s, there were some surprises. Most people did agree upon general good attributes/qualities; however some went into a little more detail. Few people made sure that they put “hot” or “hot abs” and even “nice tattoos” and “piercings”. But is it really the looks that are the most important thing? Another point that surprised me was that a lot of women put trustworthy and honest, implying the stereotype that men cannot be trusted and will go and cheat on their girlfriend/fiance/wife. This whole topic pretty well related to one of my favorite movies, starring Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl: The Ugly Truth. One hilarious movie, but yet contains many stereotypes and true facts about both men and women. One quote that stuck out the most concerning this topic was the conversation between Abby and Mike:

Abby: The big strong brave men, that we've all been reading about in novels and watching in movies since we've been nine years old, - -that's a fallacy. They don't exist. Men are not strong. Men are not brave. Men, are afraid. Even if they have a moment in a hotel elevator and it's totally romantic and full of potential, men are incapable of copping to it because, why? Men are weak.
Mike: Let me tell you something about women. Women would have us believe that they are the victims; That we break their hearts for sport. That's crap. They say they want romance, they say they want true love, but all they want is a check list. Is he perfect? Is he handsome? Is he a doctor? For you men who fit the criteria, don't kid yourselves. Cuz they're not sleeping with you, they're sleeping with a carefully calculated set of venal choices. Money over substance, looks over soul, polished over principles. No gesture, no matter how real or romantic will ever compensate for a really impressive list of credentials.

This quote pretty well explains itself, all about women wanting to meet this perfect guy, making sure that he is everything on their “checklist”. But then again in the same quote, Abby was explaining how men aren’t all what we stereotype them to be. To me, the entire movie was strictly related to gender and the stereotypes associated with gender. A perfect example of this was the movie poster (shown above); “it reinforces the gender norms that the movie portrays. Women think/feel/love with their heads, men think/feel/love with their genitals. Women can't do anything based solely on sexual desire. Men can't do anything based on their or others intelligence.” 2. If this movie isn’t a perfect example of gender norms and stereotypes then I don’t know what is.

References:
1 Quote taken from the movie The Ugly Truth, produced in 2009
2 Sundstorm, Laura. The Truth about the Ugly Truth. Adventures of a Young Feminist.