His Woes are Her Woes

A passage that holds many truths and connections to other themes we have discussed in our class is on page 50.

“But in those days I took a rosy view of male nature. After an episode like that, grotesque and sad picture of my father and Nhamo in relation to Babamukuru and my cousin would come to my mind. I wanted my father and Nhamo to stand up straight like Babamukuru, but they always looked…………..He didn't need to be bold any more because he had made himself plenty of power. Plenty of power. Plenty of money. A lot of education. Plenty of everything.”(50)

It is of ones best interest to reread the entire passage. This passage discusses similarities in the plight of African American women and other women who are considered Black. Nervous Conditions speak on the plight of Black women being more than about race and gender, but about poverty and gender too. The passage gives room to compare the treatment of wives and daughters by husbands/fathers of poverty and wealth. Black men of poverty have more woes that are inflicted by other institutions, which lead them to inflict this same pain on their families. The narrator suggests, “They had to bully whoever they could to stay in the picture at all.”(50) Dangerembga compares Babamukuru to Jeremiah by their wealth, education, power possession, “evil wizards spell”, and composure.  

The passage insists that these men of poverty, who struggle,  need to have some sense of power. First, we have to define power. What is power? One is who has power is described as being male, being educated, having money, and being a good lover. Babamukuru is described as being powerful and educated, however, his brother Jeremiah does not have power nor education in the community. So, he attempts to proclaim his throne of power by bullying his wife and daughter. The lack of power in the “outside world” and the struggles and hardships of these men cause them to intensify the woes of their families such as Tambudzai and Ma’Shingayi. But, a powerful man like Babamukuru, who does not endure the struggles of a man of poverty because he is educated, wealthy, and powerful, does not bully his wife or children to give himself a sense of power and control since he has power in the “outside world”. The narrator exclaims, “Through hard work and determination he had broken the evil wizards’ spell. Babamukuru was not a person to be reckoned with in his own right. He didn't need to bully anybody anymore.”(50) He has no need to bully Maiguru or Nyasha because he lacks woes inflicted by other institutions like men who are impoverished and lack power in the “outside world”.  

It is an intra vs inter type of system. We are able to compare the plight of African American men, heaving the burden of African American women and other Black men presented in the novel. The branches of the the tree are different, but still bear the same fruit, in which Black men of America woes during this time (60s) stemmed from White America placing obstacles in their path. However, the novel presents a different oppressor. It seems as if it’s an intra system. The oppression is indirect and involves change and adaption. Overall, the wives and daughters of these men who lack power and struggle are bullied because of his wounds.

Do you agree with my analysis of this passage? What are your thoughts? Are you able to make other connections?

Nervous Conditions-Burdens and Sacrifices

It does not take long for readers to understand the first sentence of the novel and how at the end of chapter one Tambu grows to dislike everybody. (12) Tambu suffers from a problem we have seen a lot of our female characters struggle with, being regulated as unimportant based on their race and gender. One part of the novel that really caught my attention was the passage on page 16.  In this passage Tambu’s mother gives her a speech about the burdens that they as black women have to carry and how it is important to carry these burdens “with strength.’”(16). This part really frustrated me because it seems that in all the novels that we have read that many women recognized that they are oppressed and hindered by their race and gender but  few except the main characters of the story are truly bothered by these circumstances. I was curious why any mother would want their daughter to struggle under these burdens and learn to deal with them instead of throwing them off and striving to be more.  I see this type of thinking in many different characters such as Janie’s, Jacobs’, and Sula’s grandmothers and Nell’s mother. There are probably even more characters that fit this description.

The other part that frustrated me about this speech is the section about sacrifices. Why does Tambu have to learn how to sacrifice at an early age? Why are women the ones who have to accept and be the ones to sacrifice? A part of the speech is something that also seems like a repeat for me especially when I think about Janie’s grandmother speech about love. I think it is interesting who we are constantly seeing similar themes in stories about women who live different lives and even live in different parts of the world. 

Education in Nervous Conditions

In Nervous Conditions, we see the pedestal that education is put on, but it is only seen as a male opportunity and obligation. Babamukuru specifies this, “we need to ensure that at least one member from each is educated, at least to Form Four standard, because after that he will be in a position to take a course”(44). The emphasis is put on he, thus only affording males the right to be praised and put in positions of power. Babamukuru’s homecoming shows the extent that his family praises him as they refer to him as God and kneel in his presence.

The relationship between Babamukuru and the rest of the village reminds me of colonialism, where European ideology of non-western cultures contribute to intraracial dynamics. Babamukuru comes back from England with concerns and expectations of his people on how to achieve success in their lives, as he sees education is the only way to obtain success. Interestingly enough, when Jeremiah suggests that everyone graduates, Babamukuru is quick to shut him down, “that is not a useful contribution. We must look for useful solutions. We cannot afford to dream”(45) Babamukuru represented two colonial aspects: the disregard for native thoughts/opinions and the justification of biases. In the one breath, Babamukuru solidified the hierarchy of education by denouncing his brother’s statement and attributing the want of education for all as a dream. We see the effects of euro-centric ideology with Nhamo and his distancing himself from his native ways and we see Tambu struggle with not succumbing to English influences.

Much like the colonial pressure of educating "primitive people", Babamukuru's intentions establishes values of classism and the detachment of native practices and traditions. Education is important, but is it the answer for all cultures? Can it be implemented in ways that do not establish hierarchies and social statuses? 

Nervous Conditions

Dangerembga’s text certainly does stress the gender stereotypes of men and women. I was having trouble understanding why Ma’Shingayi’s (the daughter) parents were so unsupportive of her going to school and only supportive of her brother, Nhamo. A passage to refer to would be on page 15:

“In this way she [the mother] scraped together enough money to keep my brother in school. I understood that there was not enough money for my fees. Yes, I did understood why I could not go back to school, but I loved going to school and I was good at it. Therefore, my circumstances affected me badly. My father thought I should not mind.  ‘It that anything to worry about? Ha, its nothing,’ he reassured me, with his usual ability to jump whichever way was easiest. ‘Can you cook books and feed them to your husband? Stay at home with your mother. Learn to cook and clean. Grow vegetables.’”

Ma’Shingayi’s mother and further intentionally try to discourage her from wanting to go to school. Her mother reminds her that since she is a female that she will have to learn to sacrifice so that the male will have the opportunity instead, for instance her having to sacrifice her education so that her brother may have one instead. It was puzzling to me that her father was unsupportive of her going to school and telling her she will have her husband to rely on but that was not the case in their own family. Ma’Shingayi’s mother seemed to be doing most of the manual labor, such as tending to the crops and selling the vegetables to make sure that Nhamo could continue going to school, but the father failed to make an attempt to help. Jeremiah depended on his own brother’s education in order to support his own family and even Ma’Shingayi’s mother hoped that once Jeremiah’s brother left for England, it would give him the opportunity to become more responsible.             

                             

If Ma’Shingayi’s parents knew that this was what their life consisted of, especially her mother, why would she try to discourage her daughter from going to school and allowing her to be more independent? Their situation proves that relying on the man of the house is not always the ideal situation. Ma’Shingayi’s mother, father and brother consistently remind her that she cannot go to school because she is a girl and that that is just a burden that she will have to accept. 

Nervous Conditions and Gender Roles

A central theme of Nervous Conditions is Tambu's inability to attend school, due to the gender and racial constraints placed on her. Throughout the first few chapters, she points out that this came from all facets of her life -- her father, her brother, and her mother all tell her that she cannot go to school, that she will never be able to make it, that even if she could the skills that she will be learning will not be useful to her. Rather than internalize this, she fights against it from a very young age. "My mother said being black was a burden because it made you poor, but Babamukuru was not poor," she tells us. "My mother said being a woman was a burden because you had to bear children and look after them and the children. But I did not think this was true. ... [Maiguru] was altogether a different kind of woman from my mother. I decided it was better to be like Maiguru, who was not poor and had not been crushed by the weight of womanhood" (Conditions 16).

She looks at what her family are telling her and does not internalize the restrictions placed on her. When she wishes to sell her maize, she does so even though there is no one to encourage her, and grows resentful of the idea that she can only be a wife and never educated. When she is told that she cannot go to school because there is no money, she does not think of how unfair this is; she decides that she will make it for herself since her family will not provide for her. At the age of eight, she has learned that self-sufficiency is the most important thing. While she still faces backlash, in the end she manages to make the money that her parents did not provide. At every turn there are attempts to thwart her made by her brother and her father (and, more passively, her mother) but she does not allow herself to be deterred. What is important to her is education, and she does not see a difference between herself and her brother, even though she is a girl. When, in fact, her brother points out that the reason she cannot go to school is because she is a girl, she says, "I was no longer listening. My concern for my brother died an unobtrusive death" (Conditions 21).

Importantly, however, the restrictions being placed on her by the different members of her family are coming from different points of concern. Her father wishes to keep her under his thumb; he does not want her to make money on her own because when she does she will leave him and he will not receive any of the benefits. When she has made ten pounds from selling her maize, he fights with the headmaster on it, saying, "Have you ever heard of a woman who remains in her father's house? ... She will meet a young man and I will lose everything" (Conditions 30). He does not want his daughter to succeed unless he will see some of the rewards coming from it. Her mother, on the other hand, is coming from a place of resignation and the idea that women should take care of the household because it is the more moral thing to do. In her long paragraph on page 16, she asks her, "Aren't we the ones who bear children? When it is like that you can't just decide today I want to do this, tomorrow I want to do that, the next day I want to be educated! ... And these days it is worse, with the poverty of blackness on one side and the weight of womanhood on the other." There is not the selfishness here, but a concern for her daughter's future and a sense of obligation. Finally, her brother is simply doing as he has been taught. "Perhaps I am making it seem as though Nhamo simply decided to be obnoxious, when in reality that was not the case; when in reality he was doing no more than behave, perhaps extremely, in the expected manner" (Conditions 12). While she is angry at him, and has lost concern for him, she recognizes now, later in life, that he was not entirely in charge of the things he said and the way he treated her.

Regardless of the different perspectives, Tambu solemnly tells us, "Thinking about it, feeling the injustice of it, this is how I came to dislike my brother, and not only my brother, my father, my mother -- in fact everybody" (Conditions 12). With all of the different pressures and her inability to freely do as she wished, she grew to dislike and resent her whole family and everyone standing in her way.

Sacrifice and Self-Esteem in Nervous Conditions

     Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions highlights different yet converging themes of feminism in a transnational context. A principle premise of Conditions is Tambu's inability to attend school. The reason for this obstacle is mostly described as a sort of sacrifice. "I understood that there was not enough money for my fees. Yes, I did understand why I could not go back to school, but I loved going to school and I was good at it," the narrator writes (15). Perhaps viewing this as a sacrifice for her family's livelihood would've alleviated Tambu's pain. However, this sacrifice was not described to her as a familial duty or even a result of unfair structural issues. On the contrary, the sacrifice to not attend school was accepted and articulated as an expected norm as oppose to a necessary action for the wellbeing of the family. Indeed, it was supposed to be "natural" for Tambu to reject the whole notion of going to school. The narrator writes, "My yearning to go must have shown...because my father called me aside to implore me to curb my unnatural inclinations: it was natural for me to stay at home and prepare for the homecoming" (33). The use of the word natural deserves further analysis. 

     This essentialism attached to being a woman is fascinating. According to both her father and deceased brother Nhamo, Tambu should possess a natural affinity to the home. Even further, she shouldn't possess any interest at all outside of it. Her brother states this plainly to Tambu in an conversation arguing that, "I go to school. You go nowhere" (21). Members of Tambu's family are consistently reiterating the gender norms of her society. It is unnatural for her to go to school, her responsibilities as a woman already being established. 

     Even when Tambu finally is given the chance to go to school, she realizes the "self-esteem curb" she has to overcome. She was well aware of the shame her brother had for their way of living and had even accepted it as a shameful thing (12-14). Reflecting on her appearances as she heads to school, Tambu describes herself as a peasant, albeit physically almost exclusively. "It was evident from the corrugated black callouses on my knees, the scales on my skin that were due to a lack of oil, the short, dull tufts of my malnourished hair" (58). In this passage, the narrator describes the characteristics of a laborer as opposed to a student or scholar. This physical class status is a source of shame for Tambu, which is already layered with the fact that she is a young woman going to school. Regardless of these forces, Tambu takes full advantage of this opportunity to be educated. What I appreciate most about this text is the intersectional narrative that is embedded from the very beginning. It seems as if blackness is often conflated with class, a notion I look forward to deconstructing within our discussions. 

Nervous Conditions

There were instances of gender inequalities and I think that topic is something that is very fresh and very relevant in also today’s society. During the book it was very obvious that inequality played a tremendous factor in crushing the ambition of girls while also making them think twice before assisting future female generations.  During her book she is faced with times of hardship as females have little opportunity to succeed.

“And these days it is worse, with the poverty of blackness on one side and the weight of womanhood on the other. Aiwa! What will help you, my child, is to learn to carry your burdens with strength.”

She argues that being a black female is twice as hard. And I would agree, as if life of all females wasn’t hard enough I could only imagine how hard the life of a black female would be. Having even less opportunities because of their skin colors. Ma’Shingay tells her daughter that rather than fighting against the conditions she wants her to accept the conditions. In this quote I think it also shows the difference in the women and the tradition behind it as each attitude is very different. Ma’Shingay may seem very traditional but she also grows jealous of her brother in law an she is very much against how much society cherishes men over women and she sees the inequality. I thought this was a very important quote because it went along perfectly with the representation of inequality throughout the book as well as the strength black women need to having seeing that they have twice as much of a burden due to their gender and race.

-Sierra Romero

Warrior Marks or Symbolic Wounds?

While the film Warrior Marks effectively brings attention to the subject of Female sexual mutilation, it does so in a problematic way. The constant reference to female genital surgeries or female circumcisions as mutilation is one of the main points that complicates the film's ability to present a strong argument. I want to explore how Alice Walker is limiting the perception of female genital circumcision by referring to it as mutilation and comparing it to her own personal mutilation and also how she is framing the narrative and perpetuating an argument using her own feminist ideologies and paying little to no attention to other feminist perspectives on the matter.

Walker describes both examples of mutilation, her personal mutilation and the mutilation of African girls as something to overcome, a "warrior mark". She puts a heavy emphasis on turning wounds in to warrior marks and how overcoming these situations makes the survivors. The start of her argument not only situates this practice as mutilation, which is problematic in itself, but it also attributes this mutilation as a result of a men's need for control. She even goes as far as to assume the intentions of her brother shooting her in the eye as equalizes it to the intentions of men's need to control female sexuality.

In an article entitled, 'Virtuous Cuts, Female Genital Circumcision in an African Ontology, author Abusharaf states, "It can be argued that the differences in terminology not only reflect two divergent systems of knowledge, but also indicate some of the shortcomings of the feminist emphasis on the global uniformity of women's oppression irrespective of culture, class, or ethnic differences." (Abusharaf, 3). Essentially, the author is arguing that describing the issue of  female genital circumcision, despite the views on it, can reveal the limitations of some feminist perspective that do not take into account cultural, ethnic, or class differences.

These shortcomings as Abusharaf describes can be found in Alice Walker's comparison of her mutilation to that of what she feels is the female genital mutilation of African girls. As Abusharaf described, the terminology itself frames this topic as being something negative. Walker perpetuates this idea by equalizing her experience with mutilation to the mutilation of African girls. The connection she draws to justify her comparing the two is the idea of patriarchal control. While this idea is smart in that it reinforces Walker's argument, it does not take into account the feminist perspective that does not view this practice as mutilation at all.

Unlike the interviews that Walker places in the film, Asusharaf presents testimonials, in a sense, of several different women and their views on the practice of female genital circumcision. She does this in order to highlight the differences in ideologies and knowledge surrounding this topic. What is important to note is that she is not attempting to condemn or support this practice as a positive or negative thing. She is simply presenting the information and attributing the information given in the testimonies and translating them in support of the different ideologies.

Walker's framing of the questions during her interviews, by using phrases such as "don't you think" and "would you stop the tradition if you could", perpetuate her ideology of the practice, reinforces the idea that African women do have the freedom or power over the men in their community. And while these assumptions may be true on some level, Walker problematizes the perception of this practice by not exploring the very feminist reasoning for continuing the practice.

Walker's strong focus on the pain of the procedure, with the interpretive dancer and the voice over testimony of the women describing her surgery, all attempt to reinforce this practice as mutilation by evoking an emotional response from the viewers. Walker's lack of focus on the reasoning or societal benefits behind this practice and the beliefs that support it limit her ability to make a strong argument. In a narrative by Saadia, in Abusharaf's article, another ideology of the practice is presented. Saadia states, " I still remember the operation being painful, but to this day I believe it is necessary."(7)  Saadia, being a woman who has gone through this surgery, views this as a beneficial practice because she believes, unlike Walker, that this practice ensures women's beauty. Abusharah goes on to state, "the narrative above is a powerful reminder of how female bodies are recreated and socialized in different cultural contexts." (8) Essentially, Asbusharah states that in a community that strongly believes that the clitoris being homologous to the penis, it is understandable to view the removal of it as an ultimate display of femininity. Some consider what Walker deems a warrior mark, a "symbolic wound" (8), representing their own formulation of feminism.

Eurocentric Views on FGS

While watching the movie, “Warrior Marks” I was overcome with many of the same critiques Gunning articulates in her essay “Cutting through the Obfuscation: Female Genital Surgeries in Neoimperial Culture.” The film spends an incredible amount of time exotisizing various stereotypical representations of “Africa.” The film rests on close up shots of despondent looking women and girls, and clips of a women performing African dance. Her dance is striped of any original meaning and recontextualized to represent the pain of genital mutilation surgery with an “African” twist. Interspersed between clips are interviews with Walker posing extremely leading and outright condescending questions to her interviewees. Problematic, to say the least.

 My own concerns with the film were mirrored in Gunning’s essay. She discusses the “Eurocentric” lens Walker and Parmar take in making the film, which promote a decontextualized representation of FGS. This representation failed to acknowledge Walker and Parmar’s own privileges as Westerners and wipes away all of the incredible diverse and complicated ways FGS are enacted in a variety of settings. Though Gunning’s essay does not specify or elaborate on any of the diverse ways in which these practices are realized in different societies, she simply offers a claim at the end of her paper for more research into the matter.

While I appreciate Gunning’s acknowledgment of the problematic discourse surrounding FGS, I am still questioning what right the west has in intruding on another culture. What allows “us” to conduct this unsolicited research on other societies and decide if it needs further legislation? I would assume researchers must proceed with caution to avoid the age-old trap of “othering” a community and further imposing Western help on an issue with which communities aren’t asking help.

            Abusharaf’s essay addresses the more specific practices that Gunning’s essay only alludes to. Abusharaf delves into the stories of women who have had direct experience with FGS. I found this to be an extremely enlightening ethnographic work. She presents their narratives in full, allowing their work to (for the most part) speak for itself. Though the questions she asks, and the contexts in which she spoke with these women are absent, the narratives still provide great insight into the complicated ways these women are navigating very specific societal practices.

In Aziza’s story, for example, it appears as though she used her surgery to avoid marital rape. She says, “I got married and from the first day, I suffered. After giving birth, like the rest of women, I demanded re-infibulaiton… Now, I only have sex on Thursdays” (9). From her story it seems that she married young and after not desiring sex, used her FGS as an agent in securing that goal.

Conversely, Suaad used the practice for increased sexual pleasure. She says, ”When the vaginal opening is narrow and tight, the woman enjoys the friction, and the man enjoys a long intercourse…” (10). Abusharaf’s article does a great job of presenting the many complex ways in which women narrate their navigation through their cultures, oppressions, lives while asserting agency. Women use FGS in asserting their power in their married life, and in their communities.

Warrior Marks: A Story of Blindness

            At the beginning of Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar’s film, Warrior Marks, Alice Walker includes a story of her own experience with mutilation as a child when her brother shot her in the eye and blinded her. She expressed the lack of support she felt from her family, the stigmatization she experienced at school, and the disability that this mutilation created. While I in no way mean to belittle the harm that befell her as an individual, I was very taken aback by her blatant comparison of her own wound and those created by the practices of female circumcision. I was relieved to read in the first few pages of Isabelle Gunning’s article that I was not alone in this thought. Gunning points out that “Some see her analogy between female genital mutilation and her own partial blindness, the result of an accident caused by her brother, as self-aggrandizing” (205). While I am not sure that I would make quite as strong a claim as that, I certainly felt that this comparison implied ignorance of the practice on Walker’s part, or if not ignorance, a willingness to reduce the practice to its most basic state.

            Rogaia Abusharaf’s essay on the same topic takes great care to speak through the voices of women who have themselves experienced the practice through the use of narratives, rather than speaking on their behalf or for them as Walker seems to do in utilizing her own narrative as a comparison. As such, I would like to explore the instances where Walker’s own story diverges from those presented in Abusharaf’s article to better understand how Walker’s comparison may have muddled her own idea on an appropriate approach to addressing the issue of what she calls female genital mutilation.

First, Walker recounts in her story that after a week after her mutilation, her parents ignored her pain and suffering, leaving her to endure it alone. While some of the narratives spoke to this, Najat recalls that “people around you pay no attention,” others expressed great concern for their own daughters after their circumcisions and are sure to take care of them (11). Asha, for example speaks to the complications her own daughter experienced with great concern (14). As such, I feel that Walker’s comparison encourages a very detached, unaffectionate, perhaps even hostile view of mothers who circumcise their daughters, which many of Abusharaf’s recounted narratives dispel.

 A second consequence of her mutilation that Walker recounts is the dismissal that she experienced at school as a result of her injury. This experience greatly diverges from those recounted by Abusharaf. Zakia informs readers that “A lot of people I know who live there practice sunna for cleanliness” (9). Most of the narratives in this piece, in fact, recount that circumcision is very common, if not the norm in Douroshab. As such, the likelihood that any girl would face any prejudice within her community for being circumcised is highly unlikely. Rather, it seems as if there is more of a stigma surrounding not being circumcised. As such, Walker’s comparison projects her own feeling of being an outsider onto the women who engage in this dominant practice, which encourages viewers to sympathize with these “victims” of circumcision, not for the physical pain they endure but for the feeling of being an outcast, when this is not the case.

Finally, Walker spoke to the issues that she had as a child navigating and living her daily life as a result of her mutilation. While it is undeniable, as many of the narratives detail, that there are physical limitations associated with female circumcision, these narratives also include many benefits that those who partake in the practice value. Najat, for example explains, "Pharaonic circumcision is good for women. It protects the dignity of women. The woman will have control over her body...her circumcision will allow her to take control" (11). Similarly, Suaad mentions that she feels that "sex is better with pharaonic" (10).  Others, like Zakia, express that "the people who support the sunna believe strongly that it keeps the genital area clean" (9). I do not mean to overlook the complications and pain that undoubtedly come along with female circumcision. Merely, I mean to draw attention to the fact that Walker's comparison of her own mutilation creates a view of female circumcision that has no other purpose besides wounding or inflicting pain on girls. 

I greatly respect Alice Walker as an activist and feminist and I too see the many problems that female circumcision can present. With that said, I feel that Warrior Marks and the story that Alice Walker includes to personally tie herself to this practice and speak on behalf of these women is a problematic presentation of the issue. I believe that it reduces the practice to nothing more than torture and fails to make any attempt to understand the motivations behind this practice. Until the practice itself is understood, it cannot successfully be challenged, or else all attempts to do so will appear as mere ignorant attacks rather than presentations of alternatives. 

Cultural Context and Genital Cutting

Female genital cutting is a topic that is much more complicated than I originally knew. After reading Virtuous Cuts: Female Genital Circumcision in an African Ontology by Abusharaf, I question the extent to which Walker uses a context based intersectional feminist lens in the film Warrior Marks. Abusharaf states that “in this essay, I want to shift the emphasis from agency and autonomy to a discussion of the ideology that shapes women’s participation in the ritual” (@). Throughout the essay, she emphasizes the importance of listening to women’s stories, understanding the cultural context of genital cutting, and understanding the reasons why it is perpetuated. It seems that Walker uses this film to further her own feminist beliefs rather than considering the context of the topic.

A critical distinction between Abusharaf’s text and Walker’s work is their understanding of who perpetuates this practice. Abusharaf claims that women continue this tradition, stating that “as far as this ritual is concerned, women have the upper hand in determining when, how, and where a girl will be excised” (@). Abusharaf highlights the voices of women who have experienced genital cutting and crafts her argument around these testimonials. She emphasizes the importance of the anti-colonial context in the perpetuation of genital cutting that Walker does not mention in the film. Furthermore, she attempts to understand how women like Najat view circumcision as having power, why circumcision is viewed as making women more beautiful and pure, how it distinguishes men from women in some regions, etc. She summarizes that “To Saadia, Aziza, and Zakia, circumcision is important because it gives voice to gender and collective ethnic identity” (@). It is thus important to note that “there is no singular, oppressive patriarchal discursive practice that leads women to perpetuate their own injury. Within the complex symbolic and social context of circumcision practices, women see their participation as voluntary” (@). Abusharaf takes time to consider the context of this practice and how the women who experience it view it as relating to their identity and power.

However, Walker sees female genital mutilation as a sign of patriarchy, a practice controlled by men that makes women passive and voiceless. Yet the women she chooses to interview are either educators who work for NGO’s or other organizations, or the woman in a village who performs the cuts. During this conversation, Walker counters the legitimacy of her work, asking questions in a superior tone, like she is the more informed feminist and she is blaming them for perpetuating a practice that she views as torturous. She treats another woman she interviews (who has just circumcised her 4 year old daughter) similarly, asking her questions that start with “don’t you think”, which basically imposes other beliefs onto someone. She speaks for the excised women, which is what Abusharaf rejects. All we see as viewers is the faces of terrified young girls and the interpretative dancer who recreates the pain of the cutting. This reinforces the image of African women as primitive, unable to make informed decisions. To further problematize this, Walker bases her entire understanding of genital cutting on her own visual disability, comparing them to such an extent that I think disregards the context of the practice disrespectfully. I was bothered by Walker’s insensitivity, and although I do not particularly agree that culture always justifies all practices, Walker does not begin to seriously consider the voices of women who support this practice. 

Anouk

Different Strokes for Different Folks

A surface reading of The Project Chick by Nikki Turner might yield an interpretation that that the themes and characters presented in the novel represent a rhetoric that encourages traditional gender roles, and the submission and objectification of women. However after looking deeper within the text and taking account of intersections of race, class and gender, details of the story contain a more feminist framework than what might initially be assumed. A good way to identify feminist tendencies in this novel is to pay close attention to the women, the ways in which they exercise power and agency, and understanding the complexities of the roles the men in their lives play.

Looking specifically at Tressa, it is important to understand that class, access and income are factored into her romantic relationships, thus forcing her to be cognizant of her financial well-being when making decisions regarding the men in her life. While her reliance on men might seem at first to fall within the bounds of gendered norms, much of it is rooted less in companionship and more in the affordances, both material and otherwise, that the men she is involved with can offer her. In the same vein, she must consider what can be lost in severing ties with the men in her life and how it might impact her reality. This is evident in all of her relationships as she closely considers what each potential partner can offer her, measuring the risks against the rewards. The men who are allowed to be in Tressa’s life must have something significant to offer up that will benefit her life and her circumstances. Her relationships with men, while on the surface, seem to revolve around and run by them, are actually motivated by her personal necessities and desires. The men in, or potentially in, her life, are valued for their resources and serve as a source of Tressa’s survival. Tressa’s priority is the well-being and safety of herself and her family, and her environment is set up in such a way that a part of ensuring that security has to do with how a man might able to contribute. Her decisions then, are strategic and while they might not overcome historicized and instutionalized gender, racial and class oppressions, she exercises power by working within her reality and being the ultimate decider over those actions that fall within her control.

If we bind notions and definitions of feminism to specific traits such as, independence, financial and otherwise, from men, we disregard other ways in which women might claim or exercise independence. This therefore excludes as well as disregards, narratives in which women are navigating intersections of gender, class and racial oppressions. Turner’s A Project Chick, and Tressa herself as an embodiment of intersectional feminism, to a substantial degree, help to expand an understanding of feminism which makes it possible to view it through a variety of lenses and from multiple angles. One of the most important characteristics of feminism and feminist thought is its plurality. It is important to be aware of the bounds in which some women with certain identities might be working within, that are different from those narratives that have in the past, and today still, represent [mainstream] feminism.