Thursday, March 18, 2010
Women Hating Pests, Men Hating Women.
Even though women being afraid of pests is considered more than pathetic, men do profit off our fear. There are many benefits for men when women are afraid, not least in the joy of them being able to call us pathetic, but also in them becoming heroes: the ones who rescue us from the mice. Because of this heroism women are forced to beg for these services and be ever so thankful when serviced. It is clearly shameful, stressful, and exhausting enough for women to be afraid of things smaller than them, but then to have to plead for help too is quite depressing. And if that wasn't bad enough, men draw inspiration for their insults off of your distressed state ("stop being a girl"), and therefore the likelihood of it ever being taken seriously is slim.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Facilitators of White Nuclear Families.
It seems that women's progress is marked as white mothers being able to leave their homes and pursue their ambitions.
Walking around New York City you see an overwhelming amount of women of color tending to white children and babies. As much as there is white women tending to more privileged white women's kids, there is the racist assumption that women of color are breeders and mothers. There is a meta-narrative that women of color are genetically predisposed to do this. When you see a white woman with a child of color you don't think she is employed to look after the child, you think she has philanthropically adopted it.
Historically African American women slaves were constantly geared to "breed" more slaves and simultaneously to tend to the slave master's children. There was high value placed on African American women's reproductivity, not because anyone cared about African American women but because it enabled white ambitions.
However a woman of color having "too many" kids is a common racist topic of conversation. Recently I was looking through the sex work section of the Village Voice and came across a job advertisement which was looking for Latina women escorts. In the advertisement it clearly stated that it did not want Latina women with lots of kids, it did not want that "type" of Latina woman because this has the potential to affect white men's profits.
Regardless of whether being stereotyped for having kids or not having kids is better or worse, the point stands that being of color is intrinsically tied to being to a mother, whilst white women do not have to be mothers anymore.
There is something unsaid, but completely readable when it comes to a woman of color mothering white kids: these kids are more important than these women's dreams and goals. It reads: "I'm hiring you so my kids will be better than you". Women of color's brilliance is sacrificied in the preservation of white kids and their white privilege.
My Grandma has mothered white kids for many years. There is not much of a reward. She is still doing it and she is almost 80 years old. She has spent her life having to have her own kids, mothering those kids, then being hired to mother white kids, being hated by her own kids because she ran away from her abusive husband, and facilitating the growth of white privileged kids.
The work that women of color do to facilitate white nuclear families is never given any credit, rather it is just expected: they were made to do this. The dreams and ambitions of women of color are rendered obsolete in respect of the growth of new white people.
Walking around New York City you see an overwhelming amount of women of color tending to white children and babies. As much as there is white women tending to more privileged white women's kids, there is the racist assumption that women of color are breeders and mothers. There is a meta-narrative that women of color are genetically predisposed to do this. When you see a white woman with a child of color you don't think she is employed to look after the child, you think she has philanthropically adopted it.
Historically African American women slaves were constantly geared to "breed" more slaves and simultaneously to tend to the slave master's children. There was high value placed on African American women's reproductivity, not because anyone cared about African American women but because it enabled white ambitions.
However a woman of color having "too many" kids is a common racist topic of conversation. Recently I was looking through the sex work section of the Village Voice and came across a job advertisement which was looking for Latina women escorts. In the advertisement it clearly stated that it did not want Latina women with lots of kids, it did not want that "type" of Latina woman because this has the potential to affect white men's profits.
Regardless of whether being stereotyped for having kids or not having kids is better or worse, the point stands that being of color is intrinsically tied to being to a mother, whilst white women do not have to be mothers anymore.
There is something unsaid, but completely readable when it comes to a woman of color mothering white kids: these kids are more important than these women's dreams and goals. It reads: "I'm hiring you so my kids will be better than you". Women of color's brilliance is sacrificied in the preservation of white kids and their white privilege.
My Grandma has mothered white kids for many years. There is not much of a reward. She is still doing it and she is almost 80 years old. She has spent her life having to have her own kids, mothering those kids, then being hired to mother white kids, being hated by her own kids because she ran away from her abusive husband, and facilitating the growth of white privileged kids.
The work that women of color do to facilitate white nuclear families is never given any credit, rather it is just expected: they were made to do this. The dreams and ambitions of women of color are rendered obsolete in respect of the growth of new white people.
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