Otherness

Throughout history, episodes of madness have been recorded in every culture across the globe. Psychological illnesses are common, but have always had a deep stigma attached to them. Those with such disorders are often shunned by society. This makes it much more appealing to hide such a fact about oneself than to seek help. Such a hostile environment can easily cause a person to spiral out of control. Hamlet and Don Quixote are two perfect examples of a troubled individual in a troubled world. At…

The first African slaves in Britain’s North American colonies arrived at Jamestown in 1619. WHY? A century and half later, with the American Revolution on the horizon, slavery had become an institution, a pillar of society, in those southern colonies which found it particularly economically profitable and soon to be extinct in the northern colonies that did not. The Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland were the first to develop large enslaved populations, because of the labor…

This is because outside observers can certainly still perceive the physical difference or “otherness” in Bi jade regardless of whether they have cultural knowledge regarding it. However, such inferences can only be wildly speculative. For instance, the inclination of observers to believe that it is candy rather than a gemstone which hangs from my…

Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the portrayal of lesbian women, relationships and communities prominent within media culture. Yet increasingly so, the same types of lesbian women and relationships are repeatedly shown. Certain systems and structures of power have regulated the way gayness and lesbianism are viewed and thus seen while media has the tendency to naturalize these stereotypes and assumptions. As the prominence of lesbians’ figures in media has risen, it seems that the…

Celaya during her visits to her awful grandmother’s house in Mexico and interactions with her friends in the U.S. highlights the evolution of her liminal identity. On her visits to Mexico her otherness was pointed out by her grandmother that made her feel less Mexican due to her customs and Spanish fluidity. On the last part of Caramelo (2002) Celaya comes to terms with her bicultural identity and goes over the experience of living in the United…

Ever since there have been people on the earth, there have been cultural rifts largely based on race. Othello was a Moor, meaning he was from North Africa, dark skinned, and probably Muslim. Moors of that time were seen as those who used dark magic." Mockery of the sexual coupling of Othello and Desdemona; association with bestiality and homosexuality." (Shakespeare Quarterly). Othello faced many challenges because of his race as well as his faith, none more challenging though than the…

A Place to Lay One’s Head From my house up on the ridge, if the cottonwood leaves below have fallen away in the autumn, you can see another smallish house straddling the thin line of the village river. It is tucked between the river and cottonwoods on one side and the wild field that my father sometimes plants with corn, wheat and rye on the other. I started building it about five years ago right around Christmas break from school. It is a pit house so the beginnings of it really weren’t about…

Nothing is more inherent and constant to the human experience than childhood, it is impossible to become a person without first developing a sense of self and a way of being. And it is impossible to do that without first being young. We spend our childhoods dealing with the conflict between our internal personal values, and the variety of external values and expectations pushed upon us. Both Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese and Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye deal with…

natural chemical that gives tissue its colour – in their skin, hair, and even eyes, to produce an extremely pale complexion. This colouration stands in stark contrast to the darker tones of the majority of the population, to perpetuate a state of “otherness” that allows for a de-sensitivity towards hunts. Albino hunts exist…

The enslavement of humans and coerced labor can be found throughout the world in many different periods of time. For the most part, unfree labor was divided into indentured servants, who voluntarily signed contracts stipulating the terms of their service, and those who were held and made to work involuntarily. Though the people targeted for varied by society, the enslaved were usually prisoners of war or criminals. Indeed, the only Europeans ever to be involuntarily forced to migrate for work…