The pieces that were read for class will compliment my final project very well. Considering my topic has to do with body image and the objectification of women, made into lesson plans and delivered to high school students, it only makes sense that the writings about body image would highlight some key elements I hope to cover during my “unit.”
Something I was yet to ponder is a heavy body when thinking about body image. Until this point I had acknowledged that the ideal body was what high school students were consumed with, but Kathleen LeBesco brought to my attention that the opposite of the ideal plays a large role in the minds of many. I like the comparison she brings up of “citizen” and “non-citizen.” Similarly to negligence in a broader way of thinking was taking into account the race of the ideal body. This point screamed at me through “Black and Brown Bodies Under the Knife.” A claim made by LeBesco that pulled both together for me was, “Widely publicized cases of fat children removed from their homes—their bodies taken as evidence of their abuse and neglect at the hands of their parents—typically involving people of color and the poor or working class” (LeBesco, Citizen Profane, pp. 63). This embodies the opposition to ideal: NOT white and NOT thin.
By opening up the conversation a little further, a multitude of students will be reached and included. It is crucial to relate to students as a teacher if a lesson is intended to be learned. For my final project I will be creating a series of lessons and activities for high school aged students to become engaged in. One activity I am planning is having students bring in a minimum of five images of their favorite celebrity. As a class we will be examining what the media focuses on. What I think will be interesting is to see if non-white students will bring in non-white celebrities. It will be a productive discussion if we could begin to explore the social pressures of body image among cultural and racial backgrounds.
I also found Amy Richards’ article “Body image, Body image: Third Wave of Feminism” to be enlightening. A quotation I will most definitely use in the research of my final project presented by Richards says, “Mention teen magazines, for example, and many young women react viscerally, offering stories of how fat/ugly/ethnic/misfitting/self-hating that magazine made them feel” (Richards, pp.198). This is so significant because this is exactly the audience of my final project. It is these “self-hating” magazines that my students will be reading! It would be idiotic to not delve into the media made for teen consumers. I hope we can take apart some of the images and ask why it is these images and who decides the “beauties” put inside them.
Along with looking at magazines and literature, I will be showing videos and movie clips. A powerful woman who I think depicts a great picture of a woman of color and who breaks some barriers on what body image and beauty consists of is India Arie. I included her video below!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Final Project
My idea is sparked from a thematic unit I helped to create at the end of my junior year, just a few months ago. I wanted to take the issues and ideas further and it has been a snowball effect of ideas since taking this class. Regarding the unit, I compiled ideas about body image, sexuality, and identity into a five week thematic unit. I was intrigued to see the strong influences region, culture, and socioeconomic status (among other things) had on these facets of a human body/personality.
After watching Kilbourne’s “Killing Us Softly” I realized I could branch off on the ideas she had pertaining to the objectification of women, and also the ideas about men stemming from Katz’s “Tough Guise.” The documentaries helped me to realize that women are often seen as objects rather than women, which often develops into physical abuse and violence. After all, it can’t be shameful to abuse a body part rather than a person. The opposition to this argument though can be that men are developed into violent, alpha male beings and are expected to react to women violently.
My aim is to research the topic further and how it will be relevant to my one day students. I would like to look at statistics on abuse among high school aged girls, as well as how often they are misrepresented as objects in media and culture. I will then have a better grasp on this topic and its relation to high schoolers. I want to conduct research that will help me get a broader knowledge on why this type of image in being enabled.
To take this idea further, I could add to and reconstruct some of the unit I was developing before and create lesson plans I could use in a classroom. I could also find literature that helps to portray the objectification of women. I can’t imagine it will be hard when students will see it at every newsstand and on TV. The lesson plans that I create will educate my students on the truth or non-truth behind these images and how they affect who we are.
My goal for such a unit and lessons is that it would educate students on what is going on around. So often, ignorance is perpetuated because a population is ill-informed or not informed at all. After reading literature and examining pictures, etc. regarding body image of women and men I would like for my students to create platforms that would be a possibility to ending this objectification. With all of the students presenting their ideas at the end of the unit, hopefully a better understanding of the topic will make a difference in the future of this issue.
After watching Kilbourne’s “Killing Us Softly” I realized I could branch off on the ideas she had pertaining to the objectification of women, and also the ideas about men stemming from Katz’s “Tough Guise.” The documentaries helped me to realize that women are often seen as objects rather than women, which often develops into physical abuse and violence. After all, it can’t be shameful to abuse a body part rather than a person. The opposition to this argument though can be that men are developed into violent, alpha male beings and are expected to react to women violently.
My aim is to research the topic further and how it will be relevant to my one day students. I would like to look at statistics on abuse among high school aged girls, as well as how often they are misrepresented as objects in media and culture. I will then have a better grasp on this topic and its relation to high schoolers. I want to conduct research that will help me get a broader knowledge on why this type of image in being enabled.
To take this idea further, I could add to and reconstruct some of the unit I was developing before and create lesson plans I could use in a classroom. I could also find literature that helps to portray the objectification of women. I can’t imagine it will be hard when students will see it at every newsstand and on TV. The lesson plans that I create will educate my students on the truth or non-truth behind these images and how they affect who we are.
My goal for such a unit and lessons is that it would educate students on what is going on around. So often, ignorance is perpetuated because a population is ill-informed or not informed at all. After reading literature and examining pictures, etc. regarding body image of women and men I would like for my students to create platforms that would be a possibility to ending this objectification. With all of the students presenting their ideas at the end of the unit, hopefully a better understanding of the topic will make a difference in the future of this issue.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Luxuries of OUR world
I started working when I was seventeen as a hostess at Max n’ Erma’s, and still currently work there as a server. I started working because I had to. Had to because I wanted to enjoy having a cell phone and extra money to go shopping or any other carefree activity of my choosing. At times I thought life was so unfair because my parents wouldn’t pay for these things for me. I didn’t work as a means of survival or to escape my life. It seems petty to look at the things I viewed as misfortunes when comparing my life to other working-women around the world.
After reading the story of Claudia and her job in the factory, I could not imagine living that life. She was a teenage girl—typically thought to have no cares (in America at least), but doing all she could to get away. She works, hardly making a living to survive on, all so she can get away—to America perhaps. And why? Because all of the specialties and promises America offers.
When informing the reader of Gema, Claudia’s sister, Kirshner writes that living “poor, illegal, surrounded by gangs, with a boyfriend who writes to her from prison. Unable to cross into Mexico even to touch her mother’s hands, even for a funeral” is all worth it just to be in America (Kirshner, “Ciudad Juarez,” I Live Here). This is the strived for life and living conditions. The starting place is unfathomable if this is the dream.
This is only one insight to the awful treatments that some women face. I can’t imagine how some people live off of the earnings they make. A statistic that blew my mind while reading the IWS book was regarding a woman who worked for Nike. It is said that “Sadisah earns about fourteen cents an hour, raking in just under forty dollars each month by laboring sixty-plus-hour workweeks. Sadisah would only have to work an estimated 44,492 years to earn the twenty million dollars” Michael Jordan earned from his Nike endorsement (Ballinger, pp. 46-47, Harper’s). I can’t grasp that these stories aren’t uncommon. Everyone has heard this, but it still persists. It is a continuing pattern, in this case, of an athletics’ monopoly restricting the growth of a poorer group of women.
Women are different in America, and different around the world. Therefore, their needs and wants are different. This salary may or may not be acceptable, but the work is endured for a reason. It is a never-ending cycle where companies and classes put limits on an economically underdeveloped group.
These stories are all linked in that they are about women of color. These do not tell the stories of white, American women. It is the “unfit”, the poor, the mothers, and the labor intensive that continue to be held down. We enjoy the benefits that hold down these victims, because after all, they are but mere, dispensable lives. This is the harsh reality we are living in. How can you make a difference?
After reading the story of Claudia and her job in the factory, I could not imagine living that life. She was a teenage girl—typically thought to have no cares (in America at least), but doing all she could to get away. She works, hardly making a living to survive on, all so she can get away—to America perhaps. And why? Because all of the specialties and promises America offers.
When informing the reader of Gema, Claudia’s sister, Kirshner writes that living “poor, illegal, surrounded by gangs, with a boyfriend who writes to her from prison. Unable to cross into Mexico even to touch her mother’s hands, even for a funeral” is all worth it just to be in America (Kirshner, “Ciudad Juarez,” I Live Here). This is the strived for life and living conditions. The starting place is unfathomable if this is the dream.
This is only one insight to the awful treatments that some women face. I can’t imagine how some people live off of the earnings they make. A statistic that blew my mind while reading the IWS book was regarding a woman who worked for Nike. It is said that “Sadisah earns about fourteen cents an hour, raking in just under forty dollars each month by laboring sixty-plus-hour workweeks. Sadisah would only have to work an estimated 44,492 years to earn the twenty million dollars” Michael Jordan earned from his Nike endorsement (Ballinger, pp. 46-47, Harper’s). I can’t grasp that these stories aren’t uncommon. Everyone has heard this, but it still persists. It is a continuing pattern, in this case, of an athletics’ monopoly restricting the growth of a poorer group of women.
Women are different in America, and different around the world. Therefore, their needs and wants are different. This salary may or may not be acceptable, but the work is endured for a reason. It is a never-ending cycle where companies and classes put limits on an economically underdeveloped group.
These stories are all linked in that they are about women of color. These do not tell the stories of white, American women. It is the “unfit”, the poor, the mothers, and the labor intensive that continue to be held down. We enjoy the benefits that hold down these victims, because after all, they are but mere, dispensable lives. This is the harsh reality we are living in. How can you make a difference?
Monday, June 7, 2010
Letter to Mr. Dunlop
Dear Mr. William Dunlop,
I am writing you in response to the brutality you portrayed on the innocent victim, Sarah Baartman. After reading the harsh environment and treatment Baartman experienced because of you, I am doing all I can to prove that you are guilty of extortion and violence. You not only kidnapped and robbed Baartman of her home, but also her pride and dignity. I have never read a more appalling story, and it is with my gratitude to be representing Miss Baartman as a client and confidant.
You have used Baartman for your own wealth, while never giving her a penny after violating her publicly. Baartman has been seen as a circus freak and a spectacle for the body type she carries as a black woman. She was belittled and seen as an over sexual being because of her “unusually large buttocks and genitals” (Davie).
Backed by scholar, Ian F. Haney Lopez, we agree that your actions were based upon the discomfort you felt for the unknown. By coming into contact with something you were unfamiliar with, you claimed Baartman to be a freak, rather than acknowledging your unintelligence on such matters. Lopez and I agree that this was a way for you to oppress another race in order to raise your own. Lopez states, “The syncretic nature of racial, gender, and class constructs suggests that a global approach to oppression is not only desirable, it is necessary if the amelioration of these destructive social hierarchies is to be achieved” (Lopez, pp. 55).
Lopez has also gathered information from Court Justice White who claimed, “It has been found that differences between individuals of the same race are often greater than the differences between the ‘average’ individuals of different races…” (Lopez, pp. 53). Therefore, it is evident from these statements and findings that you are the one lacking critical information when exploiting another person.
Your use of Sarah Baartman as income and as experiment is going to come full circle when you are presented with experiments done that show the differences within individual races. The hope is also that the money you earned while using Baartman as a career will be paid to a campaign celebrating the ongoing triumphs of African women.
To enlighten you further, Dunlop, we as a people are more united in physiological aspects than you care to recognize. The individuals of a single culture vary in body shape, personality, and other characteristics. Yet, this is what makes a person uniquely individual, NOT a freak. You are also mistaken in your belief that you are of higher power than Miss Sarah Baartman. She, like you, is a human being. Her body shape may be of something you have never witnessed; she, also like you, may have been born a sexual being. These are qualities familiar with Homo sapiens.
It is highly advised that you try to enjoy the succeeding days, not by exploiting any other person(s). I give you this advice because it will be a miracle if you are not charged on any previous stated accounts, and hopefully with a plethora of others. With all of my power, I ensure you I will do my best so that you are viewed as the freak—not for your body shape, rather your disgusting sense of another’s worth.
Graciously,
Brittany L. Blevins
Attorney at Law
Works Cited:
Davie, L. Sarah Baartman, at rest at last. 12 August 2002.
Lopez, I. The social construction of race. 1994. pp. 52-56.
I am writing you in response to the brutality you portrayed on the innocent victim, Sarah Baartman. After reading the harsh environment and treatment Baartman experienced because of you, I am doing all I can to prove that you are guilty of extortion and violence. You not only kidnapped and robbed Baartman of her home, but also her pride and dignity. I have never read a more appalling story, and it is with my gratitude to be representing Miss Baartman as a client and confidant.
You have used Baartman for your own wealth, while never giving her a penny after violating her publicly. Baartman has been seen as a circus freak and a spectacle for the body type she carries as a black woman. She was belittled and seen as an over sexual being because of her “unusually large buttocks and genitals” (Davie).
Backed by scholar, Ian F. Haney Lopez, we agree that your actions were based upon the discomfort you felt for the unknown. By coming into contact with something you were unfamiliar with, you claimed Baartman to be a freak, rather than acknowledging your unintelligence on such matters. Lopez and I agree that this was a way for you to oppress another race in order to raise your own. Lopez states, “The syncretic nature of racial, gender, and class constructs suggests that a global approach to oppression is not only desirable, it is necessary if the amelioration of these destructive social hierarchies is to be achieved” (Lopez, pp. 55).
Lopez has also gathered information from Court Justice White who claimed, “It has been found that differences between individuals of the same race are often greater than the differences between the ‘average’ individuals of different races…” (Lopez, pp. 53). Therefore, it is evident from these statements and findings that you are the one lacking critical information when exploiting another person.
Your use of Sarah Baartman as income and as experiment is going to come full circle when you are presented with experiments done that show the differences within individual races. The hope is also that the money you earned while using Baartman as a career will be paid to a campaign celebrating the ongoing triumphs of African women.
To enlighten you further, Dunlop, we as a people are more united in physiological aspects than you care to recognize. The individuals of a single culture vary in body shape, personality, and other characteristics. Yet, this is what makes a person uniquely individual, NOT a freak. You are also mistaken in your belief that you are of higher power than Miss Sarah Baartman. She, like you, is a human being. Her body shape may be of something you have never witnessed; she, also like you, may have been born a sexual being. These are qualities familiar with Homo sapiens.
It is highly advised that you try to enjoy the succeeding days, not by exploiting any other person(s). I give you this advice because it will be a miracle if you are not charged on any previous stated accounts, and hopefully with a plethora of others. With all of my power, I ensure you I will do my best so that you are viewed as the freak—not for your body shape, rather your disgusting sense of another’s worth.
Graciously,
Brittany L. Blevins
Attorney at Law
Works Cited:
Davie, L. Sarah Baartman, at rest at last. 12 August 2002.
Lopez, I. The social construction of race. 1994. pp. 52-56.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Questions and Reasoning
1. Do you believe the transsexual community will ever reach a point of pure acceptance?
2. How do you feel our culture oppresses or uplifts women who identify as lesbian or masculine?
3. What are some ways individuals can educate others on GLBTQ issues?
My first question was shaped around the article by Emi Koyoma talking about the blatant exclusion methods of women among the transsexual community. She writes about “Camp Trans” saying, “the argument was also between the post-ops telling the pre-ops they weren’t real women!” (Koyoma, pp. 699). Although I know discrimination happens among all groups, I would like to think that transsexuals who could afford to have a sexual operation could at the very least be understanding of a pre-operative population. This is the trouble with movement-changing groups: it is always the interests of the higher socioeconomic, white classes that are addressed.
The second question is prompted more from the article in our Women’s Studies’ book. Ben Barker-Benfield’s findings in “Sexual Surgery in Late-Nineteenth-Century America” is highly enlightening. The common theme that affects the ongoing surgeries throughout the article is the oppression of women’s sexuality. However, the article does not address women who identify as lesbian, rather to tame heterosexual women’s desires (at least this is how I read his findings). A captivating line in the piece read as, “Both clitoridectomy and circumcision aimed to check what was thought to be a growing incidence of female masturbation, an activity which men feared inevitably aroused women’s naturally boundless but usually repressed sexual appetite for men” (Barker-Benfield, pp. 86). This quotation, while sickening, does not address the sexual appetite that women may feel for other women. It is assumed these surgeons only found women to long for men. These surgeries are no longer common throughout the American culture (still in others) but women still have to uphold a non-sexual identity. I am curious how, over time, lesbians and masculine women have been affected by this oppressed sexuality.
Works Cited
Barker-Benfield, B., Sexual surgery in late-nineteenth-century America. International Journal of Health Services, Vol 5.2, 1975: 285-89, 293-95.
Koyoma, E. Whose feminism is it anyway? 698-708
2. How do you feel our culture oppresses or uplifts women who identify as lesbian or masculine?
3. What are some ways individuals can educate others on GLBTQ issues?
My first question was shaped around the article by Emi Koyoma talking about the blatant exclusion methods of women among the transsexual community. She writes about “Camp Trans” saying, “the argument was also between the post-ops telling the pre-ops they weren’t real women!” (Koyoma, pp. 699). Although I know discrimination happens among all groups, I would like to think that transsexuals who could afford to have a sexual operation could at the very least be understanding of a pre-operative population. This is the trouble with movement-changing groups: it is always the interests of the higher socioeconomic, white classes that are addressed.
The second question is prompted more from the article in our Women’s Studies’ book. Ben Barker-Benfield’s findings in “Sexual Surgery in Late-Nineteenth-Century America” is highly enlightening. The common theme that affects the ongoing surgeries throughout the article is the oppression of women’s sexuality. However, the article does not address women who identify as lesbian, rather to tame heterosexual women’s desires (at least this is how I read his findings). A captivating line in the piece read as, “Both clitoridectomy and circumcision aimed to check what was thought to be a growing incidence of female masturbation, an activity which men feared inevitably aroused women’s naturally boundless but usually repressed sexual appetite for men” (Barker-Benfield, pp. 86). This quotation, while sickening, does not address the sexual appetite that women may feel for other women. It is assumed these surgeons only found women to long for men. These surgeries are no longer common throughout the American culture (still in others) but women still have to uphold a non-sexual identity. I am curious how, over time, lesbians and masculine women have been affected by this oppressed sexuality.
Works Cited
Barker-Benfield, B., Sexual surgery in late-nineteenth-century America. International Journal of Health Services, Vol 5.2, 1975: 285-89, 293-95.
Koyoma, E. Whose feminism is it anyway? 698-708
Monday, May 31, 2010
Trans liberation Movement-
Before reading the writings of Leslie Feinberg, I was unaware that a Trans liberation movement was happening. I like how Feinberg describes the movement as, “We are again raising questions about the societal treatment of people based on their sex and gender expression…And trans communities are carrying out these mass conversations with the goal of creating a movement capable of fighting for justice—of righting the wrongs” (Feinberg, pp. 5). Based on what Feinberg had to say on her societal treatment because of gender expression, many wrongs need to be made right.
I was shocked when I read that she was denied treatment from a doctor and outwardly told to leave, in which case she could have died. The most sickening part of that story though was how the doctor went on to be seductive with a female nurse. This just shows the harshness people who go against the “norm” face on a daily basis. After reading this story, I acknowledged something in a first-hand account that (although not a case of life and death) reflected the discrimination Feinberg writes about.
I work as a server and one of my coworkers, born a male, dresses up as a female much of the time. He pondered what the case would be if he dressed female when coming into work and decided to question a manager about it. The manager told him that if he were to decide to work and dress as a female, there would have to be a separate bathroom built for him, and that he would have to shave his face in between shifts if he worked all day. The manager also informed him that if this was something he was going to go through with, it would not be surprising if he were fired before the process could start for other unsaid reasons. This story shows how strongly our born sex plays the majority of how we are supposed to identify as a gender. He would have lost his job if he wanted his outward appearance to reflect his self-identified gender.
Something else that I think is interesting in the Feinberg book is how she writes about the identity from birth of pink and blue, but to take the concept further than the colors is the celebration of sex among infants. Everyone has seen the balloons that exclaim, “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” What balloon is bought for the baby who cannot be labeled immediately based on genitals? The stigma surrounding these types of situations will follow a person who is transgender or a person with multiple sex organs from birth and throughout their lives.
Feinberg seems to clearly know what is expected from her as a born female, yet does not mind to go against the grain or many norms. Similarly to Feinberg writings is Susan Stryker’s definition of queer. She says that, “If you are queer you are aware of where your boundaries are, and when you cross them” (Stryker). I see the truth in this statement daily, and hope that Feinberg and others will continue the fight for social justice so that people are no longer policed for who they are.
An article that steers me in the direction that trans liberation is becoming a progressional and acknowledged movement.
Works Cited:
Feinberg, L., We are all works in progress. Transliberation.
Stryker, S., Definition of queer.
I was shocked when I read that she was denied treatment from a doctor and outwardly told to leave, in which case she could have died. The most sickening part of that story though was how the doctor went on to be seductive with a female nurse. This just shows the harshness people who go against the “norm” face on a daily basis. After reading this story, I acknowledged something in a first-hand account that (although not a case of life and death) reflected the discrimination Feinberg writes about.
I work as a server and one of my coworkers, born a male, dresses up as a female much of the time. He pondered what the case would be if he dressed female when coming into work and decided to question a manager about it. The manager told him that if he were to decide to work and dress as a female, there would have to be a separate bathroom built for him, and that he would have to shave his face in between shifts if he worked all day. The manager also informed him that if this was something he was going to go through with, it would not be surprising if he were fired before the process could start for other unsaid reasons. This story shows how strongly our born sex plays the majority of how we are supposed to identify as a gender. He would have lost his job if he wanted his outward appearance to reflect his self-identified gender.
Something else that I think is interesting in the Feinberg book is how she writes about the identity from birth of pink and blue, but to take the concept further than the colors is the celebration of sex among infants. Everyone has seen the balloons that exclaim, “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” What balloon is bought for the baby who cannot be labeled immediately based on genitals? The stigma surrounding these types of situations will follow a person who is transgender or a person with multiple sex organs from birth and throughout their lives.
Feinberg seems to clearly know what is expected from her as a born female, yet does not mind to go against the grain or many norms. Similarly to Feinberg writings is Susan Stryker’s definition of queer. She says that, “If you are queer you are aware of where your boundaries are, and when you cross them” (Stryker). I see the truth in this statement daily, and hope that Feinberg and others will continue the fight for social justice so that people are no longer policed for who they are.
An article that steers me in the direction that trans liberation is becoming a progressional and acknowledged movement.
Works Cited:
Feinberg, L., We are all works in progress. Transliberation.
Stryker, S., Definition of queer.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Violence and Women
The readings, acknowledging violence done unto women, tell the stories of violence from different perspectives. Violence against women is situational and although some cases of violence can be similar, there are also striking differences. It is made clear in Kimberle Crenshaw’s article, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” that violence can be all the more difficult to overcome for women of color.
It is white females whose voices get heard most often when speaking out against physical and verbal abuse, although it affects a spectrum of women. Shocking to me, Crenshaw documents a case of a Spanish speaking woman who struggled to find shelter, saying, “Despite this woman’s desperate need, she was unable to receive the protection afforded English-speaking women, due to the shelter’s rigid commitment to exclusionary policies” (Crenshaw, pp. 204). Wouldn’t it be assumed that shelters would want to help all abused women, and not discriminate against the already beaten down and discriminated?
I never thought about the difficulties women of color and non-English speaking women face when trying to overcome their hardships. It is as if women who already have much working against them: low income, impoverished, English language learners, and so on, have yet another barrier to go up against. The way systems are set-up, this cycle will become a never ending process, and the same story will continue to be told if an action isn’t taken against it.
Following with the theme of violence affecting intersectionality among women is Dorothy Allison’s Two or Three Things I Know for Sure. Her story is not one from a woman of color, but rather a woman of lower economic status. She came from women who accepted the hand they were dealt, so to speak. They never took the initiative to fight against the demeaning mean in their lives, and Allison was beaten and sexually abused by her stepfather. I believe that is issues like this that need to be addressed most often. Allison writes about her account of rape, telling, “that thirty years later one of my aunts could still say to me that she didn’t really believe it..” (Allison, pp. 42). If a five year old girl is being abused and the only people she is surrounded with find no truth in what she is saying, where does she find an outlet? Where does she find strength?
The women who are writing the books and articles we read are where the strength lies for some women. It is having the courage to tell the story of abuse and rape, because if you are writing the story, you have survived. The abuse, violence, and rape are the obstacles to overcome, but it is the survival, the determination, and the fight that should be most acknowledged. By hearing the triumphant stories of these women, the oppressed and beaten down women will be exposed to the hope that can come from there situations. These survivors can be heroes.
My mom has become one of these heroes for me. She hasn’t told her story to the masses, but by trusting me with her experience with rape and violence, I have a first-hand account of how a woman can be strong enough to come out of any situation. Stories like this will continue to empower.
Included is a link to stop Violence against Women.
Cited from:
Crenshaw, K. 1991. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color. Introduction to Women's Studies. 200.
Dorothy, A. 1995. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure. 43.
It is white females whose voices get heard most often when speaking out against physical and verbal abuse, although it affects a spectrum of women. Shocking to me, Crenshaw documents a case of a Spanish speaking woman who struggled to find shelter, saying, “Despite this woman’s desperate need, she was unable to receive the protection afforded English-speaking women, due to the shelter’s rigid commitment to exclusionary policies” (Crenshaw, pp. 204). Wouldn’t it be assumed that shelters would want to help all abused women, and not discriminate against the already beaten down and discriminated?
I never thought about the difficulties women of color and non-English speaking women face when trying to overcome their hardships. It is as if women who already have much working against them: low income, impoverished, English language learners, and so on, have yet another barrier to go up against. The way systems are set-up, this cycle will become a never ending process, and the same story will continue to be told if an action isn’t taken against it.
Following with the theme of violence affecting intersectionality among women is Dorothy Allison’s Two or Three Things I Know for Sure. Her story is not one from a woman of color, but rather a woman of lower economic status. She came from women who accepted the hand they were dealt, so to speak. They never took the initiative to fight against the demeaning mean in their lives, and Allison was beaten and sexually abused by her stepfather. I believe that is issues like this that need to be addressed most often. Allison writes about her account of rape, telling, “that thirty years later one of my aunts could still say to me that she didn’t really believe it..” (Allison, pp. 42). If a five year old girl is being abused and the only people she is surrounded with find no truth in what she is saying, where does she find an outlet? Where does she find strength?
The women who are writing the books and articles we read are where the strength lies for some women. It is having the courage to tell the story of abuse and rape, because if you are writing the story, you have survived. The abuse, violence, and rape are the obstacles to overcome, but it is the survival, the determination, and the fight that should be most acknowledged. By hearing the triumphant stories of these women, the oppressed and beaten down women will be exposed to the hope that can come from there situations. These survivors can be heroes.
My mom has become one of these heroes for me. She hasn’t told her story to the masses, but by trusting me with her experience with rape and violence, I have a first-hand account of how a woman can be strong enough to come out of any situation. Stories like this will continue to empower.
Included is a link to stop Violence against Women.
Cited from:
Crenshaw, K. 1991. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color. Introduction to Women's Studies. 200.
Dorothy, A. 1995. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure. 43.
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