Just like the article ” Why Artistic Activism?” by Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert I believe that Art impacts society much deeper than speeches. When people talk in front of large groups they can just listen but it depends on the person who is delivering that speech and their tone. However this can sometimes be difficult because their is no transcript of speeches when its live talking and will have to wait for pre-recorded videos for transcripts/captions. Live speeches happens once and if recorded will have to wait for it to be uploaded. Art however (depending on which) is always available and can be looked at and even bought. Art can have multiple meaning and mean something different to everyone whereas speeches are seen at face value. However performative art only happens while its live sometimes it is recorded but the times that it isn’t and people are there to experience and intimate and much more impactful.

Someone who I believe has very impactful performative art is Marina Abramovic. All her performance pieces have a very deep meaning but also have multiple because it can be interpreted in different ways. However my one of my favorite performative arts she has done is called Balkan Baroque. In this performance, she sat amidst an enormous pile of bloody cow bones, washing them one by one while singing folk songs from her childhood. For four days she sat in the middle of the pile, scrubbing away at 1,500 fresh beef bones.  Her dress became increasingly stained by blood as she sang and weeped.This art is suppose to represent that when times of war you can always wash away the blood but never the shame that comes along with it. Marina Abramovic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was violently disintegrated by brutal wars. The title of this piece serves as a response to the war ravaged country.

What surprised me about the video Period. End of Sentence. was how taboo periods are for India. They laugh or giggle when speaking about their menstruation. I also find it shocking what women have to use for replacement of a pad which is just sad and honestly something no women should experience. Every women should have access to sanitary feminine products. I also found it shocking the rules that men/elderly places on periods and the lack of privacy they have when changing or talking about this topic. The fact women aren’t allowed in the temples because being on their period means they are dirty angers me because periods should not be seen as something dirty or taboo but should be seen as something beautiful because of its role in our beautiful bodies. Also , just the fact they didn’t know to use a pad actually shocked me. For the next readings ” A Birth Story ” & ” 12 Reasons It Should Be Illegal for Doctors Not to Treat Trans People ” , I wasn’t really shocked because medical malpractice and medical discrimination happens so often that its just sad that the government and news don’t talk about it enough. It’s depressing that it kind of just became something you get used too.

The similarities I found in the film and the texts were how Women are conditioned to try to be okay with things that are messed up in the system. In the film it is how women should be okay with not having sanitary pads available to them. How they should be ok with men not giving them privacy or be ok with getting rules placed on them. In the texts it feels like you’re kind of just forced to be ok with things. ” A Birth Story ” the doctors and nurses ignored her many times making her feel dismissed and disrespected. While in the other text , yeah you can send these letters but theirs still a chance of “what if they don’t listen?”. So it just feels like you’re hopeless.

The provided texts and films of this week provided me a deeper understanding of how medical oppression can affect everyone. You can be in the face of death but some people will think you’re exaggerating or because you are a specific skin color you can handle more pain. I feel like medical oppression can also go beyond gender and colors but even just things like weight. I had mentioned a few weeks back about how I face medical oppression all the time because of my weight. I am a plus size woman. Many times i’ve needed to get lab done , many nurses find my veins very quickly but other nurses have blamed me for them hurting my veins when doing lab ; all nurses telling me how “lose weight and no one would have to hurt you”. Even having doctors that ask for labs to be ran on me THREE times “just to make sure” when they get the results and see i’m perfectly healthy.

Before reading these two texts I didn’t know what identity politics was in all honesty. I knew people identified with different things and there was communities and safe places for their identity. However I didn’t know the term was ‘politics’. In the text “The Power of Identity Politics” written by Garza she explains how identity and power goes hand in hand. Power affects identity and vice versa. Identity affects our everyday life whether we notice it or not because it goes hand in hand with power. In the text she stated how all experiences in the United States are shaped with the identity of whiteness. This affects every other identity in the United States because then everyone else is seemed as the non norm. “For people who are not white, this can be incredibly alienating_never seeing people who look like you in fashion magazines, not being able to get makeup that matches your skin tone.” (Garza 187) When the written explains the difference between being empowered and power it reminded me a lot of how predominately BIPOC environments/neighborhoods may not be cared for much as a white area. This can include types of foods available , health facilities or even protection from the police. The second text “Too Latina To Be Black , Too Black To Be Latina” Written by Williams explain the identity crisis she had and still continues to face growing up. This text really reminded me of how we discriminate even in our own community. This text proved to me that some people expect you to fit the stereotypes of the community you identity with like many people believed that since she speaks Spanish she must be Mexican or she must eat tacos. I topic I would like to explore is Feminism in Islamic countries. We know how feminism is perceived in the United States but I would find it interesting how other countries deal with feminism.

From my own personal understanding I believe that a liberated women is someone who does not only push for equality and to break social norms but as well as in their own personal life break traditional norms. Liberated women would mean not conforming to written and ‘unwritten’ norms in their own personal life for example being in a marriage where all the responsibilities are weighed heavier on your shoulders rather than the man.A liberated women is important for women’s liberation because the entirety of women’s liberation is a movement to combat sexual discrimination. Also to gain full legal, economic, vocational, educational, and social rights and opportunities for women that are on equal levels with those of a man. A liberated women is one who would do what she deems fit for herself regardless of what others might think because it is what she wants. She does acts, think , and speaks in ways that go against the restrictions society has placed on her.This goes hand in hand and are important for each other because the entire movement of fighting for equal rights and go against discrimination also means empowering and respecting those women who don’t want to follow those norms. What’s the point of fighting for liberation if in your own home you’re still treated as less than a man because of different perspectives?

Both pieces show a political side and how the personal can be political by giving multiple examples that we can all relate to. Society programs men through different media forms and personal (home) forms to think they are greater than women. I agree with the perspective that Pat Mainardi gives in ” The Politics of Housework “. Men are often programed like I said before to believe that certain things are meant for only women to do and this programming can happen from a very young age in their very own home. Mothers are often seen as the only one who takes care of the household responsibilities and meals after coming back from work while the father just plops on the couch. This feeds into the idea of how women are in a way forced to shape and care for men like children. This idea can go hand in hand of how house responsibilities are deemed as not important so the wife should do it while I just only have to work and thats it.

I also found the reading “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” by Anne Koedt political too because of the notion that many men till this day believe ‘that the vagina was made to only please men’. I believe this ties into being a liberated women because many spaces specifically for women and sex are being opened up. Sex in general is not taught correctly to anyone so can be easily influenced by different perspectives and molded. Men are in a way taught that their end goal is just to reach their climax and that’s it without really caring about their partner. Women are never taught how they should feel good during the time but instead how to make THEIR partner feel good. Back then it was very taboo for women to speak about their sexual experiences and if they did were deemed ‘needs psychiatric assistance’. So it makes me very proud for women taking their pleasure into their own hands and making a space and talking about it.

The women’s suffrage, labour rights, and the equal rights amendment are all equal because they all include giving equality to women in some way shape or form. The women’s suffrage was to give women the right to vote in any election whether it be local or national. Women found it unfair that they had no say in elections happening in the country they live in. They fought to have representation and a voice. Labour rights for women meant giving women equal pay for equal work. This meant that they wanted to be paid fairly for the work they produced because many of them was getting severely underpaid for the gruesome hours they worked. Labour rights also meant giving them regular working hours as well as providing them safe working environments. Lastly it also meant giving women equal rights to jobs that men also worked. Equal rights amendment (era) is a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This would invalidate many state and federal laws that discriminate against women. It would help eliminate the factor of sex when determining legal rights of women or men. All these relate because they deny someone , mainly women , from a right. It is crazy to think how not so long ago women have been given rights however some states still discriminate against women. Labour rights are also an issue of gender because a lot of women were being told to work eleven to twelve hours a day and got severely underpaid. This became a gender issue because a lot of women were denied similar jobs like men. In some places around the world it is more common to put women in sweatshops. These issues can be seen in todays society by big corporations. A lot of todays corporations decide to do their labour work out of the united states and in different countries to avoid regulations and well as be able to pay less. A lot of these countries that they are demanding work from don’t give their workers the same rights in a workplace that America does. Also in some of these countries they shove women in these sweatshops to mass produce for penny pay. However a lot of these places just have problems with rights as a whole. They abuse child labour and abuse workers in general because a lot of these work places are hazardous. Places like this can just continue repeating history with continuous incidents that can end up taking the workers lives.

I would think that this discussion board would be easier to write but honestly found myself having a difficult time deciding on what to write. I always wanted to study social sciences and even plan on becoming a forensic psychologist so when I saw this class I was so eager to take it because I am a feminist. This class has taught me a lot and shifted my perspective. Every reading that we have done so far in this class have been very interesting and informative and have even recommended them to friends of mine that have similar interests like me. However my favorite weeks are when we have to watch something. For example my favorite was last week when we were given different documentaries and had to choose between which we would want to watch and explain what it was about. Ive found multiple of the readings interesting because it has opened my eye to a lot of different perspectives. Even though I am a woman I do not experience the same hardships from a black woman. I find it interesting to read writing that explain from different perspectives because I can learn about a different woman’s life. This made me realize I have way more privilege than I think I do. Even though women have come so far we still are suffering from set backs that our governments do to us.