#i think i made a similar one because i saw someone define white feminism

[intersectionalitywomenswriting]

Reflection

For my commonplace book, I focused on the topic of intersectionality. It was a topic that stuck with me when we learned about it at the beginning of the summer. I think it was something that struck me with so much interest is because it seems like something so simple that I have acknowledged before but never knew there was an actual term for this. It was also a huge shock to hear about how our legal system doesn’t usually consider intersectionality. Intersectionality, to me, really means acknowledging how people are not all the same, and everyone has may different aspects and traits that are brought together to create them.

           At the top of my page, I define what intersectionality is along with a little diagram of it to help. I talk about how it is about how all the different social categories of a person fit and intersect. So, this could be what gender or race you are. But it could also be about what kind of education someone has had, someone’s economic status, or their sexuality. When finding how these things intersect with each other and create a new unique situation is what intersectionality it. The women that coined this term “intersectionality” is Kimberlé Crenshaw. She is a social activist who is also a professor. She created this term to help try and break down the hierarchy of race. While some believe that it creates more of a division at the social level, that is not her intent for intersectionality is. What Crenshaw wants is for people to see how differently a black woman will live from a white woman. The best example of this is the one she provided in her Ted Talk; this is also on my commonplace book. There was a black woman who applied for a job at a mechanics shop but did not get the job. She had a feeling this was because of discrimination, so she sued them and went to trial. But the court ruled it to be nothing, their evidence was they hire black people, and they hire women already, so how could they discriminate? While they hired black people, all of them were men. And while they did hire women, all of them were white. So, they did not hire black women. This case would have been ruled very differently if the courts viewed the case of discrimination against black women, not as two separate cases of black people and women. When they saw it as two different things, there was no case, but when it is viewed as one combined case, the case would have gone a lot differently. Crenshaw’s point with intersectionality is not to create another form of feminism where more labels are put on people. But it is to break down the race hierarchy and hopefully show people that no person is exactly alike. In cases like this, the legal system can create a way that helped connect the two things instead of dealing with them as separate.

Shawn Burns wrote some about intersectionality and the importance of connecting social categories. The quote that I have added to my Tumblr page states how gender is intersectional because everyone experiences it differently from the other aspects of their lives. I thought this quote was significant because it captures what intersectionality is all about and how it is connected to feminism.  This quote came from a reading we had in class from Burns. Burns conveys how vital intersectionality is because it allows us to understand the context of a person’s life fully. When we can’t understand how being a woman gives some similar experiences, but overall, everyone’s experiences are different, then there will never be progress in the feminist movement. Burns talks about how a real global feminist will make sure to recognize diversity, as well.

We have seen many examples of this and learned a lot about this diversity through the class. I feel that I am a lot more educated now and feel more confident about global feminism. We have spent a couple of different weeks learning about Muslim women and their oppression. The most important objective I learned this summer is not to believe in every stereotype. And the other is to be careful how that I, as a privileged woman living in the US, would try to help women in the middle east. Sometimes when a privileged feminist strives to assist a woman in the middle east, they will be making them feel more oppressed. An excellent example of this is when someone thinks that a Muslim woman is oppressed because they are being “forced” to cover up and wear their hijab, but they choose to wear their hijab for their religion and beliefs. When someone who doesn’t understand this comes in and tries to change it for them it can be hurtful. This is where intersectionality is essential. They are all women and feel the oppression from that, the way other social categories like religion intersect with each person’s lives. This makes a difference in how everyone experiences their lives and how they choose to live their lives. People need to understand intersectionality and diversity to make a change in the global feminist movement.

Trying to make a change for the better in the present time, global feminist is something everyone is still fighting for. It is always a battle that women are taking on everywhere. It saddens me to think about how intersectionality was a term Crenshaw began to use back in 2016, and we are now in 2020, still with the same fights for human rights. There is a post in my commonplace book that I reblogged from our class because I liked what another student wrote. She talked about how sad we still have this same issue happening, but that at least in today’s world, it is a bit different type of fighting. Today, the issues are not just shut out; they are talked about. While there are many arguments among people, they are talking about the issue, which seems to be making a difference—issues among human rights used to be just shut out and not spoken about. Now people are speaking up and making these issues more prominent rather than kept to themselves; one of the things making a difference is this understanding of intersectionality. While there is still a significant issue behind human rights, intersectionality is becoming more of an understanding of the public. We see how all the discrimination someone faces could be doubles when two social categories intersect in their lives. There seems to be more urgency to help those who may be put in a lot of social categories discriminated against. Intersectionality is also just something that is discussed more among the public. When discussed and talked about more, that understanding begins to form more, and there is a change being made among the people as they understand more.

Another way the issues have changed is the support within social categories, and from one discriminated group to another. There is such power behind numbers, and people have taken this to the max. One of the posts on my commonplace book is of women altogether, showing how they are all different. I think it is imperative to show how these ladies are entirely different. Still, they are there to support one another because they all know what it feels like to be a woman and be discriminated against because of being a woman. But there is also a lot of support from different social groups that are also discriminated against. An excellent example of this was recently while the BLM movement was all over everywhere, and everyone was talking about it. There was protest everywhere, and it was also pride month. But the LGBT+ communities, who would typically be celebrating for themselves during that month, took it and supported the BLM movement instead for the most part. They also know how it feels not to be given their fundamental human rights, so in the wake of the BLM movement, they supported their black friends instead. This support of other social groups is showing support for intersectionality. Like with my example, I recently used how the LGBT+ community was supporting the BLM movement, there could be many people there with intersectionality that are a part of both these groups. Intersectionality, I think, is the reason for all of the support among the different groups. This intersectionality is what has brought these groups together.

Intersectionality is a crucial thing for everyone to learn about because it could be something a person is experiencing without even knowing. I am pleased that it is something that we took the time to learn about this semester. The progress we have seen in the feminist movement is due to the amazing women, like the ones we have learned about this summer. But I also think that without intersectionality, there would be no progress in the movement.

[beataborosunit23-blog1]

Evaluation

Which two new techniques or did you use during this project?

I used the light-room technique to edit my images and sort them before using Photoshop to alter them and I used part of the Halftone tutorial to edit my images in Photoshop. 

 What potential do these techniques have? What can you achieve with them? What could you do with them that you didn’t try?

 I think there is a lot of potential in the lens-based techniques and the other Photoshop techniques that i haven’t tried. I would have liked to try to make my images with the curves and gradients tutorial and experiment with that because i think that was a really interesting and useful technique to learn. I also wanted to try the studio based work with the coloured filters because i think that would have made my images look more interesting and even though i would have needed a different approach to take my images I think i would have been better because it would have looked more real and not edited although i was going for the edited look with my final idea.

Exactly what materials did you use during the creation of your final piece? What did you need each one for? What else could these materials be used for that you didn’t try?  How did you experiment during the process of making your final piece? What experiments did you undertake?

To make my final images i used the studio in college to take my images in. I used a light and a soft box with hot shoe attached to them and white background to get the high key look. I then used Light-room to do basic editing in my images before opening them in Photoshop and editing them there. In Photoshop I didn’t edit them much i just added a gradient map adjustment layer added two colours as under and overtones and then i added a brightness and contrast layer to make the contrast a bit higher so the face is more well defined. When i was finished i cropped my image to a square format and flattened the layers. I then opened a new landscape Photoshop document and cropped it to square format then divided the page to 4 equal parts where I placed my images. Every image two times. I didn’t really experiment much with my final piece because i developed this idea quite late and was planning for another shoot to a different idea which didn’t end up happening so i developed this idea last minute and had not thought about experimenting with different techniques as much as I would have liked. 

2.

 Which critical theory was your final piece inspired by? (e.g.. Marxism, Feminism, Post-Colonialism, Post-Modernism). More specifically, what aspect of these theories did you focus on? (e.g. class warfare, objectification, cultural appropriation, rejecting judgement of “good” or “bad” art). Were you inspired by any specific artists or projects? If so, which ones? How did they inspire you?

The theory my final piece was based on is Post-Modernism. I wanted to do my final piece from a post modernists view and Andy Warhol was a great example for post modernist art. That’s why when i saw his Marilyn Monroe pop art piece it inspired me to do something similar. I didn’t want to do the exact same thing and wanted to put my own thoughts and idea into it but I wanted to do something like him and make copies of my work rather than just have one final copy. Originally i wanted the same images repeated not just twice but at least 4 times but it turned out to be more aesthetically pleasing by just repeating the images twice. I also wanted to do something that isn’t considered a “good” or a “bad” photograph but rather just a piece that you look at and think about what it could mean rather than criticize it.

What exactly are you trying to say with your final piece? What message are you trying to communicate? Why do you feel that this is important?

The message I was trying to show in my final piece was that the stereotypes mean nothing and you can be miserable trying to be something society tells you while you could be happy doing something you like and being someone that you’re proud of. Even though my piece is focused on a small thing like colours that’s just the start of it and if you start thinking about things like that and changing you’re perspective about small things it could mean a lot to people who are breaking themselves to fit into a stereotype just because society tells them to. Even the smallest things can make them feel like they’re accepted for who they are and could be a positive change in their lives.

 Critique your final piece from the perspective of your chosen critical theory. What would a Marxist/Feminist/Post-Colonialist/Post-Modernist say about your work? From their perspective, what does it tell us about the world?

I think my final piece isn’t as good as i would have liked it to be. To me the theory i chose doesn’t exactly show in the picture unless you tell people what is it about which isn’t something a post modernist would do as they want the viewer to interpret what the image is about themselves. I think a post modernist would say that they’re quite disappointed because art should have no purpose but you should do art to play around and I created my final piece with a purpose in mind, but i think they would be happy about the fact that i didn't only create one piece but used copies as well.

 3.

 Evaluate your final shoot thoroughly. What aspects of it are you happy with and why? What are its strengths and what could be improved?

I’m not really happy with my final piece as it didn't look as good as i expected it to be. The different techniques i tried (halftone, pop-art) didn’t really work out and the editing could have been a lot better. I could have tried a different editing styles and i also think my final piece would have been better if I researched  colours and their complimentary colours a bit more and used them paid more attention to the different shades and not just go with what i thought looked good. The reason I’m happy with my final piece because the images I took in the studio came out the way i wanted them to and looked good. I also think the models i worked with were easy to work with and understood what i wanted and did their job right. What i also like is that i got to learn a bit more about studio and understood how to set up the lights and the hot shoe a bit better that I did before.