Inequality Between Us Ladies
It’s more than just who is the prettiest
Being a woman is tough, yet amazing! We reproduce life, nurture our family and still find the time to represent who we are as an individual. But, why can’t we all still get along with one another within the female gender? Could it be because we are competing with one another to see who is the prettiest, smartest, richest, or the #1 mom? One thing for sure is that there still exists racism between us (women). It revolves around the male factor as well but, if women are continuingly the ones fighting and proclaiming that they want equality then, why don’t they start making change within themselves?
In the article titled And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You: Racism in the Women’s Movement by Barbara Smith she argues that their is a sense of lose connection between white women and women of color. Because white women are born into a privileged racist ideologist world it leaves colored women’s lives displayed as a third-world painting. White women seem to always have better privilages when it comes to education and economics therefore, it creates a distance and distinction between them and colored women. It’s not just a matter of showing off who’s best but also how it is formally or informally portrayed through racism. According to Smith we theoretically don’t experience racism or at least aren’t suppose to, but why are we as women feeling discriminated or separated between those women who are white and those who are not? Equality is not the same for everyone but because white women have been born into a privileged life they don’t see what colored women see. And they don’t feel what we colored women feel. To them racism does not exist because they don’t experience it. Colored women face racism on a daily basis especially when they are compared to white women who seem to have it all. Sims proclaims that if white women are entitled to the privilage of power and they claim they want equality for all women then why don’t they utilize that power to make a difference!
We are all women who strive for equal goals or at least self-interested in a better future. But if we want an immediate call for change then why can’t we all get along as ladies and use our feminine power to really do something. If racism or sexism didn’t exist then why are we having this issue of feeling disconnected with one another? For example, in the case of 16 year-old Argentinian Lucia Perez, all the women from Argentina stood up to try to end rape and violence against the female gender. By wearing black and stopping what every women was doing on Wednesday’s at a certain hour, they protested in honor of Lucia and to put an end on machista violence. It didn’t matter if some were in court, changing diapers, in school, light or dark-skinned, or if some were poor and others rich, what mattered was the act and if you had the courage and bravery to stand for your gender as a whole. According to Margaret Jacobsen in White Women, You Need to Talk About Racism, white women need to stop acting like as if they were also victims of rasicm and stop stealing the attention from those (colored women) who really need it and who are really hurting.
What’s in it for white women to continue to deny their role in gender racism besides the fact that they fear losing their status and power. It is ridiculous how some women think they are better than others when we all have our flaws. No one and no women is perfect and ever will be, especially if you’re feeding off the devil’s hand. Jacobsen argues that the pursuit of equality will never be fullfilled until you dig down the real root of inequality. And that root of inequality starts off within the feminine culture. Every female is a women who not only wants to be equal to men but also be greater, so why not get on the same page and strive for that sisterhood we have always desired. Let’s be honest, a couple of hundred women protesting here and there aren’t really going to make a difference people. If one doesn’t care then why should the other and so on. Part of this issue is that we live in a structured society in which we rely on the white ideology and are therefore only self-interested in the end. Compared to men, women are more nurturing, loving, and caring so why not use our qualities like those to come to realization that we as women cannot do this on our own and need to support one another for the better or the worst. It’s not easy being a women but it sure is life changing!
