“It seems to me that obliviousness
about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept
strongly inculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of
meritocracy the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all.” (McIntosh) The policing of women’s bodies, such that implement barriers on women consistently prevail invisible to the male
counterpart. The most damaging effects of these values preside on white males especially, who are innately privileged up until manhood. Most people living with this advantage either rarely notice it or if they do, dismiss their advantage over women. It is an easy position for men to take when the circumference of the matter disregards issues concerning themselves. Certain innate
boundaries are presented onto women that affect their natural development from early on, however women undergo a certain list of rules of do's and don'ts that are unapparent to the male species. “I have met very few
men who are truly distressed about systemic, unearned male advantage and
conferred dominance.” (McIntosh)
Poetry is one of many outlets in which women may hold onto their self-identity despite every other aspect of her life, which attempts to
overlook it. It is the release from strict rules that "make sense" while freedom of expression through words which don't make sense are actually distinguished more reasonably. “Women see ourselves
diminished or softened by the falsely benign accusations of childishness, or
nonuniversality, of changeability, of sensuality.” (Lorde, 372) Women begin every argument at a disadvantage, since our society bestows rather unlikely stereotyped preconceived identities onto women, focusing on any noticeable abnormal action. It is widely accepted that TV shows and movies may depict a stereotypical modern male with an above average modern woman, but hardly are the roles ever reversed, that would just look stupid. Seth Rogen is
a actor, one of many who are often casted the average dude who depicted not very well comparably to his hot girlfriend. Try and put the roles in reverse, just try, notice most
fat and less-attractive women play character roles often addressing their own weight as a problem. What the
media and television does that portrays women helplessly in obedient roles in dire
need of the male counterpart; it de-stigmatizes the values of our characterizations of our
stereotyped roles in our taxonomy. Men
love it! A token woman will usually play the supportive housewife role, because her part helps to make the world go round rather than stand alone as the sole factor, cause and effect.
The policing of women on
themselves results from exposure to such popular media platforms, which allows women to believe they are overweight, or too ugly or God-forbid too outspoken. These characterizations mislead that communal understanding of one's rightful role to play in our taxonomy. Yet while women bring attention to
these figures and the media realizes the importance of women empowerment, we
begin to see self-independent “average” women inspiring female spectators to
embrace their averageness; even in a TED Talk, a model exposes her secrets from learning of the media techniques to portray non-existent women that girls can aspire to, yet never quite satisfy these policed set of standards. Women are deemed less important through such values and despairingly confine themselves to assimilate to these perpetuated subjective beliefs often created by non-women.
“Tell them about how you’re never really a whole person if
you remain silent, because there’s always that one little piece inside you that
wants to be spoken out, and if you keep ignoring it, it gets madder and madder
and hotter and hotter, and if you don’t speak it out one day it will just up
and punch you in the mouth from the inside” (Lorde, 42) We
rob ourselves of the right to speak for ourselves by remaining silent and
passively accepting these social roles.
Women are responsible for their own agency and waiting silently for
the male gaze to approach only allows for a chance of harm to evade their self-respect. Women are not born oppressed, they hear and feel oppression growing up. Determined by much of their own naivety, the superficial mindset of what's right for women and wrong for women instills values onto women that are transparent and demoralizing.
Instead of women attempting to
manipulate the situation they often cohere to it. “Bombarded with warped images
of their humanity, some black women tilt and bend themselves to fit the
distortion.” (Perry, 29) Women’s bodies are not only policed by our surroundings
but in turn we police ourselves, struggling to fit in the social construction that
society portrays us in. By allowing the
oppositional understanding to proceed with ideas that support limitations to our social
capabilities is just the same as allowing the self-destructive manners to ourselves to prevail. “Even when they saw my role as being the Korean spokesman, I saw myself as a student.” (Nam, 178) Nam, an Asian-American, wrote this in a reference to her childhood teacher, when he asked of her to explain her culture to the classroom. Assuming that as
she was Korean, the teacher believed she must know so much more than he that she is obligated teach the class. But this social classification only made Nam
feel uncomfortable, since she was a young student at the time and heavily and
unjustly stereotyped or rather policed by her teacher.
The policing of women in various
stereotypical groups places a stagnant, annoying elephant in the
room. Women whom try to see themselves as men
do lose their own self-dependency in shaping and categorizing their own bodies and opinions to the liking
of the male. As one of my professors at Hunter College puts it, “that you should have the freedom to have sex in whatever position you want and not have to worry which position you look good in” is one good start to female expression.
We base too many of our own standards on how we think we will be
judged by non-conformist social idealists that adhere to hundred year-old laws. The solution: policing men? Let the long
overdue parole time of women end?
Gay, Roxane.
"The Alienable Rights of Women." Bad Feminist: Essays.
Print.
Harris-Perry, Melissa V. Sister
Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America.
New
Haven: Yale UP, 2011. Print.
Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider. New
York: Crossing, 1985. Print.
McIntosh, Peggy. White Privilege:
Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. S.l.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Nam, Vickie. YELL-Oh Girls! NY:
Harper Collins, 2001. Print.
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