Instead of a Beginning and an Epilogue

What was it about the course that I found so appealing?

• International events, interesting visitors in class, and the opportunity to hear from professors and students from various universities,
• Having the chance to create an international website for the projects that has been conducting from across Europe,
• Giving me the opportunity to improve myself in gender and media studies, collaboratively,
• The possibility to collaborate in an international team on a collaborative group project and establish a group with gorgeous Brazilian and Belgian friends,
• The professional and respectful attitude from professors.

What do I think about some of the touchstones that we come across in the lesson?

Pluralism

It is a very valuable principle of democracy that every government will want to sacrifice to majoritarianism whenever it has the opportunity. It is so valuable that it is not possible to call any element democratic in a system where pluralism does not exist. For this reason, balance-brake systems have been introduced with constitutions or other mechanisms, limited power models and power-limiting tools/institutions have been introduced (for example: the principle of separation of powers, proportional election systems, constitutional courts...). In addition, in terms of sociological analysis, there is no doubt that this principle is also the result of the historical process, struggles and countless experiences (for example: for Europe; the national socialist party/nazi experience, etc.). Of course, what I have written so far is about domestic law-national political power; It is about the efforts/struggles to put forward the formula of living together in a country where differences are not destroyed and standardized.

Diversity

Acceptance and respect are important to the notion of diversity. It entails accepting the fact that everyone of us is unique and appreciating our differences. Race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, age, physical ability, religious views, political opinions, and other ideologies are all examples. It provides a secure, pleasant, and caring setting in which these differences are explored. It's about getting to know one another and moving beyond simply tolerance to accepting and enjoying the many facets of variety that each person possesses.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality, a conceptual tool put forward by Kimberlé Crenshaw, finds its place in feminist debates. emerges from the finding that the experiences of black women differ from those of white women because of the intersection of gender and race, so these experiences cannot be equated with the argument that they are equally oppressed by patriarchy. That is, black women suffer from the effects of different/conflicting/overlapping inequality mechanisms because they are black and female (it is possible to differentiate this due to class differences; if it is a lower-class-black-lesbian woman, we can also do a combo in terms of intersectionality). Moreover, these inequalities cannot be handled simply by the method of addition or multiplication. So a black woman is not oppressed by racism+patriarchy; in the same way, unlike the white woman, she is not oppressed twice. Intersectionality is a tool that determines that there are sometimes contradictory and sometimes overlapping situations that reinforce inequality, and also reveals the necessity of analyzing it.

According to Crenshaw, it is possible to talk about two types of intersections: The first is structural intersectionality and the second is political intersectionality. Structural inequality refers to situations where axes of inequality and their intersections have direct effects on people's lives. For example, the fact that divorced black women are at the lower levels of the class structure throughout the USA, this group is most likely to face the danger of being homeless, can be a good example of the direct impact of the intersections of differing axes of inequality on these women. Of course, the fact that Americans and even Crenshaw do not count "class" among the axes of inequality that he lists is another matter...

Political inequality, on the other hand, aims to show how different axes of inequality exclude, or overlap at the level of political strategies and discourses. Again, for example, a study reveals that black women cannot go to the police when they are subjected to violence by their spouses or social circles, and one of the most important reasons for this is that social welfare workers working for black organizations advise women not to go to the police, with the thought that reporting such violence will reinforce prejudices about blacks. Therefore, while trying not to harm Kurdish, Turkish or Muslim, different inequality mechanisms within the groups can be ignored or they do not interfere because their functioning is beneficial to someone. At what points do socialism/feminism/political Islam/nationalism exclude women, ethnic, sexual and religious minorities and reinforce the inequality mechanisms that these groups are exposed to; questions such as what kind of approaches and political arrangements are foreseen for their disappearance are under the political intersectionality.

Some modernist political scientist, such as Seyla Benhabib, resent this concept of intersectionality: "You didn't leave a common denominator by division". True in a way. Also, although this intersection seems useful as an analytical tool, it is ambiguous both in practice and in how it will be transformed into political arrangements. But if there are people who want to exercise their minds, those who want to think about human rights, inequalities, identity politics, etc. may be interested.

Whites' impressions of people of color might be influenced by popular culture. Nonverbal racial prejudices in facial expressions and body language, as depicted in popular television series, are proven to impact white viewers' racial biases, according to one research. Furthermore, a lack of interaction across racial groups might lead to a stronger reliance on media stereotypes when forming opinions about persons from other races. When people haven't had any direct contact with certain racial groups, studies demonstrate that individuals replace prejudices they see on TV for reality. Latino stereotypes in the media, for example, might induce audiences to equate immigration with more unemployment and violence.

The erasure and bad depictions of people of color can have a severe impact on how people of color view themselves, in addition to escalating racial tensions. Long-term television viewing is linked to lower self-esteem in all females and black boys, as well as an increase in self-esteem in white boys. These disparities are linked to Hollywood's racial and gender prejudices, which present exclusively white males as heroes while eliminating or subordinating other ethnic groups as villains, sidekicks, and sexual objects. Native American teenagers and young adults, who have the worst suicide rates in the country, had their self-esteem and emotions lowered by media representations of Native American mascots, according to studies. Racist imagery's pervasiveness may have a cumulative effect on society. If we are to take seriously the influence of the media's disparate depictions of ethnic groupings on our young, we must not disregard them as simply entertainment.