Womanist Analysis Of Extraordinary Identity

Decent Essays
Womanists analysis of bodily identity in the reproductive rights issues recognizes a unique identity for women of colour formed within the multi-layered oppressions of race, class, and gender they have collectively experienced. This identity is not monolithic as women of colour experience and responds to these challenges differently. Markers of race, class and gender as well as others create diversity within the Third World community. Womanism is not just a perspective but a unique epistemology that creates a new paradigm for doing philosophy.

Womanist method of identifying with the ‘oppressed of the oppressed’ in real life, in the form of black women and other women of colour and their experiences of abortion and surrogacy raises serious

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    There is so much happening in the world around you if you stop your inner dialogue and just take a second to listen to what is happening around you. Listening has always been something that has been hard for me; I’ve always wanted to make sure that my ideas were heard. However, in shouting out my ideas have I been covering up other ideas of people whose voices are barely heard in the first place? I as young white woman have been able to voice my opinions pretty openly, but I never thought of whose voices I was covering up and those in which I should be listening to instead of talking over. This idea of being heard and listening to new perspectives is not something new to 2016; it has been an issue long before that.…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Black Feminism Stereotypes

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Black feminism, a term not recognized by many, is a form of feminism that fights to include African-American women in the conversation of women equality and explain how our race, gender, class and other identity markers shapes our experience with societal institutions. Patricia Collins, an African-American woman who encourages intersectionality, discusses suppression of black feminism, and believes social change can only occur through uniting women, and men, of all walks of life to work towards one common goal. We will examine two pieces of literature and put it into conversation with Collins perspective of symbolic and institutional dimensions of oppression. Hip Hop, a genre of music with the stigma of being a male dominated industry that…

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sabrina Coccia Women Images & Realities 9/22/2015 Reading Analysis #2 Although, most people assume feminism is just about being against ‘the man’, it is more than that. Usually, when individuals think of feminists, they immediately think of white feminists but what about the colored feminists. Colored women have to endure racial based problems more than white women. Colored women have to endure white supremacy oppressing them. In “No Disrespect Black Women and the Burden of Respectability” by Tamara Winfrey Harris and “Ideals and Expectations: Race, Health and Femininity” by Margaret A. Lowe, these writers talk about the ways in which ‘politics of respectability’ is forced upon and the effects on women of color especially on their bodies.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Annotated Bibliography Ahmed, Sarah. “A Phenomenology of Whiteness.” Feminist Theory. 8.2 (2007): 149-68.…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Bodily Autonomy

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Bodily Autonomy and Female Power Feminists have long been arguing “The Personal is Political,” suggesting that women’s private experience is not only inevitably structured by the political arrangements, but can also empower women and affect the society in return. From African women dancing with chains on slave ships in 1800s, to women protesting through hunger strikes at immigration detention centers, taking control over women’s own bodies is critical in exerting influence, raising social support and gaining leverages in various power relationships. The term “Bodily autonomy” refers to acts of free will on one’s physical body, defiantly rejecting any outside factor trying to govern one’s behavior and dictate what to do. The following paragraphs…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    womanhood is not something you can identify with womanhood is not an identity womanhood is a lived experience for example: waking up in blood soaked sheets to discover your period came early is a lived experience. how ridiculous does it sound to say “I identify with the experience of waking up in blood soaked sheets even though I have never actually experienced this, let alone a…

    • 67 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Thanks Max, I enjoyed reading your post. I remember looking at the world news in other countries where women are abused and tortured for not given birth to male babies. Our society has came a long ways with respecting women’s right and equality, but still has a ways to go. Juana experienced the life of a prostitute in the desperation to finding her father. A spokesman once said, “In desperate times, calls for desperate measures”.…

    • 142 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Magona's Children Feminism

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Feminism is a political ideology that pushes for gender equality by ridding society of gender roles and giving women the ability to have autonomy in their lives. In Sindiwe Magona’s book, To My Children’s Children, Magona describes the hardships of Magona’s life during the apartheid era is South Africa as a black woman and how this intersectionality affected her life. While most of her life was under apartheid, it was not the main focus of her story and became only a backdrop to her journey of awareness of the systems of oppression her race and gender subjected her to. Magona’s memoir emphases on the cataclysms of womanhood as it dives into gender roles, body image, journey of motherhood and domestic life, and career prospect. Her narrative identifies with the political ideology of feminism as Magona triumphs in independently forging a life for herself and eventually gaining freedom from the limitations of a woman.…

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The feminist perspective believes that the decision to abort a pregnancy should be made by the pregnant woman. In her article “Abortion Through a Feminist Ethics Lense,” Susan Sherwin advocates for women taking control of their reproductive lives because they are often subordinate and unable to control their own sexuality. In terms of the fetus, feminists see it as relational to the female carrying it. Personality is valued instead of existence according to this theory (Sherwin). Abortion is an issue that directly relates to female rights, and feminists believe women should be granted the right to choose abortion if desired or…

    • 1777 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sex Trafficking Women

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The will to decimate spiritual purity and completely shame women through physical and emotional destruction is deeply imprinted within the imbalances of the world. Female genital mutilation, breast ironing, honor killings, acid attacks, sex trafficking, underage marriage, forced illiteracy and rape as weapons of war are just some of the atrocities forced upon women globally. These brutalities that women and children endure around the world not only show the wicked placement of power, but also the highest importance of igniting the voice of women within. Countless stories of women, soul binding terrors beacon women of the highest risks to bring forth their wisdom of truth in hopes to diminish the paradigm of feminine oppression and bring worth…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    On Female Identity Analysis

    • 2369 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Judith Kegan Gardiner writes in On Female Identity and Writing by Women that “[f]emale identity is a process and writing by women engages us in this process as the female seeks to define itself in the experience of creating art” (361). Elaine Showalter takes the case further in her discussion of gender differences in determining “whether sex differences in language use can be theorized in terms of biology, socialization, and culture; whether women can create new languages of their own; [and] whether speaking, reading, and writing are gender marked” (252). She concludes that insufficient evidence exists in the dialogue between the genders, that language is not codified by sex and therefore cannot be regarded excepting “styles, strategies,…

    • 2369 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Fight For Equality

    • 1879 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Is It Really a Fight for Equality? Hierarchies in the Feminist Movement Swetha Nakshatri 1851. The Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. After a tone of acceptance shifts to one of exclusion, African American abolitionist and activist Sojourner Truth gives a speech with no name. Only a pleading question: “Ain’t I a Woman?”…

    • 1879 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Women’s reproductive rights are a human right that cannot be taken away. Due to religion and/or lack of education, women do not have the freedom and privacy to choose what is best for their bodies. This social injustice is highly neglected upon because people feel uncomfortable talking about a topic that millions of women struggle with on the daily basis. Although women’s rights have improved drastically, women around the world still face oppression on a daily basis and women’s reproductive rights are rarely enforced.…

    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The final issue that this paper will explore is the power-relation dynamic and its impact on gender. This section will look at how things like assumed gender roles and strictly defined gender relationships reinforce the power imbalance that exists between men and women in society. For example, gender roles are defined as the “behaviours, tasks, and responsibilities that a society considers appropriate for men, women, boys and girls” (fao.org, 2015). Separating the ‘behaviour, tasks, and responsibilities’ to have specific relationships with a particular gender is problematic because it separates the power and capabilities of women and girls into a category to be dominated by men. It also creates a very narrow perception of their available roles…

    • 1095 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many times, it would be the men who choose to say what is right and what is wrong when it comes to women wanting to have an abortion. A woman’s body is private and her own; men should not have any say because the body dos not belong to them. Women are free to take any action towards their body, as Skinner Daniel argues in his book, The Politics of Medical Necessity in American Abortion Debates, "the freedom to be the master of her own body, and thus of her own fate, is as fundamental a right as a woman can possess” (Daniel 3). When a woman carries an unwanted child, it is her voice that must be heard, not the others. Therefore, every female around the world should have a say in keeping the child or not.…

    • 1640 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays