Conflict and Defensiveness & Gender and Culture

I feel that in many discussions surrounding culture and gender, particularly in the media, there seems to be an undertone of conflict. Whether there be accusations of racism, or intolerance, or political incorrectness, we live in a world that is confused about how to talk openly regarding culture, race, religion, and gender.  And when we come across someone who thinks or believes differently than us on these issues we become defensive, rather than having open conversations.  Since these are some of the most prevalent differences we have as human beings it is not a surprise that issues surrounding these topics can be difficult to discuss.

One of the biggest challenges we face in overcoming the difficulty in talking about gender and culture are our unconscious bias'.  We think doctor and we picture a man, we think Muslim we picture a terrorist, and we think teacher and we picture a woman.  When someone points this out to us we feel embarrassed or ashamed, so we choose not to talk about it, because ultimately we don't want to be labeled or judged because of our bias'.

  

Yassmin Abdel-Magied truly illustrates this idea and brings to the surface the understanding that we live in a world where bias impacts the lives of many who are not given opportunities solely based on gender and culture.  She suggests that what we can do to fight this bias is to mentor someone who is different from ourselves.  I feel we can take this to mean that we need to talk to and interact with those who are different from us, because there is no other way to change our bias.

The thing that can destroy the progress we make however is fear, which leads to defensiveness surrounding our beliefs.  Fear is what has charged so many recent political discussion, and I feel one of the most important things we can do is to take a good look at our own beliefs and start talking with others about the role of gender and culture in our communication.