The problem that has no name”. The matter that is still keeping women in the dark and having to be treated like second options. The issue that is having a lot of females questioning their worth and thinking to themselves, “is this all I amount to”. The Feminine Mystique is a reading which explores the lives of countless females after the world war. Women were expected to be the “typical American housewife”, they were expected to take pride in not “existing”. For years, it was a duty of the women, to be a good wife and a mother to her kids. To cook, clean, do the laundry and never indulge herself in higher education. Politics, employment etc. were of the responsibilities of men. What is the problem? The vague barrier that captured women from interceding those undefined urges to be something more than just a “housewife’. For generations mothers, grandmothers, aunties have had to painfully give up dreams, hopes and aspirations. For over a decade, if a woman was to have a dream, it was to keep her husband happy so he does not leave her (how is keeping someone else happy your dream or duty), to have kids and let them be well fed. “Experts told them how to catch a man and keep him,  how to breastfeed children and handle their toilet training, how to cope with sibling rivalry and adolescent rebellion; how to buy a dishwasher, bake bread, cook gourmet snails, and build a swimming pool with their own hands; how to dress, look, and act more feminine and make marriage more exciting;  how to keep their husbands from dying young and their sons from growing into delinquents”. Who are these experts? How are they so sure that this what a woman should do? And most importantly, are the women happy or content doing these activities? Society has induced the thoughts into us those men have always and should always have the upper hand in major discussion circulating us, and even the ones that directly affects our lives. According to the reading, long ago women used to envy men and tried to be like them, instead of trying to find destiny in their “femineity” and having glory in that. Women have fought for equal rights and now that liberation is almost here, there seems to be another barrier. Facing prejudice and discrimination in the workplace, school and so on. The issues relating to the feminine mystique is far from over, but there is hope.

 I learnt in my middle school days, there were parts of the world where an activity called, “Female Genital Mutilation” was practiced. It was a kind of norm during those to cut the clitoris of an adolescent who had hit puberty. This was a very important practice which took place to prevent the females from having sexual desires, and furtherly driving them to have sexual intercourse before marriage. Thus, the main purpose of the practice during those times was to both prevent teenage pregnancy and premarital intercourse. Of course it was not mandated, however mothers and heads of families forced their female daughters into doing this mostly to prevent shame befalling their families.

Watching this documentary shows how inhumane the real world can be. For years and decades, Transgenders have been mocked and judged unfairly. Their sexuality degraded, displayed, and wounded. The media played and continues to play a major role in the disrespecting of trans people. There has been a continuation of over-simplified and distorted image of trans people, which continues to harm them in every way possible. In the film, “disclosure”, we can see how hurt these trans people are, to have their sexuality insulted and not been able to do much about it. It is truly annoyingly fascinating the numerous movies produced that all give of the same story and view of trans people. In these Hollywood movies showcased in the documentary, trans people are angry, psychotic, and impatient. Its either that or they turn out to be murderers who always end up dying, they are portrayed to have psychological issues. They hire real transgenders and have them play roles sex workers who end up dying. Talking of sex working, many trans people in the real world (according to the documentary) must result to that kind of work, because no one wants to hire them. And one way or the other they must fend for themselves. Transgenders are also people with dignity and emotions, and rather than treating them like comics, they would like to be celebrated. They want to be seen and appreciated, validated just it is done for the men in society. Why can’t it be so? In the film, we notice that once a transgender was discovered by a partner, friend, neighbor, or any person who is close to them, they have a very disturbing reaction to the trans. They would vomit, take a shower, in a way cleansing themselves of being in any kind of association with them. They then go out of their way to further humiliate them. You would see in a movie that, “Oh! They are finally having a good presentation of trans people”, then the next scene comes, and you see that it is the same pattern. The comics, discrimination, vomiting, humiliation, you would think it would get better in the 21^st century, but no. With regards to all the false representation of trans people in the documentary, and how they are shown to be “aggressive”, research shows that about eighty percent of the US population are in no close relation to a transgender. Christine Jorgensen was globally famous successful transwoman; she was not the first, but she was very well known. On uncountable occasions, different trans people have been interviewed, and during those sessions have been undoubtedly disrespected with the very unnecessary and rude questions like, “where did you hide your penis, how do you have sex, how is the surgery and so many others”. They are basically getting harassed on television. They go to the streets and the treatments are way worse and more brutal. Many trans people get beaten up for no good reason, they are stripped naked, some even get killed. 

There is a whole lot of controversy when it comes to matters relating to abortion. In past decades, there were views and perceptions as to whether it is right for women to have abortions. We face those same issues in today’s world. Some oppose to the idea or concept and others support it. Life changing decisions are really hard to make, nobody ever wants to have an abortion. I strongly believe that there is no person who purposely gets pregnant and then decides to go into the clinic to have an abortion for fun. There are times when people say things like, “when you are unwilling to get pregnant, then do not have unprotected sex”. We sometimes forget that some people have protected sex and get pregnant regardless. Some women may have unprotected sex because, they are either on birth control or have tracked their menstrual cycle dates and thought it was safe to have unprotected sex. I know for a fact that most people want to have children when they are physically and mentally.

There are several reasons why women may choose to terminate their pregnancies, that includes pregnancy from being sexually assaulted. One may feel the need to keep it, another may not. Many who go through such experiences develop trauma and/ or a disheartening connection to a said situation. Having the baby probably could become a daily reminder of the memory the mother is trying to forgo and thus would be terrible for her mental health. Another reason as to why a woman would decide to have an abortion is stability, financially and responsibility wise. This is one of the most common reasons as to why women decide to let their babies go. It can be incredibly frustrating to cater for oneself when struggling financially, needless to say when a baby is on the way. Babies require a lot of attention and money, as a result, some decide to go through with the termination because they feel they are not quite responsible or matured enough to take care of the baby. Talking of finance, in the video, we see that a lady who already has six kids was in to get an abortion. She talked about how it was not easy for her and could not afford to include another one. Some women abort their babies due to health-related reasons, there may be risky complications with giving birth, and they might even loose their lives if they follow through with their pregnancy. Others do it due to the plans they intend to follow (family planning, career paths and so on), the reasons are just uncountable.

It is often asked that, “Are there no other options?” Let it be known that the directors at the abortion clinic do not just go through with the processes when clients walk through their doors. They explain to them the other choices they have, like giving their kids up for adoption, making them aware of the risks involved and making sure that it is truly what the women want. Giving one’s child for adoption is another thing, it might be hard to do after carrying the baby in your womb for nine months or more. Or may be after going through with it, you are not entirely sure of how your kid would be treated.

Do you have an identity? Or are you just human? Identity politics is a very complex circumstance, there is no specific definition to it, there are just situations that builds up on its understanding. How is politics related to an individual’s identity, in relation to his/ her gender, race, sex etc. A person who is within the classification of what is known to be society’s norm would have no idea whatsoever how it feels to live outside of it. What it is to be black and/ or a person of color, a woman, a member of the LGBTQ community and so on. Like the blonde lady at the bar who got enraged about the fact that her colleague stated that more “diverse group” should be in movies, or specifically she did not like that “the very good actor” was represented as a person of color, instead of just being a “human”. She is (in my words) claiming that classifying the Egyptian actor, is only deepening the division that exist between groups in the society. This blonde bar lady, whether intentionally or unintentionally is denying the fact that it is in fact the system that is led by mostly white people in power that causes the division between groups of people. There are countless people like this blonde lady (that Garza unconsciously listened to her conversation) that fail to recognize that all groups would never be the same, as long as there are issues of racism, oppression, and homophobia. In as much reality that, we live in a society where certain actions and laws benefits some and leaves others hanging, protects some and directly or indirectly puts the rest in danger. The author, Garza Alicia coincides the identity politics to power, and explains that we do have the “power” to make certain decisions, however larger forces create those options from which we decide or choose from.

The issue with being “too black to be Latina” and vice versa has similarities with making assumptions or even saying that a person cannot be mixed, or an Asian cannot be black, an Arab cannot be Christian, or a Muslim cannot be black. I feel like the disrespect against people like this has become so common, people do not even hide their ignorance and shame anymore. Ina away or another, these people are always expected to deny a part of their identity and fully embrace the other. They have the right to claim both sides and most importantly be proud of it. It can sometimes be confusing, however. For instance, in the article, the author stated during an altercation between black people and Hispanics. She was very perplexed as to which group to side on. At times, people give backhanded complements in some situations, like “You’re the most Mexican black girl I’ve ever met”. Are people supposed to be pleased for receiving such reversed complements disguised as complements. I posted a YouTube video to my snapshot, where a black girl was sharing her experience of when she tells people she is Hispanic. In a popular Tv show, “Love and Hip- Hop Miami”, you would see that the celebrity Amara goes through very similar events.

The “Paris is Burning” documentary was very interesting to watch, especially the scenes with the dancing. The balls, which were formal events to showcase costumes, the applause and having to be the center of attention all seem to be very pleasing. As I was watching this film, I was reminded of the show “Pose”. The only difference is that the show has more dram. I would say that, if not exaggerating is the exact reenactment of this documentary/ film. We see that the balls that are organized for these Drag queens creates a kind of new world for them. Underaged kids (minors), some abandoned, some that had left home found solace and joy in participating in the events. It is their world, and at that place they can portray whatever they want and in anyway as pleased and will not get judged or discriminated. As some say, the ball occasions are like their “Oscar” or “Grammy”. They are praised while on the stage and that makes them feel very good and highly about themselves. “Balls are like fantasies of being superstars”. Some of the members of the LGBTQ (people who are then termed as executives in this film) have created this world, where people can be whatever they wish to be. Unlike the real world, where drag queens may be labeled as not being mentally stable.   

The ball, during the past centuries used to focus on very specific themes, but as time went on. The themes were made more diverse to increase the involvement and number of participants. As the movie proceeds, we come to realize that a lot of the people indulging in the ball events are either very young or started when they were barely teenagers. These kids, even at tender ages are aware of the kind of life they would face against society for being who they want to be. Those that decide to leave their homes or get abandoned get lucky enough to betaken in by owners of houses who had also once encountered similar situations. There are several houses, named after people or persons who had first acquired it. The balls are not just for showing off outfits, it is also a competition, a fierce one. An individual termed it as “World War 3”. This should give us an idea of how intense the balls are. Winners get prizes, could be a trophy or money. When it comes to competition, the executives always change the theme for the competition, it could be modeling, reading (throwing fun shades) or even voguing (a way of combining dancing and posing). Aside from having exhilarating joy from being in the spotlight, these drag queens have their own hustle, a job on which they depend help them support themselves. The Drag queens live their fantasies on stage at the balls, nonetheless those are dreams they wish to acquire in the real world. Thus, to get Famous, to be wealthy, to live freely and happily. It is such a shame one of the Drag queens who dreamed of having a family got killed. She was strangled and left under a bed in a hotel in New York City.