The predominant ideas put forth in the piece from the Combahee River Collective were those that addressed the shortcomings of the feminist movement to include all women and to address the full range of issues that oppress individuals and groups of people in our patriarchal society. This greatly furthered my ongoing development and understanding of what intersectionality is, what its goals are, and how it can help everyone instead of the predominately white, cisgendered, heterosexual, upper middle class women that composed and continue to compose a large portion of the feminist movement. One of the biggest shortcomings that are addressed in this piece focused on the racism within the feminist movement and its limited or even minimal efforts
The problem with the “wave metaphor” is, when these periods of feminist history are viewed through an intersectional lens, we see that most of early feminist history was only the activity of economically privileged white women, or women whose intersectionality was favored by the American patriarchy. The marginalization of other women, whose intersectionalities were not favored in the past, leads to a whitewashed view of historical progress. However, women of color had recognized opinions among their own coalitions, but their opinions were simply not recognized by white upper-class feminist movements. Further analysis of feminist movements around the world, when viewed through an intersectional lens, allows us to see that the “wave metaphor” hardly holds it’s water.
The reading this week brought to my attention that historic events have a way of repeating themselves. In Folklore of the Freeway, Eric Avila explains that during the “Freeway Revolt” there were different ways that communities organized and the types of issues they were fighting against. These issues and organization structures mirror current day protests. Likewise, the connections between how women were treated with respect to protests during the “Freeway Revolt” and the recent Women's match are astounding. In the context of these two events, white women are seen as saints for fighting a fight that doesn’t affect them, while women of color as ridiculed for making a big deal out of nothing.
In “Intersectional Resistance and Law Reform,” Dean Spade proposes that the United States was founded through “racialization…(which) continues to operate under new guises… that produce, manage, and deploy gender categories and sexuality and family norms” (16). More over, these laws and norms tend to maintain the “status quo,” and employ an inherently flawed justice system that is only equipped to address single-axis discrimination issues (5). Thus, the intersectionality movement is largely dismissed by the social and justice systems, as it utilizes “critical intersectional tools… that are often (too) difficult for legal scholars to comprehend” (17). Interstionality’s progress is also impeded by advocates leaving to support single-axis issues. However, Spade warns that this approach is ineffective, as it fails to protect the most marginalized members of society.
When the U.S. Declaration of Independence was written, it was generalized towards one group: white, preferably European, males. As years passed and the United States grew into a well-known nation, it was still clear that this group was getting more rights than others. This group created the idea of intersectionality to anyone who did not fit inside their parameters of being the typical the Euro-American white male. Everyone should be getting free rights, but this was not the case, until the other groups started fighting back. The women of the United States were one group who stood up and fought for their rights, ending women’s suffrage.
Identify the problem: In a vast array of Michigan lakes, a crusty brown algae is spoiling the waters it comes into contact with. (Some lakes include Torch Lake, Elk Lake, and Lake Charlevoix). Pinpoint Causes of the Problem: From an undetermined source, groundwater nutrients nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus are penetrating the lake at abnormal levels. However, a few leads have been suspected. These culprits include invasive mussels, heavy ice cover the last two years, residential and agricultural runoff, and outdated septic systems.
Therefore, Abina’s opinion and voice as a woman never really mattered despite Melton’s moral opposition to slavery. Even today we see similar stories of powerful, rich, and usually white men infringing on women’s autonomy, whether this relates to anti-abortion laws or laws allowing child marriage. Despite what seems like advances in gender equality, women are still vastly underrepresented in the United States government even though they vote at higher rates than men. Women of color, transgender women, and women with any other intersecting identity suffer even more from underrepresentation and discrimination. Abina’s story stresses the critical importance of uplifting all women’s
STRUCTURE 1. Is Doris Anderson’s argument mainly a comparison or a contrast? Doris Anderson’s argument is mainly contrast due to fact that she compared women to other minorities such as Quebeckers, Blacks and more. 2. Does Anderson argue “point by point” or by “halves”?
Previously, the most controversial issue about the Mississippi Delta was whether it was shaped like a leaf or like a foot of a bird. However, these simple days are no longer; the famous delta faces a great amount of crucial controversy. In the summer of 2005, Hurricane Katrina and Rita, caused the Mississippi Delta to suffer severely. When the monstrous storm hit, it demolished “nearly 2,000 square miles of deltaic wetlands,” meaning that even the defense against the flood was destructed. When the delta was devoid of protection, this lead to the river no longer being able to replenish the necessary sediments to continue the life of the delta.
The differences that separate us as a people such as race, class, age, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality demonstrate the intermeshed oppressions that both men and women experience uniquely from one another. In “Age, Race, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”, author Audre says that racism and sexism is a “belief in the superiority of one race/ sex over all others.” We have all been manipulated into thinking how society wants us to think and this mindset will set up a lifetime pursuit of attempting to decolonize this way of thinking that has been instilled in us for so long. It is almost impossible not to recognize the difference when you know it is there.
In September of 1979, Audre Lorde, poet, spoke about the impossibility of dismantling the patriarchy through oppressive means. The black feminist woman, Lorde, who has cancer at the point of this speech, uses ethos, pathos, and logos in order to guilt the audience into making a change of how black feminists are represented. Ethos is the building of the author's credibility in order to become more persuasive because people tend to believe people who they deem likable or respectable. “I agreed to take part in a New York University Institute for the Humanities conference a year ago, with the understanding that I would be commenting upon papers dealing with the role of difference within the lives of American women: difference of race, sexuality, class, and age. The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and the political.”
In Cleveland, Ohio there was a fire that occurred on June 22, 1969, around 12pm on the Cuyahoga river. People called it the “burning river”. The river caught on fire because there were floating pieces of debris that was slicked with oil. The debris ignited by sparks that came from a train that was passing over the river. The reason it happened is from years of people dumping pollution into the river.
In this paper I will be going over issue 17, “Has the Women’s Movement of the 1970’s Failed to Liberate American Women?”. Sara M. Evans and F. Carolyn Graglia each voice their opinions about the issue. They talk about the history of the women’s movement throughout time and the effects it had in our country. F. Carolyn Graglia writes about how she agrees the movement has failed to liberate American women. Her views on feminism concluded that the feminist movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s was a reasonable but a faulty idea, in that it was based on a worthy opinion (that all men and women should be equal).
It either includes all women, or it’s not feminism” (Makers). She frequently reminds individuals that it was disproportionately women of color, especially black women, who created the feminist movement. She contends that erasing black women’s integral contributions disgraces the founders of the movement and eradicates the efforts of feminism’s true founding
Kareen Harboyan English 1C Professor Supekar March 15, 2018 Word Count: Crenshaw’s Mapping the Margins: The Marginalization of Women of Color Analyzed Through Generalization and A Feminist Lens Crenshaw's Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color expands on the multifaceted struggles of women of color and the generalizations ingrained in society that limit women of color and keep them in a box. In this text, Crenshaw builds on the concept of intersectionality which proposes that social categorizations such as gender and race are intertwined and have great influence on one another.
The feminism term should be broadened Since the beginning of feminism, the mainstream feminists’ associations, have mostly focused on the problems that white middle class women face. As a consequence, numerous feminists´ have ignored and overlooked the experiences of oppression that other minority women encounter. Therefore, I am of the opinion that it is essential that the feminist concept is not solely used to enlighten the inequality between genders, withal also racism, islamophobia, homophobia and further. I would argue that feminism is useless without intersectionality and inclusion.