Myself, my father and my little brother. My mother took the photo.
Salutations!
My name is Schuyler Kerby, I'm an English Literature major, Women's Studies minor. This is my third year at UCF. I have lived in Florida for 9 years. I'm originally from the Melbourne/Palm Bay area, and I moved to Orlando in the fall of 2008. I've moved 20 times in 19 years; I'm familiar with a lot of the country. I have lived from Arkansas to Maine. As a literature major, I love to read. What I don't like to read is anything that either has no value or is uninteresting. The Twilight Saga has become a loathed series, but I appreciate it. I love how it gives a glimpse into the Mormon views of relationships between men and women. I love how it is so popular and how that shows that there is parts in those stories that resonate with people. Plus they are just fun, trashy things that read quickly. To compare this to another work that focuses on a female character, I think Jane Eyre is boring, and I absolutely hate how those Bronte sisters had to go and romanticize terrible types of men. I can appreciate the work though. Its use in third world feminism and post-colonial theory is amazing. It is one of those books that I could only learn to like with hindsight.
I'm gay, coming from a fundamentalist Christian family. I'm fortunate that I did not have to deal with any major drama after coming out to them. Because of my orientation, I have an interest in gender studies and queer theory, which has led me to this class.
I wish UCF would offer Gender Studies because I dislike the exclusive nature of the name "Women's Studies." That title belies the subject matter, because what is studied is much more inclusive than "women." To be more specific why I'm interested in this course and its associated minor: I know how indebted I am to the cause of the feminists before. If people (the patriarchy) could not accept 50% of the population, there is no way they would accept the 10% of the population that is homosexual. Feminism was originally a movement to bring equal civil rights to women, and because of that it created movements that demanded equality for others. I really don't know much about contemporary feminism, or how it is different from women's studies.I hope to learn more about those two things from this course. I also want to learn more about my culture, because I want to know my culture's standards of gender and how they differ from my own.
The differences between the genders are those set by the culture they reside in. The majordifferences are those that are instinctively recognizable. [I don't mean instinct because of biology, but instinctive because of the individual's consistent immersion in a culture] Specifically, Appearance and mannerisms are the easiest to see; there are masculine and feminine actions and styles of dressBecause I have a masculine gender, I act and dress a certain way. I find gender important in my life because I like it. There is a specific sex and gender that I am attracted to. I do not like how my culture has defined gender to be a binary, when a continuum is apparent. That would be the one thing I would change about myself being a gendered being; I want to be more aware of this continuum.
I do not have influences in my life that I look to as what it means to be a man or a woman. What my dad taught me about being a man was more about being a good person (being responsible for my actions, doing the right thing) than about what my culture says is masculine. At the very least, I can't recognize them readily. It's easier for me to recognize those that break those gender rules. For the culture at large, I guess I would be one of those people that breaks those rules (I am a man that likes men). That's another thing I would like to learn from this class, to be able to identify those influences.
I, Schuyler Lincoln Kerby, have read, understand, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus and the blogging protocols.
