The Power Of My Vagina Analysis

Buck Angel’s “The Power Of My Vagina” illustrates the difficulty humans encounter living in a society where our bodies are owned, policed and subjected to follow the norms due to the social construct attached to a single word. To better understand the way in which a society “owns” our bodies from a simple construct of a word, we examine multiple perspectives from people of different races, genders, geography, and backgrounds. From literally being owned due to the social construct of race, to having to change the way we dress because it is not what is expected and finally to being owned by who society classifies as superiors, one can better comprehend the destructive consequences as a result of a societies fatal grip on our bodies. Society and its norms tell, force and expect our bodies to follow the set path we are given when we are born, it is inescapable. Angel, Abu-Lughod, DeMello and Pascoe all offer differing perspectives on the matter and enlighten us to the challenges faced by individuals in a world of having to conform and fit the constructed words of society. Angel illustrates the way in which society can own us, however it also shows the way in which we can find liberation. …show more content…
The idea of our skin colour makes us a different value caused a long, strenuous battle to gain equality. A preventable battle. The word race changed that way billions of people lived, it determined what you did and what could be done to you, “…during slavery, black woman could be legally raped by their masters.”(page 87), demonstrate how little control one had over their own body. To further this point, if a slave were to become pregnant, their child belonged to their masters. One word that the “elite” few determined the meaning of, destroyed justice and equality for an entire group of individuals for an interminable period of