Thursday, October 29, 2015

Cinderella Ate My Daughter


Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein


Growing up I never played with dolls. Barbies and American Girl dolls was not my thing. I always liked to build, play video games and never liked the color pink. My parents were okay with that because boy toys were always essentially cheaper. I still wore dresses and liked the color pink. I wore pink almost every day for years. Everyone always bought me Barbies. I had the Barbie camper and a few dolls. I always, always, always tried to get myself to like playing with dolls, but there was nothing there to mentally stimulate. My imagination was there, but if I wasn't getting my hands dirty, it wasn't me. I remember getting my first American Girl doll for my 10th birthday. She was blonde and blue eyed. She came with a surfing board, as well as surfing gear. She came with a story, just as mentioned in the article. I just remember hating the way I looked because I did not resemble this doll. My little cousin recently was gifted an American Girl doll, pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. She loves it. She always tells me she wishes she looked like her. She's an Afro-Dominican child. I always tell her, "You're beautiful. You don't need pin straight hair, or light skin." I see her mind being warped because of this mental image of "perfection."

When asking Dana, a thirty eight year old stay at home mom, how she felt about the rest of the Little Mermaid, she exclaimed that she doesn't let her daughter read the actual story because they are horrible. Her daughter just identified with Ariel because she loves to swim. My favorite saying of Dana's was, "Every single one is the same: it's about romance, love, and being rescued by the prince. I will protect my daughter from that." This is a very strong point that Dana made. I wouldn't want my child growing up thinking that she needs to be rescued by someone in order to find love, but this is unintentionally learned throughout society. By telling girls at a young age, they SHOULDN'T be doing something deemed as masculine, almost lessens their being.


Barbie Talk

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Black Feminism



White feminism is a thing, and should be discussed amongst everyone (whether or not you think it exists.) I am a black feminist, also known as a womanist. Womanists focus more on racial and gender oppression of black women or women of color. Mainstream feminism overlook the oppressions of black women or other minority groups, not so much purposely, but not knowing how to go about questioning what they can do.

I loved Smith's piece so much. In the second paragraph, she talks on racism and how no one ever wants to speak on it, but ti's always there. "For those of you who are tired of hearing about racism, imagine how much more tired we are of constantly experiencing it..." She uses the words "hard" and "uncomfortable" to describe people's feelings towards the matter when no one should ever feel that way because racism and oppression is a feminist issue. Women are progressing, yes. But let's be honest. Women make 77 cents to a man's dollar? W R O N G. WHITE women make 77 cents to a man's dollar. Black women only make 64 cents to a man's dollar. Bet most people did not know that.

My favorite quote of this article was, "If lifting this oppression is not a priority to you, then it's problematic whether you are a part of the actual feminist movement." Feminism should be uplifting ALL women no matter what, all differences aside and if you cannot embrace who/what someone is, how can you understand the hardships others have to face? 




Saturday, October 3, 2015

Talking Point #4




Kristof, USA, The Land of Limitations?
People Like Us



Why/how is economic inequity a feminist issue?


As much as I loved Kristof's article, I believe that Bernie Sanders has raised the issues of class gap, as well as the tax bracket, and child poverty in the United States. Sanders' biggest belief is that no worker who works forty hours a week should be living in poverty and also wants to raise minimum wage to fifteen dollars by 2020 (unlikely if you ask me but we'll see.) I enjoyed Kristof's article very much because he addressed issues in a very honest manner without favoring the corporate world, like most journalists seem to do. My favorite part of this article by far is when he writes, "Some think success is all about “choices” and “personal responsibility.” Yes, those are real, but it’s so much more complicated than that.“Rich kids make a lot of bad choices,” Professor Reardon notes. “They just don’t come with the same sort of consequences.”" I cannot praise this enough. It's about who you know, and how much money you have, hence why economic inequity is an issue, especially a feminist issue. Feminism is "a range of movements and ideologies that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women." Who falls into the most economic inequality? YAASSS YOU GUESSED IT. Women. Women of color especially. Same job, same amount of time spent at the job, (possibly) same position. Pay difference? Of course. 

People Like Us is definitely a film I would like to see soon. I wasn't able to play the games they had on the website but I did read the character's stories. They were all apart of a different economic status. Reading the background, and knowing that schools and libraries are able to order a copy.



Question: Why aren't the millionaires and billionaires of the USA not taxed higher than lower paid people? It'd only make sense if people wanted the economy to balance out.