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Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Response to Powel (Bria Phillips)

      After reading Kevin Powel’s article “Confessions of a Recovering Misogynist” I initially thought it was nice to see him to own up to his past mistakes and want to change his ways so much so that he’s confessing to us. As I continue to read it over and over, something just doesn’t feel right. It’s like he’s forcing us to feel sorry for him so that we can appreciate his “progress.” Which I don’t know how to interpret his said progress; he’s constantly saying “he could easily relapse” or fall back into his sexist ways. I get that he is human and that as humans we all make mistakes, but to be a recovering misogynist that means he knows his issues, his triggers, his influences, etc. so he should be able to overcome the urges to go back to his old ways, right?


I do appreciate that he brought up several good points about conformity and peer pressure in school. Growing up, we tend to place our own expectations of gender into a bubble and then eventually model it around this fictional character or kid from TV shows, movies, books, etc. or maybe even someone else in our class or grade or school, and then tell ourselves this is how we are supposed to be. That is who I am striving to become. He says, “… at school boys were encouraged to do ‘boy’ things: work and build with our hands, fight each other, and participate in the most daring activities during our gym time” (p.56, Powel). Even as we get older, we continue with this mindset to push ourselves to become better than others or to constantly prove ourselves to other people we may hang around just for approval, which could lead to misogynist behavior or homophobia.

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