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Hard Time for the Humanities
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a degree in humanities doesn’t guarantee you a job right after college. In this economy even those who major in science and math related fields aren’t guaranteed a job.
The question remains, is getting a degree in humanities really worth it? After all with tuition costs constantly rising, pursuing the more uncertain path in your college career seems like a hasty choice to make.
Or is it? In a recent article entitled “What’s the Point of a Humanities Education?” by Rose Garrett, Garett points out the fact that a degree in humanities offers self rewarding experience.
By expanding your critical thinking, and cultural awareness you can greatly increase your personal growth.
While a degree in humanities may be overlooked for its financial instability, it can give you something much greater, a better sense of self understanding and views on the world.
After all, aren’t we going to school to enhance our self growth and increase our learning experience?
Well, while this may be true, people are also flocking to where the money is. Forget listening to your heart, listen to the steady flow of hard earned cash.
After all, how can we ever reach peace of mind if we’re lacking peace with our wallets?
If the price of our education is justifiable, then it will deem itself worthy in the form of a high paying job….right?
But how can us humble humanities majors make it really count? The former is a nearly unheard of guarantee from our institution of higher learning.
If we are to truly make it among the successful in our field then we must make ourselves the ultimate candidate. One idea is taking on multiple majors.
Yes, it’s hard to come to terms with the fact that your humanities degree may amount to little more than a beautiful piece of paper, but hey, the sooner you start weighing your options, the sooner you can seriously begin preparing for your future.
Having a back-up plan is certainly not a bad idea. The more you begin to discover your other areas of interest the easier it becomes to choose a back up field of study.
Taking up another degree that goes hand in hand with humanities can be a big help. Doing this will not only make you the ideal candidate for any boss looking to hire, but it will also keep you up to pace and informed on different components of your field of study.
So while it may be risky to rely on a humanities degree, it’s a path to pursuit that takes guts and can help build your character. You simply can’t put a price on your psychological and intellectual growth.
Melissa Lyons
Refuse The Silence, Intern
Photo credit: Thevarsity.ca -
You Little Virgin
So the other day I was browsing through Bitch magazine’s newest blog entries when I came across an article about a situation that many of you may be familiar with; it was about a woman selling her virginity over the Internet. Click here if you would like to read the article for yourself. Anyway, the article got me to start analyzing the concept of virginity.
Virgin - someone who has never had sex. Instead of using definitions that dictionaries use, I like to use the definition that society uses. Though it can be argued that those are the worst kind of definitions, let’s use this particular definition for the purpose of this blog. The concept of virginity certainly involves an element of possession. Womyn “give” away or “lose” their virginities. Womyn in this patriarchal, homophobic society are always expected to give a man something in the context of a hetero-normative relationship. We “give” a man a child. We save our virginity so that we can “give” it to “the one.”
When is the last time you heard about a man “giving” a woman his virginity? Usually when people are referring to a man “giving” his virginity to a woman, they are BOTH virgins in the situation.
Why are their sexist roles involved in sex? Can’t sex be something that is uninhibited by the confines of society? It certainly surpasses the spirituality of society.Men “take” a womyn’s virginity, which involves an implied situation of coercion and force. The word ‘take’ is synonymous with rape. Take is synonymous with “take advantage of”. And what happens after a man so-called “takes” a woman’s virginity? Does he still have that virginity for the rest of his life? No one ever says, “he has your virginity”. If they have sex again, does the woman get her virginity back? If you “lose” your virginity does that mean you can’t remember the guy that you “lost” it to? Does the man pass that woman’s virginity on to other girls? And how many “virginties” do trans people get? What if you were raped before you had the chance to willingly have sex for the first time, are you still considered a virgin? Is a person still a virgin if they have sex with a member of their own sex? Why does virginity never come into the situation again after it is given, taken, or lost? Why can’t we “share” in a person’s virginity? Why is virginity deemed a one-time event instead of a process done over time? Better yet, why can’t the idea of virginity and America’s obsession with it just die? Why must a woman feel guilty or inhibited when it comes to having sex for the first time, when a man is encouraged to have sex with the first opportunity presents itself? I think the whole “give, take and lose” politics of virginity is a manifestation of the objectification of women and our bodies and the fact that sex is treated as a commodity. Sex is used to sell everything from movies to cannibus club memberships. Sex is also used to make womyn feel bad about themselves, men are allowed to be sexual whenever the feeling suits them and womyn are not and if we are, we are harped upon.
In the rape culture that this society perpetuates, the man must always be the aggressor in relationships and sex. The man must always make the first move. Virginity is synonymous with pure. Why is innocence attriubuted to keeping your virginity? Why when you have sex for the first time, you aren’t “innocent” anymore? This can allude to the fact that womyn having sex is seen as a bad act in our culture, like there was a illegal act committed. In our culture, sex is taboo. It is seen as a right of passage, a defining moment in our lives that will bring about some drastic change. Little girls are taught to dream about the moment that they will have sex for the first time and with whom.
These are just a couple of the questions and problems I have with this concept. Will someone please tell what the fuck’s up with virginity?!
Malaka
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The True Cost of College
Going to college is generally a requirement now-a-days. If you’re trying to make it in the corporate or white collar world then attending college is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss out on. But there’s one problem…what if you can’t afford it?
College tuition has been steadily increasing for years, and no matter which college you plan to attend, tuition expenses are one thing you’ll want to prepare for.
On average attending college today can cost you anywhere between ten to sixty thousand dollars per year.
Generally community colleges are the least expensive followed by state colleges and private colleges which cost the most.
Although assistance is available, it’s become increasingly difficult to obtain in part due to high demand for loans, but also because of the increasing rate of incoming college students.
So with the perpetually increasing cost of college, what options does that leave to immigrants and some of the poorest people in our nation?
Can the majority of people of color in our country afford to go to some of the most prestigious and prominent universities that our nation has to offer? Unfortunately for most of us the answer is no.
Sure you can take out some loans, save up some money here and there and perhaps even go to drastic measures and take out a second mortgage to try to pay for your college education… but what kind of sadistic financial burden are you setting yourself up for in the years to come?
I mean face it, even after you graduate from there’s no guaranteed job for you, and with the economy being so unstable, who’s to say a job will even open up in the near future?
The question then becomes, how in the world are you planning to pay for all your college expenses?
A trend I’m starting to find more popular among college students is the take a semester off to work trend. It’s sweeping over the students of color on college campuses like wildfire and with no guarantee of their return.
Taking time off from college is dangerous for a vast number of reasons. First, you forget some of the material you learned while you were away, this is especially true if you take on a full-time job and neglect studies.
Second, you get distracted by your environment and side tracked from your academic pursuit. Third, time passes by and you become older and less adaptable to new ideas and you can lose the ease to learn new material.
For many students of color it soon becomes a struggle and a constant game of catch up. If you eventually save up enough money to return to school and take more classes it may already be too late, you will feel out of place and confused on where to pick up where you left off.
One of the great aspects that we advertise about our country is that anyone can succeed. Even if you come from an impoverished community, you can still be successful, enhance your lifestyle, and earn a higher place in society.
College is often advertised as a place of opportunity, where you’re guaranteed to increase your education and salary through obtaining a degree.
In general people look at it as a good investment, after all it’s an investment in your future. But the cold hard truth is that college is a business, and let’s be honest, if you’re willing to get the most out of it you’ve got to be willing to pay the high cost.
It’s increasingly competitive and expensive to get into highly accredited and prestigious institutes of higher learning. Due to this, the majority of our country’s people of color are doomed to suffer the consequences.
They’ve got fewer college options and part-time college attendance to face all in the name of affordable tuition and education.
So I pose the question to you again, can you really afford to miss out on a college education? And similarly can you really afford the cost of your college education?
Melissa Lyons
Refuse The Silence, Intern -
Sexual Violence, Systematic and Institutionalized
I’ve always wondered why violence that involves guns or fists is specifically labeled “violence” while violence when the weapon is sexual is labeled abuse. In my opinion, violence carries a more powerful connotation that abuse just doesn’t have. Throughout this post, I will use the phrase “sexual violence” instead of sexual abuse to show that this type of violence, which damages the entire self through sexual perversion, is just as serious as gang violence or police brutality.
In her essay, “Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide”, Andrea Smith speaks at length about the effect of sexual violence on its victims. Sexual violence was an integral part of the colonization of Native populations. “As a consequence of this colonization and abuse of their bodies, Indian people learn to internalize self-hatred, because body image is integrally related to self-esteem. When one’s body is not respected, one begins to hate oneself.” As evidenced by the sexual violence involved in both Native colonization and prison violence we see an institutionalization of sexual violence that is profitable for the maintaining of the status quo. This attack on the bodies of women of color come from all sides of dominant society as an attempt to continuously control and marginalize. “The history of sexual violence and genocide among Native women illustrates how gender violence as a tool for racism and colonialism among women of color in general.” To capture the body, is also to capture the person. Rape is a tool of subjugation and humiliation. To keep minority populations in check, rape is institutionalized in such entities as the prison industrial complex.
Female rape and other forms of sexual violence in the prison system is a problem that is blatantly ignored. Starting with invasive internal and gynecological examinations, sexual violence is purposely overlooked at every turn. In Angela Y. Davis’ book on the Prison Industrial Complex, “Are Prions Obsolete?”, she discusses the sexual violence that takes place within this system. “In an attempt to justify these examination, the chief medical officer explained that women prisoners had rare opportunities for ‘male contact,’ and that they therefore welcomed these superfluous gynecological exams.” According to Davis, “as activists and prisoners themselves have pointed out, the state itself is directly implicated in this routinization of sexual abuse, both in permitting such conditions that render women vulnerable to explicit sexual coercion carried out by guards and other prison staff and by incorporating into routine policy such practices as the strip search and body cavity search.” In an article titled “The Brutal Horror of Prison Rape, as Told by Its Victims” about prison rape, Kimberly Yates and Bryson Martel tell their story of being raped while incarcerated. What stood out the most to me in their accounts was the fact that overall the violence was thoroughly ignored. Yates says that what makes her case “especially alarming is the fact that the BOP was put on notice about this officer but continued to allow him to work in that position, knowing what he had done and that he could do it to someone else.” In addition to that, Martel believes if prison officials had paid attention to other inmate’s claims of abuse, it could have stopped his from happening. “If earlier reports of his abuse had been acted on, my rape could have been prevented.” Through this we see that, sexual violation and violence in the prison system is systematically allowed and perpetuated.
In addition to rape in the PIC, the U.S. furthers their agenda by allowing sexual slavery and rape at the border to continue to take place without legal repercussions for those who commit these crimes. “Department of Justice representatives have informally reported that U.S. attorneys decline to prosecute about 75 percent of all cases involving any crime in Indian country.” It doesn’t help that women of color are often seen as unrapeable through the racist history of this country. “Sexual violence as a tool of racism also continues against other women of color. Trafficking in women from Asian and other Global South countries continues unbated in the U.S.” It is my theory that women of color in this country continually face a war in which the perpetrators are taking away their bodily sovereignty. Rape culture makes sexual violence possible. The perpetuation of rape culture furthers its hegemonic state in American society. “Indeed, the U.S. and other colonizing countries are engaged in a “permanent social war” against the bodies of women of color and indigenous women, which threaten their legitimacy.” Through the media and racist laws of the land we see this war materialize. Rape of womyn of color is not just motivated by sex and power as it is for white women, but it is also racially motivated as a tool for marginalization of entire populations. This is where feminists have dropped the ball, categorizing rape as purely about individual power without respect to racial motivations. Women of color are generally more vulnerable when it comes to sexual violence, especially when crossing the border. “The American Friends Service Committee documented over 346 reports of gender violence on the U.S.-Mexico border from 1993-1995.” This type of violence is deemed invisible by the government as well as U.S. citizens. Zoila Miriam Perez, in her essay ‘When Sexual Autonomy Isn’t Enough: Sexual Violence Against Immigrant Women in the United States, says, “rape has become so prevalent that many women take birth control pills or shots before setting out to ensure they won’t get pregnant.
Some consider rape ‘the price you pay for crossing the border.” Immigrant women’s bodies are seen as an expendable resource and therefore unrapeable. Perez continues, “many of us who work in reproductive health in cities with large Latina populations see the effects of these abuses firsthand. Women arrive here with untreated sexually transmitted infections that they were given while crossing, as well as with unintended pregnancies. Women are often abused by everyone from the coyotes they hire to take them across the border, to other men in their groups, to officials they encounter along the way.” Through these examples, we see that rape and other forms of sexual violence isn’t purely an individual bodily offense but is furthered by dominant society and the government to exercise control over entire minority populations.
Malaka -
How do we measure educational success?
One thing I clearly remember about Obama’s platform is that he ran for education. He wanted to make sure that every student had the means and opportunity to go to college. Julianne Ong Hing’s article “Education’s Race to the Top” outlines Obama’s controversial plan to reform America’s education system.
Education Reform has always been a tricky thing for me. As an Educational Studies Minor, I usually sit in class with my head cocked to the side, sitting on the fence about these issues. For me the big issue was always, how do we measure educational success?
One might initially say test, but as my 8th Grade Math teacher said, “those test are not made up by your teachers, but old, white men in Albany.” Though she said this to deter any sour feeling because of the results of the test, its sentiment was very correct: standardized test are made to be standard.
However, in Education Studies programs across the country the new wave is being culturally relevant. This means that the educator understands the issues the students are facing and make it a relevant part in the classroom. With this in mind, when would teachers have time to teach the test?
What if a student leaves a classroom with the skills to find solutions to problems, and a voice to express them but not necessarily the jargon that the test asks for? Was the student taught unsuccessfully if they have the understanding to figure it out but not in the specific way that the test asks? I think not, but many of these reform grants hold their teachers down to their students test scores.
With that sort of pressure placed on these teachers, are students really given the tools to learn or just the answers to the test? You decide, read the article and let us know what you think!
Article: Education’s Race to the Top
Alana Jenkins
Refuse The Silence, Intern -
Black Womyn, Christianity, and Sexual Repression
I have a few people that I follow on Twitter that are self-proclaimed “Christians.” They also happen to be womyn. This week, their tweets about their faith got me to thinking about myself when I identified as a Christian, how ashamed and dirty I felt when I allowed my mind or body to experience anything sexually related. Sex is one of the behaviors that connect all living things. Humans, animals and even plants have sex! Now that I have relinquished my title as a Christian, I can’t see why a religion makes it so important to tell people, especially womyn, how wrong it is to have sex and therefore suppress a normal, acceptable and even beautiful human right and behavior.
Christianity, and I ask all readers to research this for themselves, was used as a colonial tool by white men to oppress and marginalize native populations. It is because of this, that Christianity, along with its white Jesus, heteronormativity, and sexism, replaced the belief systems of native peoples. Other practices were seen as witchcraft or “crazy” voodoo. Today, Christianity is largely seen as a black religion, even though it is still largely a white institution and ideal. Christianity is also not exempt from the capitalism of society that keeps blacks and womyn oppressed and marginalized. It is essentially a business that runs on the commercialization of Chrisitanity. Blacks in this country, have adopted Christianity as their own, making Jesus black, singing songs for the poor, all the while establishing multiple mega-churches, as well as adopting the sexism and sexual repression involved in being a Christian.
Evelyn Brooks-Higginbotham writes at length about the connection between the repression of black women and Christianity. Evelyn Brooks-Higginbotham outlines the “politics of respectability” in the essay, “The Black Church, A Gender Perspective”. The paradigm of the politics of respectability included the blacks of the Baptist church adhering to rules of conduct that were equated with good behavior. This behavior was exemplified so that members of the black community could be seen as a viable member of society, and therefore pushed racial uplift, by the dominant white society. Such characteristics of this behavior included, “temperance, thrift, refined manners, and Victorian sexual morals.” The politics of respectability was a paradigm for both genders in the black church, but was particularly influential for the black women. So not only do we see sexual repression embedded in Christianity, we also see sexual repression being a form of resistance by Black women to the idea that they are sexually deviant.
Despite new methods, sexual intercourse is still the primary method of procreation, it is a necessary behavior and it also just feels good, which is why most people participate in it! To prevent anyone and especially young womyn, whose sexuality in this world often belongs to everyone except them, that exploring their body and the bodies of others is something to be ashamed of is sick and saddening. Sexual exploration is a healthy and necessary part of life and especially developing a healthy sexual life. Studies show that young people who are asked to commit to purity are more likely to engage in sexual behavior and to contract sexually transmitted infections. To stop womyn from discovering a part of their life that the media makes seem so normal and at the same time so taboo is dangerous for those young womyn and therefore, for the rest of the world too. How can those who identify as Christian continue to ignore sexuality as an integral part of anyone’s life and promote unhealthy sexual repression? Christians cannot continue to sacrifice the wants of the ever-illusive God for the concrete needs of young womyn everywhere. This goes back to the point that I made in my first post here at Refuse The Silence about women of color needing to be open about sexuality. I am calling upon the womyn reading this blog and all women of color everywhere to come up with new methods of resistance to double standards, sexism, and misogyny. Let’s move beyond “the politics of respectability”, let’s stop looking at sex as dirty or taboo and start embracing the beauty and importance of sexual contact and sexuality.
Malaka -
Delusional Diversity: A Media Misrepresentation
A recent blog entry on chopsentials raised some very valid points on the job of the media in particular with the portrayal of diverse characters in Hollywood movies. It should come as no surprise that a majority of the characters in Hollywood productions are white.
You can turn on the TV right now, flip the channels, and eight times out of ten fail to spot a person of color starring as the main character or in a lead role.
Go to any movie theater and count the numbers of times you see someone who’s not white as the main actor or actress. Odds are you won’t need more than one hand for that calculation.
If you were to walk the streets of any main city in the U.S. you’ll find that people look a little different from your average TV or movie stars. They may talk different, gesture different and even live different lifestyles. Yes it’s true!
There’s no one generic brand of an American that represents solely all the physical attributes of every one of us. In the blog entry entitled “Of Hollywood The American People: How Status Quo is Maintained”. It’s implied that the reason for such lack of diversity in media and pop culture is due in part to the producers.
The producers are the ones who mold the films and shows. Therefore if the producers who market and fund the productions are mostly white themselves then they may be more reluctant to change the racial makeup in their productions.
Just think, without a variety of people to input their different perspectives you’re getting cheated out of a lot of your money. There needs to be more variation in the views of producers in order to see the bigger picture with a different lens of focus.
In some cases even if the producers aren’t white, most of them all assume that the films that exclude minority involvement in main roles are more preferable, after all that’s what’s worked in the past. So it’s fair to say this will work again right?
Wrong! This is ultimately where producers make the biggest mistake. They assume that the American public is not interested in different, complex and diverse movie themes and characters. The success of movies like Slumdog Millionaire and Crash then seem to come as a surprise to many of these producers.
It’s as if they can’t believe that a movie in which the main characters are brown and living in an urban environment would take so many peoples’ breath away.
Yes Hollywood it is time to wake up! The plots are getting all too similar, and the actors needless to say are becoming quite washed up. It’s definitely time to kick it up a notch.
I mean let’s be honest there’s a lot more interracial dating now than there was a few decades ago, not everyone comes from an exclusively suburban rich town, and people of color do not always act out stereotypical behaviors in their everyday life.
Why can’t any of these facts be portrayed accurately in the media? One problem we see is that the shows and movies that do feature people of color in the lead often ostracize and poke fun at their culture, instead of being informative and reflecting the positive values of diversity.
Indian actor Kal Penn from Harold and Kumar gave a lecture about diversity at Syracuse University about two years ago. He addressed some issues he faced when deciding to play Kumar’s character. Kal even said he received some distasteful letters from Asians who were offended by his role in the movie. Kal admitted that sometimes it’s frustrating that the media wants to display simply the stereotypical view of minorities in Hollywood.
As if it isn’t bad enough that the rest of the world labels us as ignorant and uncultured, we have to just go and prove them right by making movies that show just that. What’s worse is thinking that American producers believe we can’t even handle diversity in the films they produce.
They take the easy way out, cheap thrills, explosions, racist jokes, stereotypical roles, and then just hope we find it entertaining. Sure once in a while it may do the trick, but now we’re just seeing recycled themes, and relived characters hidden by a different name.
It’s a domino effect, just think if you were able to portray positive themes of diversity, interesting plots and throw in a little educational yet interesting facts here and there, you might be able to change society’s outlook for the better. Hollywood could seriously do some good with the money they make.
It’s definitely possible, and we’re slowly seeing examples of this. The show Heroes was genius for its complex incorporation of diverse characters, settings and phenomenon. Hopefully more producers will start to journey on this path, and explore the unexpected, dangerous, and intriguing.
Melissa Lyons
Refuse The Silence, Intern -
Knowledge is Power… Knowledge is Poison…
How much of a risk would you take to get to school? How high a price would you put on your education? What if it meant going against tradition or putting your life in danger?
It’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to go through all that just to get to class, but what’s even harder to comprehend is why anyone would put such effort into making it impossible for someone else to go to class.
What if you were being targeted just because you’re a woman trying to get an education. Well in some cases this isn’t too far from the truth.
In Afghanistan under the Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 girls were banned from going to school. But though it’s been nearly a decade later, the effects still seem to be rippling.
Although it’s not completely certain whether the Taliban is behind the attacks, CNN.com reports that since the schools for the girls began reopening there have been numerous incidents where both students and teachers were being poisoned.
In April of this year a total of 90 people from three girls schools became victims of what reports are calling an attack.
Thankfully no deaths have occurred from the incidents, but on Sunday the Ministry of health reported sixty school girls needed hospitalization.
It’s both sickening and frightening to imagine why anyone would try so hard to stop you from simply going to school.
If you had to face the fact that your classmates and teachers seem to be all falling prey to heartless attacks, and wonder why, the pain of that question alone might be enough to consume you whole.
What’s even worse is realizing that you too may have just as easily been a victim of a society that tried to put a cap on your education and duct tape your mouth shut.
It seems like a horrible dream doesn’t it? To wake up facing the hard truth that you’re trying to be silenced, that others don’t want you to know the truth. On the flip side what if you knew that it was your power to dream that would set you free from such hostility?
When you look at the history of the United States it’s easy to see how even our society needless to say has perpetual flaws.
History however, has taught us a valuable lesson. It has forced us to face our country’s shameful acts and come to terms with the fact that inequality is unacceptable on many different levels.
Change requires courage, and nothing comes without a fight. Standing up for what you know is right and facing your fears no matter how hard the scare, is what really makes major transformation possible.
Melissa Lyons
Refuse The Silence, Intern -
“What Should African American Studies Students Learn?”
Okay, so I love, love, love African American Studies Programs! Maybe, because I go to a school where nothing of the sort is seriously offered, by more than 3 faculty members that is. Or it could just be because I enjoy learning about Black culture, mostly because it is my culture and I haven’t gotten to learn about it in the way that I have white culture. So when I stumbled upon this article “What Should African American Studies Students Learn?” by John McWhorter I was very interested in what he had to say.
For me, his entire piece rested on the idea of this: “It’s time that African-American Studies departments let go of the sixties imperative to defend blacks as eternal victims of racism.” I agreed with him that, yes times were hard, yes times are hard, but dammit Black folks have triumphed.
Too many times African American Studies programs are taught by professors who are knowledgeable on the literature but couldn’t understand the experience if they tried. So when they see the small kitchenette building of Gwendoyln Brooks they only see the constriction, not the closeness.
For many African American Studies professors poverty is only poverty—dissolute, scary, and disgusting. They often don’t see the community that can bond because of having-not. They cannot see the life that breathes through a people that looks, from the outside, dismal.
So many of these educators understand the texts but not the values. McWhorter looks at this disconnect and others in African American Studies programs, and he asks a pulsing question: “Do African-American Studies departments want to deny their majors an education in the true sense?”
To read the article, visit: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2009/09/by_john_mcwhorter_while_this.html
Alana Jenkins
Refuse The Silence, Intern -
Too Sexy For A Banker?
Last summer, Debrahlee Lorenzana was fired from her job as a banker at a Citibank branch. She has filed a lawsuit against Citibank stating she was asked to leave because her male bosses deemed her to be “too sexy.”
Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Village Voice writes, she was told “she should not wear classic high-heeled business shoes, as this purportedly drew attention to her body in a manner that was upsetting to her easily distracted male managers.”
When approached by her colleagues about her “provocative“ attire, Lorenzana responded by explicitly comparing herself to other female employees who, “were able to wear such clothing because they were short and, overweight,” precisely because “they didn’t draw much attention.”
Lorenzana’s story is a repulsive textbook example of discrimination in a male-dominated environment, but it also stands as a ghastly illustration of girl-on-girl prejudice.
Lorenzana also, “…described the cultural underpinnings of her personal style, [saying], ‘Where I’m from, women dress up - like put on makeup and do their nails - to go to the supermarket. And I’m not talking trashy, you know, like in the Heights,’” states Jezebel.com.
Lorenzana’s case is a prime example of women internalizing patriarchal workplace cultures and all its injustices. Her statement demonstrates an obvious lack of solidarity and concern for the impact a predominantly white male institution has on the lives of all its female counterparts.
The legendary feminist writer, Bell Hooks, has referred to such woman-imposed patriarchy as an issue of class, pitting “privileged-class minorities” against progressive woman of lower economic classes.
Such girl-on-girl hate and egocentric trials continue to make it difficult to engage in a meaningful critical dialogue surrounding the position of women in predominately white male dominated institutions.
Morgane Veronique Richardson
Is This Woman Too Hot To Be A Banker? [Village Voice]
Banker Deemed Too Sexy For Her Job [Jezebel]
