The argument over whether abortion should be illegal or not has persisted for decades. Categorizing abortion as a crime in the political agenda has had a large impact on women, creating fear and uncertainty within the community. Abortion is of such significance due to the fact that much of society viewed it as an illegal taboo, a belief that still exists today. Those against abortion argue that it is akin to murder, and thus criminal in nature. When it comes to the accessibility of safe and legal abortions, women have little to no option in certain parts of the world. Even where abortion is permitted by law, women are often met with dangers to their safety due to the lack of proper regulation, health services, and/or political will.

Women’s organizations across the world continue to fight for the legalization of abortion and for the safety of those who choose to undergo the procedure. Their fight does not go unheard of as we have seen an increase in international human rights law supporting the positions of these organizations. After an immense amount of time and dedication to research and outreach from these world organizations , one thing is for certain. The common idea is that women, not society, should have the right to decide what they would like to do to their bodies as it is their own. Women should have the sole rights to decide what they would like to do about reproductive health in regards to their body.

In the Youtube video “The Abortion Divide (full documentary) | FRONTLINE”, the choice of abortion is not an easy one, however, they follow through with their decisions due to either personal or environmental factors. One of the women in the documentary explained that she was getting an abortion because she had unprotected sex with someone that she had been seeing once and she thought she would be okay. A few months later she realized she was actually pregnant. I firmly believe that she, along with all women, have the right to make their own decision when it comes to their body. The woman is the one who will take on the process of going into labor and giving birth, it is they who will have to tend to their bodies in the aftermath. Abortion is not an easy option for many, but given the emotional and physical turmoil women have to endure, perhaps it is the answer that is needed.

Abortion is a procedure that needs proper regulation. Policies that move towards informing, towards providing healthy and safe resources should be enforced rather than shamed. Encouraging an environment wherein women can feel supported and validated when going through an abortion is a step in the right direction.

This week’s reading was very interesting and I enjoyed the connection between the two. I felt that both of the readings were very impactful and packed with new knowledge. The articles “The Power of Identity Politics” by Alicia Garza and “Too Latina To Be Black, Too Black To Be Latina” by Aleichia Williams demonstrates the difficulty for someone of color to be accepted by society. Williams lived in New York City, an environment wherein people across all communities and cultures lived alongside one another. Compared to the diverse Big Apple, Williams’ move to North Carolina proved to be an entirely different story. In the articles, she explains that she was faced with the dilemma of choosing between her two identities. Because her skin was so dark, society had already categorized Williams as Black, disregarding her Hispanic nationality entirely. She was being viewed superficially, and thus brought about inner turmoil in regards to her identity. However, though Williams’ was suffering, she refused to give in to these harmful assumptions and instead came to accept herself for who she is. I genuinely admire her determination, the fact that she did not change herself to appease the prevailing narrative. As human beings, we have an innate right to stand by our personal identities, we the right to fight against society’s normative stereotypes. This is the powerful message within Alicia Williams’ writing that resonated with me, a member of the POC community.

Identity is an intangible idea encompassing the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks, and/or expressions that make a person or group. Acknowledging one’s identity is inevitably associated with categorizing oneself, for example the use of the phrase ‘I identity with/as…’, and is ultimately seen as a negative or positive depending on said category. Alicia Garza’s piece “The Power of Identity Politics” reflects upon Garza’s personal experiences with psychological identity. Psychological identity, branching off of identity, refers to a person’s self-image, self-esteem, and individuality. Garza speaks about this certain quality of defensiveness that comes from White people when discussing “race issues”, expressing how they fail to see that “naming it somehow perpetuates the dynamic of underrepresentation”. One of the instances that demonstrates this takes place during a conversation that Garza happens to overhear at a bar. A White man and a White woman are discussing an actor when the man specifically mentions that the actor is Egyptian. He then continues to say that it is great that actors, of Egyptian race, are getting more representation. The woman counters this thought and tells the man, “He’s a great actor, which is why he should be in more movies not because he’s a person of color.” I believe that first and foremost, cultural differences and skin tone aside, we all belong to the Human race. We must encourage society to see beyond color because an individual’s race should not determine the impact of their accomplishments. The United States touts itself as a home for all, a country with a global population and diversity like no other. Referring back to the conversation Garza overheard, the man could have ended his admiration without mentioning the actor’s race. I ask, what difference would it make if the actor’s race had not been revealed? Would it lessen his significance within the acting community? What I took from Alicia Williams and Alicia Garza’s readings is that we have the knowledge to better society’s understanding of identity and race. Race can play into one’s identity, but one’s identity is not simply determined by race.

This week, we were assigned a documentary to watch and a reading. Both of which were very interesting to engage with. Paris is Burning, a documentary by Jennie Livingston looks into the lives of New York City drag queens, providing insight into their community and culture through the lens of a documentary. By interacting with each individual, Livingston gains a further understanding of their personal aspirations and of particular events. Livingston is able to grasp an emotional response from her audience by shining a light on the perspectives of New York City drag queens. By including interviews with the members in the documentary, Livingston allows her audience to engage with different viewpoints, to stand in the shoes of those who struggled under oppression. In this personal series of interviews, Livingston inquires about personal values and aspirations. She involves herself in this community and lifestyle so she can keep the relationship between the audience and the person being interviewed neutral and comfortable. In present-day society, cultural assumptions often dictate that sexuality and gender are mutually dependent categories and that one is a factor of the other. Societal norms imply that gender is divided into men and women, and that appropriate sexual behavior is thus determined through innate biology. This idea suggests right and wrong ways of being male and female, and furthermore denotes that interaction between the two results in heterosexual attraction. 

This documentary really made me think about another documentary I have been watching recently called “Major!”. In this documentary, it follows transgender and activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. Major is an African American male who later in her life came out as transgender. Throughout her life, she has faced countless acts of discrimination and abuse. She never had a lot of friends due to the reason that her thoughts are different compared to her peers. She liked things girls tend to like and also found it fun to cross dress. She quickly found out that that was not accepted by society. When should would be home alone, she would dress in her mom’s clothes and walk around the house. She would get a little gutsier each time. The next time she would walk downstairs and walk around the living room for a minute and then run back upstairs. Later on, she would walk to the garage and open the garage door and walk around and run back inside. This was where she found her pleasure and comfort. This all came crashing down, however, when one of their neighbors saw this and reported her actions to her parents. Her parents were obliviously furious. They gave her an ultimatum stating that if she could not become “normal,” she will be sent away from home once she is 18. Sure enough, when she was 18, she was sent away from home. It was, and still is, hard for a transgender person to land a job, therefore, she turned to dodgy professions such as stripper dancing, prostitution, etc. Later on, she was sent to jail because the police caught her in an act of prostitution and she was raped and abused in jail since she had already begun her hormonal gender reassignment treatment and had already developed breasts. Once she was release from prison, she has since dedicated her life to helping people of the trans community obtain a better life and fight for their rights. She has also started to fight to rights of inmates and reformation of of the correctional institutions in the US as she has seen countless acts of abuse and violence that would not fly in society.

This week, we had a collection of articles to read and a YouTube video to watch! Both the articles and the YouTube video were interesting and, like always, I’ve learned so much! All of the assigned readings and the video provided me with, yet another, a unique view and perspective on the topic of “feminism.” In the first article, “ the Feminine Mystique”by author Betty Friedan, Friedman started to look into “the problem that has no name” by researching the lives of white, middle-class women that lives in the suburbs during post World War Two America. Originally, during World War Two, because all men were away fighting the at, there was a major labor shortage. A lot of positions in society opened up and it also needed to be filled. During that time, women stepped up to fill the shoes that were left empty. Up until this point in history, women were expected to be house wives and home makers. They are to rear children, make the house, prepare meals in the kitchen and they were not supposed to leave the house to make money or provide. That was what they referred to as a “perfect” woman. The bread winning task was meant to be given to the father of the family as it is more masculine. However, due to the on going World War Two, women had to become the sole bread winner of the family. Whether it was a factory job, construction, accountant, civil services, and everything in between, women fulfilled these roles and found a plethora of new colors that they quickly added to their life palette. Once the war ended, however, society expected women to return to their homes and resume the “normal” tasks women were supposed to uphold. Friedan writes in the article that women everywhere started to ask themselves, “Is that all?” Is that all women were meant for? A temporary place holder? A permanent house keeper and children raiser? An object that is supposed to server men and their sexual needs? This was ultimately what Betty Friedan described as “The Feminine Mystique.” It was the assumption that women can find happiness and live a fulfilling life from their house work, raising children, and having a sexual life. It was further more assumed that it would be considered “non-feminine” if women desired to work, obtain a degree, or to even have political opinions. Betty Friedman ultimately wanted to prove to everyone that none of this is true and that women everywhere are unsatisfied with their position in society and how they cannot even voice their own opinions or feelings. 

In another reading titled “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm,” by Anne Koedt, it explains to the readers how the vaginal orgasm for women doesn’t not really exist as it is mostly made up and fetishized by men. In fact, most women orgasm through clitoris stimulation as that is where most of a women’s nerves for sexual pleasure is at. It also goes into detail of horrendous practices in the past to keep women in check. For example, in the past, some men would put their wives through surgery to have their clitoris removed, therefore, she would not be inclined to sleep with other men. This would have undoubtedly harmed a women’s sex drive and definitely took a huge chunk out of their womanhood.

All in all, through the articles and the videos that we’re assigned to us this week, I have found them all to be extremely interesting and I have undoubtedly learned a lot. 

This week, we had a collection of extremely dark and heart wrenching videos that dealt with sweatshops, worker’s rights and safety, and a tragedy that occurred in the early 1900’s in New York City’s Greenwich Village and how the same events are still repeating in areas around the world today. 

The first video we watched gave us a very brief, but informative look on the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The event occurred on March 25^th, 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (the modern day Asch Building of Biology Studies at NYU) on Greene Street. Composed of an all women workforce, women of all ages would work 6 days a week with 13 hour shifts everyday, earning roughly $6 every per week (which is roughly $130 with inflation). With an extremely hot working environment and no safety measures in place, the place was bound to have problems. The owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, had the bright idea to set their own business on fire so they could obtain their insurance money.Without any mind of their workers safety, they decided to light the fuse to begin this horrible deed. When the workers first noticed the fire, they calmly proceeded to the exits only to realize that it had been locked by the owners as a way to promote productivity. The workers then proceeded to the fire escape only to find that the fire escape has not been maintained properly and that everything had rusted away. This was when the workers started to panic. Some of worker’s rushed to the elevators, however, it could only fit about 12 people in the elevator. After a few trips, the elevator broke down. With no fire sprinkler system in place, many workers started to suffocate due to the smoke or started to burn. Many started to jump out from the windows so that their parents would be able to have a proper mourning with their body intact. At the end of this event, 78 people were left injured and 146 died. This event is generally coined as the “Deadliest Industrial Accident in the United States.” Because of this incident, we have a lot of our modern day building safety codes such as emergency doors being unlocked at all times, sprinklers in every room, and doors that swing outside, etc. 

We would hope that, by today, we would be over these challenges already. However, sadly, these events are still occurring today. In the second video we watched, it talked about how a clothes factory in Bangledesh had went through the same problem, almost frame by frame. This factory, utilized by retailers such as GAP, Walmart, etc. to produce their goods, also had no safety measures in place. The building did now have any of the safety codes that we have here in the States. Their emergency exits were locked to promote productivity, there was no sprinklers installed in the building, and the fire escape was broken. Many perished in this event. 

These events are also occurring in other industries such as the farming industry in America. American farmers have been subject to low pay, dangerous working environments with harmful pesticides everywhere,  and long hours every week. These situations led Cesar S. Chavez and Dolores Huertas to create the United Farm Workers of America, and worker union for farmers in the US. This organization is still relevant today and is still fighting to end many of the inequalities and dangers farmers in the US have to face everyday. These struggles are still relevant today so we need to do our part in helping out and fighting the good fight. Buy products that support fair trade  and responsible business practices!!