After reading the other blogs many of the students seemed to be taken aback by the separation of slavery. The idea that men remain outdoors to fulfill their slave work such as working on the farms where as the women stayed inside and managed the household chores. Although I strive for equality in the this semesters readings women have always been viewed as inferior, feeble and incapable so to me it only seems natural for the female slaves to work inside while the males remain outside. However, what did surprise me was the extreme stereotype, “Africans were regarded as lazy but strong, Chinese coolies were described as … diligent, modest, agreeable people.” When referencing to labor power and work and dividing in into different pools of race I found it to be very blunt and extremely inaccurate. It is barbaric that everyone has to be labeled before they even act or speak. If a black female was is to stand in front of me the readings are essentially labeling her as lazy but strong because she is African American, and unintelligent, passive and unable because she is a women, that’s not even including her appearance because we all know appearance whether referring to body type, hair, attire, or makeup contribute to first impression.
The idea of “labor power” breaking labor into different pool of race and gender does not surprise me. The book mentions that women were more important to the world market for labor power as producers and reproducers of labor power, however they make it clear that is no way does that mean they are treated more considerately, their qualities were just used more significant of labor power. When women were superior they made it clear that they were not treated any more significantly. This raised the question for me that if men were more beneficial to the world market for labor power would they have been treated differently?
What I found most interesting about the reading was the idea that we must engage with Afghani women’s own experiences of their life in Pakistani refugee camps in our to understand how different forces whether religious or political create an unfair situation for female refugees. If women and children made up 75 percent of the refugee camps how is it possible that their voice and opinion were unheard? Even the idea “majority rules” doesn’t pertain when gender is an issue. There only hope for peace was a government that included two women but how can we say that even because they are in government they aren’t being overruled?
October 29, 2009 at 4:47 pm |
I was so surprised when they talked about that women were only important as producers. I think that should make women more important in the society because they are the one’s who have babies.