fAstrit has 14 post(s)

In Jennifer Morgan’s book she often depicts a theme of how women of color were often seen as barbaric and often were synonymous to animals. The connection between the female body and racism is often seen as the downfall for women in terms of rights. An example of the connection is the description of how the size of an African American woman’s breast would make it seem as if they were a six legged animal. When people visualized this image it would make people see black women as animals. Several
European writers including Richard Ligon held this view of extreme racism. He held the view that the hanging of the breasts when symbolize the only purpose that black women served which was to produce crops. Ligon created the idea that there was foreign creatures working for white men out in the fields. This basically gave the harshest view on slavery were black women were no longer human. This had a big impact on the view that Europeans held on black women now.

Women in addition to being called animals, were being shamed when they were to give birth to children. The barbaric and nomadic women would often interrupt travels due to birth. If a women were to give birth to more than one child than the she would be considered a devil and the following children would be considered monsters. Also, writers would often be thought of as sexual deviants. Instead of throwing their breasts over their shoulders, they would let them hang and crave for the love of men. It would symbolize youth and beauty. The punishment of sexual deviance would be to give away their children to any man that desired them. The constant reoccurring coming up is shame, as basically black women would be shamed for anything that they did-bending over or even walking.

Question: Why were their interracial relationships if black women were considered animals?

Women in historical times often held the lowest ranking in societies. Their purpose in life was to cater to a man’s needs and to raise children. In Silvia Federici’s work she discusses the degradation of women and certain events that led to the demise of women. In Federici’s work she discusses how Karl Marx capitalism introduced the concept of primitive accumulation which discusses how class distinctions often determined who made the money in society. Women were often seen as the sufferers of this because they often relied on their husband for financial support and this would lead to their rights being taken away from them since they did not contribute anything to the economy. Women as of now in many areas of the world currently work inside the house which often lead to the husbands having full control over all of the decision making in the family. In past events, Federici discusses how land privatization held women back and prevented them from making any type of impact on society. She discusses how all the land were currently being given to the males and how women were a part of the peasant community and would rely on the commons for their freedom and livelihood. The degeneration continued when textile workers particularly women were having their wages lowered and their hours increased due to land expropriation. Most women would rather be enslaved than work for a wage. They often turned to becoming nomadic or even vagabonds to survive. The expropriation of land led to women fending for themselves and it often led to high unemployment rates for women and it would often put more power into the hands of males because they knew they could do whatever they wanted with their wives because of how dependent they were on them.

In chapter three of Angela Davis’ “Women, Race, and Class” gives us a deeper understanding on the history of the women’s movement. It expands on the dominance of white males in society. Davis displays how gender played such prominent roles in how was given rights in society. The main historical event that she mentions was the Seneca Falls Convention which was created to discuss the rights of women. One name that Davis mention multiple times was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who used her previous experiences at other conventions such as the London convention to organize a women’s rights convention. She used her position and knowledge and made herself a leader for the women who wanted to fight for their rights. It was a struggle to get people to string along to the idea that white women could have rights, let alone African American women. The convention showed that race was still a prevalent problem in determining who had rights.

Ironically, a women’s rights convention was held, and no women were in attendance. The white males had no interest in listening to any of the nonsense about women’s rights. The purpose of this convention was to show how marriage and motherhood set up males to be the dominant ones in society. Females had to rely on males to provide for the family and how it allowed males to do basically anything they wanted to women. This convention basically displayed how little standing women had in society and how it impacted lives physically, mentally, and socially. Davis wants to display that being a woman, whether white or black, or whatever class they belonged too, had a harsh time living in the 1800’s due to the inequalities they faced in society.

Hi everyone, my name is Astrit Astafaj. I am a sophomore at Hunter College. I live in Staten Island. I am majoring in economics because I enjoy the business aspect of society and hope to learn more about how our society functions. For this class, I hope to gain a perspective on woman and learn the different struggles that they faced in the past. I would also like to see how roles of woman have changed over time and how they have been able to over overcome obstacles towards equality. It is also important to notice that women still face discrimination and it is pertinent to not ignore it.