Week 2- 1st reader Laura Cisneros

Hello class! As some of my other classmates have already posted, a theme that was seen in this week and last week’s readings/podcast has been family structure and also the mention of the role that women play in this family structure, and living in this patriarchal family unit. I was really inspired by the podcast perspectives especially the one titled Enduring Feminist Wisdom of Cherrie Moraga. She is a feminist of color which is important to me because I feel like I can relate to WOC more than i can with white feminist. Cherrie herself mentions the importance of WOC leaders in activism because these strategies need to come from people who are experiencing it. I was wondering if any of you felt the same way? and if so who are some of your favorite WOC feminist such as Cherrie Moraga? She also talks about the relationship between men and women in her household and how she wanted to be her brother because he was “free”. In my household it’s all women and my father so the women are in charge so i’ve never felt that before, but i know some of my chicana friends who have brothers have told me similar things about wishing to have the same freedom as their brothers. Was hoping to get more insight about this dynamic between how siblings are treated differently based on gender? Thinking about my own family and the way its more matriarchal made me connect with Beneath The Shadow Of The Freeway,because it mentions that they are a woman family. I learned in my women’s studies class about how a matriarchal society isn’t a feminist society because it oppresses men, what do you all think about that? do you think that a matriarchal society could be a feminist society?

3 thoughts on “Week 2- 1st reader Laura Cisneros

  1. I was inspired as well by her interview. I do agree and feel that those who experience oppression and discrimination at first hand are stronger activist, because they are emotionally and mentally attached to the issues. I personally did live in a household where the men were in charge and the women served are the cooks, and care takers. I did also experience similar feeling of wanting to be my brother, but for totally opposite reasons, i wanted to be my brother so that i can help my father work in the hard work he did to support our family. My brother was not allowed to clean or cook because he was a man, he was able to go out and come back home late.
    In regards to Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway and matriarchal society, i feel that it would end up being the same as if a men is consider head of house hold. One of the partners will always feel inferior than the other. Maybe its human nature, if one is providing more than the other then maybe we somehow automatically form hierarchies.

  2. Hi Laura, again, lol
    Yes I am the same like you.
    In my household, its only women, myself , my sisters, and my mother. and the only male dominance, is my father. I have felt that Men to get more freedom with their parents and I never understood that. My parents were very strict with me being out too late with my boyfriend’s and it was always an issue, and they would say “you are a woman, so you shouldn’t be out late with men”. Until this day, my dad still gives me a hard time with that and it is always about genders.

  3. Hi Laura,
    I agree with you in regards to the podcast perspectives interviews. I enjoyed listening to all of the interviews and I myself was able to relate to Cherrie Morraga who is a woman of color feminist activist and also to Cristela Alonzo the comedian from the “Cristela” sitcom. They both talked about growing up in homes where they did not felt free because of poverty and conflict with gender roles. I myself grew up in a family that privileged boys over girls. I became my little brothers’ caregiver because I was a girl and that was one of my duties. Cristela mentioned how her mom used a lot of sarcasm to protect her family from disillusions, it was the only way to make them feel better. My family and I also used a lot of sarcasm to ignore the poverty that surrounded us during the difficult moments as new immigrants.

    #2 Respondent

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *