La Guera Summary

As for this week’s reading assignments, I was introduced to two pieces of readings: Judith Lorber’s “Night to His Day,” and Cherrie Moraga’s “La Guera.” Having read and thinking about the issues of the readings, I was aware of the process that the society has used to construct gender over the years (in “Night to His Day”) and how mistreatment, like racial discrimination or gender inequality, is involved in the construction of gender (in “La Guera”). Let’s talk about Lorber’s article. As I read, I noticed what the author indicates: “For individuals, gender means sameness,” and “for society, gender means difference;” I believed that it was true. From my perspective, each individual in this society complies with his [or her] group’s expectations …show more content…
I was born, given a name as well as dressed as a girl since the day I came from my mother’s womb; that is, I am female and identify myself as a woman. Thus far, my family, friends, and whoever gets acquainted with me obviously see me and treat me as I am a woman. In her article, Lorber maintains, “Children 's relationships with same-gendered and different-gendered caretakers structure their self-identifications and personalities. Through cognitive development, children extract and apply to their own actions the appropriate behavior for those who belong in their own gender, as well as race, religion, ethnic group, and social class, rejecting what is not appropriate” (Lorber 94). Indeed, when I am out for school, work or just to hang out with friends, I sometimes do something like a man does. For instance, I lift up a …show more content…
As Moraga explains to reader that “la guera” means “fair-skinned,” (Moraga 339) it immediately grabs my attention and curiosity of whether she is discriminated against or mistreated by people around her. From my understanding, Moraga’s mother wanted her kids to pass in the white people’s world in order to have a better future, yet Moraga seemed to have no choice but “to enter into the life of my mother;” and had to grow up becoming someone with the identity that her mother had endowed. (Moraga 340) That is not fair to her. “The joys of looking like a white girl,” Moraga writes, “ain 't so great since I realized I could be beaten on the street for being a dyke. If my sister 's being beaten because she 's black, it 's pretty much the same principle” (Moraga 340). To me, it seems that she would rather be herself than become someone else who she did not want to be to live to the fullest. Furthermore, it was interesting once I was informed that the author confronted herself being a lesbian. “Silence is like starvation,” Moraga adduces (Moraga 340); therefore, I have come to deduce that the author is not seemingly to disclaim the privilege that she has experienced growing up, yet is aware and authentic of the person she truly is. Not to mention a scenario of groups of white