In the chapter, “Policing Gender Lines,” from
the book Invisible No More, Andrea J. Ritchie examines the intersectional
relationship between race and gender when it comes to experiences of police
brutality. However, while her analysis was a compelling one, especially since
it reveals the complexities behind the various systems and structures of power
in relation to patriarchy and white supremacy, what moved me the most within
her piece was her ability to highlight the brave organizing, activism, and
mobilization from women of color and gender non-conforming individuals alike.
In a time where the agency of women and other minorities are often overlooked
or ignored altogether, I think it’s crucial that we take the time to applaud
whenever women’s agency is being discussed and highlighted.
As I previously mentioned, when it comes to
women’s ability to exercise personal and political agency, this aspect is
hardly discussed or highlighted, which can be severely problematic since it
strips this idea of agency from our general image of women and implies that women,
even when they’re victims, do not have a sense of agency at all. What this lack
of agency can do, unfortunately, is reinforce this gendered hegemonic discourse
over how women should behave or present themselves and how little agency women
should ever exercise, if any. However, as we can see from Ritchie’s book, when
women, primarily women of color, are presented as having a strong sense of
political agency, it completely transforms the way women and the issue gets
discussed.
For example, when women and gender non-conforming individuals exercise
their agency and make their voices and demands heard, the issue is no longer
just an issue—it is now an issue that women and others involved are taking
ahold of and formulating solutions that work for them. While there are cases in
which others step in and draft solutions for issues that concern women, what
this does is it strips women from any voice or involvement in the same issue
that primarily affected them more so than anyone else. Therefore, if we want to
improve traditional constructions of women and womanhood, than by presenting
women as autonomous beings is a good way to start changing the normative gender
ideals our society so strongly holds.
Seeing how important it is to highlight the
autonomy of women when dealing with gendered discriminatory issues, I couldn’t
help but think back to when Latinas began to take ownership of their
disadvantages position within the women’s movement of the 20th
century. Considering the racial tensions of the 60s and 70s, the women’s
movement inevitably became a movement that focused mainly on the issues that
only white middle class women faced, not the rest of the poor marginalized
women of color. Therefore, in response to this, Latinas and other women of
color began to exercise their political agency and were able to make their
demands for justice heard. Therefore, as we can see, when women of color are
confronted with issues, they don’t just sit back and wait for someone to rescue
them. On the contrary, women of color use their agency and organize, mobilize,
and collectively fight to change their realities. The best part of this display
of agency, however, is that, in my opinion, it teaches young girls about the
importance of speaking up and exercising the agency that we all have by virtue
of being human beings.
https://www.hamptoninstitution.org/images/latina.JPG
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