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Visibility and Invisibility

This unit I think the concept of visibility and invisibility are very important to know when it comes to the “suspicious” body. Visibility in the sense of who is allowed to be visible and who is seen versus invisibility where people are forced to be or are just seen as invisible because of some outlying factor. I think a really good example of this was the TSA videos we watched in class. It really got me thinking about all the interactions I’ve had with airport security throughout the years. I had to start traveling alone when I got to college and every time, no matter what airport I’m in, i get checked, even if I have no jewelry on me, or anything that looks suspicious. Whenever I had my hair in protective styles, I would always have to do a hair search. Even with my natural hair, I wear it up most of the time, and I get checked then too, and its just crazy to me that a white person with the same hairstyle isn’t given two glances. I think because I am for one, black, and a a woman I’m already hyper-visible and invisible at the same time. I am seen as suspicious just based off of what I look like, because I don’t fit the “cultural norm” I am assumed to be suspicious or dangerous. In this society you are either hyper-visible or invisible just based off your appearance and what others perceive you to be. That in itself promotes violence and room for all the -isms (racism, sexism, classism, sexism, etc.) A trans person of color is at risk everyday just because of who they are, but they are also not allowed to be seen, and don’t have the freedom to be seen. Whereas, a trans non POC is still visible because of their whiteness, but part of their identity is forced to be written off. People have to pick and choose when they can be visible and when it is even safe for them to be visible. For me, I find myself struggling to do so in work settings or classroom settings, because most of the time I am the only black person. While its clearly visible that I am black, I have to pick and choose when I can and when its safe for me to share my experiences with those who don’t come from the same background as me. I’m seen as a black person, but then I’m not seen if that makes sense. People acknowledge that I’m black, but they don’t acknowledge my experiences, my voice, or other parts of my identity that make me who I am. They only see whats on the outside and they judge me or stereotype me based on that. They think they know what kind of person I am based off that, and most of the time they are wrong. I’ve had to deal with countless microaggressions just based off the color of my skin and society’s unwillingness to see me as a person, like many POC, many trans people, many women, and so many other marginalized groups. 

Toby Beauchamp. 2009. “Artful Concealment and Strategic Visibility: Transgender Bodies and U.S. State Surveillance after 9/11.” Surveillance and Society. 6 (4): 356-366.

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Disposability

Disposability or the concept of the disposable body are two important terms to know when looking at different social.feminist issues through an intersectional lens. Disposability refers to who is seen as “disposable” as in their life and person-hood doesn’t matter because it doesn’t align with society’s vision of who is worthy enough to take up a certain space. For example, in bigger cities like NYC, Austin, D.C. and other places, a lot of people are pushed out of their homes because of gentrification. companies try to whiten up “urban” and predominantly low income or POC neighborhoods to bring in more money. Then it causes the people that already live there to be forced to leave or are find themselves homeless because they cant keep up with the increasing rent prices. On a service trip I went to in D.C. we took a neighborhood tour of all the neighborhoods that had been gentrified and it was just really shocking to see and know that so many people that had been living in their homes for years were forced out all because some company wanted more money. They were seen as disposable because of who they were and what they looked like. These companies didn’t care that these people had to relocate or because homeless, because they didn't see them as people. This also factors in to who becomes homeless, and who is more likely to get help when they are homeless. People often times associate homelessness with drug addicts or POC and just write them off as “crackheads” who aren’t deserving of help. Growing up, every time I saw someone of the side of the road asking for help, people would tell me not to give them any money because they’d only use it for drugs or alcohol. They weren’t seen as more than that. POC are already seen as disposable bodies for ample amount of reasons and that just contributes to society’s view of homeless POC. Brown bodies or “unhealthy” bodies are just tossed aside and not given the same respect or treatment as white “healthy” bodies. i think the concept of disposability is important because it is easy to try to identify which groups are marginalized, but knowing this concept lets you go deeper and figure out why they are marginalized. Why they are disposable or seen as such in the first place. It helps you understand why certain things happen to certain people , like why POC are forced out of their neighborhoods, or why black women are constantly given the short end of the stick. It all goes back to who society views as disposable. 

Craig Willse, “Neoliberal Biopolitics and the Invention of Chronic Homelessness.” Economy and Society 39 (2): 155-184.

The Dig, “Real Estate Capitalism and Gentrification with Samuel Stein” Links to an external site.

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Mobility Privilege

This unit, I think the concept of mobility privilege and who is freely able to move around and allowed to move in the world is important to understand. Mobility privilege isn’t only about how people literally can move, but also all the privileges they have in order to move. Mobility privilege can be as simple as who is able to get a passport or even pay for one. There are so many requirements they ask for when you apply for a passport, on top of a ridiculous fee for getting one. Being able to have the resources easily accessible is also mobility privilege. Some people don’t have worry about how they are going to get from point A to point B or how they are going to pay for the luxury of being able to even travel out of their home states or countries. How they are allowed to move depends on a number of factors like race, gender, and class status. A wealthy cis man or woman does not have to worry about how they are able to move in the world, and don’t have to worry about who they step on in the process. They can just move freely without having to bat an eye. Also, with mobility privilege, you must think about the criminalization of migrants and criminalization of solidarity. Immigrants are seen as violent criminal before they even step foot across the border. They are seen as criminals just for seeking asylum, and the people that try to help them, risk the chance of going to jail just for helping them. Even if they try to come into the country the “right” way, they still have to go through the super long process of applying for citizenship. It isn’t cheap at all, and they have to study essentially every part of American history and pass a difficult test that people born here could probably not even pass. They don’t have the privilege to just move freely because of one, the criminalization of immigrants, and if they are black or brown immigrants, they are seen as twice as violent. Black and brown immigrants don’t have the same mobility privilege as white immigrants. White immigrants don’t go through half of the discrimination as black and brown immigrants. There are so many white immigrants that come from places in Europe and people are so fascinated with them, but with black and brown immigrants they “are taking our jobs” and “violent criminals” You can clearly see that in the videos we watched in class, immigrants were treated like less than humans just because of their citizenship status and racial background. 

Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani. 2019. “Contentious Crossings: Struggles and Alliances for Freedom of Movement across the Mediterranean Sea.” South Atlantic Quarterly 118 (3): 644-653.

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Forced Labor and Hyper-Precarity

Similar to the last unit, this concept of the types labor and the things service workers have to do are often times not in their job descriptions. This idea of forced labor isn’t literally somebody standing over someone making them do something (although I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happens in some cases) it is the idea that if they don’t do this extra labor, they’ll be fired or suffer worse consequences. For many migrant workers, that consequence is often deportation. Employers hold their citizenship status over their heads and basically are forcing them to do these different forms of labor because they essentially have no other option. They can’t just rebel against the, because then they’ll be deported to their home countries or help in detention camps. In the video we watched,  the woman who said she was hired to just take of the care of the kids, but she was told she had to do extra things like clean the bathroom and different things around the house. Many of these people don’t have rights either. They don’t have job security, or benefits, and there’s not a lot they can do about that. They are exploited for their labor and suffer harsh consequences if they don’t do the jobs that they are told they have to do. I think this concept is important to know because its easy to just tell someone to quit a job if they don’t like the working conditions, but many people don’t realize some don’t have that option. Many migrant workers come to the US in order to earn money and provide for their families back home, to make a life for themselves, not just because america is a “great” country. So they have no option, but to endure these harsh and uncomfortable work conditions because if they don’t they’ll have to go back to the life they were trying to get away from. 

Hannah Lewis, et al. 2014. “Hyper-precarious Lives: Migrants, Work, and Forced Labor in the Global North.” Progress in Human Geography. 1-21.

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Emotional Labor

I think this unit has been one of the most interesting for a lot of reasons. It is important to know that there is more than just physical labor, especially in service jobs, or retail jobs. Emotional labor means a lot of things, but specifically it is the labor that employees endure that effects their emotional and mental well being. They aren’t literally using emotions to get a job done, it is the effects of their job and feelings that go home with them. For example, like in the Van Oort reading, they talk about the emotional labor of being under surveillance at your place of work and how technology is basically being used to control employees. People that are under surveillance at work, have to work with the constant thought of being watched because of these cameras that employers set up. It feels threatening and makes you feel like you’re doing something wrong or have to be on your p’s and q’s because someone might be watching. That takes quite a toll on someone. Especially if they are constantly actually threatened about it by their employers. Some people have no choice but to have these jobs because they need to money to literally get by and provide for themselves and/or their families. They have to put up with people literally treating them any kind of way because “its their job” It literally takes so much out of a person to have to pretend for 5+ hours that they care about the things customers are telling them, or being yelled at for prices you cannot control. In my personal experience, the emotional labor I've endured has gotten so bad that I have almost quit, but couldn’t because I needed the money and had literally no other option, because unlike a lot of people at this school, i don’t have help from my family. I work at Starbucks, and their whole company is built on “the customer is always right!!” and we literally get yelled at for not smiling or not telling people thank you when they grab their drinks. Naturally, I have rbf and I don’t even realize I look “unapproachable” or “mean” so I’ve had many conversations with my managers about me needing “do better” and “smile” because its my job and “i get paid to smile” First, I didn’t get this job just to smile in strangers face all day. And it really takes a toll on my social battery having to smile all the time and be super nice to random people that whistle at me and snap at me and call me stupid for not having their drink out in 2.5 seconds. They have a camera set up in so many places, and one of my supervisors told me the general manager sometimes just watches us and takes notes on everything we do wrong and tells the regional manager whenever he comes to do evaluations. On top of the stress of actually having to do all the job requirements, I am constantly on high alert about if they’re watching or if I could’ve done something better. It takes a huge effect on me having to just stand there while people talk to me any kind of how and I can’t defend myself because I’ll get fired, and if I get fired, I literally have no way to provide for myself. So this idea of emotional labor is very important because not many people realize in many service jobs, that along with doing literal manual/physical labor, they also are doing emotional labor because of how they are expected to act and behave because of the constant threat of losing that job because they aren’t nice enough to a customer. People don’t realize that a lot of that comes home with the worker and it’s hard not to internalize those negative comments. 

Madison Van Oort. 2018. “The Emotional Labor of Surveillance: Digital Control in Fast Fashion Retail.” Critical Sociology 00 (0): 1-13.

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Whiteness and Entitlement

This unit I think a very important concept or phrase is whiteness and the entitlement that comes with it. Now this doesn’t mean that just because you’re white means you’re entitled to everything (although some people do think that). In the context the meaning of whiteness and entitlement is directly related to colonization and transnational (mostly brown) bodies, and how these people view the bodies they’re colonizing. n the Goldstein reading, they discuss a case in which custody was given to white adoptive parents over the native american birth father. You would think that a court would grant custody to a totally fit birth parent, but in this case that is not what happened at all. People saw the white adoptive parents as the poster family, as what an american family is supposed to look like. Their whiteness gave them this sense of entitlement to this body that didn’t belong to them and they knew nothing about. One example from my own personal experience is just how white people interact in spaces that don’t belong to them. Like their lack of using (or understanding) the words “excuse me”, reaching over you for things in stores, or just expecting you to move out of their way when the sidewalk isn’t big enough. This sense of entitlement that comes with whiteness whether it is intentional or not or clearly visible is something that is ingrained in society. I think this concept is important to know when talking about the colonized body because it is important to know first, why these bodies are being colonized, and by who. These people come and take land and spaces that don’t belong to them and this sense of entitlement looms over the bodies being colonized. 

Alyosha Goldstein. 2014. “Possessive Investments: Indian Removals and the Affective Entitlements of Whiteness. American Quarterly 66 (4): 1077-1084.

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White Savior Complex and the Girl Effect

For this unit, I think both concepts of the white savior complex and the girl effect are two things one should know and understand when try to answer the question, “do brown bodies need saving?” White savior complex is the idea that people who are less fortunate or are deemed as “helpless” need saving and need help. Often times this is seen in things like mission trips, or those commercials that portray third world countries are dirt poor. Its the idea that if you do some minuscule task, you are helping people that more than likely don’t even need your help, or don’t need the help you are offering. The girl effect is an effort to “save” global woman from poverty and ultimately themselves. It is saying either you go to school, get married, have children, and live a happy successful life, or you’re going to have a shitty life and probably end up being sex trafficked. The target for this girl effect is mostly global south women who are seen as helpless and in need of help. An example of white savior complex is the website we looked at in class. You can go on this website and choose the people you want to give your money to and in the end you can say you “helped” somebody less fortunate than you and you feel good about yourself. Its basically like poverty porn. People think they’re helping these people in such a tremendous way, and while that money may help them in some way or another, what happens if they can’t pay the loans back? Or if they make little or no money with the businesses they are trying to start? Another example I can think of is in the movie The Blind Slide. They portrayed Michael as this super helpless and unintelligent young black man, and over exaggerated a lot of the true story. This woman basically took pity of him and thought moving him into her house would save him from the dangers of the streets and from himself. While the true story had so much more value and wasn’t as bad as the movie, the way it was presented made it seem like this man was so helpless and just needed help from this upper class white woman so that he could be successful and happy. For the girl effect, all the videos we watched in class and the Switzer article highlighted the concept of what the girl effect is. The clock is ticking video is basically portrayed that these global woman need to helped and need to just go to school and they’ll be fine. When in reality, just because you go to school doesn’t mean you automatically win in life, and nowadays, sex trafficking doesn’t just happen to poor people it can happen to anybody, no matter what “path” you take. Also, life doesn’t work AT ALL how the video portrayed it. What about women that can’t go to school? Or women that don’t want to get married and have kids? What happens to them? I think these two phrases are important to know for this until because they go hand in hand. Thinking that you can single-handedly stop poverty for these woman because you donate 10 cents a month is just white savior complex at work. Just because someone looks like they need help doesn’t mean they need your help. And who’s to say that the money you give them even goes to them or helps them at all? 

Switzer, H. (2013). (Post)Feminist development fables: The Girl Effect and the production of sexual subjects. Feminist Theory, 14(3), 345–360. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vq2mfF8puE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8xgF0JtVg

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Western (white) feminism vs. Transnational feminism

This unit, I think a very important phrase to understand is western feminism versus transnational feminism. This means “white” feminism that only seeks to gain equality for what is perceived to be the standard of what a woman should be (cis, white hetero) an american approach to “equality” of you will. Whereas transnational feminism is understanding that feminism is/means something different in every culture all over the world. How I think feminism is or should be is different from how people in somewhere like India would think feminism is. It transcends borders, metaphorical and literal. One example I can think of is a discussion I once had freshman year in one of my GWS classes. We had to watch Get Out and write about all the social issues the movie brought up and then had a discussion in class. One girl said that the entire movie was about the injustice of interracial dating and how people are ridiculed for it, and we should be able to date whoever we want. While that is true, it is peak white feminism to think that, that movie was just based on interracial dating. She failed to realize the significance of each detail pertaining to police brutality, blatant racism, and fetishization of black bodies because of her idea of what feminism is. I chose this phrase because it is important to know the difference between the two when beginning to even explain what feminism is. It is the foundation of everything to come. You have to understand the concept of transnational and intersectional feminism, and know that it is not just about surface level problems that western feminism brings up. Something Audre Lorde said that I found very relevant to this phrase is “ignoring the differences of race between women and the implications of those differences presents the most serious threat to the mobilization of women’s joint power.” Ignoring all the problems faced by different marginalized groups in this fight for equality does nothing for either side. 

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. “‘Under Western Eyes’ Revisited: Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles.” Signs, vol. 28, no. 2, 2003, pp. 499–535. 

Lorde, Audre Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference. 

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Theorizing Labor

When talking about labor, a lot of people might only think about physical literal labor and not the ways in which companies seek out poor/ low income people. People are literally selling their bodies for medicine and medical research and only being compensated $30-$40. A lot of the times they target poor/ low income people because they know that they need it just to survive, but these people aren’t being recognized for what they are “donating.” Watching the video in class about the people that donate plasma on a regular basis, made me think, one, why aren’t they being compensated more, two, why didn’t they show the reality of everything they have to do before an individual can actually “donate” and three, did they acknowledged that this is sometimes the only way for some to get money or did they just not care? Many people that donate solely for the money often have to take extraordinary measures to get there in the first place, just to be given money that wouldn’t even last a week let alone a few days. They painted a picture of hope and rising up against all odds when that isn’t the case for everybody and not everybody can do that. This also goes for the Clean & Clear commercial featuring Jazz Jennings. In Reinke’s piece, they critique the commercial and the concept of them using her identity and story as a form of labor. They painted this picture that was false narrative of what the trans experience is like. In the commercial she talks about being “one of the girls” and being a normal teenager. They showed her having sleepovers and hanging out with boys at the pool in this super fancy suburban neighborhood. While that may be the experience for some privileged trans people, it isn’t the same for most. “The so-called free market political economy of neoliberalism is reflected  in a worldview that emphasizes the individual, which has shifted feelings and privileges  of national belonging in the United States.”( Reinke, 36) These companies exploit peoples bodies and experiences to make money. They find what is appealing to audiences and use pathos to convey that they are “woke” “diverse” and “inclusive.” We’ve seen it with Gillette and Nike. They commodify the stories and experiences of people just to get people to buy into whatever they’re selling. 

Reinke, R. Chapter Two: Just Having Fun Being One of the Girls: Jazz Jennings, Trans Girl Citizenship, and Clean & Clear’s “See the Real Me”. In Mediated Girlhoods, Volume 2.

https://star.txstate.edu/2017/05/plasma-donation-centers-exploit-college-students-and-the-poor/

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/plasma-donations/555599/

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Bodies and Materiality

When thinking about feminist theory and what it is, its important to include disability. Being able bodied makes you blind to all the simple privileges you hold in your everyday life. I think its also important to understand that the body and mind are interconnected and cannot be separated in most situations. With most invisible disabilities, they make you experience mental and physical symptoms and they sometimes offset each other. Like with depression, its so hard to get out of bed and do simple tasks like taking a shower because your body physically cant handle it. while that is happening, your mind is also experiencing other symptoms. Price talks a lot about this in The Bodymind Problem and Possibilities of Pain. Your mind is in pain at the same time your body is and limits you in certain spaces. Something this unit brought up that i had never really thought about before was the fact that disabilities have been socially constructed. I think people have a certain picture in their mind whenever they hear the world disability and they automatically will a certain way about disabled people. They treat them like charity cases and like they cant function without an able bodied person helping them. I think that goes along with mental disabilities as well. People that have schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder are given the label of being “crazy” and seen as people that need to be institutionalized. This goes with our discussion about how they portray people in the media with disabilities; how white people with mental health issues are shown vs how black people with mental health issues are shown. Their bodies are seen as disposable because they aren’t “normal” or “able” to function in society. One example that comes to mind when thinking about this is the character Suzanne from Orange is the New Black. In the show Suzanne is called “crazy eyes” because of her mental disability and later in the show you learn that she ended up in prison because of her disability. They saw her as disposable and needing to be imprisoned instead of being adequately treated for her disability. Every time she had a breakdown, their first thought was to give her drugs to sedate her. In Price’s article they talk about how to care for somebody that experiencing mental/ physical pain, and needing to understand that validation of the pain is important. People are quick to tell someone they are acting irrational or crazy without trying to help them first or let them know that they are there for them, and I think that’s why there is such a stigma around mental health and disabilities. People would rather just pity those with physical/visible and mental/invisible instead of recognizing that there is more they can do than just being “empathetic” towards them. 

Price, Margaret. “The Bodymind Problem and the Possibilities of Pain.” Hypatia 30 (1): 268-284. 2015. 

Thomson-Garland, Rosemarie. “Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory,” National Women’s Studies Association Journal 14 (3): 1-32. 2002. 

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Transnational Feminist Theory

Western feminism, best known as “white feminism” has made it seem like Third World women need to be saved and that western feminism is the standard to which everybody should be at, basically a white savior complex. In the Switzer they discussed the problems with thinking that just by getting a diploma or degree is the key to success in this world. “The Girl Effect is an example of an increasingly hegemonic discourse of global girl power through the intervention of  formal schooling.” (Switzer 346) In the eyes of western feminists, all women have to do is basically go to school, not get pregnant at a young age and they’ll have all the tools they need to be successful and happy. This brings up so many other problems, for example the fact that education is not accessible for everybody and is a privilege. Some women in Third World countries do not have the luxury of attending primary school and seeking higher education because they are forced to help take care of their family and the house. Women are basically seen as housekeepers and baby machines. In the videos we watched in class, they all had the similar theme of women going to school and being successful and wealthy afterwards. In the Nike video, it just further reinforced the idea that Third World women or less fortunate women need to be saved and they should be pitied. While they were trying to empower them, they just bought into the stereotype that they couldn't help themselves. They showed images and videos of the worst possible moments when they could’ve went in a completely different route. It was just like watching those commercials where they show under privileged kids on the streets. With the second video, it essentially said that after women give birth they are disposable and cant further contribute to society. This is another problem in itself. Thinking that just because women have children young, are single mothers, or just have a child in general it prohibits them from being a productive member of society when that isn't the case at all.  While people are so busy trying to empower women they see as less than, they are further oppressing them and making it seem like they are just helpless and have to rely on education alone to get somewhere in life, which in reality, even if you go to school and make all the “right” decisions, there is no guarantee you will be successful and find a job after you finish. Western feminism essentially ignores the voices of Third World women, women of color, and basically any one who isn't cis gendered and white. 

Switzer, Heather. (Post)Feminist development fables: The Girl Effect and the production of sexual subjects.” Feminist Theory 14(3): 345-360

https://youtu.be/1e8xgF0JtVg

https://youtu.be/-Vq2mfF8puE

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Theorizing the Borders of the Nation-State

After the recent shooting in New Zealand, I think this entire unit helped me put a lot of things into perspective. With the Hall reading, I found it interesting that this was the first time I had actually learned about feminist issues regarding pacific islanders. It is something I had never really thought about before until now. Although Hawaii is apart of the U.S. people have somehow commodified it because their culture is so different from “real” american culture. Their lives, stories, and history have been erased and replaced with week long getaways and cool Instagram pictures. People don’t see, or choose not to see the physical/ visible border and the invisible border. There is huge stereotype when you think about Hawaii and Hawaiian people. In not seeing the true history, the people and the culture is left without a voice and people just think its just another vacation spot that they can cross of their travel bucket list. Not only do people commodify Hawaii and their culture, but to other cultures defined as “exotic” and “different” than traditional, american culture. In doing that, people are further marginalized and placed into a certain category. The Naber reading definitely brings up a lot of points that I think are still very relevant today. In that reading, they talk about the backlash and harassment middle eastern people faced after 9/11. People claimed it wasn't a war on Islamic or Muslim people, but that is literally all it was. These people were seen as threats and a danger to the safety of America, because of the ignorance and failure to acknowledge the cultural differences. American’s tend to be scared of, or don’t understand cultures that are different from theirs. For example, when you see those twitter videos of middle aged white women being angry about people speaking their native language, their reason for being ignorant was that they felt threatened because they couldn't understand them. Or, when people harass middle eastern people in public places like restaurants, or airplanes, because their head wear makes them uncomfortable or scared. They are labeled as terrorists and violent people because they were placed into that category after 9/11. I think the shooting that just happened in New Zealand is a perfect example of people placing place on Muslim people. While it should be a tragedy and a call for stricter gun laws, many people saw it as a good thing that Muslim people were killed. I saw so many different articles, tweets, and even an Islamophobic statement from a senator that condemned Muslim people or just kind pf brushed off the fact that these innocent people lost their lives. People are quick to call middle eastern people terrorists when one of them kills somebody, but nobody does it when a white man kills a bunch of innocent, harmless Muslim people, and people in general. you never hear a white person being called a terrorist and i think this goes back to the physical and invisible borders. Those who come here from a different country as labeled as threats or terrorists, or dangerous on some level, those who are in America, but practice a different religion, culture, or basically aren’t a white cis hetero, are marginalized even further, and deal with multiple layers of oppression. Something else I think applies to this unit, is the internet “star” Jess Hilarious had Muslim men kicked off of a plane because she felt unsafe. I think this goes back to Americans refusing to learn about and understand cultural differences, and deeming anything different than them as dangerous and something they should be scared of. 

Naber, Nadine. “Look, Mohammed the Terrorist Is Coming! Cultural Racism, Nation-based Racism, and the Intersectionalisty of Oppressions after 9/11.” 

Mahtani, Shibani & Emanuel Stokes. “New Zealanders vow to stand together — but also to debate sensitive issues.”

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/03/instagram-comedian-jess-hilarious-denies-she-is-racist

https://www.vox.com/2019/3/15/18267077/australian-senator-new-zealand-attack-muslims-immigrants

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Theorizing at the Intersections

When talking about feminist theory or trying to begin to understand feminist theory, I think intersectionality is the key component of understanding it all, because after all, feminism is not feminism without intersectionality. The Combahee River Collective and Crenshaw both discussed important points in understand the intersection between race and gender. In understanding the obstacles women of color and other minorities face in everyday life, it is important to know that they are not just facing one type of discrimination for just one identity, but for multiple others. The Combahee River Collective bring up the fact that they are black women, but also lesbians and how their philosophy and fight isn't just for one piece of their identity, but for all parts. A quote from the Combahee River Collective reading that stood out to me was “we are all damaged people merely by virtue of being Black women.” (7) I think this quote holds a lot of truth and value because as black women, we not only have to deal with racism, but also sexism. Depending on how we choose to identify, we also face being discriminated against because of our sexuality, or gender expression on top of being discriminated against for being a woman, and for being black. I think this idea also goes along with the concept of intersectional feminism and white feminism, something I am particularly interested in and talk about any chance I get. I think there is a huge difference in the concepts of what feminism should be and is, and what white feminism is. White feminism only calls for the equality of women when it benefits them and leaves out groups that have been historically marginalized and doesn't listen to the voices of others, those voices often being women of color. Crenshaw also talks about this in her article and Ted talk. Black women are left out the conversation and fight for equality and often overlooked when discusses black issues. I think she highlights this perfectly in the talk when she brings up all the women who had been killed by the police. I found it shocking that I had just now realized I had never really heard of any of those women besides Sandra Bland. Black women are at the forefront of the #blacklivesmatter movement, #metoo movement and #sayhername movement, but aren’t given the credit or not acknowledge when something happens to them. This goes back to the idea of black women not being supported by black men and having to deal with racism and sexism within the black community and society as a whole. Nobody is fighting for black women, except black women, and even then, the community is still divided. 

Combahee River Collective “A Black Feminist Statement” (1977)

Crenshaw, Kimerle. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, A Feminist Theory and Antiracist Policies” (1989)

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/30/sayhername-why-kimberle-crenshaw-is-fighting-for-forgotten-women

Brown, Melissa, Fraistat, Neil, Ray, Rashwan, & Summers, Ed. “#SayHerName: a case study of intersectional social media activism” (2017)

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Theorizing Sex and Gender

Every time I scroll through twitter I see a new argument about “why sex and gender are the same” and how “there are only two genders.” A concept, many people don’t take the time to educate themselves about is performativity. I think I always knew that this was a thing, but didn’t have the right word for it. Something that we talked about in class that stuck out to me was that we are taught that sex is biological and gender is fluid. I think from since we are born, society pushes the narrative onto us that there are only two genders and we have to be an act what we are assigned as at birth. In the Butler reading, they state “one is not born, but rather becomes a woman.” and “gender is in no way a stable identity.” I think this goes back to the whole “gender and sex are synonymous” debate. When thinking about performativity, its important to understand how you as a human perform gender, and how your cultural and physical background has performed gender for you (the nature vs nurture) Butler talks about the action of displaying your gender and who you are rather than letting society decide for you. I think this is is relevant topic when thinking about trans individuals and those who identify as non binary. People think about gender and sex on a spectrum, either thinking you are a man or woman based on what you were assigned as at birth, and how to physically present to people. But with those who are non-binary, it could fluctuate from day to day. Gender is how one decides to showcase who they are, and the roles they take on. “Gender is what you put on.” (Butler, 531) After we watched the video in class about trans women, I thought about the unfortunate situation happening within the government concerning trans people. The Trump administration is desperately trying to further marginalize trans individuals by trying to only define sex/gender as what a person was assigned to at birth. This brings up so many controversies and fails to see the fact that both sex and gender are on a wide spectrum and that performativity does in fact exist and gender or sex is not solely based on what you were born as. 

Butler, Judith. Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Theater Journal 40 (4): 519-531

“Trump administration trying to define transgender out of existence.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/21/trump-administration-define-transgender-out-of-existence-new-york-times

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Feminism and Theory

Feminist theory in itself is complex, and I think knowing that there is a difference between feminist theory, and theory, is key to trying to understand it. Ahmed and Bell Hooks both discuss strong points about feminism and feminist theory. Hooks discusses more about the commodification of feminism and the concept of action versus discussion and white feminism, while Ahmed discusses more about the concept of feminism/ feminist theory and where/ how it comes about it ones life. Something I think Ahmed does an amazing job talking about is the idea of a feminist killjoy, and not feeling at home in a world that wasn't designed for women. When I read “Feminism is Sensational”  I immediately thought about every issue going on right now that people say ‘doesn’t need to be an issue” or that “women are reaching for a problem that isn't there” Specifically two issues, one being the Gillette ad, and the other being the controversy surrounding R Kelly (and many other artists that do the exact same thing.) With the Gillette ad, people accused Gillette and people defending the ad of reaching for an issue that wasn't there. They failed to see the larger issue at hand that the ad brought up. Whether that was just a tactic to gain more business/ money, it still brought up an issue many people overlooked because they were too busy focused on the wrong things. With the R Kelly controversy, I saw so many tweets asking why the women didn't just say something at the time, or bringing up the fact that some of them consented or were old enough to know what they were doing. When that documentary released, I knew there would be a swarm of people trying to defend him or try to say that his music is separate from him. For that entire week, I saw many “feminist killjoys” and people ready to shut them down. I think this goes back to exactly what Ahmed was saying. There is always a larger issue and when trying to point out problematic or toxic behavior, you get a bad reputation for doing so. “When you speak as a feminist you have to deal with strong reactions... you are often identified as being too reactive, as overreacting..” (Ahmed 21) People are quick to shut you down whenever you bring up feminist ideals or feminist theory. 

Ahmed, Sara. “Chapter 1:  Feminism is Sensational”

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/01/why-some-women-still-support-r-kelly/579985/

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/todd-starnes-does-gillette-want-men-to-start-shaving-their-legs-too

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Prison Justice

This unit brought up many different conversations about how we can rehabilitate people for their crimes, and what needs to be done to get people in prison the help they need. We often think that the word criminal is synonymous with mental illness, or that people that are in prison must have something wrong with them. While these people are locked away and stripped away their rights, nothing is being done to help them and get to the root cause of why they did the things they did. When people are convicted of terrible crimes, they are quickly locked away in prison or in a mental institution, and in neither of these situations are they being helped. I think the Thuma reading perfectly highlights this. It describes the emotional hell that people often endure in prison and in these mental institutions. They aren’t being properly rehabilitated and I think that is a big issue in today’s society. People that are already living with severe mental illnesses that commit crimes are hauled off to mental institutions and basically psychologically tortured. In an article by Richard Lamb and Linda Weinberger , they talk about the people that are placed in prison that have severe mental health issues and barely function in society and what happens to them. Many of them are very unsafe in these prisons and don’t get the proper treatment they need for their mental illness. In class during the facilitation when Orange is the New Black was brought up, I think this article highlighted about what we they talked about. A lot of those women were jailed for things they didn't deserve to be in their for, many of them not believed because of their background, and the ones that had mental illnesses, were drugged up and often isolated from the general population. 

Persons With Severe Mental Illness in Jails and Prisons: A Review. H. Richard Lamb and Linda E. WeinbergerPsychiatric Services 1998 49:4, 483-492

Emily Thuma. 2014. “Against the Prison/Psychiatric State”: Anti-Violence Feminisms and The Politics of Confinement in the 1970s.” Feminist Formations. 26 (2): 26-51.

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Trans/Queer/Lesbian Challenges to Feminist Thought

When thinking about how feminism and the LGBTQ* community  intersect, it is important to include the entire community and not just those that are gay, lesbian, or white. We see through history that the voices of LGBTQ* people of color, trans and bisexual people have been erased, or not listened to. I think the STAR manifesto perfectly summed up what many people in the LGBTQ* community felt at the time and what many of them still feel. I also think it could apply to how any marginalized group fighting for equality in society feels. Even if they don’t identify as trans, on some level, they identify with some of the things they called for in the manifesto. The fact that they include people of color and not just trans individuals shows that the gay liberation and feminist movement has become more inclusive even if its just with small steps like that one. “We want a revolutionary peoples’ government , where transvestites, street people, women, homosexuals, blacks, Puerto Ricans, Indians, and all oppressed people are free, and not fucked over by this government who treat us like the scum of the earth and kill us off like flies, one by one, and throws us into jail to rot...” The videos we watched about sex workers and our discussion about it, made me think about something I saw on twitter called #thotaudit  People have started reporting “cam girls” and sex workers to the IRS so they can be audited. I think this goes to show how hypocritical society can be and shows how much people really hate women and the LGBTQ* community. This could be potentially to sex workers and their livelihood. Some of these people rely heavily on sex work to get by and provide for themselves, while others do it for fun, which they should have a right to do. When talking about the trans community's experience, you have to include trans poc, trans people that have different religious beliefs, trans people with disabilities, mainly just all trans people no matter their race, identity, religion, etc. As you should for the LGBTQ* community, it is important to include the voices of all, not just the ones that fit into what you think a person should be. 

  Abram J. Lewis, “Trans History in a Moment of Danger: Organizing Within and Beyond Visibility in the 1970s” In Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility. (1970)

Cole, Samantha. “People Are Threatening to Report Sex Workers to the IRS in #ThotAudit.” Motherboard, VICE  (2018) motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3by5y/people-are-threatening-to-report-sex-workers-to-the-irs-thotaudit.