Intersectionality

transportation, social stratification, low income housing, new housing development, gentrification, crime, businesses, “mom & pop” shops, economy, education (both public and private), churches, and political interests. Though non-exhaustive, the intersectionality and interconnectedness of and between these elements are undeniably present and real, affecting everyone within its reach. The conscionable avoidance of recognizing and taking interest in the daily interactions of life within the…

In this week’s book What’s wrong with fat?, the author questioned and defies conventions in regard weight and health, and she shows how framing fatness in United States has clear connections with race, class and gender attributes, which are helping to reproducing and perpetuating the inequality under the capitalist system. The use of framing conceptualization was beneficial for my understanding of the social problems that fatness has become and, the stigmatization that these frames may imply.…

I have to recount the most profound statements I have read in Lying-In. After an exchange with an ignorant Montana Senator, a Kentucky House Representative defends child and maternal care as a governmental duty and the newly minted Children’s Bureau in 1919. He says “a right to expect that they will have an equal chance with every other child in the world, not only to be born in health… but… to survive.” I thought back to my high school introduction to feminism. I was sitting in the…

How am I expected to choose between being a woman and being black? Do I ignore the aspect of white supremacy that plagues the feminism movement? Do I ignore….? How can I support something that doesn’t have my best interest involved? For a while, these questions puzzled me. My community had robbed me of my identity as a black woman. I wasn’t black enough," unworthy of my black identity. However I was never given the privilege of being treated like a “stereotypical” Asian. I didn’t belong…

“More acutely than ever before Emma Lou began to feel that her luscious black complexion was…a liability….a decided curse. Not that she minded being black…but she did mind being too black. She …couldn’t comprehend the cruelty of natal attenders who had allowed her to be dipped , as it were, in indigo ink when there were so many more pleasing colors nature’s palette” (Thurman, 1929, p.9). In this excerpt of the novel’s first chapter, Emma Lou, the protagonist, displays her sentiments of being a…

The skill that I still need to most work on refining is time management. Oftentimes throughout our section I would let our group get sidetracked for much too long simply because I was enjoying the discussion, or I was so glad that they were enjoying the discussion. Because of this there were numerous occasions where we did not make it to all the topics I wanted to discuss that day. I need to work on reeling a group back in to refocus and get back on topic. This particular shortcoming, I believe,…

In a speech given at a women’s studies conference, Audre Lorde narrates a structural critique of racist heteropatriarchy given her intersectionality as a Black lesbian. Heteropatriarchy can be described simply as straight male dominance. Although they have different amounts of melanin in their skin, Lorde describes the similarities White women and women of color face in regards to misogyny, men, and institutions. She brings up anger and the role emotions have played in the contemporary United…

In exploring such a poignant topic as exile, one must first examine the group of people most likely to be subjected to exile. Often, this group tends to be the socially observed “other.” What an other is can change drastically depending on who is defining it, and to whom they’re assigning the term. As we’ve seen in both Book of Salt by Monique Truong, and Exile According to Julia by Gisele Pineau, the characters Bihn and Man Ya represent comparable, but fundamentally different ideas of the other…

On January 26, 1883, Theodore Roosevelt presented his speech, “Duties of American Citizenship” in Buffalo, New York to the citizens of the United States of America. The patriarchy speech by Theodore Roosevelt, pretty much explains itself in the title of the speech, “Duties of American Citizenship”, it goes over what it means to be an American Citizen. Patriarchy is evident throughout the whole speech, on how men should be good citizens as well as being good husbands, colleagues, and fathers.…

Feminism is popularly defined as the belief that all genders should have equal opportunities in economic, political, and social life. Feminism has a long history in the United States, beginning in the 1800s and continuing to make strides in our current society. While the first-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women 's legal rights, including women’s suffrage, the second-wave feminism, also known as the Women’s Liberation Movement, approached feminism by examining…