In, “Not Just (Any) Body Can Be a Citizen”, author M. Jacqui Alexander explores, examines and expounds on the socio-political forces and machinations which have influenced the legislation in Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas, regarding specific sexual identities and manifestations. Primarily using the laws of both countries pertaining to sexual offenses, she discusses how homosexuality and other non-reproductive sexual acts and lifestyles have been outlawed in both nations. In her argument, she outlines how persons of such alternative lifestyles (including herself) have been carefully constructed as deviant, immoral and ultimately destructive to the moral and social fiber of the country. They are counterproductive to the state-imagined heteronormative, civilized state and, as such, must be criminalized and prohibited from enacting such “unnatural” behavior within the general society. More specifically, however, …show more content…
She achieves her aim in highlighting that the prohibitive laws which reduce people like her to mere sexual bodies is a psycho-social remnant of the colonial past. She addresses a number of audiences within the piece, including the human rights community, the governments of both her native Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas, and by extension all citizens of the Caribbean and wider world who have been disenfranchised by laws that diminish their humanity and highlight their perceived iniquity. The implication of her essay is clear: if not just any body can be a citizen, the democracy which we have set up is in need of some adjustment. It relates to us because it reminds us that for every time we deny any body rights, we have failed to live up to the principles on which are postcolonial societies are supposed to be
Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao explores the lasting effects of colonial violence on a people through the engagement with toxic masculinity and gender violence. The novel skillfully interweaves historical facts with narrative prose in order to draw a connection to an original source of colonial violence to explain its lasting negative effects on the people of the Dominican Republic. The ramifications of the association of a people with the land they inhabit as a means of dehumanizing leads to a snowball effect of a continued search for power from men through violence towards women among a colonized people. Meaning, colonial violence becomes gendered violence when operating within a patriarchal society.
In this book, the author seeks to understand how bodies are governed in Cuba, specifically the bodies of young women of certain ethnicities and not others. One of the central concepts that the author explores is jineterismo, as a sexual practice where young Cuban women engage in sexual activities with foreigners, but in a grey area between economic gain, love, and sexual desire (Daigle 12). Thus, using this concept as a backdrop, the author wants to answer the question of why young black or mixed-race women are governed differently by the state (Daigle 12). Indeed, the author
Michelle Cliff’s short story Down the Shore conspicuously deals with a particularly personal and specific, deeply psychological experience, in order to ultimately sub-textually create a metaphor regarding a wider issue of highly social nature. More specifically, the development of the inter-dependent themes of trauma, exploitation, as well as female vulnerability, which all in the case in question pertain to one single character, also latently extend over to the wider social issue of colonialism and its entailing negative repercussions, in this case as it applies to the Caribbean and the British Empire. The story’s explicit personal factor is developed through the literary techniques of repetition, symbolism, metaphor, as well as slightly warped albeit telling references to a distinct emotional state, while its implicit social factor is suggested via the techniques of allusion, so as to ultimately create a generally greater, undergirding metaphor.
Juan Gonzalez, one of the men who had a homosexual relationship with Dr. Gonzalez, confessed to his sins and was then garroted and burned at the stake (Spurling, 48). Dr. Gonzalez exercised aggressive agency by having these homosexual relationships and using his power to dodge legal punishment by the ecclesiastical court. Gonzalez was part of a close knit circle that benefited off his well-maintained reputation and socioeconomic status, accordingly giving him a defense system to protect himself (Spurling, 55). The normative dimensions of a man with Dr. Gonzalez’ responsibilities were challenged almost entirely when el pecado nefando was committed multiple times. In conclusion, justice was reached in the case of Dr. Gonzalez, although it serves almost as an archetype of defiant actions being taken against the social structure, all due to a sexually intimate
Upon reading Kwok Pui-Lan 's, "Unbinding Our Feet: Saving Brown Women and Feminist Religious Discourse", my vocabulary and understanding of feminist-religious phrases indefinitely extended and increased. The most stimulating and thought provoking terms from this work (in the order introduced) are: colonialist feminism, female subaltern, veneration, phallocentric, and eschatological. This text essentially discovers, "... How saving brown women functions as a colonial ideology helping to camouflage the violence and brutality of colonialism by sugar coating it as a for of social mission.
She like many other authors uses literature to express and expose the results of colonization. Her tone and attacking narration set the mood throughout the text. Although her novel sets place in postcolonial times she reflects on both the present and the past. Jamaica Kincaid takes on a second person narration to attack the reader, whom is taking on the role as the colonizer, a narrative telling, and lastly a reflection to de-credit colonization and expose their corruption and greed. Kincaid “inverts the power if naming inherent in colonial discourse by saying in public what other Antiguans can say only in private” (Byerman).
Citizenship in Athens and Rome: Which was the Better System? 1. The idea of citizenship, or a status given by a government to its people, emerged in approximately 500 BCE. Citizens were responsible for playing significant roles in the life of the state or nation, but in turn were able to possess and benefit from certain rights. Compared to Athens, the Roman Republic's system of citizenship was better in the fact that it was more generous, although careful, in granting citizenship in which rights made the government much more organized.
In the novel, it demonstrates the sexual repression and the pressures citizens face from society to conform. In the novel, author hints that a moderate expression of sexuality leads to independence, confidence and liberty; Key components needed in
Sex with the other race was a sport to the men in this novel and is still a sport for when thinking of the Caribbean men or women, sex is an important factor and assumption (Sharpe and Pinto 248-249). This trend of womanizing causes doubt, for how can one be perceived as just flesh to sex with instead of organic desire based on
In Small Island, Hortense is ridiculed in London by the host society for her aspirations despite being a Black woman. Hortense trained as a teacher in Jamaica and ‘was the talk of the college for several weeks.’ Hortense’s privileged upbringing is a reflection of her high hopes for England and the educational advantages she feels she will be entitled to in Britain. Although, Hortense is well-respected feelings of superiority often interject Hortense’s outlook on the opportunities available to her in Britain. Thus, she is alienated in the British educational system due to institutionalised racism and nowhere will hire her because she is black.
The effects of colonialism are intergenerational, this story exposes the raw feelings of victims of colonization and the internalization of racist ideologies that often occurs as a result of Caribbean history being wrongly painted. Conforming to the standards of society is often easier than bearing the challenges associated with being an outlier; however, conformity leads to resentment and hatred. Cynthia chooses to conform to society's standards of white supremacy, which results in her discarding her own body for the figure of a white woman. Unfortunately, Cynthia begins to form a deep hatred for herself and her culture which her parents and strangers are subjected to.
Benefits for Illegal Immigrants to be Citizens One of the hottest topics in United States political system is over the millions of Illegal Immigrants in the country, and what to do with them. Congress is constantly debating the issue. Democrats have suggested to make mass citizenship to the Illegal Immigrants, but the Republicans have suggested to send them back to where they came from. Illegal Immigrants should be given citizenship to America because they create more tax revenue, supply the workforce, and children would not have to be in foster care due to their parents being deported.
“Annie John is considered one of the best examples of the Caribbean bildungsroman or novel of development” writes Paravisini-Gebert in her critical companion to Jamaica Kincaid and continues: The eight chapters or stories that compose the text follow young Annie from the age of ten till she leaves Antigua at the age of sixteen, and recounts her maturation as a bittersweet process of alienation and loss. [...] Kincaid invites us to read in Annie’s physical maturation – her breasts develop, she begins to menstruate – and emotional growth – depicted primarily through her struggles to separate from her mother – a mirror to her island’s movement from colonialism to independence (29-31).
Patricia Marie Budd's Hadrian's Anger is an interesting topsy turvy take a gander at a nation in the twenty-second century in part of what was Canada. In the nation of Hadrian, homosexuality is the standard and heterosexuality is disapproved of and, as of not long ago, unlawful. Hadrian was named for the gay Roman head, and its objective is populace control and rebuilding of the earth. Heteros are pointed the finger at both for gay bashing and for overpopulating the earth, so researchers have hereditarily adjusted people to make them gay person, albeit regardless some have straight or swinger inclinations. While it is not unlawful to be straight, anybody discovered having hetero sex is sentenced to death in view of the risk that overpopulation postures to the nation and the world.
Joey Cho Mrs. Middleton English 10 17 October 2016 Persuasive Research Essay Outline Introduction LGBT/ same-sex marriage is one of the most heated and controversial debates in our current society. Unlike the past thousands of years whereas marriage was defined as a legal union between a man and a woman, now the concept of marriage has been extended to a broader context. “Homosexuality” in most cultures is viewed as a disgrace, and it is often considered as a great sin from a religious aspect.