Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
We have been very conditioned by the cultures that we come from and are usually very identified with the particular gender that we happen to be a member of.
My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.
I find the question of whether gender differences are biologically determined or socially constructed to be deeply disturbing.
The entire race is usually judged by the actions of one man or woman.
People should be judged on the basis of their performance, not nationality, personality, education, or personal traits and skills.
People will sometimes put each other in boxes and have biases toward one another because of what they look like or where they come from or who they are. But ultimately, it's up to us to decide who we are.
Because of our social circumstances, male and female are really two cultures and their life experiences are utterly different.
We choose our sex, our color, our country, and then we look around for the particular set of parents who will mirror the pattern we are bringing in to work on in this lifetime.
We are people, individuals comprising a variety of sexes, races, shifting sexualities and all the rest of it. Every convention that tries to reinforce this difference is a step back. Notions of gender pointlessly separate men from women, but also mothers from daughters and fathers from sons.
I want to state upfront, unequivocally and without doubt: I do not believe that any racial, ethnic or gender group has an advantage in sound judging. I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge, regardless of their background or life experiences.