The topic of abortion has always been an intense topic with many opinions. The fact is that there were no laws in place to practice abortion until the 1860s, conveniently enough so that enslavers could increase their slave ownership. During this time, oppressors would create laws that favored them only. Enslaved women had no choice but to give birth to these children that would grow into slavery which in the present time I can compare with children born to unfit parents and ultimately led to being taken by the system—being the example of adoptive parents and foster parents that only want to take on the responsibility of housing these children to mistreat them and treat them like modern-day slaves. I want to mention Devonte Hart and his brothers and sisters were murdered by their adoptive lesbian parents, Jennifer and Sara hart. The point I’m trying to bring across is that it goes hand in hand with the option of abortion. If a woman gets a funded choice, keeping or terminating her pregnancy is ultimately her choice. When I was listening to the 13-minute documentary ” Abortion helpline,” the underfunding of women who needed help to terminate their pregnancy because they already had so much on their plate was heartbreaking. Here, the real question is men’s ownership because it takes two people to complete the deed. There should be more education and movements for men to get a vasectomy. A vasectomy is reversible, and when a man is emotionally and financially capable of having a child, they can decide to get their partner pregnant. What is currently happening now is they want to overturn the rule of pro-choice and allow women to result into going to unsafe locations and unlicensed doctors to perform their abortions. Instead of progressing were are going back in time.
We have women like Rebecca in Telemedicine. Abortion providers pride themselves on distributing abortion pills to those with higher needs and individuals that don’t have any means of access to obtain them. She wants more doctors to join in the help that others need. As bell hooks stated in “Feminist Politics: Where We Stand,” feminism is for everybody; she says you can’t be a feminist and anti-choice. You have to support the entire meaning of being a feminist. Taking a stand like a feminist will lead to many challenges because male figures will always try to overthrow any reasoning that a woman tries to input. Women continue to be belittled and being taken advantage of, which shouldn’t continue to happen because we are an individual that goes through a fundamental physical and mental change when bearing a child. A lot is being sacrificed when pregnant. The least the country can do is fund women that are not ready or for other reasons. No male figure should ever have that choice.

I picked Isabel Cabanilla’s de la Torre mural because she represents the movement of women wanting change in Mexico. Isabel was a Mexican artist and activist. She was assassinated in the border city of Juarez. She was an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and a member of the feminist collective Daughter of Maquila, in other words, daughters of factory workers. She stood up for all factory women going missing in Juarez on their way to work at a factory plant, never being seen again. There is little to no coverage of the missing women. Isabel spoke up, which ultimately led to her death. When it comes to countries ruled by leaders who don’t give a damn about women, it is ten times more dangerous for any activist group to stand up for what they believe is right.

This week’s reading touches base on identity politics and the race crisis. Identity politics continues to be complex. There is an issue with the power we hold and society’s power over you. In the chapter of Garza’s book “The Power of Identity Politics,” Garza expresses the “black feminist attempting to locate themselves in social movements that purported to fight for their freedom but were constrained by their replication of the very dynamics they sought to destroy.” The movement fought interlocking oppression because they were anti-racist, unlike their white counter partner, and anti-sexist, unlike their white and black counterparts. They wanted to fit in where there were just looked at as human beings. Their white counter partners looked out for themselves only. The thought was all women were fighting for all women’s rights, but that isn’t true. We see it time and time again.
In the reading ” Too Latina To Be Black, Too Black To Be Latina,” Aliechia Williams speaks to us about her times growing up in New York City. The diversity in the city allowed Aliechia to be accepted as a Latina but not identified as a black woman. When she moved to North Carolina, that wasn’t the case. Her peers identified her as a black woman that could not possibly speak Spanish. She wasn’t welcomed to a table that she thought would make her comfortable, but that wasn’t the outcome. They judged her by her skin color and not by who she was. There are moments when instead of getting to know you by sparking up a conversation that will lead to who you are, certain people want to choose who you are without allowing you to speak up. The assumption that you must be Mexican if you speak Spanish upset me because there is Central American and South America that also speak Spanish. I want to throw into the discussion that Spaniards look down on Mexican people because they supposedly don’t speak the Spanish language appropriately. First of all, we had our native language, which was Nahuatl. It was a language introduced by the Aztecs. The Spanish conquered Mexican and introduced the Spanish language.
I believe if we weren’t conquered, we would speak our native language. There is an intersection that happens in Mexico too. If you are too brown, you come from the ranch or farmlands and are considered poor. If you’re light-skinned or white, you are more nuanced and are most like middle class or wealthy. You are looked at because of your skin color, most likely anywhere. If you live in the state and go back to Mexico to visit, most people in Mexico expect you to be light. If not, it’s questionable. We should all be more focused on that we are all just human beings.

This week’s reading, ” The Combahee river collective statement,” is about an organization that includes black feminist lesbians. The intersectionality happened because the feminist movement and the civil rights movement didn’t address the concerns of these black feminist lesbians. The quote “We might use our positions at the bottom to make a clear leap into revolutionary. If black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.” This quote means to me that to get rid of oppression, we have to hit it at all angles. If black women are not free, then none of us are free. Time and time again, we see the injustice to black women. There is much work to be done, but if it is, then it can cause a chain reaction to ultimately being liberated by the oppressors.
Identity politics is a movement that helps address race and social background to allies to make an effort to change things around them. In the film “Paris is burning,” we see identity politics play a role in their golden age. Around the gold age, we can see drag queens; gays created a place for them to live out the life that they wished they had. They made a ball that allows them to express themselves as they want to bring out joy and happiness to them. They can be as creative as they want without being judged by people that don’t understand.
What do race and gender have to do with capitalism? Well, gender and race have been used to ultimately profit by exploiting a particular race or gender. It is more accessible to underpay a person from a different race because they are more vulnerable to the white man. The form of oppression because they aren’t white and the white man means power. In terms of gender, today, women are trying to find equality. The equality to get paid is the same as if a man were to do the job. This is oppression because the higher class still oppresses you, usually referred to as the white man. The film Paris is burning is a perfect example of exploitation. You have Jeannie Livingston, a white woman taking the life of these incredible ballroom dancers and documenting them to gain attention, leading to profit in the end. None of the people she recorded was happy about how things turned out, and of course, she did nothing about it. She continues to profit from these people’s lives.

Women’s liberation means a movement that counterattacks sexual discrimination and obtains all rights in education, vocation, and social rights equal to men’s. Women continue the fight to be able to recognize to be capable and qualified without hesitation. The simple thought behind the reluctance of capability is the emotional factor that women supposedly have that doesn’t allow them to think logically but emotionally.
In the reading “The Feminine Mystic” by Betty Friedan, Betty talks about the women post World War 2. At this time, their true dream was to be perfect wives and mothers. What fulfilled these women was through housework, marriage, and child-rearing alone. It was assumed that women didn’t care for high education or work. They allowed men to take on the more critical decisions. Also, when the census came around in the occupation slot, they would write proudly “housewife,” which is revolting because I cannot imagine myself being at home taking care of all the household chores and raising children being the perfect wife. Betty speaks about the problem that has no name, “This is all?” the realization that there has to be more than just being a housewife. Realizing there was more was a turning point in feminism. Channeling your feminism helps you prevail from the thought that you have a stopping point. You can express yourself one way by your wife or mother’s duties. Women are still represented as secondary that men don’t acknowledge or give respect to women. There is still a lot of work to be done in this aspect. I face moments when my voice isn’t heard, even if I scream it out in my work setting. My boss doesn’t make it easier either because she sees more potential in male employees than women. Her thought behind her hiring process is that I stated at the beginning of my writing: women are more emotional, and she doesn’t want to deal with the presumable drama.

The similarity between “The Feminine Mystic” and “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” is that both readings address male dominance. There is so much that can be said when we speak up. Settling with what is given to us is losing the gift of going beyond what you thought was enough. Women’s liberation is essential so they can see themselves differently. Witnessing women in social-economic roles or even political is a significant statement because this gives young girls or women, in general, to be seen as more than just house wife that can bear children. Transforming mainstream society can help the change.