12 Replies to “Week 8 – Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality”

  1. According The New mestiza it says “Fear of going home. And of being taken in.We’re afraid of abandoned by the mother,culture,la Raza, for being unacceptable,faulty,damaged.Most of us unconsciously believe if we reveal this unacceptable aspect of the self our mother/culture/race will totally reject us.To avoid rejection,some of us conform to the values of the culture,push the unacceptable parts into the shadow.’’(Anzaldua page 557) I chose this quote because many girls and boys can’t say what they are or how they feel about themselves because of their family background. They feel a lack of support and can’t vent their thoughts. They don’t even have someone next to them to listen and tell them show who you are and make yourself feel good. Don’t pay attention to ignorants and those people who hated just because they are religious. Everyone has to have an opportunity to be free. Some parents don’t support it and that’s why some adolescents had passed through depression. They don’t feel accepted to the world and it doesn’t have to be like that just because they like something else doesn’t mean they are different.

  2. I saw the video on Youtube. It showed that how black lives are still being treated cruelly and unequally. Black lives don’t really matter. No one really knows that black lives are still being treated like slaves.

  3. “Most of us unconsciously believe that if we reveal this unacceptable aspect of the self our mother/culture/race will totally reject us.”

    I choose this quote because it reminds me of how people are today. Many people are scared to either come out to their families because of their cultural beliefs that will go against them and some people are just simply scared to express their true selves to their family because of the cultural beliefs.

  4. The men look into the camera in disbelief, disgust, or shame. Then they relate the women’s experiences to their own family loyalties. “I have four daughters. I have sisters. I have nieces.” “If my sister or my daughter were subjected to this, there would be some violent action taken.” The comments are paternalistic, macho—attitudes on the same spectrum of the male privilege that produces sexual abuse. But speaking the women’s words awakens empathy as fellow humans and solidarity as union brothers.”
    For the most part many times women or victims do not come forward from fear of not being believed. In the work world it becomes more beneficial for men to look over other men but that is just not the case. A lot of men claim to just be minding their business in these certain situations and that can be tragic working conditions for women. Many cases men are protected from the other men in the facility.

  5. In the reading of “The New Mestiza”by Gloria Andaldua, the quote, “World is not a safe place to live in.We shiver in separate cells in enclosed cities,shoulders hunched,barely keeping the panic below the surface of the skin, daily drinking shock along with our morning coffee, fearing the torches being set to our buildings, the attacks on the streets. Shutting down. Women does not feel safe when her own culture, and white culture,are critical of her; when the males of all races hunt her as a prey,” interprets the idea of the loss and the dangerous things that someone goes through for a better life. Andaldua explains the idea of how the world can be so crucial to someone and it can do many things to discriminate against you. Many people tend to differentiate themselves to others. As the quote significantly explicates about “women”, being a woman, you fear safety for your life everyday because it is a male dominated world. Women are treated a second class citizens and most always be aware of potential actions taken against them. It is unfair and unjust because it’s not your fault if your are born a woman. Women are being isolated from their culture and men are assuming them as a “prey” to hunt for their needs. Mostly, in the men’s world, women are not unconsidered equally and are only good for certain things for them.

  6. “Women do not feel safe when her own culture, and white culture, are critical of her; when males of all races hunt her as prey.” these quotes take my attention because it makes me think that we live in a society where the culture about the women is wrong. The people still think that women are an object and they can be productive for the developing of the world. On the other hand, women are critical because of something as basic as the way they look. this happens because society still creates a prototype of beauty.

  7. In the short reading “The New Mestiza”by Gloria Andaldua, she says “Gringos in the U.S southwest consider the inhabitants of the borderlands transgressors, aliens- whether they possess documents or not, whether they’re Chicanos, Indians or Blacks. Do not enter, trespassers will be raped, maimed, strangled, gassed, shot. The only “legitimate” inhabitants are those in power, the white and those who align themselves with whites.” This quote tells me how Americans in the southwest went to extreme measures to the point where they would kill if an illegal immigrant crossed the border. They had the power and authority to take anyones life away, even if they wanted a better future. The U.S Mexican border was a major issue and threat to the Southwest, and i think it still is. They shot anyone who crossed the border like it was a normal day. This shows me the Southwest Americans had no care or feelings in their heart to help the ones in need.

  8. “No, I do not buy all the myths of the tribe into which I was born. I can understand why the more tinged with Anglo blood, the more adamantly my colored and colorless sisters glorify their colored culture’s values-to offset the extreme devalution of it by the white culture. It’s a legitimate reaction. But I will not glorify those aspects of my culture which have injured me and which have injured me in the name of protecting me”.

    Anzaldúa highlights the pain her people felt when they were banished from their lands because the story she tells is the true story of how the colonizers banished the natives of their own lands. Anzaldúa resignifies the geographical frontier, which limits and excludes, to conceive a feminist cartography from the edge and invoke a more inclusive feminist and Chicano identity. That is why this article is so popular, it is a new conscience and a new subjectivity, it is the consciousness of the new mestizo, a political, social and women’s conscience that starts from feminism to invite us to reflect on the borders that define us and constrain and that we have internalized to delimit our differences. The awareness of the new mestizo fights against sexism and machismo and proposes to break with sexual binarisms, racial differences and exclusionary definitions, which restrict women, their identities and sexualities. It also seeks to build a culture of future harmony: a mestizo culture, a collective consciousness in which not only Chicanos and Chicanas are identified, but all those borderline subjectivities.

  9. In the reading “The New Mestiza” by Gloria Andaldua this quote caught my attention “Women do not feel safe when her own culture, and white culture, are critical of her; when males of all races hunt her as prey.”. Women get a bad reputation for minor mishaps whereas men get praised for doing the same things. I like how she talks about not feeling comfortable in her own country and how scared she was of going back to Mexico because they were going to judge her for being sexual and lesbian. It is harder for her as a woman on top of being a woman of color she is also a lesbian she tells us how Mexico likes to perceive women as housemaids and men as powerful and “macho”. I loved the quotes she used and the lyrics from the songs it a projection of how she feels as a Chicana woman. Gloria Andaldua states that the borders are made to divide people, and recalls her experience with her aunt on her trip to the states, where she encountered white people closely in college for the first time.

  10. According to the short reading by Gloria Anzaldua she says, “We’re afraid of being abandoned by the mother, the culture, la Raza, for being unacceptable, faulty, damaged. Most of us unconsciously believe that if we reveal this unacceptable aspect of the self our mother/culture/rave will totally reject us. To avoid rejection, some of us conform to the values of the culture, push the unacceptable parts into the shadows.” I chose this quote because it explains that young boy and girls are afraid that their mother will abandon them. Also the young boy and girls feel that they can’t vent or talk to their mother and will feel rejected or unaccepted by them.

  11. In the “The New Mestiza” by Gloria Anzaldua the first couple of the lines caught my attention immediately “ The U.S-Mexican border es una herida abierta where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds. And before a scab forms it hemorrhages again, the lifeblood of two worlds merging to form a third country — a border culture.”(Anzaldua 554)
    I connect with my family coming here and making a better living. I’m a product of both systems, where one side of the border my family used to live off the land and pick scraps to live and the other where I’m living like king with a nice home and car. I’m forever grateful of who I am and where I’m from.

  12. The article Beyond #MeToo by Judith Levine captures the reality of sexual harassment in the workforce from different perspectives. The following quote gives a general understanding of the underlying issue that would typically come up in corporate business:
    “I am all for holding harassers accountable, particularly employers who have perpetrated or ignored sexist and racist malfeasance for years. But in the end, a lawsuit is not politics. It can temporarily shift money around, but it does not redistribute power.”. While progress is being made to tackle workplace sexual harassment with state legislation and minor policy changes in many larger businesses, there is still work needed to be done. The sole reason why many large companies are coming up with policy changes outside of labor requirements are to legally protect the business from future potential lawsuits of those impacted by sexual harassment at the said company. It is typically only done to protect the business’ profits and keep a good public eye. More pressure should be put on employers to reshape the work environment to further prevent other situations from arising.

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