Western Feminism: The Only Feminism?

        When reading "What Happens When Your Hood Is the Last Stop on the White Flight Express" by Taigi Smith, I couldn't help but notice a recurring theme of a feminism that accommodates women of color that was also present in "It's not an Oxymoron: The Search for Arab Feminism" by Susan Muaddi Darraj. Smith and Darraj went through very similar situations in discussing their first experiences of encountering western feminism and realizing that this type of feminism would not accommodate them as women of color. Smith states "I started calling myself a womanist while attending Mills College in Oakland, California. ... Many of the white women at mills who called themselves feminists didn't understand my experience as a black woman," (Smith 61). This was very similar to Darraj's experience when sitting in a feminist theory class in college surrounded by white women who called themselves feminists but were blinded by their ethnocentric ideals and their narrow-minded beliefs that to be a feminist you had to be just like them. The tone of white Western feminism was a responsibility to "save" women of different cultures from their oppression because they weren’t exactly like them. Both Darraj and Smith acknowledged the completely ethnocentric views on women by Western feminism and was baffled by this movement that was supposed to represent a “global sisterhood of women” (Darraj 298) but instead isolated any views that didn’t coincide with those of white Western women. Feminism became a view that was based on primarily Western ideals and failed to acknowledge the different ideals that women of different cultures held.

        Both Darraj and Smith also touch upon the idea of white privilege in the sense that white people are able to go into other nations, or neighborhoods and destroy people's cultures simply due to the fact that because they are white they believe they have the right to "save" people from their "backwards" ideals and find it necessary to white-wash or westernize anything they touch. Darraj discusses the blatant racism of Western nations claiming it their duty and responsibility to go into the Middle East and "save" the poor, oppressed women who veil themselves or wear Hijab. This is very similar to Smith's discussion of gentrification as she writes "To act as if our neighborhood is something that they needed to "clean up" or "take back" is insulting," (Smith 61). The concept of white privilege is extremely evident in both texts as both authors struggle within themselves as their cultures are being stripped away from them by white people who use the blatant joke of an excuse that they are merely saving them. I enjoyed reading this work as the similarities to "It's not an Oxymoron: The Search for Arab Feminism" by Susan Muaddi Darraj, jumped right out at me.

The Damage of Backhanded Compliments

It is Bigger Than Microaggressions by Kortney Ziegler, Ziegler touches upon many issues such as racism, classism, and sexism in the Tech industry as well as the struggles that he had to face as a black transgender man working in this industry. However, another thing that Ziegler touches upon are a certain type of microaggression known as a backhanded compliments. Of course backhanded compliments are something that the average person has to deal with very often but it takes on a whole new meaning when it is ignorant backhanded compliments in the transgender community. In this article Ziegler tells the story of an instance where he met up with a longtime twitter pal whose work he had followed across the years and the backhanded compliments that he recieved from her-- she said that he "looked more like a real man in person than in my avi."It is this type of ignorance that transgender people must face all the time and when reading about Ziegler's experience I couldn't help but relate this to someone else I know who is a male-to-female transgendered woman who speaks all about her struggle being a trans woman on youtube, go goes by the username "gigigorgeous." Many times on social media when gigi posts a picture of herself, or a selfie is you will, she is bombarded with backhanded compliments by people who legitimately think what they are saying is nice, and even worse socially correct. The types of compliments you see are things such as "You're so pretty for a man!," and "I can't believe this dude is prettier than me." And although the people who are saying these things think that they are genuinely nice compliments and that Gigi should be flattered they don't understand the ignorance that they are putting forth and not realizing that although they think that they are being accepting towards the transgendered community, their "compliments" are backwards and show nothing more than transphobia. To associate a transgendered woman as a man even after their transition and not being able to look past the gender that they were born with is nothing more than blatant disrespect for the struggle that they had to deal with. Ziegler also touches on this when he says "Though my Twitter friend followed my work, her comments implied that my expression of masculinity was not up to par — a slight that refuses to acknowledge me as real and instead as a gender imposter." These backhanded compliments are doing exactly this-- refusing to acknowledge a transgender woman as a woman, or a transgender man as a man and in a sense insulting their gender identity in not being able to consider them a "real" man or woman. The moral of this story is to think before you open your mouth because certain things that you consider compliments can be seen as horrible insults and the ignorance can be very damaging to the person you are "complimenting"

The Role of Women in Latin American Cultures

When reading Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power, and Guilt By Erica Gonzalez Martinez, I immediately connected themes present in this work to the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  In this novel Marquez conveys traditional Latin American cultural and social values through the character of Angela Vicario. Angela Vicario appears in the novel as a symbol for everything a woman should be in Latin American culture and society. In order to convey the values of honor, a woman’s role in society and in her family, and the importance placed on a woman’s virginity, Marquez uses the story of a baffling murder that tells the tale of how one woman’s virginity cost a man his life. The representation and the characterization of Angela Vicario in Chronicle of a Death Foretold provides an understanding of ways in which women were meant to act in Latin American culture, and how society treated them under an unequal gender system. Marquez’s characterization of Angela Vicario not only reflects the extent of women’s exploitation under this unequal gender system, but also reveals women’s subversions and resistances to this oppressive subjection. This completely parallels  the themes present in Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power, and Guilt as this work also focuses on traditional Latin American cultural and social values that focuses on the role of women in an inequal gender system, mentioning concepts such as marianismo, and using a family narrative to get a sense of what being a women in Latin American culture entailed.

Martinez introduces traditional cultural concepts such as marianismo to allow her readers to get a sense of what your life as a women in Latin American culture would be succumbed to. "Marianismo is the crux of our existence ... Using the Virgin Mary as a point of reference marianismo defines women as obedient servants who "happily" sacrifice themselves for everyone else's good. ... "Do not forget a women's place, do not be single and self-supporting or independent minded. Do not put your own needs first. Do not wish for more in life than being a housewife."" (Martinez, 145) With this quote Martinez describes aspects of her culture that have been imprinted in her since birth, and that she has been raised to accept as a woman: the ideal women that one had to become being raised a girl in a traditional Latin American family. Reading this particular quote automatically made me think of a certain quote from Chronicle of a Death Foretold, "The brothers were brought up to be men. The girls had been reared to get married. They knew how to screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone lace, wash and iron, make artificial flowers and fancy candy, and write engagement announcements.” (Marquez 31) This is what the women were to succumb to. They were brought up in a society that viewed marriage as the most important thing in a woman’s life. From the day they were born, when it was revealed that they would come into this world as girls, they would be prepared for marriage, and throughout their years as infants, and children, until the day would come when they would finally be seen as young women, they would be sculpted and perfected into the ideal-enough woman for any man. Through the character of Angela Vicario, Marquez flawlessly presents the exploitation of women in Latin American society. The character of Angela Vicario is almost a symbol for what Martinez could have become had she not chosen a different route for herself becoming an advocate for feminism.

Is "Arabic Religion" A Thing?

               What I found interesting about "It's Not an Oxymoron: The Search for an Arab Feminism" by Susan Mauddi Darraj was the fantastic points made about the undeniable ignorance of Western society on the Arab culture and the Islamic religion, and how extremely spot on it was about the treatment of Arab Americans. The author touched on many issues facing Arab Americans, particularly women, some of these being horrendous racism after 9/11 affecting Muslim individuals, or anybody of Arab, or Middle Eastern descent, or basically anyone that "looked" Muslim. This idea of "looking" Muslim always fascinated me as many Americans seem to believe that they can pinpoint someone who practices the religion Islam simply by how they look. This brings up the topic of blatant and ignorant racism that people that simply look a certain background face constantly, but more importantly the extremely ignorant matter of fact that people can not seem to distinguish between culture, and religion. People often times say things such as "The Arabic culture," "The Arabic religion," "The Muslim culture," "The Islamic culture," and many more blatantly incorrect terms that fuse together a certain culture, and language (as Arabic is a language not a culture) with a certain religion. The author also touched on this when she mentioned that because she was Arab, many people instantly assumed she was Muslim but she was in fact an Arab Christian. It is this ignorant view that if you're Muslim you must be Arab and if you're Arab, you have to be Muslim that broadcasts the ignorance of today's society. People do not realize that although Islam is the prominent religion in the Middle East, and Northern African Arab countries, Islam is also a prominent religion in many parts of Asia, different parts of Africa. and across the world, however people still associate Islam with only one culture, as well as a certain "Muslim look."As mentioned before this concept of "looking Muslim," always baffled me. No one would ever say that there is such a thing as "looking Christian," however individuals with any form of a long beard, a darker complexion, and even wearing a turban which is a custom of a completely different religion of Sikhism, are constantly targeted and harrassed, being called Muslim terrorists because they look a certain way. I for one find this overt ignorance horrific and dangerous.
                Another point that Darraj mentions in "It's Not an Oxymoron: The Search for an Arab Feminism" that I related to in an instant was the absolute need for women of Western cultures to "save" Muslim women who choose to veil themselves in honor to their religion and their God. Western women consider this an act of "feminism" which contradicts the sole meaning of the word entirely. Seeing women who practice their religion in wearing the Hijab as oppressed and voiceless is honestly nothing more than an absolute joke, and calling it an act of feminism is nothing more than a nonsensical attempt to cover up extremely close-minded and ethnocentric beliefs by pretending that they want to help these women. Feminism is defined as the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men, but what many Western women seem to forget is that feminism applies to women of all cultures, religions, and races. Why is it that in choosing to veil oneself, one automatically loses the right to call themselves a feminist? It seems as though feminism has lost all meaning to the word as it no longer focuses on equal rights for all women but instead introduces a sort of hierarchy between women. As if the hierarchy between men and women wasn't enough, now women of Western cultures are using feminism as a poor excuse to justify their close-minded and racist ideals of not being able to accept someone unless they are exactly like them. Women are so focused on "saving" these poor oppressed souls, that they completely dismiss the religious aspect of wearing the Hijab and the strength that it gives to these women to know that they can cover their bodies and let their beauty shine through from their souls. When did the way someone dresses become a means for feminism? I was led to believe that it was exactly this, men thinking they were entitled in telling women what they should, which was why we needed feminism.

The "Immigrant Struggle"

"The report card, printed on flimsy dot-matrix toilet paper, is handed out in morning homeroom, our eyes instantly skirting past the individual grades to the bottom number, the average. I am crying before I see the four digits. 82.33. Essentially, a B. Harvard, Yale, Princeton? Lehigh, Lafayette, maybe Bucknell. What does it mean for an immigrant child of the top rank to go to Bucknell University? It means I have failed my parents. I have failed myself. I have failed my future. We may as well have never come here." (Shteyngart 219) It was after reading this quote when I felt a genuine connection to Gary Shteyngart as a person; I knew exactly where he was coming from. Shteyngart being the child of immigrant parents and being an immigrant himself, has faced the constant pressure of making his parents proud as it would be absolutely unimaginable to end up a failure. I know this struggle all too well. We as children of immigrants are faced with a constant battle of attempting to prove our worth in the eyes of our parents, but never seeming to be good enough. It is the pressure of first generation children of immigrant parents to prove that you are indeed worthy of your parent's sacrifices. As Shteyngart says "we may as well have never came here," this sounds like an exaggeration, questioning his family's move to America all because he received an 82 average? The children of immigrant parents can vouch that his reaction is completely justified. That 82 average symbolizes all his failures, representing not only his own shortcomings, but the disgracing of his parents, and the waste of a trip to "the land of opportunities." His parents came to America to provide a better life for him, and all that they have sacrificed for him should have been given back in hard work and success. In the eyes of immigrant parents excelling in your studies and achieving high 90's in every class should come as second nature; it would say something about how they raised you. Anything below a 95 would condemn you as a failure and a disgrace. As soon as I read the quote concerning Shteyngart's average it was as if a light went off in my head; I felt an immediate connection. I completely understand the struggle of being afraid to bring home a test or a report card because I knew that it would be considered failing in my mother's eyes; no matter how high of a grade I would get it would never be good enough. In the public school system a 65 is considered failing, in an immigrant household, that grade gets boosted to a 95. My mother always told me "99? What happened to the other 1 point? Why not 100?" You had to be perfect. Immigrant parent's expectations of perfection can be extremely daunting on a young soul and being seen as a failure in the eyes of your parents and disgracing their struggles can be psychologically impairing. This is most likely the reason for Shteyngart's substance abuse problems in his adolescence and adult life; that daunting voice in the back of your head telling you you are nothing more than a disappointment and you have failed in making your parents proud is enough to make you go crazy. I related to Shteyngart's struggles as I have always carried the weight on my shoulders of not disgracing my mother's sacrifices.

"Light-skinned" v.s "Dark-skinned"?

 A remarkable trend is present in today's media known as the battle between "light-skinned" and "dark-skinned." This astonishing fad that presents itself as a sort of joke on social media sites such as vine, instagram, twitter etc, is actually a root of a much deeper problem; internalized racism. Now, although this "trend," so to speak is extremely present in today's media, the initial derivation of this problem can be seen as early as the 1600's when colonization brought with it the emergence of "colorism", and in turn, what seems to be the start of internalized racism. Colorism is a type of prejudice that consists of the belief that with certain features (i.e skin color) comes certain privileges and a higher status in general. This prejudice brought with it not only a distinction between white v.s black, or white settlers v.s indigenous people: superior vs inferior in general, but now the conflict that came with the emergence of a completely new racial class- mixed-race individuals. A gender imbalance within the European race led to the violent rape of women of African and Native Indian descent, and this not only created the objectifying of women and the treating of people of color as if they are sub-human, but the even deeper concern of the beginning of internalized racism. This new class of racism, discrimination within one's own race, was evident in the preference of a child mixed with European producing a lighter skin complexion. As shown in Kathy Russel's The Color Complex, "Sadly we do know that over the successive generations, attitudes of color prejudice spread among Native Americans. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Cherokee nation, for example, displayed a clear preference for those among them with a mixture of Cherokee and European blood-- and lighter skin color." (Russel, 10) Reading this particular quote raised many questions in my mind, the first being why? It isn't comprehensible to me that within a race of people that have been oppressed, humiliated, and treated as though they were savages, beasts, and animals; stripped away of their dignity, respect, culture, and land by white settlers who came onto land that wasn't theirs to begin with, with a mind-set that because someone didn't look the same as they did, they were to be treated like animals, would have a preference for lighter skin complexion. In my mind, the mixing of European and native blood symbolized the oppression, and destruction of a whole race of people; people who were considered bestial, sub-human, and inferior to those who had a lighter complexion. So I ask why was a lighter skin tone preferred? It is inconceivable that in a society where people of color were considered savages by the whites, a drop of European blood would make someone favorable. Whatever the reason that lighter complexions were preferred was, as there is no clear cut conclusion in the text, something that we can conclude is that this problem has grown and escalated throughout generations to the dilemma we have in modern society. The preference of a lighter skin color is very much present in the world as seen with skin bleaching, the "light-skinned" v.s "dark-skinned" trend, and in certain industries, the Bollywood film industry in particular. The quote that was mentioned earlier taken from Kathy Russel's The Color Complex immediately made me think of the Bollywood film industry and the preference that it has for lighter skinned actresses and models, and the superiority that South Asian countries place on being lighter in complexion. It is very much preferred for someone to be lighter as they are found more attractive, successful, and just overall more admirable than people of a darker complexion. This is especially evident in women who portray lighter skin tones in South Asian societies; they mimic the ideal woman, and wife, and feel entitled and superior towards women of darker complexions. This phenomena is also broadcasted in the "light-skinned" fad going on within our own social media where people of African American descent are dividing themselves into two subcategories of the same race; light-skinned and dark-skinned. Many stereotypes are placed upon "light-skins" and "dark-skins," and it is more favored amongst people to be a "light-skin." This phenomena of feeling superior if you are of a lighter complexion than someone else is far from new, as a matter of fact it is one of the foundations this nation was built upon, but when it becomes a class of racism within one's own race is when one should stop and ask themselves, what exactly is the difference?