The Concept of Social Location

This is "The social location" essay the author discusses the definition of this concept and what hides after it. Social location designates where a person stands in their community, it evolves over time and could either negatively or positively impact in terms of change. Each individual has a social location that is represented by their gender, race, social class, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and geographic location. Your social location can help solidify a person’s identity as well as expose our self-identity to other people. Your social identity is essential. If people have an picture of their character within a group, they are more inclined to associate well with others and feel better about themselves.

One of the social locations that I belong to is gender. Gender is the natural qualities of women and men, such as norms, roles, and intercommunication. The majority of people see their selves as a boy or a girl; commonly what you are described as once you are born. I identify myself as a female. There are different perceptions people have regarding the female sex. How you are required to act, speak, dress, and regulate yourself subject to your appointed sexual orientation. Females are inclined to be gracious, cooperative and nourishing. From my standpoint, I represent in some ways that support the stereotype of my gender, in terms of the way I carry myself physically and emotionally. I dress the way a female is supposedly supposed to dress, I like the colors purple and pink and I want to get married and raise a family some day equally with my partner.

Gay stated in her article how she wants to be in charge and in control but submits herself in particular aspects of her life, she claims at times to be a feminist but listens to vulgar music that insults women, she believes in equal rights and supports women movements but part of her questions the amount of effort she puts in to being a feminist. I want to live in a world where women are equally in control. I want to be equal in every aspect compared to men, be a full-blown feminist. At the same time, I want to surrender and be the female that people stereotypically portray. Would it be that awful to my identity and my beliefs on feminism to stay at home and depend on a man physically, emotionally and finically and would that also consider me a bad feminist? I am challenged by those thoughts.

Another social location I belong to is Religion, which is part of my individuality and my geographic location. Judaism is a group that I belong to within my society, history, and position where I stand today. Stereotypically speaking, we are hated because we are 'too open-minded',' too traditional', 'too cheap' and also 'bad with money'; we have been criticized either for having too much or not having anything at all. I can be very cheap and I do at times think I am always right and will argue against anything. Geographically, I live in a very strong close Jewish community. Most of the people I live around share the same Jewish values; connect in terms of our history. When one gets discriminated we feel as if we have all been discriminated against. In our religion, you are either extremely religious, in-between or not at all, which in a sense means we all have our own levels of belief.

Typically, there are difficulties I encounter in both these social locations. At this time we are worried about the safety and protection of our people. Jews have been the victims of the wrongdoings of every political system. Therefore, for all these accusations that are represented in the media people believe the worst. We are also one of the most despised religions; I have endured many discriminating judgments throughout my time.

Adichie described in her article how she relocated to the United States from Nigeria and had an American roommate. She believed various things about her based on what she’s read and watched about Africa. Her roommate had no other possible ways of looking at her only based on a single thing she has heard, she assumed she was poor and always in danger.

Power relation dictates who has authority over whom and who has access to power and who does not, Due to several factors but crucially in response to gender, race, and religion. Being a female in today's world has remained difficult, I want to be capable of striving towards my goal of becoming a boss, and I also know that it will be more challenging for me than it would for a man. As a woman, we encounter tons of sexual harassment as well as being lowered compared to men, which implicates the power that men have over women.

Connell, Pearse spoke briefly about all modern societies for which they had statistics, women do most of the cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children because women are compassionate and tender. Women as a group are unlikely to be out in the open world than men and when they are have fewer resources. Men are required to bring the money while women take care of children.

However, my Religion and geographic location come together hand in hand. My religion has the power over me and the Jewish community I live in because it gave us a meaning of life, we grew up having something to believe in, the power over our thoughts in terms of what is good and bad, what we can and can’t eat, how we dress, and what holidays to keep etc. Western society's statuary holidays are usually Christian or Catholic which implicates the power they also have over every other religion in terms of. Why are our holidays not as important? We aren’t all Catholic or Christian. What makes them have the power over every other religion?

In conclusion, being a female has continuously been challenging in terms of gender equality, I regularly feel as if I am viewed as more subordinate than a man, which has been oppressive in terms of my career subjectively speaking. I feel supported as a woman being part of such a close community and religion. I have no issue in terms of the power relation it implicates on my morality and geographic location, even though there are so many other religions that have more influence over my own, I have learned that we still survive even after the number of times we have been the target of destruction. My social locations recognize that all people don't think the same or endure their existence in the same way, we each are our own self and that is what makes us so unique.

References

• Gay, Roxane. (2014). Exerted from Bad Feminist: Essays. London, UK: Constable & Robinson. Retrieved from The Guardian, August 2, 2014: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/02/bad-feminist-roxane-gay-extract.
• Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. (2009,July). The Dangers of a Single Story. TED Talk. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transscirpt?language=en.
• Connell,Raewyn, & Pearse, Rebecca. (2014). “Chapter 1:”The Question of Gender”. In Gender: In World Persepective, 3rd Edition (pp.1-12). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.