The Ontological Harmony of Sisterhood
The Value of Sisterhood
The male supremacist ideology consists on the idea that women are “valueless and obtain value only by relating to bonding with men.” This ideology should encourage women to create a sisterhood to overcome the male dominance. Sisterhood contradicts the idea that “women are natural enemies, that solidarity will never exist between us.” In order for sisterhood to occur solidarity needs to be established within the women community. The bond of Sisterhood can provide a stronger force to change the authority of men. For example, “black [women] alone cannot make a revolution in this country. Native American [women] alone cannot make revolution in this country.” In other words, a woman alone cannot make a change within society, but sisterhood allows women to unite to create one strong force for a change. Although sisterhood is encouraged, sisterhood has become an ontological harmony for women because different barriers such as sexism, racism, and classism prevent solidarity within a women community from occurring.
Sexism against Sisterhood
Sexism describes the idea that one gender is superior than another sex, which imposes limitations for women potential. In society, jobs are divided by gender; for instance, women are not in the construction workforce as men are not in the intimate women department. According to Kevin Henson and Jackie Rogers, the division of jobs pressures workers to “rename and reframe their work”. For example, the typical image of a nurse is feminized; however, some male figure contradicts this image of a nurse by renaming their job duty. When male figure nurses carry patients, they describe their action as lifting weights because lifting weight is portrayed as masculine. Therefore, “their location in a feminized occupation […] reveal how male workers do masculinity to reassert the feminine identification.” Having to rename their job duty shows that being seen as a feminine is a negative representation for their image. When men reframe and rename their work, their action enforces the male dominance and portrays the female as a lower level causing a barrier for sisterhood. If being feminized is seen as a negative identification, then women are less likely to bond together to overcome the male supremacy because they are oppressed by men. The male supremacist create an inferior image of women in order to maintain their control, and to weaken the value of sisterhood.
Restriction on Language Based on Ethnicity
Racism creates obstacles for women because this ideology affects women of color to express their oppression without criticism. When “women of color need to be forgiving for their message” to be heard because of the stereotypes portrayed on them, their freedom is being affected by creating restrictions on their language. Not allowed to express their aggressiveness for the public, creates limitations on expressing their opinion. This action creates limitations for their freedom of speech. If women of color are being criticize because of their aggressiveness and their passion for their message, then individual’s criticism provides barriers for sisterhood. Sisterhood is solidarity within women, if one group is being criticize by the stereotypes then there is less likely for unity to occur within women because of the unequal judgement between different ethnicities. For unity to occur, inequality cannot be present because inequality shapes a pyramid structure within the community separating each group.
Women’s March as a Social Class Parade
On the other hand, classism prevents a barrier for sisterhood because women have different social class statuses, which signifies that elite women do not experience the same oppression of a poor women. Sisterhood is hard to accomplish because “Women’s March is nothing but social class privilege on parade.” In other words, poor women are misrepresented because elite women use their power and network to protest issues that affect them. For example, “why didn’t [women] protest when Democrats killed a plan that would have saved the lives of poor disable women, poor chronically ill, and women who are senior citizens who can’t afford their medicines?” In other words, these elite women are using the Women March as a movement for their own benefits. If elite women just care about their own oppression, their actions show that “poor women’s lives don’t matter”. Not being involve on poor women oppression, the ideology of sisterhood becomes a fantasy. Seeing sisterhood as unrealistic just enforces the male supremacy, and weakens the bond between women because each social group has different internal bruises that prevent sisterhood from uniting.
Restrictions on Sisterhood
Sisterhood has become an ontological harmony within society because solidarity within sisterhood shapes a stronger force; however, unity is not seen within women. Women’s inner thoughts want sisterhood; however, their actions represent otherwise creating obstacles for solidarity. If classism, sexism, and racism keep restricting women from uniting, then the force of the sisterhood will continue to weaken allowing the male supremacy to dominant for the voice of society. Although each woman is unique and have a different perspective on life, there should be unity to end the male dominance. In society women, should also be allowed to enforce their voice on economic and political issues, not just men. Sisterhood can bring fear to the male supremacies because they know the pressure of women’s force can affect their power.
