Three readings or work that were most impactful for me was Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, “Ain’t I a Woman”’ by Sojourner Truth and Disidentifications by Munoz. All three readings were very refreshing and offered a new approach to many things. In Gender Trouble, Butler touched on a topic that many refuse or hesitate to talk about. I never really looked at gender as a performance until she mentioned it. Her reasoning behind the importance of language and term to describe a gender, or even women in general made me even more cautious. I also think the representation and how women and other people are represented should be done so in a thoughtful way.

The “Ain’t I A Woman” speech and recollection was very powerful. Before reading and presenting on this topic, I did not know Sojourner Truth was even involved in women’s suffrage. I didn’t even know she was present at the Convention. Many of parts of her life are rarely mentioned and this proved to be one of them. Knowing what I know now, I feel even more empowered.

Disidentification by Munoz proved that transgression is very important. I have learned about disidentification before, but in another aspect. This work showed the defiant courage of many people. Risking their reputation to bring change and to stand out. Not many people know what it is to disidentify, so it is very inspiring to hear about those who do.

All of these topics define feminism. The feminist ability to stand out, stand out, and keep fighting even when it may seem like all odds are against them. To me, being a feminist takes great courage and resilience especially in today’s society. During women’s suffrage, there were many anti-suffragists that try to discontinue and discredit the movement. From what I’ve seen and learned in class, some women were labeled as crazy and inadequate just because they thought differently and dared to speak out against inequality. It just proves that the world is very complex, but change happens all over and some stories are untold. There are actual risk takers and throughout history, their fight reached heights.

Material Feminism focuses on how nonhuman forces affect our agency, being, and culture. These material conditions can be looked at in terms of gender and relations to the actual lives of women. According to Jane Bennet, “these material powers, which can aid or destroy, enrich or disable, ennoble or degrade us, in any case call for our attentiveness, or even “respect”.” Mel Chen also focuses on similar forces such as “Words,” “Animals,” and “Metals.” She explains how matter that is considered immobile or insensate animates cultural lives.

This side of feminism offers us a new outlook on the diversity of feminism when it comes to the ideologies. It is a broad spectrum that touches every aspect. This offers us a more “material” perspective, by that I mean that it shows us that not only society and other humans affect our roles and who we are. Inanimate matter can affect our body, how we view certain issues and society as a whole.

God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

This book explains the life of an African American woman named b=Bride and how she was able to get past a life of struggle and become a successful woman. However, even as an adult the events of her childhood still haunts her.

The book starts off by explaining the birth of Bride formerly known as Lula Anne Bridewell, who was born darker than both of her parents. Her father Louis, believed that Lula Anne was not his child because he had a “yellow” complexion and the baby was midnight black. Due to this, he left his child and his wife after 3 years. Bride did not have the easiest childhood as her mother prohibited her from calling her “mom” or “mother.” Instead, she told her forsaken daughter to address her by her first name, Sweetness. Sweetness sees Lula Ann’s color as “a cross she will always carry.”

By the time she reaches an adult, she makes drastic changes to her “countrified” name and decides to name herself Bride, no last name. Bride is living with her boyfriend Booker Starbern, who she barely knows anything about. She is willing to stay with him as long as he treats her like the center of his universe. But after seemingly small argument, Starbern leaves Bride behind.

Even though Bride is saddened by the loss of her boyfriend, she is more focused on the release of Sofia Huxley, a child molester that she falsely testified against. She visits Huxley upon her release date and carries a couple thousand in cash, an airline ticket, products from her cosmetics line and more gifts to greet Huxley. Unfortunately, Huxley is not pleased by her presence  and beats her until she needs plastic surgery to reach near recognition.

Towards the end, Bride goes on a search for her ex-boyfriend and to find out more about who he is. She finds him, but things take a turn for the worse. Her friend who helped her find her ex-boyfriend died in a  house fire after returning from helping Bride and Starbern settle their differences. After her friend’s death, Bride tells Starbern her situation and what she’s been through and lets him know that  she is pregnant with his child.

The book ends with Bride’s mother in a nursing home telling the story of her daughter and although she is happy about having a grandchild, she knows she will probably never get to see this child.

This connects to Morrison’s point of racism in Playing In The Dark. Although what happens in this book is  not exactly racism, it is still some form of discrimination that results to similar disparities that Morrison mentions. In her essay, Morrison basically says that to evade race in literature is an act of racism. Bride’s parents refusal to accept her color is an effect of racism. The darker black is always seen as less of amongst the whole race. According to Morrison, skin color creates a polarity (38). This polarity is seen in the life of Bride, the moment she came out of her mother’s womb. Morrsion also mentions that there are certain things you cannot mention in literature such as freedom, class, race and not include the notion of blackness. There are certain things that would not exist if it were not for the lives of African Americans. 

Judith Butler talks about therepresentation of feminists, women and gender. Whether it is political, cultural or social, how one represents a gender or speaks on it, is very important. She point out terminology can be either revealing or deceiving. For gender to be a performance, it means that it is not something that is established, rather it is something that is portrayed through performance. That performance is in the way an individual walks, talks, acts or even dresses. By these means, society identifies or try to indetify a gender. It is inscribed in our daily practices and is performed based on social and cultural norms of what represents maculinity or feminity. For example, in one of Butler’s video she recalls someone approached her and asked her if she was a lesbian because I guess she was acting and looking what is considered to be masculine. When Butler answered “yes,” the woman was surprised.