Author: juliakurian

Tyler Perry’s film “For Colored Girls,” is based on Ntozake Shange’s play, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.” Perry’s movie demonstrates the struggles of colored women, represented through a collection of poems.

I highly recommend watching this movie for yourself, this movie brought out so many emotions within me and shed light on issues people do not consider in women of color. The main theme of the movie is to examine the struggles of colored women, each woman in the movie represents a different struggle. You have a younger woman that is coming to age, one representing the reversal of roles – a woman with money, power, and status, an all-knowing mother, one who finds pleasure in sex, one who is a hypocrite, one who is in an abusive relationship, one who gets raped, and one who shows the utmost compassion and light through the struggles.

The film touches on major issues that are present within the colored woman community, that many other races do not realize. After learning about intersectionality and hearing the stories of women of color from the Women’s Movement, I was able to understand the film even better. I found that women of color have a certain expectation they are held to, they are not granted the same privileges White women are granted, they have endured much more suffering, therefore, they are expected to be strong, having no reason to hurt because of their years of struggle. Looking at the film you see just how much struggle women of color go through. The woman with the high status is cheated on by her husband because he feels unmasculine compared to her, the younger woman has an illegal abortion because of her religious mother and her fear of falling into a stereotype of teen moms, a woman who is trapped in an abusive relationship who is afraid to get help, and a woman who is raped then told she was asking for it. These are real issues women face and it is important to understand that these are real and important to understand different races and their situations. Intersectional thinking allows for these issues to be brought to light and these women to be able to find help.

“Colored girls have no right to be sorry”

A constant theme of strength was portrayed as well,  no matter the struggles they faced the women always were expected to hide their emotions and show that they were strong. I find that very unhealthy, seeking help is okay and does not make you weak. Finding unity in numbers brings strength. At the end of the film, you can see how the formed sisterhood brought strength amongst all their struggles.

At the end of the day, feminism is about fighting for justice for oppressed people, instead of focusing on who’s struggles are more important we must focus on helping all people and all struggles.

List of Hotlines

 

Although the founder, Tarana Burke, launched the movement more than 10 years ago, it became very popular in 2017. The #MeToo movement created a safe space for women who were sexually abused. A recent tweet made by an actress in 2017 made the hashtag go viral. Women on all platforms of social media were speaking up about their sexual abuse. It shed light on matters that affected women and showed how unprivileged they are and men’s abuse of power.

Men are constantly getting away with issues like these just because they are men, people don’t believe women, especially in rape cases. But I want to point out how big of an issue rape and sexual abuse is. Women do not speak up often about these issues due to fear, embarrassment, or simply not knowing how. Rape is traumatizing and we need to make safe communities to allow these women to find help and seek treatment physically and mentally.

My last post spoke about women who were sexually abused, a recent movie is a perfect segway to the topic of human trafficking. The movie “Traffik” is not a true story, but is based on true events. I want to emphasize how big an epidemic human trafficking is in the world, there is an estimated amount of 40.3 million victims.

The film goes on to explore how women get caught into human trafficking and what happens to them during. The protagonist, played by Paula Patton, gets caught in and takes viewers through her fight to get out. Although the movie is fictional, it shows what could actually happen to any woman, man, or child. This movie is a great source of awareness and brought light to an issue we do not acknowledge enough.

We have to understand that sexual abuse is not only physically harming, but also mentally and emotionally harmful. It has been long overdue to emphasize that women are more than sex objects, therefore, we must continue to teach others how to respect and treat women equally.

During the discussion of society’s standards of beauty came about an interesting point about hair. I am an Indian woman, so I am stereotyped to have “good” hair, but that does not justify the fact that I am limited to such a small section in the hair aisle. Multicultural women are constantly being compared to White women, especially when it comes to beauty, we are held to this standard that white is better. The lighter our skin or eyes are the more attractive we are and the straighter our hair is the more appealing and “presentable” we are.

I have naturally curly, thick hair, so growing up I was always told to go brush my hair. Even if I had brushed it, I could not deny the curls and frizz I was born with. With this new wave of naturalists, it is still so hard to find the right product for your hair texture. I mean, you go to the store and you see two aisles of White women’s products then, on the very end, you see a quarter of the aisle labeled “Multicultural Hair,” not only are the products few in number, but they are also ridiculously high in price.

A big problem I see within advertising beauty products is that it is not diverse or accommodating enough. It may seem like such a small issue to anyone else, but it is hiding a much bigger issue. It is not just hair, hair is a woman’s most prized possession. We hold so much value to our hair and we should be able to have more options and availability to products that are suitable for each and every texture. It’s not just about hair, it is about accommodating all peoples and providing equality.

It is also about respecting cultures, Black women are born with kinky curls, who use weaves and braids in their hair, dating back to centuries, it is cultural styles specific for African Americans. Whereas, recently White women, like the Kardashians, take on those hairstyles and pose for the camera. This is called cultural appropriation. African American women take on these styles, not only to provide a different style but also protection. One’s culture is not another’s costumes. I believe we need to stick to what we all know about our own races and educate ourselves on others’ before wearing it on ourselves for fun.

2018 has been a wonderful year for colored women in politics. The midterm election broke records for women elects, which is cause for the much needed intersectional thinking in politics. Christine Hallquist (nation’s first openly transgender candidate for governor), Rashida Tlaib (first Palestinian-American woman to be elected to Congress), Ilhan Omar (first Somali-American legislator elected to office), just to name a few of the record-breaking women we have the honor to have in our government.

A film we watched in class titled, “Missrespresentation,” explains how badly women are misrepresented in politics and entertainment. It is important to point out that women hold value from their minds and not their bodies. The film gave numerous examples of the slander Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton received while running for office. Men focused on their appearance, rather than what they brought to help the country, and they had brought some really great ideas.

It is time for a change, we have to change mindsets and teach people equality no matter what race or class you are in. It is important to do that now and teach younger generations so that they will not make the same mistakes adults of this current generations are making.

One of my favorite topics from this class was hip-hop feminism. Hip-hop feminism is a great way to spread intersectionality, it is a way to spread feminism through a popular genre of music. It is simply expressing women empowerment and changing the stereotype of women. A huge, well-known contributor to hip-hop feminism currently is Beyonce. Her 2017 performance at the Grammys spoke volumes to diversity, women empowerment, and especially mothers. Performing while pregnant showed how women are invincible and how much they credit they deserve.

Beyonce continues to show her listeners women are important, all women are beautiful, and that we should never allow a man to knock us down. Women are truly queens, all shades and sizes.

One topic we discussed in WGSST 2230 was hegemonic beauty standards. If you notice the models in the media, all you see is thin White women, with perfect skin, hair, and body shapes. Then we look in the mirror and constantly compare ourselves to those unrealistic beauty standards society holds us, women, to.

We discussed how men won’t take us serious if we aren’t pretty enough, and even then, men will only give us the time of day because they are lusting over our bodies and not our minds and the actual work we put out into this world. Women leaders are few and very far between. Female leaders have to deal with twice the amount of harassment as male leaders because they are judged off of their looks. It is time that we judged based on our minds and abilities, not our appearances.

In the summer of 2018, American Eagle launched a lingerie campaign which featured female models with disabilities and chronic illnesses. This is the type of push the media needs to show younger generations that you are beautiful just the way you are and those hegemonic beauty standards are just unrealistic and truly unreachable. I mean seriously, none of those runway models take a picture without a little Photoshop or even surgery. The American Eagle campaign showed the public that every individual is beautiful, despite our differences, every girl should feel beautiful and we must work to fight against beauty standards.