Blog Assignment

Audre Lorde's "Age, Race, Class, and Sex" and Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild's "Global Woman" were all good reads and I was very interested in the ideas that each one presented. "Global Woman" was a very interesting read because it demonstrated the effects and how gender roles extend to housekeeping. I was surprised in how the nannies made sure that the men could avoid the feminine tasks. Although the story had a slight satirical tone it strongly conveyed the hard lives of how woman had to leave their friends, family, and home in hopes of creating a better life for their family. This article deeply impacted me because my grandmother has a very similar story. My grandmother moved out from the Philippines in hopes of helping her family financially. But directly relating back to the article I found that the women willing to put their lives on the line for their family were very selfless and family oriented.
Lorde’s article “Age, Race, Class, and Sex” also sparked my interests because of how it portrayed the views of the oppressed and the dynamic relationship they share with those who oppress them. Society uses various characteristics to choose what groups are superior to others in this article it is specifically age, race, class and sex. As Messner said in his discussion there is a “mythical norm” that society aims at people being and if you don’t have all the qualities of the “mythical norm” than you are a repressed individual in America. I found that this article related directly to me because many qualities of the “mythical norm” I do not possess. Overall I believe that Lorde’s article was a strong piece that made me rethink how certain actions can affect (or oppress) another person.