These two readings has really cleared up my understanding of identity politics. In the reading “Too Latina to be black, Too black to be Latina”, I realized that Afro-latinos have always had it hard. Alechia Williams talks about her experience about being afro-latina. Willams talks about how difficult it was for her during school. For her, the people at school will always stereotyping her. In today’s society, Afro-latina are always told that they are either too black or too Hispanic. Society tries to make Afro-latinos chose one of the other. In “The Power of Identity politics” is talks about how identity politics was created and how it is still in today’s society. In the reading, the blonde girl is talking about a movie that has an Egyptian man and how he is her favorite, then proceed to be against what the guy said about more diversity. She goes on to say that it’s not being black or white cause they are all the same. These reading shows me that how people try to downplay different experiences that people of color have faced.

This week’s reading and videos has made me very angry and sad as well. It has made me very upset reading and watching these videos because MEN are making decision on what a women should do with THEIR own body. The government’s decision to ban abortion and overturning of Roe v. Wade is making us move backward instead of forward. This whole week has been really scary to think about because of the fear of having other people making decision about my body and my rights as a woman. I am very much pro-life and I believe that abortions are need. There are many reasons why women are in need of an abortions. There are women that have been raped and are pregnant with their molester’s offspring. And if they were force to keep the baby, it could cause the mother to become mentally unstable. The whole pregnancy and the birth of the baby could cause the mother to relive her traumatic past. Another reason for abortions, if woman gets pregnant and she was a informed that if she decides to continues with the pregnancy, she will not survive after the birth process. My mother had to experience this because after my birth, she got pregnant a month later. She had to unfortunately terminate the pregnancy because her body was strong enough to go through that hard labor again. And if she was going to keep the baby, she might not be here today. Some women aren’t mentally stable or financially stable enough to have a baby. I think it would be selfish to try and bring a child into this world, when you don’t have the ability to provide for that child. This week’s reading and video is a very heavy subject but it needs to be talked about that government shouldn’t have the ability to ban a woman’s right to abortion.

I would like to share photos of a performance “Ablutions” (1972) by Judy Chicago, Suzanne Lacy, Sandra Orgel and Aviva Rahmani. The project concerned rape and was based on the audio recordings of experiences of women who had been raped. Here is the description of the performance that I took from Lacy’s website:

Three body-sized galvanized metal tubs on the concrete floor were each filled with a different substance—eggs, blood, and clay. Around the tubs broken eggshells, piles of rope and chain, and animal kidneys were strewn. The soundtrack played continuously, one woman after the other telling the intimate and explicit details of their rapes—information not part of public culture at that time. A nude woman was slowly bound from feet to scalp with gauze bandages while two others bathed in the tubs, first eggs, then blood, then clay. As each one emerged from the final tub, caked with clay cracked to reveal rivulets of blood, and was wrapped like a corpse in a sheet. Throughout the performance, Lacy nailed 50 beef kidneys to the wall, encasing the room like a spinal column sur- rounded by its organs. The performance ended with two women—Lacy and Jan Lester, the bandager—stringing light rope over the set, until the performance stage was a spider web of entrapment. The voices on the tape droned on as if there was no escape from the brutalization, ending with the audio tape stuck on a chilling note, repeating like a broken record: “I felt so helpless, all I could do was just lie there.” 

I chose it after seeing one of Judy Chicago’s paintings in an art museum and looking up her other works. The amount of work behind this performance and how “graphic” it is drew my attention. I view it as activism because it drew attention to a really big problem, considering the fact that marital rape was not criminalized in all states until the 90s. This performance could also inspire other women to speak up, following the example of the performers and recorded women.

I was not really surprised about the “Birth story” or “12 reasons” because I have heard about this type of discrimination on social media platforms. I am surprised that some doctors are still working after discriminating against people with different races and gender. The films kinda surprised because of the way they treat women when they were on their period. I also surprised of how some people didn’t know what a period was or something refer to a period as a illness. What’s also shocking is how even Indian women talk about a period. And also that they aren’t very educated in the topic. Although I have not experienced medical oppression , I did have some friends that have unfortunately experienced it. After reading the “Birth Story”, I was truly disgusted with the behavior of the nurse and I felt sad for the experience that Leconte had to experience at such a vulnerable time.

After reading “12 reasons it should be illegal for doctors not to treat a trans person” and “A Birth Story” , I realized that the topic of medical oppression isn’t really talked about in today’s society as much as it should be. My opinion on medical oppression or discrimination is that it should illegal and the doctors should have some consequence if they participate in the act of medical oppression. After watching “Period. End of sentence”, I have realized that periods are still “taboo” in today’s society. Society has taught women to avoid talking about period near men. For example, when talking to a friend of mine about my period and they are men present, I tend to either whisper or mouth the word “period”. Also women tend to feel embarrassed when they have to go to the restroom to change , and they feel the need to hid the pad or tampon in a sleeve of a sweater or between their waistband of their pants. After reading the articles and watching the film, the connection I made of both of them is how some people don’t have the access or denied the access to basic human needs.

When I started reading “The Power of Identity Politics,” I learned a lot more about identity politics. I learned that it was politics based on experiences and liberation for yourself. I think that’s important because a lot of movements aren’t too focused on helping certain people, and it makes them feel excluded. This can be said for BLM. This movement doesn’t apply to black women, black queers, or black trans people. We don’t get a lot of media coverage when something happens to us, and we don’t get nearly as many protestors when it comes to fighting for our lives. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true.

In “Too Latina to be Black, Too Black to be Latina,” I thought how scary it must have felt for the author to be caught in the middle of a race crisis. The fact that she felt like she needed to pick one I think this touches on another topic that isn’t talked about a lot. This is a reality for a lot of mixed-race children. I also thought about how diverse New York is. The author described it as a melting pot, and that is how New York really is. You see, people from all different backgrounds, races, and ethnicities come together. Not to say that we don’t have moments like that in New York, but it’s less prevalent. A topic I’d love for us to explore is women’s safety, especially on public transportation or while traveling. Amidst what’s been happening in New York, I think safety is really important to discuss.

For this weeks discussion, I wanted to discuss a little bit about the article “It’s Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women” by Tina Vasquez. I feel that many people truly don’t know or understand the negative behavior that is brought toward Transgender individuals. Based on the article, 46% of trans gender people feel uncomfortable seeking help from the police, 41% have attempted suicide, and 90% have experienced discrimination at work. It is truly sad how not only transgender, but also other members of the LGBTQ community are treated in our society. I wish for every transgender who faces any type of discrimination or any form of harassment to know that they can be who they want to be and at the end of the day, they are still human.

Hello everyone, my name is Jocelyn Alonzo. I am 18 years old. My ethnicity is Ecuadorian. My pronouns are she/her. I’m from The Bronx, I have lived in New York my whole life. This is my second semester at BMCC. I am majoring in liberal arts. I really value my relationships with my family and friends. I disliked when people feel the need to bring down people just to feel better about them. I like listening to music because its kinda an escape from reality and it makes me feel relaxed and at peace. I like to make people laugh because I feel like we should always try to bring the positivity in life. I like the idea of traveling around the world. I hope that some day I would be able to travel around the world and see how beautiful different cultures and country are. I love taking pictures of the sunsets and how the beautiful colors bounce of the tall builds in New York. I am excited to have deep conversation in this class and see how I could incorporate some topics into my life in the future .