When I started taking this class, I wasn’t sure what I was going to learn or what topics we would be discussing. I had this idea that we were going to spend most of the class talking about women’s struggles in America and what was going on here. Considering the name of the class is Women and Writing Worldwide, I don’t exactly know how I got to that conclusion. Being exposed to all of these different cultures and learning about how different those cultures are from our own. The one concept that has stood out the most to me throughout this semester is the concept that even though the people in all cultures experience similar hardships, every individual has different experiences and doesn’t always relate to the problems of the group. This concept as we learned is better known as intersectionality and has been something that I always come back to. No matter what we read or watch, I’m always thinking about how intersectionality applies to it and it always does. Something I’ve learned from this class, which may not have been an objective of this class, is that a lot of Americans are very sheltered. Sure, we learn about the world and the history of different places, but they really only teach us about the good things. We hear the occasional story of sacrifices from people like the Mayans or the Aztecs, and all of the wars that have plagued our great country, but those still fall under the category of good. Now, when I say good I should probably clarify what I mean. Everything that we learn in history class has an attractiveness to it. It is something that we gravitate to because of how interesting it all is. Its so foreign and different and so wild that we don’t even believe it all could have even happened. It is all so far fetched but there’s proof and remnants in our society that prove to us it is true. What we don’t learn about until we reach the collegiate level is what we’re learning in this class; the individual struggle of women across the world.
Most recently, we watched a Ted Talk by Sisonke Msimang where she discusses stories and the impact she believes that they have on the world. After listening to her speak I think that I really agree with her sentiments. Stories are great but they can also be dangerous, and that is one of the reasons that Americans have such a poor understanding of what it is like to live in another country. These stories that try to explain how hard it is for people of other cultures, and more specifically women for this class, but they don’t always get their point across well. They tend to write stories about stereotypical problems that they believe the culture to have, which spreads the idea of intersectionality and widens the gap between the reality of the problems that these women experience and the stereotypes that are created from the assumptions about their culture. It’s the stories by women who have experienced the culture they are writing about that write the most genuine stories and are the ones we should look to teach us. These unfortunately are often times the stories people don’t read as often because they don’t believe them as much as they do the stereotyped stories because they believe the stereotyped stories to be true. Under the Udala Trees was one of the most intriguing stories I’ve ever read and it is the most I’ve felt like I’ve learned something new in a long time. Ijeoma’s struggles with her sexuality and the way she was perceived by her mother and everyone around her was so shocking to me because I didn’t realize how difficult things were for gay women in Nigeria. To be honest, I didn’t even think of gay women’s struggles in Nigeria, it just wasn’t one of the things I associated Nigeria with. Not only was there that dynamic, there is also the separation between the two parts of Nigeria that were at war with each other. The physical difference, the social difference, it was just so much to take in and for there to be a romantic relationship between two women from warring parts of the country, you just don’t hear these real stories from most authors. This story and the documentart we watched in class that focused on the difference of two different girls in India and how their families raised them. One was a girl who takes part in beauty pageants and focuses her time on her looks and her parents are extremely supportive of her. The other is a girl who’s parents think that beauty pageants are disgraceful and whoo live in a part of India where women are less revered. The parents actually decide whether or not the female children live. It was so interesting and alarming to see what these people go through in other cultures and it really opened my mind.
Seeing as I believe that the problem of humanity is that they don’t know enough about each other to appreciate or help make each other’s lives easier, I think it is important for people to learn about how women around the world all have their own problems and they are more than the group they associate with. Sure having a group is a good thing and helps us to connect to others, but it is also dangerous and leads us to make assumptions about people we don’t know about. In order to make the word a better place, we first have to learn about it and that is why I think classes like this one are so important. Teaching the concept of intersectionality to people who don’t know about it, opens the minds of people who can contribute good to society. Women around the world are struggling to make their stories heard and don’t know how to get the help they need, and I believe this education is the first step.
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