Assignment 3

The article Global Women by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild really made an impression on me because it opened my eyes to “globalization.” Since many First World female workers move up and succeed in tough “male world” careers, many of those women have to depend on women from the Third World to care for their children, elderly parents, and homes. So, while many people have the illusion that affluent career women “do it all,” this is untrue because it is the domestic workers and nannies that are the ones who clean the house, feed and bathe the children, and cook—and then fade away from sight as if they never existed. This idea of “globalization” also makes me think about Carmen’s Cosmo advertisement of the house-wife fitting into her itty-bitty jeans and seemingly being able to “do it all.” After reading the Global Women article, it made me wonder about what’s really going on in the magazine advertisement: Is the woman really “doing it all?” Or does she depend on a domestic worker from the Third World to do all of her work for her while she just pretends to “do it all?”

Another article that I found to be interesting is titled, Age, Sex, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference by Audre Lorde. Lorde—who is a “forty-nine-year-old Black lesbian feminist mother of two”(245)—discusses the problem of systematized oppression, where anyone who is not the “mythical norm”—as Professor Messner describes it—is dehumanized and thus, considered as an inferior in our society. Lorde emphasizes the fact that “old patterns, no matter how cleverly rearranged to imitate progress, still condemn us to cosmetically altered repetitions of the same old exchanges, the same old guilt, hatred, recrimination, lamentation, and suspicion” (249). Society tends to misname, harass, and sometimes ignore those who are “inferior.” A great example of this is the presentations that were presented in class. Apart from the Boyz N The Hood portion, everyone’s presentations concentrated around the White culture—excluding the various other numerous cultures and races.

In response to Professor Messner’s question…I believe that on a personal/individual level, “situated knowledge” is an impediment to seeing the world clearly. People who see the world through only their own “situated knowledge” are more likely to be narrow minded because their “situated knowledge” is only grounded in their own gender, race, and class. Thus, at a personal/individual level, “situated knowledge” only hinders one’s ability to see the world clearly. However, if one were to consider the “situated knowledge” of others from a different gender, race, class, and sexual orientation, their horizons would be broadened drastically.