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Emmanuel Lara
Professor G. Taylor
English 100
4 October 2014
Letter to Professor Taylor
Dear Professor G. Taylor,
I chose to write my third essay on the feminism prompt which was assigned on
September 27, 2014. I decided to write an essay on this specific prompt because it was a prompt
I felt connected to. Lengthwise, I have written more in other prompts, but as previously
mentioned, I felt much more connected to this prompt than any other. My second choice would
have been to write an essay on the climate change prompt, since I have some prior knowledge on
this topic, I did take AP Environmental Science for a reason. Why I chose to write the feminist
essay over the environment essay is due to the mindset I was given while being raised. I do care
about the environment and the idea of equal rights, but equality will always triumph over my
passion for the environment. This could be due to my experience and the environment I grew up
in, which has shown me how many individuals are abused of their rights for not being the
same although we are all human beings. I have witnessed previous teachers prefer certain
students based on gender. I have witnessed the unequal treatment that both sexes receive. I have
witnessed the high suicide rates that are in my community due to bullying based on a persons
gender. What I really want to say is: there is gender discrimination everywhere, and this is one
issue we should all really be concerned about.

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-Sincerely,
Emmanuel Lara

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Essay 3: Feminism, a right we should fight for.

Feminism, a term that is highly controversial and at most times begins conflicts. Many
individuals, even I, have thought that the idea of feminism is to be defined as women supremacy.
That women should have more rights than men, and this is one reason towards why men are
against feminism. The term feminism is actually defined as: the advocacy of women's rights on
the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. Nowhere in this definition does it
state that women are superior to men, or vice versa, but that is the belief that women should
receive the same right, I would like to emphasizes this, the same rights in all fields, whether it is
politically, socially, or economically wise. Women should be allowed the same rights as men,
but this does not only contribute to women, these rights should be equal amongst men, women,
gays, transgender, lesbian, etc.
Sex is defined as: either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans
and many other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions. Then why
is it that in a study of economic income women make less than men (even though they have the
same occupation)? This is the most controversial issue that has been noticed to date by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

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Chart 1: Gender gap in median earnings of full-time employees, 2000, 2007, 2010

In chart one, the bars that appear above the countries is there to illustrate where the gender wage
gap (or at times called: the gender pay gap) is at percent wise. This chart is able to demonstrate
the percent at which the gap was at in the years: 2000, 2007, and 2010. The light blue circles
indicate the gender pay gap during the year 2000, while the blue squares indicate the gender pay
gap during the year 2007. We can infer that the gender wage gap is an equal threat to all
countries, Korea having the highest gender gap and an increase in 2010, while Spain has the
lowest and is decreasing. If a male in the United States is making a salary of $500,000 a year, his
counterpart, a women with the same occupation, would be making 19% less, which is exactly
$95,000 less, almost $100,000 less income. All because she is a women.
The gender wage gap is not the only injustice that takes place in the United States but it
alone is able to create nightmares. What happened to the American dream; the ideal that every
US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard
work, determination, and initiative. The gender wage gap violates the idea of an equal

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opportunity to achieve success, thus, making the American dream, an American nightmare for all
women.
One question that is usually had is, what does feminism look like? Feminism is usually a
protest. When I was in elementary school, during my last year there (5th grade) I remember
moving the long, Asparagus green, worn out, silky curtain to see what was going on outside. As I
removed the curtain I saw my 5th grade teacher protesting outside alongside many women. She
was wearing the clothes she usually wore, which was a blue denim jacket on top of a blue and
white striped shirt and a pair of jeans. Feminism looked like a group of women outside a campus
who were holding up picket signs and chanting next to a bus stop. This is your average protest,
there is nothing different from a protest and a feminist protest.
The conflicts in feminism can be seen in these two images:

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Image 1:

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Image 2:

Yes, women are fighting for the ability to have the same rights as men, but their flaw is that
theyre not able to work with one another. Many times rather than working as one cause, they
tend to fight with each other, as can be seen in both images. In image one the criticism can be
coming from either male or female, but in the second image the fighting is between each other.
They cant agree that they are all feminists, instead they have the mindset and depiction that a
feminist looks like themselves and there cannot be any other variation. In the UN speech given
by Emma Watson, Watson states that she noticed that they are not working together, in order to
get anywhere they must work alongside men. Which refers to image 1s man-hatting. In order to
achieve anything, women must work cohesively with men and fight together for their feminist
cause.

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In order for feminism to ever reach its objective, to achieve the same rights as men
politically, socially, and economically wise; we must all work together (both men and females).
We must fight for now. We must initiate change. We must get rid of the gender pay gap. We
must think of each other as humans and not as individuals that fall under different categories, so
that we can break out of this American nightmare and finally achieve out American Dream.

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Works Cited Pages

http://tinyurl.com/oyxqhsq
http://tinyurl.com/kko8r5z
http://tinyurl.com/lk7pv8a
http://tinyurl.com/m3yxux2