Themes Of Gender Roles, Violence, And Discrimination In Required Readings

Socialization of Gender Roles in Patriarchal Society

The main authors, Lucy Irigaray and Hellen Vivienne have put the emphasize on patriarchal society.  For instance, the speaker tells of how she ended up doing all what her mother used to do and even more. Basically, women in society are supposed to do all work in the house. This involves cooking, washing and taking care of children. Clearly, mothers teach their daughters these responsibilities as they grow up. Like the speaker say at the beginning of writing, “With your milk, mother, I swallowed ice, and here I am now, my inside frozen. And I walk with even more difficult than you do, and I even move even less” (Lucy, stanza 2). Furthermore, these authors have employed theme of socialization of gender roles. Specifically, women gender roles that are passed from one generation to another through socialization process. This has been depicted in the speaker’s argument of how she had to play the roles played by her mother. These roles have forced her to play that part because it seems she has no other choice. She says, “The day dawns, I’m hungry, I wish I had the energy to walk. To run all by myself, near or far from you. To go toward what I love” (Hellene, stanza 6). In this concept, the authors have portrayed how women in the patriarchal society wish to have freedom to move out of that comfort zone and be able to do other things outside their homes. However, this seems to be unachievable.

Ishigaki Rin is the author in the poem and has used it to illustrate the nature of gender roles. He explains how gender roles haven’t changed since ancient history. He bases this on the concept that, women have been the ones cooking even in the past time. The speaker in the poem has emphasized this adage, “There have been for ages objects placed in front of us women” (Stanza 1, line 1-3). Additionally, she says that, “in front of the glow from the fire that we have inherited from the beginning of history, we’re always our mothers and grandmothers and mothers also” (Stanza 2, line 5-8). In this case, the author is explaining that these gender roles have always been and will always be because they have been passed from generation to generation. Furthermore, in the poetry, theme of feminism has been employed. It has been portrayed whereby the speaker says that these roles have made them lag behind in education and politics. In other words, women need their rights to education and politics to be taken into consideration.  Saying, “Because of this, learning and worldly status may lag behind” “just like we cook meat and potatoes with a deep love let us study politics and economics and literature” (Stanza 7-8). Women, in this case, want to have other experiences apart from cooking like everyone else in society. Precisely, giving women other opportunities will be of advantage on top of being caregivers.

Nature of Gender Roles Based on Ancient History

In this book, Adriana Canavero captures an experience of violence which she portrays through horrorism. She further expounds this basing on the fact that violence is not considered in warrior’s perspective rather in the victim. Horrorism, in this case, has been located in literary, philosophical, artistic and political representations of vulnerable victims who are defenseless. Moreover, in order to apply horrorism in current phenomena such as hyper-technological warfare, tortures and suicide bombers she employs erotization of horror. As a result, her work has proven that violating of helpless individuals has existed even in the ancient times. Additionally, she holds that this has not only been a case in western tradition but also in various places where common language is absent. All in all, the book has depicted a theme of violence to vulnerable individuals or groups. This is on the basis of race and gender whereby the black people and women compose the vulnerable group in this case. Clearly, from the book, people who were caught up in violence were women who had black hair. “I saw the head of a girl with long black hair in the middle of the street” (Adriana, p6). The women, in this case, are disadvantaged because of both their gender and race which entail characteristics in which discrimination is based on. As a result, the victims end up with fear such that others even lapse. Moreover, there are those choose to escape for their safety hence abandoning their traditional roles such as their roles as caregivers.

This book by Kia Lilly Caldwell is an examination of Afro- Brazilian women’s life experiences through analyzing links between gender and race in processes of political, economic and social exclusion. Her information has been based on ethnographic research and interviews whereby she researched on social movement organizations and interviewed various women. She illustrates how Women in Brazil have been struggling in everyday life to achieve full citizenship by ensuring that their rights are not discriminated. Regina says, “It was very hard for my generation to not only accept ourselves as black but also to attempt to create a space because we did not have a model” (Caldwell, p6). The models are being developed now.” As a result, women ended up coming up with a movement for black women so as to solve the problem of race and gender discrimination. Moreover, they have had identity politics for those who belong to communities that are racially marginalized. Therefore, the book has led to new insights concerning black women’s gendered perspective and social activism. The most important theme in this book is racial and gender segregation whereby black women have been discriminated against everything. They have been termed as poor black women such that even on televisions soap operas they are given the minor role either as the employer’s lover or the thief for instance. It is of no doubt that this negativity has not only discouraged some of them but also forced others to conform to the situation so as to survive.

Horrorism: Contemporary Violence and Vulnerable Victims

This article by Rosalyn Diprose argues about the necessity and impossibility that belongs to specific place, race, and gender. The author has captured Australian landscape and urban-rural division that is for politics of race in contemporary Australia. First and foremost, the question in the topic has been viewed as either racist or sexist to identify one on basis of family, race, and gender. This kind of belonging has created a belief of transformation and engendering sociopolitical. This is because the people who belong to the same community should share same place, gender, and race. Thus, such a community is said to have the harm of sexism and racism which results to political denial. In that case, this book has been based on the theme of race, gender, and place which indicates that every individual or a group sharing a culture must have a place to belong to, same gender and race at the same time. Therefore, these define their behavior. In that, they are identified through the traits for people to who they really are. However, those who belong to the same community and still ask their community members about their race, gender and place seem to have sexism and racism. These have been found to lead to disunity in the community because they are the ones who categorize themselves as powerful and hence see no point of being associated with their original culture.

References:

Cavarero, A. (2009). Horrorism: Naming contemporary violence (Vol. 14). Columbia University Press.

Caldwell, K. (2009). Negras in Brazil: Re-envisioning black women, citizenship, and the politics of identity. Rutgers University Press.

Diprose, R. (2009). “Where ‘your people from, girl?”: Belonging to Race, Gender, and Place beneath Clouds. Differences, 19(3), 28-58.

(Friederich, Lee. (2009). Through Beastly Tears: Devouring the Dead in the Poetry of Ishigaki Rin. Japanese Language and Literature, 43, 37-8.)

Ishigaki, Rin. Trans. Yukie Ohta & Rie Takagi. (1995). Five Poems. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 3(3), 723-7.

Irigaray, L. (2017). And the one doesn’t stir without the other. Feminist Social Thought: A Reader, 321.

Irigaray, L., & Wenzel, H. V.2013). And the one doesn’t stir without the other. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 7(1), 60-67.

Kennedy, T. L., & Johnston, G. W. (2015). Surgery of violence. 1. Civilian bomb injuries. British Medical Journal, 1(5954), 382.

Wenzel, H. V. (2011). Introduction to Lucy Irigaray’s” And the One Doesn’t Stir without the Other”. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 7(1), 56-59.

Winant, H. (2009). Becoming a Mulher Negra. Negras in Brazil: Re-envisioning Black Women, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity, 107.