blog post #4

When I read “Not You/Like You: Postcolonial Women and the Interlocking Questions of Identity and Difference” by Trinh T. Minh-ha I thought about a conversation that I has recently had with one of my friends. We talked about what it is to “matter.” I think Minh-ha brings us all back to the idea that to be recognized as who we are, even if it is something beyond the traditional is what is important to us. To disregard any social ideal such as race or gender is just as discriminating as overly acknowledging. Because race and gender and other social constructs are a part of who we are. My expereinces as a white female have shaped who I am today. That isn't to say that I am the same as every white female but the stereotypes associated within my social construct did affect how I had to approach things throughout my life. Just as we cannot say that our parents did not influence us at all we cannotsay that the situation we grew up in and were born into has no affect on ourselves. To equalize myself with someone else would undermine their own personal experiences and could erase them. I think feminism is not in search of equality necessarily but treatment of the individual. I cannot say that I am equal to a man because I am different from man and have different experiences not just because of my gender but because of who I am outside of my gender as well.

Before this class, I was always speaking about feminism in a sense that we are all equal, but after reading more and more different feminist pieces the language that I use when I speak of feminism has changed. Instead, I ask for openness towards myself and others.

Minh-ha seems to ask for the same thing. We cannot be defined by our differences but neither can we forget them because they do play a part.