Author: axfresh

GONE HOME

Even though I didn’t get a chance to really play the game and get the feel of the whole story line, from the video that was shared on YouTube with someone playing the game, I took away so much from just a hour video.  There is a girl name Katie who had returned from overseas. She was so excited to see and spend so much time with her father, mother, and teenage sister Sam. She gets home to discover that they aren’t nowhere to be found, and she finds a letter on the front door from Sam. Sam wrote about how she went away and to not come looking for her. So, throughout the game Katie has to find little clues around the house to help her understand what happen to her family since she was away. My first reaction to the video game, was suspense. I wanted to know more just like Katie did. I was very concern about what happened to the family, and I felt like I was in the video games with her discovering so many different clues. I would honesty get the game,  and would play it to discover all of the hidden secrets.

Kathleen Hanna (1991), “Riot Grrrl Manifesto”

I feel that The Riot Grrrl Manifesto was a movement that Washington State band Bikini Kill and lead singer Kathleen Hanna that voiced how many women wanted to just be free to express themselves through music. Whether it was with anger, rage, or just being loud. I feel that they wanted to speak up for many girls around who were afraid of jumping out of the norm society has given girls. When society sometimes think about rock music, people tend to just think about predominantly male bands. It was very closed off to females. When you really think about punk rock music, we tend to think about a very loud deep, dark voice, with these large guitars and these crazy movements on stage. A lot of people don’t really see women going these things, because they always wanted to put us into a box and keep us controlled. Even in history women were looked down upon if they didn’t act a certain way.

 I feel like for the past few weeks we have been focusing on the many ways society puts us in these categories and how we have over come these standards. Like with the Feminist movement, women fought to have the same rights as men. The Combahee River Collective Statement, Women of color and women of lesbian came together to fight the fact that even though the women rights movement was a success, they still didn’t include all women of color and sexuality. The Queer theory! Queer was once a negative term, and the LGBT community took the word and made it something positive. All these different moments in history can really connect with the Riot Grrl movement. The fight to just be themselves without being criticized and judged. For acceptance.

Research Assignment!

The Combahee River Collective Statement

Key Words ” Statement, Redefining, Black Feminist”

The Combahee River Collective is a black feminist and lesbian organization that came together to address the inequality of black women and lesbian compared to white women during the feminist movement and the civil rights movement back in 1974 to 1980. They both came together to create a statement called the “The Combahee River Collective Statement”. This statement was developed to argue that these movements didn’t meet the needs of black women and lesbian women. In the text they hit on four major topics: (1) the genesis of contemporary Black feminism; (2) what we believe, i.e., the specific province of our politics; (3) the problems in organizing Black feminists, including a brief history of our collective; and (4) Black feminist issues and practice. The genesis of contemporary Black feminism, points out in “Reflections on the Black Woman’s Role in the Community of Slaves,” Black women have always embodied, if only in their physical manifestation, an adversary stance to white male rule and have actively resisted its inroads upon them and their communities in both dramatic and subtle ways” (pg.1) Next what they believed. In their statement they wanted to argue that black women and lesbians are indeed valuable. They believed in “collective process and a non-hierarchical distribution of power within our own group and in our vision of a revolutionary society.” (pg.1) Then they went on and discussed the problems in organizing black feminist. The major issues that they faced was not having the privilege to rely on when it comes to racial, sexual, heterosexual, or class. They also talked about not having the same resources or power. Lastly, black feminist issues and projects. They argued about the rights and more issues that black feminist women suffer. For example: abortion rights, rape, health and so much more.

I really enjoyed reading this text, it really made me think about all of the things that black and lesbian women had to face back then. They truly paved the way for all women to have the same rights. I think the purpose of this text is to first bring awareness to what and who The Combahee River Collective is, and speak on the issues they faced and try to get on command grounds so they may be able to have the same rights as all the other women.

Age, Race, Class and sex: Women Redefining difference by Audre Lorde

In this text Loudes speaks on age, race, and sex in black women & lesbian and white women. Loudes is a black lesbian woman who wanted to give her perspective from her own personal experience. She points out the many flaws of the system. “We have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate” (Lorde Pg. 115) I can agree with this from my own personal experiences. When I was younger, I felt like some kids are programed into thinking one way. I feel that was the main cause of a lot of bullying. If a person sees something that doesn’t makes sense to them then they do question it or think it’s weird or out of the ordinary. I believe the purpose of her text is to get people to not only address and recognize that oppression comes in all forms such as racism, ageism, and heterosexism.

Connection

 I think the best song to connect to this text for this week is the Nina Simone song – Four women. Her song is very beautiful, she talks about four different women, who features, and life was different. They each lived a different life and they all identify in different ways. I feel that this songs connects with each text, because I feel that each text for this week focused on inequality that black women and lesbian women faced. They both hit on points that all women should be treated the same no matter their Age, Race, Class and sex.

Questions:

What does Women Redefining mean to you?

Which text was your favorite to read this week and why?