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[This article is a continuation of a previous article titled “Boys Don’t Cry”, in order to gain sufficient context, that article should be read first.]


The original idea was to discuss the impact of misogyny in schools and careers, however, misogyny is a complex form of oppression that adapts to different intersecting identities like a viral parasite. After publishing Boys Don’t Cry, it was still imperative for me to return to the idea of how misogyny affects our peers because of how much toxic masculinity is celebrated. All people on campus deserve to feel seen and heard; my only hope is that this article can elevate these stories so more people are willing to listen and understand why this is still an issue in the present day. The Neuwirth Times is honored to have been able to speak to all of these amazing women and men on campus and publish their stories.


 

Ms. Baptiste, who teaches United States History and Social Movements, says that in high school she participated in a club called Unity where she and others brought together their school community and educated others about prejudice. She also has a degree in Political Science, minors in both History and Pan-African Studies, and is pursuing a Master's in education. 


Ms. Martinez, who teaches on-level World History and AP World History, graduated as a valedictorian out of around 700 students, and got her Bachelors at UCLA, she then volunteered for AmeriCorps in inner-city schools to provide counseling. Afterward, she did Teach For America and got her teaching credential from Loyola Marymount University. 


Ms. Magdaleno, who teaches on level English 10 and Honors English 10, graduated from high school in the top ten percent of students who were eligible for ELC and got automatically accepted into various UCs. She has two Bachelor's degrees in English and Spanish, a minor in Environmental Science, and one Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. 


Ms. Legaspi majored in Biochemistry from CSULA and has a minor in English and Economics and took classes to achieve her teaching credential.


As I spoke with these women, all of whom are personal role models as I get closer to graduating and finding my place in the world, I felt a wave of anguish washing over me. I had asked them difficult questions discussing their experiences and life and revisiting moments when their hard work had been diminished and dismissed. When I conducted my interviews with all of these teachers, I stumbled across a pattern: all of them said yes to every question I asked regarding experiences of misogyny in higher education or a work environment, if they had felt as though men around them were victimized just as much by toxic masculinity, and if their identities as women and the resulting bias against them had extended to their racial/ethnic identities. 


The Neuwirth Times: When pursuing higher education, did you have experiences that made you feel targeted and ostracized based on your sex? 


One of the pervasive harms of misogyny is the way that it makes women feel targeted and ostracized in higher learning institutions and the workplace. Recounting her experience having a roommate who was in a fraternity and witnessed the mass amount of objectification of the women invited to their parties, Baptiste pointed out the objective of most men in these fraternities as they pursued women at these events, only to mistreat them when it came to emotional needs and value them for only their physical attributes. “They don’t care about them,” she said, “they just want their bodies”. Martinez said she experienced “gender bias” from men who came from similar backgrounds, all of whom had treated her as though she were “helpless” and said she felt as though she was perceived as a “b*tch”. Working at Chase Bank, where she felt valued by her fellow employees but was met with ignorance as she worked with a nationwide direct sales company, Magdaleno was the only woman in boardrooms full of older men, and her presentations and ideas were constantly shut down, ignored, and reused by other men who took credit for her hard work. Legaspi’s experience as a student who entered college at a younger age made her feel as though the program director would consistently blame the girls for not being able to keep up in school and blame “drama” on them. When it came time to get a recommendation, the process was difficult, as the director had a clear preference for their male students.




Simply from this first question alone, I learned so much from these women about how difficult it is to be a woman in a higher education institution. All of them had worked hard and were accepted on their merit, yet were left to feel as though they were undervalued, ignored, and misunderstood because their male counterparts had a previously conceived misconception about them before even examining their determined and intelligent characters. 


The Neuwirth Times: Considering your identity as a woman of color, can you give an example in which you have felt that your intersecting identities have resulted in a different form of misogyny against you?


Acknowledging the role that different identities play in how misogyny impacts women of color is vital to scratching the surface of such a complex virus that plagues society. Beauty standards and their exclusion of Black women have been constant since society became conscious of its existence, and Baptiste expressed anguish over already existing “unrealistic beauty standards” and how they do not include Black features like nose and lip shapes, hair texture, and skin color. “Growing up, it [beauty standards] was not an array, it was very clear what you needed to look like,” Baptiste had examined her own experiences growing up as a Black woman in a world where her beauty was not valued because of the way society has remained stubborn to change age-old stereotypes that deem certain features as “ugly” when it is the exact opposite. Inclusivity is misunderstood as propping up certain features as better than others, which is how beauty standards originated, but instead elevating previously mocked features to the same level to celebrate everyone’s beauty. 




As a single mother, women are scrutinized for “choosing” the wrong men and are often disregarded as bad mothers, despite no one acknowledging that the circumstances are different for everyone, and single mothers work the hardest to ensure their child’s comfort and survival. These stereotypes about single mothers overlap with ethnic identities as described by Martinez. She feels as though people, white women in particular, express no surprise at the dynamic between her and her son as a single mother, comments like those are “microaggressions”, a subtle insult to marginalized groups. She expressed “pressure” on her to raise her son when there are so many people who already believe that she is a bad mother, despite not knowing her at all. Preconceived ideas about women and certain ethnic groups result in stereotypes about their behaviors and actions, in this case, it’s Martinez who experienced ignorance despite her wonderful work in raising her son.


I’m sure many women here at Neuwirth will resonate with Legaspi, who reflected on her own experience as a Filipina and mentioned a “pull” between the differences in cultural expectations for women in the U.S., with a growing movement to celebrate independent women who can be mothers and be successful, and the expectations for women in the Philippines being caretakers for men in their households. Her experience is incredibly similar to that of Hispanic women, who are raised to learn how to take care of a household rather than prepared for the infinite struggles of adulthood, and then scrutinized for experiencing failure. The polarizing gender experiences here in the U.S. and other countries create a state of confusion, almost like cognitive dissonance, for women who are stuck between wanting to conform to one and being unable to conform to another.


Returning to “Boys Don’t Cry,” misogyny finds its roots within the mindset of toxic masculinity and its prevalence within society. The value of stoicism creates emotional unavailability as Baptiste describes, it makes men feel as though they are not obligated, perhaps even capable, of showing emotion to those around them. The value of maintaining a certain social hierarchy, unconscious or not, perpetuates a system in which people who freely express themselves are pressured to hide who they are. 


Here at Neuwirth, our student population is made up of minority groups, mostly Hispanic or Latino students, and in the 2020-2021 School Accountability Report Card, 97.50% of students were of Hispanic or Latino origin while 46.5% of students identified as female and 53% of students identified as male out of 592 students. Speaking to teachers, it is evident that higher learning remains a cesspool of toxic masculinity, and it makes you wonder to what extent the toxicity has seeped into the minds of our own student body. 


Stay tuned to Part 3 of this story, when I will try to explore how misogyny really effects young people at schools like Neuwirth.

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Updated: Thu Apr 18 2024 07:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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Misogyny Part 2

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[This article is a continuation of a previous article titled “Boys Don’t Cry”, in order to gain sufficient context, that article should be read first.]


The original idea was to discuss the impact of misogyny in schools and careers, however, misogyny is a complex form of oppression that adapts to different intersecting identities like a viral parasite. After publishing Boys Don’t Cry, it was still imperative for me to return to the idea of how misogyny affects our peers because of how much toxic masculinity is celebrated. All people on campus deserve to feel seen and heard; my only hope is that this article can elevate these stories so more people are willing to listen and understand why this is still an issue in the present day. The Neuwirth Times is honored to have been able to speak to all of these amazing women and men on campus and publish their stories.


 

Ms. Baptiste, who teaches United States History and Social Movements, says that in high school she participated in a club called Unity where she and others brought together their school community and educated others about prejudice. She also has a degree in Political Science, minors in both History and Pan-African Studies, and is pursuing a Master's in education. 


Ms. Martinez, who teaches on-level World History and AP World History, graduated as a valedictorian out of around 700 students, and got her Bachelors at UCLA, she then volunteered for AmeriCorps in inner-city schools to provide counseling. Afterward, she did Teach For America and got her teaching credential from Loyola Marymount University. 


Ms. Magdaleno, who teaches on level English 10 and Honors English 10, graduated from high school in the top ten percent of students who were eligible for ELC and got automatically accepted into various UCs. She has two Bachelor's degrees in English and Spanish, a minor in Environmental Science, and one Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. 


Ms. Legaspi majored in Biochemistry from CSULA and has a minor in English and Economics and took classes to achieve her teaching credential.


As I spoke with these women, all of whom are personal role models as I get closer to graduating and finding my place in the world, I felt a wave of anguish washing over me. I had asked them difficult questions discussing their experiences and life and revisiting moments when their hard work had been diminished and dismissed. When I conducted my interviews with all of these teachers, I stumbled across a pattern: all of them said yes to every question I asked regarding experiences of misogyny in higher education or a work environment, if they had felt as though men around them were victimized just as much by toxic masculinity, and if their identities as women and the resulting bias against them had extended to their racial/ethnic identities. 


The Neuwirth Times: When pursuing higher education, did you have experiences that made you feel targeted and ostracized based on your sex? 


One of the pervasive harms of misogyny is the way that it makes women feel targeted and ostracized in higher learning institutions and the workplace. Recounting her experience having a roommate who was in a fraternity and witnessed the mass amount of objectification of the women invited to their parties, Baptiste pointed out the objective of most men in these fraternities as they pursued women at these events, only to mistreat them when it came to emotional needs and value them for only their physical attributes. “They don’t care about them,” she said, “they just want their bodies”. Martinez said she experienced “gender bias” from men who came from similar backgrounds, all of whom had treated her as though she were “helpless” and said she felt as though she was perceived as a “b*tch”. Working at Chase Bank, where she felt valued by her fellow employees but was met with ignorance as she worked with a nationwide direct sales company, Magdaleno was the only woman in boardrooms full of older men, and her presentations and ideas were constantly shut down, ignored, and reused by other men who took credit for her hard work. Legaspi’s experience as a student who entered college at a younger age made her feel as though the program director would consistently blame the girls for not being able to keep up in school and blame “drama” on them. When it came time to get a recommendation, the process was difficult, as the director had a clear preference for their male students.




Simply from this first question alone, I learned so much from these women about how difficult it is to be a woman in a higher education institution. All of them had worked hard and were accepted on their merit, yet were left to feel as though they were undervalued, ignored, and misunderstood because their male counterparts had a previously conceived misconception about them before even examining their determined and intelligent characters. 


The Neuwirth Times: Considering your identity as a woman of color, can you give an example in which you have felt that your intersecting identities have resulted in a different form of misogyny against you?


Acknowledging the role that different identities play in how misogyny impacts women of color is vital to scratching the surface of such a complex virus that plagues society. Beauty standards and their exclusion of Black women have been constant since society became conscious of its existence, and Baptiste expressed anguish over already existing “unrealistic beauty standards” and how they do not include Black features like nose and lip shapes, hair texture, and skin color. “Growing up, it [beauty standards] was not an array, it was very clear what you needed to look like,” Baptiste had examined her own experiences growing up as a Black woman in a world where her beauty was not valued because of the way society has remained stubborn to change age-old stereotypes that deem certain features as “ugly” when it is the exact opposite. Inclusivity is misunderstood as propping up certain features as better than others, which is how beauty standards originated, but instead elevating previously mocked features to the same level to celebrate everyone’s beauty. 




As a single mother, women are scrutinized for “choosing” the wrong men and are often disregarded as bad mothers, despite no one acknowledging that the circumstances are different for everyone, and single mothers work the hardest to ensure their child’s comfort and survival. These stereotypes about single mothers overlap with ethnic identities as described by Martinez. She feels as though people, white women in particular, express no surprise at the dynamic between her and her son as a single mother, comments like those are “microaggressions”, a subtle insult to marginalized groups. She expressed “pressure” on her to raise her son when there are so many people who already believe that she is a bad mother, despite not knowing her at all. Preconceived ideas about women and certain ethnic groups result in stereotypes about their behaviors and actions, in this case, it’s Martinez who experienced ignorance despite her wonderful work in raising her son.


I’m sure many women here at Neuwirth will resonate with Legaspi, who reflected on her own experience as a Filipina and mentioned a “pull” between the differences in cultural expectations for women in the U.S., with a growing movement to celebrate independent women who can be mothers and be successful, and the expectations for women in the Philippines being caretakers for men in their households. Her experience is incredibly similar to that of Hispanic women, who are raised to learn how to take care of a household rather than prepared for the infinite struggles of adulthood, and then scrutinized for experiencing failure. The polarizing gender experiences here in the U.S. and other countries create a state of confusion, almost like cognitive dissonance, for women who are stuck between wanting to conform to one and being unable to conform to another.


Returning to “Boys Don’t Cry,” misogyny finds its roots within the mindset of toxic masculinity and its prevalence within society. The value of stoicism creates emotional unavailability as Baptiste describes, it makes men feel as though they are not obligated, perhaps even capable, of showing emotion to those around them. The value of maintaining a certain social hierarchy, unconscious or not, perpetuates a system in which people who freely express themselves are pressured to hide who they are. 


Here at Neuwirth, our student population is made up of minority groups, mostly Hispanic or Latino students, and in the 2020-2021 School Accountability Report Card, 97.50% of students were of Hispanic or Latino origin while 46.5% of students identified as female and 53% of students identified as male out of 592 students. Speaking to teachers, it is evident that higher learning remains a cesspool of toxic masculinity, and it makes you wonder to what extent the toxicity has seeped into the minds of our own student body. 


Stay tuned to Part 3 of this story, when I will try to explore how misogyny really effects young people at schools like Neuwirth.

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