Anti-Essentialist Responses

Words: 762
Pages: 4
Open Document
When going through my own answers to Morning’s survey I found many constructivist and some essentialist modes of thinking. They were not always separated by question and seemed to denote a disconnect in my mind when trying to rationalize both of them together. I didn’t really see a big amount of anti-essentialist responses but there were a few implied by contradicting constructivist answers. Most of my responses seemed to revolve around a theme of culture, which fueled my constructivist answers, but also the responses gave credit to biology.
I gave purely essentialist answers for questions seven, nine, and nineteen. When typically asked about how one perceives race, I said that physical appearance (or in other biological terms, phenotype) had much to do with the perception. For the NFL question, I …show more content…
My response was that different races (due to differing cultural practices) ate differing things and maybe that contributed to the baby weights. A difference in diet can be attributed to your environment and your culture. For example, in the South many African Americans like to eat soul food and grow up eating or cooking it. If a woman were to eat soul food while she were pregnant versus a vegan diet, it could affect the weight of the baby, thus defining a constructivist response outlined by cultural and environmental themes.
As far as anti-essentialist responses, I did not openly discount essentialism in my propagation of constructivism. Though, as I stated earlier, I did have some constructivist thoughts that would contradict essentialism. This would indicate that I don’t completely disagree with essentialism, even though I feel that essentialism is associated with the proliferation of racism. From my responses I would draw that I agree with both essentialism and constructivism, and also that I have a hard time bringing them together in my
Show More

Related Documents: Anti-Essentialist Responses

Sayyid Qutb Research Paper

In December of 1948, Prime Minister Muhammud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi ordered that the Brotherhood be shutdown and following this order, a member of the Brotherhood assassinated the Prime Minister. Shortly after, in February of 1949, Hassan al-Banna was assassinated by the secret police. Following the assassination of the group’s leader, Gamal Abel Nasser, a secular Arab nationalist, became the second president of Egypt. Sometime between 1954 and 1970, thousands of members of the Brotherhood were forced…

Words 1016 - Pages 5

The Trouble With Unity Summary

Mia Carranco AES Exam #3 Question One In her book “The Trouble with Unity,” Cristina Beltran outlines Latinidad as both a social and political category. She describes Latinidad as unifying different national origin groups under the assumption of political and cultural sameness. She points out that this construction involves complex elements of race, class, gender, sexuality, immigration status, national origin, language, etc. She emphasizes the way in which a sense of interconnection is prioritized…

Words 1279 - Pages 6

Essay about Narrative and Kinder

Lev Manovich claims that new media objects such as digital media tell stories in a new ways that dispose of the classical narrative structure. By breaking the contract of honesty and realism between film and spectator, game films are redefining tropes we commonly associate with cinematic narratives. Instead of throwing narrative to the wayside, Marsha Kinder tags it alongside interactivity to produce what she terms, “database narrative”, a brand of film that engages the viewer on a deeper level (Kinder…

Words 3296 - Pages 14

Identity: International Relations and Power Essay

‘political realm’ with sovereignty claims over territory, identity and culture//politics of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ 2) nation = cultural 3) nation-state is where ‘national community and the state largely coincide’ Explain the core differences between essentialist and constructivist theories of nationalism. 1) essentialism = which nation as something you were born in, is pre-social, pre-determined, something inherited due to similar historical, cultural values etc  kinship inevitably leads to loyalty…

Words 2774 - Pages 12

Summary and Critique of "The Gift of Sex" Essay

A Book Review of The Gift of Sex University Abstract This paper is a summary of the book "The Gift of Sex" along with my responses for each section in the book. Along with the physical aspect of sex, there is a spiritual aspect of sex, which is mostly neglected by today's culture and even by Christians. The authors believe that sex is also a spiritual and emotional act, involving the total person, the body, soul and spirit. There is a connection with the sexual relationship…

Words 3594 - Pages 15