Abbe Eliasof

Feminist Solutions Project Proposal Draft

WGST 3102-006
23 April 2019
1. Femininity and Masculinity in and Around Minority Communities

2. My final research question is “How do American standards of femininity and masculinity

harm minority people?” Essentially what I have been trying to explore is how white,

Judeo-Christian America and the Eurocentric west has created these narrow-minded

concepts of femininity and masculinity based off of their own cultures and how this leads

to the othering of minority communities and ultimately, the oppression of minority

communities. This project also attempts to link the othering of minority communities by

white America to feminist issues within minority communities (such as homophobia,

misogyny, racism, xenophobia, etc.)

3. This proposal is intended for all people. Some parts of it are for white people, while other

parts are for men of minorities, and other parts are for women of minorities. The literal

proposal will be delivered to the Gender Excellence Learning Community and Professor

Jennifer Byrd.

4. A lot of different sources exploring a lot of different aspects of this project were used for

research. My first source explored how hypermasculinity in the Asian community leads

to bodily harm and death amongst college men. Another source discussed homophobia in

the Latinx community, while another discussed the misogyny women in the black

community have faces for decades. One discussed homophobia towards lesbians in the

black community, one discussed the mental illness stigma imposed on women in the

black community. These may seem uncorrelated, but I promise they are. They all discuss
how othering from white people and Eurocentric culture has led minority groups to have

their own problems within. Some of my other sources, discuss things such as white

supremacist men feeling threatened by progressive movements, oppression towards

Muslim women who cover, and the deadly sex work market in Thailand created from

Westerner tourists’ concept of Asian women. These stories listed show how white, Judeo-

Christian femininity and masculinity give white people certain concepts about men and

women of minority groups, which ultimately leads to the oppression of these groups. All

of these sources can attest to how the Eurocentric constructs of femininity and

masculinity have harmed minority communities, whether it be white people harming

these communities, or the communities harming themselves. The two interviews I

conducted, one with a Professor in the UNC Charlotte Women’s and Gender Studies

department and one with a friend of mine who is part of various marginalized

communities, both concluded that in order to solve the problems addressed by my

project, humans need to become more open-minded, raise our next generations to be

more accepting, and focus on the small changes we can make in our own communities.

Overall, this is a very broad topic and as an Asian woman, I do not have the right to

speak for what happens within other minority groups, therefore, this presentation and

project will discuss the Asian-American community more than other minority

communities. My last source focuses on the types of discrimination that Asian women

face in America due to stereotypes about Asian femininity and racism. This is an

important example of how Eurocentric standards “other” a minority group, and I as an

Asian woman have experienced this myself. The solutions this last source proposed are to

spread cultural awareness and understand that stereotypes are typically not true. This is
 an intersectional topic because it explores oppressions across all genders, sexualities, and

races. It explores racism towards minority communities, homophobia and sexism within

minority communities, and lightly explores islamophobia.

5. My first solution is to hold a toxic masculinity workshop with all social fraternities on

this campus. This would look different for minority inclusive fraternities as opposed to

IFC fraternities, the minority inclusive fraternities won’t need to hear as much about

racism as the IFC fraternities will. Both types of workshops would include a viewing of

“The Mask You Live In” and “The Man Box” Ted Talk by Tony Porter. The purpose of

these workshops would be to address toxic masculinity, especially as it relates to “frat

culture”, hazing, and rape culture, as well as to address racism within IFC fraternities that

pushes minority interest

My second solution is to hold workshops for boy scout troops (preferably the very young

ones) to teach them media literacy (similar to the In Bloom workshop that Rachel held)

and emotional and mental health. The focus would be about the pressures to be super

muscular, dominant, and emotionless. This would be more tying to get the boys to learn

how to express their feelings to each other, understand that it is okay to ask for help when

needed, and break the cycle of toxic masculinity through interactive activities. These

activities include having the boys perform skits about the right and wrong ways to

express emotions and how to stand up for those being bullied, working on stress

management (making slime as a “stress relieving activity”), and discussing what equality

means and how they can help promote it and advocate for it in their lives. This discussion

will likely be started by proposed questions from the adults and anonymous questions

from the boys. This is the solution I have chosen as my final solution.
6. Solution 1: Fraternity workshops

a. Those involved should be UNC Charlotte fraternities, the office of student

conduct (which deals with hazing), Gen-X students, and possibly other groups

from the Women’s and Gender Studies Department.

b. This event should cost close to nothing, as it is mainly videos, discussions, and

activities that we plan to have minimal supplies, unless the event needed to be

catered.

c. Materials needed include a large room with a projector system, maybe some paper

and writing utensils, chairs, tables, and possibly food.

d. This should be implemented sometime within the second month of the semester

when rush season is finishing up and pledging beings.

e. The goal of this solution is to have the Office or Student Conduct require the

fraternities to participate as part of this school’s big anti-hazing stance, therefore,

the only promotion necessary would be a proposal to this office.

f. This would be intersectional by including all racial minority fraternities and

discussing racism, sexism, and all forms of xenophobia.

Solution 2: Girl Scout and Boy Scout workshops

a. Those involved would be a few boy scout troops, their troop leaders, young boys

from all communities, father figures, and male identified role models (coaches,

teachers, etc.). The workshop should be conducted by the man identified adults.

b. This event may cost money, as I would plan to have snacks for the kids. Since I

would plan for this to be on campus, reserving a space should be free, but the catering

would cost about $5 per person, supplies should be estimated to cost around $5 per
 person, and so overall cost would depend on how many participants there are. None

of the participants would have to pay and funds would be collected through tabling

and asking for donations, however those attending would need to RSVP by the latest,

2 weeks before the workshop to make sure there is ample time to prepare everything.

c. Materials needed include a large room with a projector system, paper and writing

utensils, chairs, tables, material to make slime, snacks, and drinks.

d. This event can occur any time of year, but would have to be on a weekend day so the

kids are not in school. I propose sometime in the fall when kids have just gone back

to school so they can apply what they learned in this workshop into the new school

year and then again in the spring to reflect on the past school year.

e. Promo would look similar to In Bloom, things like social media posts, flyers around

campus, tabling, and reaching out to those who may be interested.

f. This project will be intersection by including some information about racism, but also

teaching the boys about misogyny, toxic masculinity, and equality for all people.
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