Blog 5

Until semi-recently, society wasn't used to seeing or hearing about anything besides the binary system when it came to anything related to sex, gender, or sexuality. Up until recently, there were men and women, heterosexuals, and anything else just wasn't talked about or simply kept quiet. These norms come with certain stereotypes, especially when it comes to gender. Men are supposed to have short hair, not wear makeup, and wear a more "masculine" style of clothing. Women are supposed to have longer hair, wear makeup, and also stick to more "feminine" styles of clothing. 

When an individual doesn't fit those specific stereotypes, they have the ability to pass as a member of a social group that isn't there own. Personally, I am a heterosexual female. Up until this summer I had long hair and wore makeup more often than not. However, one day I decided I needed a change, so I decided to switch to a short pixie cut hair style. Due to the type of job I had, I also stopped wearing makeup as often. It is crazy how these two simple changes could effect the way that other individuals would treat me. Often when I was in public people would refer to me as sir, or automatically think that I was a man. Once I talked or they looked at me closer, they would apologize profusely and give the generic answer that my hair threw them off and that they just assumed I was a boy because it was short.

https://everydayfeminism.com/2013/01/breaking-through-the-gender-binary/

Above is a link to an article that simply and clearly explains the different facets of gender and how to look past the idea of just males and females and the stereotypes that come with the binary system.

Blog 2

If you were to ask a person to describe to you the differences between sex and gender, they would probably have a difficult time accurately distinguishing the two. If you weren't distinctly taught the differences, it could be very easy to think that the terms were interchangeable. However, they are actually very different. Sex is defined as the biological difference between males and females, whereas gender is defined as the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to to being female or male. Someone once described the difference to me as sex being between your legs and gender being between your ears. While it is just a basic analogy, it is an easy and accurate way of discerning the two.

Below is a link to a podcast that explains and discusses the differences between gender and sex a little more in-depth.

http://www.stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/podcasts/whats-the-difference-between-gender-and-sex/

Blog 1

     Poverty thresholds are used for statistical purposes and poverty guidelines are for administrative purposes. The poverty threshold itself is the minimum level income that a country deems adequate for a family to live off of. Listed below are what the poverty guidelines were for 2013.

     The poverty threshold is based off of the "basket of goods" that a household goes through in one fiscal year.  The basket of goods includes food, rent, and anything else that is necessary to live in today's society. While the poverty threshold is a mildly sufficient way of showing who in the world is poor and who isn't, it still isn't 100% cutting it. There are certain situations that the poverty threshold doesn't account for, such as the simple fact that the poverty threshold was created in the 1950s and has only had minor adaptations over the years. The way that people live and the requirements that they have in order to live have changed significantly since the 1950s, making this a poor way of accurately portraying who is poor in today's society. Another problem that the poverty threshold has, is that it accounts for a family's pretax income instead of a family's income after tax, giving an inaccurate representation of what the family is actually making. Something else that the current poverty threshold doesn't account for is emergency expenses, such as out of pocket medical expenses and housing repair situations. 

     Overall, the poverty threshold is doing a semi-decent job of serving its original purpose. However, there are a number of things that could be updated and improved that would benefit the masses a significant amount. Below is a breakdown of the United States based on the amount of people living below the poverty line.