A person’s identity is almost always first examined through their gender, then their ethnicity, followed by their socioeconomic status. These identifiers emerge from the psyche successively. While each seemingly unique, and unrelated, they are infact interconnected, and the construction of one could not have existed without the simultaneous construction of the others. As gender gets further deconstructed throughout this course, it becomes apparent that the disparities within our gender system stems from colonialism. With it, it also brought along inequalities of race and class. Infact, through colonialism, many of us have been dehumanized into our own separate schemas beneath the Victorian order. In this sense, the struggles of the white
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p, 7). Though, to be fair, worldly affairs had never been accessible to Victorian women, and they were often too preoccupied with modeling after True Womanhood. Nevertheless, their inadequate understanding of the dark side of colonialism and intersectionality prevents them from representing colonized women wholly. Colonized women’s inability to relate to the white bourgeois women’s struggle is partly due to fenced off contact with the white society, but mainly because historically, they have been so dehumanized by colonization that they have other, and more pressing issues to address beside gender inequality. Namely race inequality. Lugones mentioned how colonization thoroughly destroyed the egalitarian framework of the Native Americans (Lugones. p 200-201). The natives were in essence forced to recognize the white colonizers as their superior. This begrudging recognition of superiority was evident in McClintock 's explanation of Munby’s sketch, which consist of a female black miner facing a white bourgeois woman. As these two women look at one another, they recognize their class distinctions instantaneously (McClintock. p, 104-105). The white woman had a slender physique and was dressed in courtly attire. Whereas the black woman exerted a masculine presence, and covered in soot. This illustrates a certain …show more content…
p 6). They could not practice the virtues of True Womanhood. They could not be considered pure because they were raped and was forced to breed. Religion could not free them from slavery. Any form of submissiveness only served as a tool for survival. They could not be domestic because their life revolved around laboring in the field. Domestic duties were secondary, and only served as upkeep to maintain their bodies for next day’s work. Their gender however, did become relevant when they became victims of rape by their slave masters, or when Importing of slaves became banned in 1807, and they became breeders (Davis. p 7) . The former scenario illustrates the black woman’s lack of ownership to even her most private self, whereas the latter showed that slaves were further dehumanized through selective breeding to profit their masters. This was to strip them of any remaining sense of self-ownership. This breeding had created a change of gender power dynamics within the homes of the slaves as well. The mother was valued for her ability to bear children, while the father became further detached from any sense of patriarchy. Despite these changes, the mother knew the importance of protecting their men, as it was the only way to give their
p, 7). Though, to be fair, worldly affairs had never been accessible to Victorian women, and they were often too preoccupied with modeling after True Womanhood. Nevertheless, their inadequate understanding of the dark side of colonialism and intersectionality prevents them from representing colonized women wholly. Colonized women’s inability to relate to the white bourgeois women’s struggle is partly due to fenced off contact with the white society, but mainly because historically, they have been so dehumanized by colonization that they have other, and more pressing issues to address beside gender inequality. Namely race inequality. Lugones mentioned how colonization thoroughly destroyed the egalitarian framework of the Native Americans (Lugones. p 200-201). The natives were in essence forced to recognize the white colonizers as their superior. This begrudging recognition of superiority was evident in McClintock 's explanation of Munby’s sketch, which consist of a female black miner facing a white bourgeois woman. As these two women look at one another, they recognize their class distinctions instantaneously (McClintock. p, 104-105). The white woman had a slender physique and was dressed in courtly attire. Whereas the black woman exerted a masculine presence, and covered in soot. This illustrates a certain …show more content…
p 6). They could not practice the virtues of True Womanhood. They could not be considered pure because they were raped and was forced to breed. Religion could not free them from slavery. Any form of submissiveness only served as a tool for survival. They could not be domestic because their life revolved around laboring in the field. Domestic duties were secondary, and only served as upkeep to maintain their bodies for next day’s work. Their gender however, did become relevant when they became victims of rape by their slave masters, or when Importing of slaves became banned in 1807, and they became breeders (Davis. p 7) . The former scenario illustrates the black woman’s lack of ownership to even her most private self, whereas the latter showed that slaves were further dehumanized through selective breeding to profit their masters. This was to strip them of any remaining sense of self-ownership. This breeding had created a change of gender power dynamics within the homes of the slaves as well. The mother was valued for her ability to bear children, while the father became further detached from any sense of patriarchy. Despite these changes, the mother knew the importance of protecting their men, as it was the only way to give their