Brilliant student says: "Imperialism, colonization, white supremacy, racism and economic class effect women in their revolutionary struggles. These are all types of social understandings of the world, which create division amongst the working class. Most importantly, these ideas create a mindset of ethnocentrism. Early settlers had a similar mentality, it was called Manifest Dynasty. The idea that one race and one gender is superior above all others is a concept that many cultures practice today, including the United States. The subjugation of women occurs on a daily bases, for example, one in three women in the United States, have been impacted by violence. This violence is brought upon the ideal of a male dominate society. I will evaluate each of these terms and demonstrate how they affect women in their revolutionary struggles. Imperialism is defined as, "an unequal human and territorial relationship, usually in the form of an empire, based on ideas of superiority and practices of dominance, and involving the extension of authority and control of one state or people over another”, by the dictionary of human geography. A perfect example of imperialism is when a rich nation, the United States for example, decides to invade a country so that they can invade their natural rescores, exploiting workers and polluting the environments in the process. Imperialism negatively affects billions while making a select few rich. So how does this effect women and their struggle? First, it makes it a social norm to exploit people for personal gains, this carries over to women, because the men that invade these countries, impose these same beliefs on their wives and girlfriends. Imperialism creates a mentality of dominance, when this carries over to the house hold women are oppressed, thus the male dominated house hold arises and oppresses. Women have to work long hard hours and take care of the children, instead of becoming politically active they must do all of the house hold duties, while the man does the bare minimum. This type of behavior is inexcusable and imperialism is a contributing factor. Colonization is when a new culture, imposes its culture and customs into a culture they have just been exposed to. A good example is when the pilgrims decided to colonize the United States. They imposed their customs and beliefs on the Native Americans. In the process they practiced ethnocentrism and virtually erased Indian culture. Colonization goes hand in hand, with exploitation and intolerance because you are stripping people of their land and culture. So how does colonization effect women? Colonization makes it culturally normal to disrespect people, and to disregard their beliefs. Men who practice colonization, in turn, treat women with the same disrespect. They disregard their emotions and feeling and dismiss their abilities and strengths. Colonization becomes the outlet for discrimination and intolerance. Once there is intolerance, males will treat women unequally. A good example is how laws are written to control woman’s bodies, when the fact is that the government has no right to tell a woman what she should do with her body. White supremacy drastically affects women in their revolutionary struggles. White supremacy basically states that whites are the superior race and any other race is below them. This mentality creates disparity and division against people of color. This mentality also, brings about hostility towards other races. White supremacy separates white women and women of color. Instead of these women coming together and fighting for gender equality, they are too busy judging each other based on their race. The fact is that both of these groups of women are victims of a male dominated society, but white supremacy distracts women from the root cause of gender inequality, which is a male dominate society. White supremacy encourages people to be distant, rather than cordial. White supremacy teaches white women to disregard women of color and to think of them as second class citizens but the fact is that white women are often being bullied by their male spouses, due to our male dominated society. Racism plays another huge role in the revolutionary struggle for women. Similar to white supremacy, racism preaches division and intolerance. Firstly, racism creates discrimination and segregation. Racism teaches generations to be distant and cold towards one another. This distance, is counterproductive to women’s revolutionary struggles because it means that less women will be willing to get together to fight for gender equality, since they will be preoccupied with the ignorance of racism. Economic class plays another big role in the revolutionary struggles for women. Much like racism, economic stratification preaches intolerance between economic classes. Rich people will sometimes look down on poor people and consider them second class citizens. Since we live in an individualist society, rich people consider poor people’s misfortune their own personal responsibly. The fact is that we live in a society of structural injustice, but individualism, does not allow us to see the real picture. Wealthy, middle class and poor women, will not see eye to eye. Instead of these women coming together and fighting for their equality, they are too busy judging each other based on what kind of clothes they wear, and what kind of car they drive. Economic class halts the revolution for women’s rights and equality, because it means that less and less women are willing to cooperate with each other. As you can see, imperialism, colonization, white supremacy, racism and economic class affect women in their revolutionary struggles and their efforts to understand each other. These struggles do not allow women to see the clear picture. These oppressive practices distract women from the fact that they live in a male dominated society, and that the people they should really be fighting are the elites, who are structuring society so that women cannot reach equality. The effects of these oppressive practices create division amongst women and fuels the male dominate society we live in. Women become distracted to the truth, therefore, it is important that women get together and fight for gender equality. It is important that women cooperate with each other and refuse to be distracted oppressive formalities. As we saw in our videos for the week, women like Emma Goldman, Huda Shaarawi and Sojourner Truth were exposed to these modes of oppression. For men, it is important that they don’t let the dominance mentality of imperialism, colonization and white supremacy, to tarnish their ideas of the world, because men take this mentality home and treat their women badly, and create the inequality of women. Both genders need to realize that imperialism, colonization, white supremacy, racism and economic classes distract people from the root causes of inequality."
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:42:58 +0000
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