fJen has 6 post(s)

In Ferguson’s book, Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, he talks about how minorities do not always feel comfortable within their own social minority groups. It is harder for someone to be considered “other” in any sense, but many people fit into multiple minority groups ostracizing them from all those who have any difference. For example a white woman fits into the minority group of being a woman. A black woman fits into the minority groups of “black” and “woman.” A black, lesbian woman fits into the minority group of “woman,” “queer,” and “black.” Rather than using their similarities to be a rallying point; however, many people use their differences to show their superiority of the “others” within their own groups.
Ferguson also talks about the “prostitution” that is behind capitalism. When we are working we are renting out our bodies for the sake of making money much in the way of a prostitute. Ferguson looks at Marx’s ideas and compares them with the mill girls who were seen as deviant for working for a wage to buy themselves nice things. Ferguson wants the reader to look more deeply at where we get these ideas, and I also believe he is attempting to show the reader that we are all the same regardless of class, race, or gender and that we need to stop ostracizing and judging one another based off of these traits.

In the essay, Abu-Lughod seems to have the argument that western culture has decided veiling is a restriction on women’s rights and feminism, when in all actuality, we have created the stigma that these things are in fact a restriction at all. The essay seems to have two main questions of “who are we as people removed from this culture, to decide what is oppressive to these women?” and also, “of all the real injustices happening in the world, why are we so focused on this idea of veiling when we could be helping with actual causes worth our time?”
This essay had a large impact on my ideals about veiling, and I hope I can find out more about what motivates women to practice veiling, as it is something that I had rarely seen before moving to New York. I think the essay brings to light an important fact which is that western culture has a tendency to victimize the “other” groups we have created so as to pity them and help them become more superior like ourselves. This mentality seems ridiculous to me since what about our culture is better than theirs? Even the New York Times seems to have this same take with the article mentioned in the text.
We want to save others and we see it as helping, but in reality we are not always helping others, but in fact we are simply trying to make them more like us; we are trying to take away what makes them seem “other” to us. As Americans we have this idea that our way is best and everyone is or should be like us, when it simply isn’t true. Man countries do nearly everything differently from us; however this does not make what they do or what we do wrong, it simply makes it different.

I believe Amelia Cabezas defines sexual citizenship as women’s sexuality and the complexity behind what can be written off as sex work. In the article, Cabezas seems to be showing that women who are called “sex workers” seem to be criminalized for taking control of their own sexuality, more so than they are criminalized for prostitution. The women in the article seem to be the same as what one would call a “sugar baby, being that they are with tourists in typical relationships which can involve romance and relationships, but also lead to some sort of financial support either in the form of actual monetary payment, or more commonly gifts.
There seems to be quite a double standard in that men who participate in the same activities, are not prosecuted by police, nor are they seen as deviants in the same fashion. In both Cuba and the Dominican Republic, men and women in the resorts especially, take advantage of the wealthy men and women visiting to help them pay there bills, and take care of their children, which likely would be unnecessary if they were paid well enough in the first place. To add to this, there are different standards to the same activities based on your socioeconomic class, your education level, and your skin tone. Women with lighter skin, in a higher class, and with better education can participate in the same activities as jinetera, but they are not described as one. Instead, there interactions with tourists are seen as romantic and possibly leading to a future.
While I do not agree personally with the idea of people using sex for monetary gain, I also believe that the government has no place in regulating this, and I also find it quite appealing that women can be arrested without any proof for sentences which have no official end date. Rather than wasting money on rehabilitation centers which clearly do not work, I think they should spend money on sex education and STD testing, or even just working on paying their people a living wage so they do not feel the need to participate in sex work.

I agree with Rich’s idea that heterosexuality is institutionalized. There are so many ways we see women being forced to be subservient to men, or to care what men think of them more than what they think of themselves. We are taught from a young age that women marry men and we become housewives who take care of the men and the children and clean and cook, etc. There is this idealized idea of a woman as a 1960’s housewife that enforces the idea of a woman as a heterosexual. MY best friend is bisexual and the first time she told her boy friend at the time, the first words out of his mouth were, “Cool! Are we going to have a threesome?” Lesbianism is a sexualized fantasy for men, even the thing that Rich argues is the one thing women can really have, is still taken to this perverse place.

I’ve heard many arguments about women being more open to homosexuality than men are; since we tend to be more comfortable touching each other and showing affection. If this is true, it does not make the public more open to it. If you look even at TV shows, gay couples such as in Modern Family, we see that the male homosexual couples are much more accepted, shown as family oriented and funny or cute, while their female counterparts tend to be heavily focused on sexual arousal and sex scenes. Lesbian couples seem to make society more uncomfortable than male homosexual couples. Even in lesbian couples we often try to force a heterosexual model onto it by asking, “Who is the man and who is the woman in the relationship?”

I believe Rich is arguing that women are drawn to each other because they are oppressed by men, and because men can never fully understand what it means to be a woman because they do not have the same types of harassment and oppressions that we do, yet women are still forced into heterosexual relationships.

This article was very interesting to me, and explained many things which I have noticed, but didn’t fully understand their history.
It seems that the main assumption in this country in particular is that if you are not a married heterosexual couple who practice sex for reproductive reasons and never stray outside of “normal” then you are accepted as allowed to be a sexually active individual. If you fall into any other category then you are not fully accepted, but there is a hierarchy of how unacceptable you actually are.
I found it very interesting how she explains the theory that sex is not only biological, but it is also cultural and this makes a lot of sense to me. Growing up where I did, people are very open about sexuality and sexual orientation, etc. however, I grew up in a catholic family so sex has always had a sense of guilt behind it to the point that even talking about it can be uncomfortable. On one hand I am comfortable with other people and sex, but not as much when it comes to myself, and this seems to me very much connected to my background. I also find it interesting that even today we still have such a “hush-hush” mentality surrounding sex and sexuality. The fact that people still need to “be in the closet” seems insane being that the only reason our society considers heterosexuality normal is because we as a culture decided that was normal. There is nothing normal nor abnormal about any sexual orientation.
Going into education the censorship in sex education is something I am concerned with being that I am not willing to tell anyone that abstinence is the only option and I know that will get me into trouble in certain contexts and areas. What is so crazy about that idea is it clearly does not work, yet we keep using it.

The Caliban and the Witch is interesting, but I also found it to be a difficult read.
The chapter talks about capitalism and its direct causation of sexism and oppression of people, particularly women, black people, and impoverished people.
Frederici writes about the emergence of capitalism slowly oppressing women especially because they were put into a category of “reproductive beings” with little else available. As capitalism developed taking over feudal society, women’s wages (when they were given them) were pitiful when compared with men’s. They were less mobile since they became pregnant and took care of children and their social power was slowly stripped from them. Frederici writes about their protests which initially had some protection since their husbands were responsible for them legally, but eventually they found a way to arrest women for their protests.
It seems as things progressed from feudal to capitalism societies, poorer citizens who had previously been responsible for only working the land, slowly became responsible for the costs of working the land as well. Whereas before they simply did the labor and the wealthier individuals paid for the tools, and labor, when capitalism came into play, the poor individuals were forced to buy the land they were working and they became individually responsible for a small section of land meaning they were responsible for all monetary items and such. The land became something you could own and be responsible for in a way it had never been before.
Capitalism created lower wages, especially for women, higher prices, and great inequality. Women became almost breeders and were even paid for reproduction, but at a minuscule wage.
Wars became more frequent and violent, and a terrible famine began to hit. The famine caused such extreme hunger that people turned on each other believing that poor people would sell their souls to the devil for food.