If there are divisions in-between a movement can that movement really be successful? The feminist movement mainly seeks gender equality but it important to also consider other social issues that affect women. It can be very difficult to reach equality when there are issues of classicism and racism between women. When a woman is white and/or rich, then she is superior to one that is poor or of color. In “La Güera”, Cherríe Moraga makes important remarks of the social separation that exists between women and why it is important to address it as part of the feminist movement, hence the importance of third wave feminism.
Society’s rules sometimes work against unity and when it comes to getting together to make a change, it is very hard to forget about them. A big issue is discrimination because of social status, even within the same class, there are some that are better than others. Moraga (1979) refers to this in “La Güera” when talking about her mother, “She often called other lower-income Mexicans “braceros” or “wetbacks”, referring to herself and her family as ‘a different class of people’” (p. 23). While she was poor she at least was not that kind of poor, therefore, better. It is a battle between the same people where everyone is pushing one another down.
As a non-white female, women have to overcome not only oppression form the opposite sex but from their own culture. Therefore, it is hard to support women from a different culture because their oppression might differ from a Chicana or white women. Genny Lim (2015) in “Wonder Woman” wonders if the different women she is looking at have the same hopes she has. Lim writes, “I look at their eyes and wonder if / They share my dreams” (p. 20); there is a desire to belong with the other women. Even though they may have many differences having the same goal can unite them. The poem seeks to look past the differences and focus on the main goal. Only thinking about everything that is different will accomplish nothing but further separation.
It is interesting how to have a better future a person has to go through an anglicized education. To go up the class system, a person should have studied English and the American/European education almost as if any other culture is not important or useful. Moraga (1979) writes, “It was through my mother’s desire to protect her children from poverty and illiteracy that we became ‘anglocized’” (p. 23); an Anglo education is the only way to become a person of interest. However, by adopting the Anglo culture, the culture of origin gets left behind and the issues are forgotten.
In “I Walk in the History of My People”, Chrystos acknowledges how the cultural issues have been forgotten between women and just keep going seeking an incomplete goal. With third wave feminism acknowledging more issues of race and different cultures women can think about how to solve the problems that affect them and not just white women. Chrystos (2015) gives an example of the cultural differences, “In my marrow are hungry faces who live on land the whites don’t want / In my marrow women who walk 5 miles every day for water” (p. 53). Not every woman, especially white, will walk five miles to get water and that is something that only the ones who do will understand. There should be an understanding that while every feminist woman fights for equality not everyone’s battle is the same.
Just like some white people are afraid of the term “white privilege” some men and some women are afraid of the term feminism. Those terms have a heavyweight that when spoken aloud they are immediately connected to an experience or a meaning according to the individual. According to Moraga (1979), “We need a new language, better words that can more closely describe women’s fear of, and resistance to, one another; words that will not always come out sounding like dogma” (p. 25). It is hard to apply all the issues for gender to one term, especially since everyone’s experience is different. New terms should be sought to empathize with other people.
In conclusion, the cultural experience of a person is part of what can help to solve social issues. With third wave feminism acknowledging race and ethnicity, women and in this case female writers can talk about other issues part of the feminist movement. While there is a social separation within women, reaching equality will be almost impossible.
Reference List
Chrystos. (2015). I Walk in the History of My People. In C. Moraga & G. Anzaldúa (Eds.), This bridge called my back (pp. 53). Albany, NY:
Suny.
Moraga, C. (2015). La Güera. In C. Moraga & G. Anzaldúa (Eds.), This bridge called my back (pp. 22-29). Albany, NY: Suny.
Lim, G. (2015). Wonder Woman. In C. Moraga & G. Anzaldúa (Eds.), This bridge called my back (pp. 20-21). Albany, NY: Suny.
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