GENDER QUESTIONS 2

Gender Questions

In what ways are the “differences” institutionalized into hierarchies of inequality and
privilege in your neighborhood, the high school you attended, your college or university,
place of worship, workplace, etc.?
Almost all of the top jobs in the organization were held by white men who, often,
came from wealthy backgrounds and had attended elite institutions of higher learning. Since
most of the top jobs were usually got through recommendations, the people that often
succeeded also tended to be much like them – wealthy white men. Most of the workers who
performed low-paying and less prestigious jobs at the organization were African Americans
and Hispanics. The manner in which people got jobs and who got them, therefore, created a
hierarchy of inequality and privilege that had wealthy white men at the top and poor African
American and Hispanic women at the bottom.
What does Audre Lorde mean when she talks about “horizontal hostility”?
Audre Lorde uses the term “horizontal hostility” to show how differences among
women often create unnecessary infighting that prevents women from achieving their goal of
ending oppression against them (Lorde, 1980). These differences are based on, among other
things, race and sexuality. For instance, when heterosexual women express homophobic
sentiments to lesbian women, unnecessary hostility is created which leads to divisions that
prevent them from working as allies. These divisions among them help perpetuate their
domination and oppression by men.
Explain how the following phrase illustrates an intersectional approach to feminist
activism: “Gendered privilege is experienced differently depending on the situation and
the individual people involved.”

GENDER QUESTIONS 3

Intersectional approach to feminism acknowledges that overlapping identities of
women, such as their sexual orientation, class, and race shape their experiences of
discrimination and oppression. For instance, a white cisgender woman does not experience
the same type of discrimination as a white transgender woman. Thus, the statement
“gendered privilege is experienced differently depending on the situation and the individual
people involved” illustrates this intersectionality because it shows that the level of privilege
that one enjoys because of their gender depends on specific characteristics of a given
individual. For instance, transgender men do not have the same level of privilege as cisgender
men.
Explain Tatum’s distinction between active and passive racism. Please provide one
example illustrating your attention.
According to Tatum, active racism includes all intentional acts of racial
discrimination (Tatum, 1997). These acts include a white person joining the Ku Klux Klan,
wearing their hoods, and attacking African Americans. Unlike active racism, passive racism
is subtle. It includes acts such as laughing at racist jokes or not challenging hiring practices
that exclude African Americans.

Response Paper 3

Evin Taylor makes the following statement in the “Cisgender Privilege” article:
“Gendered privilege is experienced differently depending on the situation and the
individual people involved”? What does Taylor mean by this phrase? How does this
phrase illustrate intersectionality theory?
Cisgender are people who identify with the gender that is assigned to them at the time
of their birth. Most people are cisgender as they maintain throughout the course of their lives
the gender that they were assigned at birth. However, many cisgender people do not think of

GENDER QUESTIONS 4

themselves as being privileged in any way. This lack of awareness of their privilege partly
stems from the fact that they are usually unaware of the problems that transgender people
face on a daily basis. Unlike cisgender people, a person who is transgender changes or
crosses their gender. Since the gender that they identify with is not the gender that they were
assigned at birth, transgender people often face a myriad of problems on a daily basis.
In order to understand the privilege that they have over transgender people, Evin
Taylor asks cisgender people a set of fifty questions. These questions are meant to reveal the
problems that transgender people face on a daily basis that cisgender people do not face. For
instance, they have to endure being asked explicit questions about their genitals when
obtaining passports and traveling. They also have problems finding places to rent, have
trouble getting adequate medical care, their children may be bullied at school because of the
gender of their parents, they have trouble finding public bathrooms for their use, and other
people often consider them to have mental health issues (Taylor, 2010). Cisgender people do
not face these types of problems. The fact that they do not need to answer questions regarding
their gender almost on a daily basis makes them a very privileged lot.
It is for these reasons that Evin Taylor argues that the privilege that men enjoy
because of their gender is dependent on individual characteristics and situations. For instance,
a transgender man will not have the same privileges as a cisgender man. For the former, the
fact that the gender assigned to them at birth differs from the identity that they associate with
creates for them numerous problems that cisgender men do not face. For instance, unlike
transgender people, cisgender people do not need to worry about government officials asking
them explicit questions about their genitals when they are traveling. Neither do they
experience any problems when choosing a public bathroom to use. Thus, even though both
transgender and cisgender men share the male gender, the privileges that the male gender

GENDER QUESTIONS 5

bestows on them are affected by other individual factors. Transgender men, for instance,
enjoy less “male privileges” because of their gender change.
The phrase also holds that these gender privileges are also based on situations. This is
true because there are certain situations where transgender men may benefit because they are
men and there are others where they are likely to be at a disadvantage because they are
transgender. For instance, when applying for a job where employers prefer men to women,
the transgender man may have an advantage over cisgender women. However, when it comes
to using public facilities such as bathrooms, the cisgender women may have an advantage
over the transgender man. The privileges are, therefore, dependent on situations.
The phrase also illustrates the intersectionality theory. This theory holds that an
overlap of different social identities, such as one’s sexuality, class, gender, and race impact
the specific type of discrimination or oppression that an individual face. Thus, while it is true
that men are more privileged than women, cisgender men are also more privileged than
transgender ones. Likewise, transgender women are less privileged than cisgender women.
The privilege (or lack of it) that people experience because of their gender is, therefore,
influenced by other situational and individual factors, not just gender.

GENDER QUESTIONS 6

References

Lorde, A. (1980). Age, race, class, and sex: Women redefining difference. Women in Culture:
An intersectional anthology for gender and women’s studies, 16-22.
Tatum, B. D. (1997). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?’’ And other
conversations about race. New York: Basic.
Taylor, E. (2010). Cisgender privilege: On the privileges of performing normative
gender. Gender outlaws: The next generation, 268.