Being, Becoming My Triple Identity by Semira Ahemed

Identity is given and perceived; we are born as we are without choosing our race, gender or family. All three are our bases to understand or realize who we are, but they are not the only identities we have. I am a woman who is black and Muslim. I have my own individual identity even if I am overlapped by group identities. However, people perceive me by the stereotypes and labels that are put on my group identities. While growing up, there were moments in which I wanted to change myself to be accepted until I realized that even if I do everything in my power it is not enough to fit in the puzzle. It is not enough even if I remove my hijab, change my dialect or adopt a stranger style. Moreover, I should not have to change my shape to fit in the puzzle when I know I can still fit in with my authentic self. People try all sorts of things with the hopes of finding their true self; for me, my journey of self-discovery has led me to college. Attending a university is my journey to define who I am, and Alan Watts, Gloria Anzaldua, and Susan Faludi have helped me to truly embrace my triple identity.

I am a person of color, but that does not stop me from engaging with people of all kinds; I have friends from China, Czechoslovakia, and Russia. I am Muslim, but that does not limit me from reasoning and enjoying freedom. Religion is not a challenge in my life; rather it is my motivation to find the truth, to find my purpose. I am a woman, but it does not mean I am weak. It is my strength to fight against all odds and to experience this world differently. I am all three of these things at once with my character, intelligence, and heart. Nevertheless, people make their assumptions by what they see without interacting with me. 

It is easy to be noticed when I am the only Muslim, black or woman in a classroom or social gathering. Yet I do not freak out being the only one because it is my opportunity to truly show and represent all three identities. It is also common to be bombarded with the following questions: Who obliged you to wear the headscarf? Are you suppressed? Are you sure you are capable of doing it? Don’t you think it is better for boys to do it? Why do you try to be the first? When are you planning to marry? People ask me if I am from Africa as if it is one country. They wonder why I raise my voice and laugh so loudly. They are confused about how I wear my hijab.
 

          

All these questions are triggered by the stereotypes and ignorance surrounding my triple identity. Then I ask: Is it a freedom to decide which part of my body to show? Cannot one see that I cover my hair and not my brain? Is it my choice to be perceived for my character and intelligence, but not for my body look? How can we as women show what we are capable of when we are not even given the opportunity to start with? How can physical strength still have such a value in the 21st century? How is it that speaking one’s mind and expressing one’s emotions are associated with arrogance? How does my skin color still create a challenge to be accepted as a human? Who are you to tell me that I am weak without knowing my background and the challenges I overcome? Does wearing my hijab like this makes me less Muslim or is it my way of expressing my religion and my origin together?

Growing up in a conservative Muslim family, there were rules and values that I had to follow. However, I never questioned my family about what was right and wrong. I never had the guts to decide for myself because I acted like every other Muslim girl in my village. I loved playing soccer, but there were no girls whom I could play with since girls stayed at home with their mothers. Indeed, it was even hard to play with boys because girls were supposed to be modest. Alan Watts in The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are writes, “It is a special kind of enlightenment to have this feeling that the usual, the way things normally are, is odd….” (Watts 11). Watts’ insight relates to me whenever I question the status quo. I did not have the opportunity to know him before coming to college, but without reading his works I related with him through my rebellious actions. I played soccer breaking the ordinary norm and led my team to win the sub-city soccer competition. Even though what I did was simple, it was my first step toward identifying who I am. An African adage says, “Until the antelope wins the fight, the tales of victory shall always be the lion’s” (African). This proverb is a constant reminder to write my own history and not to repeat the same story women before me had—a story that was written by the society in which they lived.

I never knew a woman whom I could look upon as a role model. Not seeing a person who was like me in the dreams that I wanted to achieve made it seem quite impossible. The life cycle of a girl in my village was all too predictable. She goes to school just to learn how to read and write because marriage is the obvious next phase in life after high school. Warsan Shire, a Somali-British poet says, “It is not my responsibility to be beautiful, I am not alive for that purpose. My existence is not how desirable you find me” (Shire). But in my village a woman’s beauty was more valued than her intelligence; at the end of the day, it is the man who is in charge of everything. After growing up in a village with such low expectations for women, I still do not believe that I am at Hofstra pursuing my undergraduate degree without paying anything. However, I still think about the girls in my community who did not have the opportunity like me to pursue their passion and dream. They are in a closed box which they cannot escape without doing something out of the ordinary. I now have better opportunities than ever before, but Susan Faludi, in her introduction to Backlash: The Undeclared War against Women, cautioned me not to be distracted by the media to fully achieve my gender equality. Moreover, as Malala Yousafzai said, “I raise my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard” (Yousafzai).

We only notice our racial identity when we embed ourselves with other social groups. I am from Ethiopia, a country that was never colonized, which made it easy to see people for who they are rather than their skin color. It was Hollywood movies that introduced me to the idea of color and the privilege and discrimination that comes along with it. I never had a color scanner glass to evaluate people and that has given me an invaluable chance to engage with diverse people at Hofstra. Nevertheless, most people do not wear the glasses I do, and some are colorblind to believe all should be the same with one homogenous culture and dialect. I even questioned myself if my English accent with Amharic root and some British pronunciation was not enough in America. But Gloria Anzaldua, a Chicana writer, gave me the courage not to be ashamed of my dialect but to be proud since it reflects my identity. Moreover, pursuing my undergraduate degree outside of my continent far away from my family is giving me the opportunity to define my identity independently. Developing a double consciousness is essential, and according to W.E.B. DuBois, it is the sense of looking at one’s self through the eyes of others. Just staying one semester in college helped open my eyes to see myself through the experience of others who have a completely different background, culture and identity.

           

I never thought I would question the beliefs I held true until I read Alan Watts. He challenged me to rethink if I do things out of humanity or for the sake of collecting good deeds to go to paradise. I used to do good things because my religion said so, but now in my heart I am conscious of what is right. Alan Watts helped me to see the interconnectedness in the universe and to view events without greed and ego. His book made me more responsible than I was before. I am now more sensitive to the value of the love I give to animals and people.

It would be a lie to say that I am not changing throughout my university experience. College has been more than just academics; it is a place to search my true self and transition to adulthood. Indeed, Lao Tzu is right when he said, “If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present” (Tzu). It is now my everyday purpose to find peace within myself and to become the best version of who I am. Every person I meet and all the books I read are helping me to uncover my true personality on my continuing life journey.

Works Cited

Alake, Olu. And Who AM I? Cultural Diversity, Identities and Difference. N.p.,15 Dec.2005.

Web 5 Nov.2018

Meah, Asad. Awaken The Greatness Within. 33 Inspiring Lao Tzu Quotes. 2015. Web. 26

Nov.2018.

Shire, Warsan. Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/.2018. Web. 6 Dec.2018

Watts Alan. The Book; on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. New York: Pantheon,

1966. Menantol. Web. 06 Dec. 2016

Yousafzai, Malala. Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/850987. 2018. Web. 28          Nov.2018

Is Feminism the New F Word? From Resistant to Responsive by Lola Solis

“That’s not lady like,” my grandma scolded me as I sat without crossing my legs at seven years old.

“Do you expect boys to respect you dressed like that?” my fifth grade teacher asked regarding my outfit of skirt and knee high socks.

“You’re showing too much skin,” my dad stated when at sixteen I wore a demure blouse to a birthday dinner. 

“You’re just asking for it with that dress,” I overheard a group of men saying as I walked into the bar on my eighteenth birthday.

 

These comments repeat themselves in my head like a broken record. As a young girl, I grew up hearing these statements so often it that became imprinted into my mind. Living in Allen, Texas, was like living in an inescapable bubble where my actions hardly ever went unnoticed, especially if they strayed from typical Texas conservatism. I remember walking into my high school office during my senior year to check in and receiving looks of absolute disgust at my brand new Rosie the Riveter tattoo from the Caucasian secretaries at the front desk. They looked at me like I was some animal, and I couldn’t help but laugh to myself at their dismay. Purposefully, I lifted up my dress past mid thigh so they could get a complete look at it. Horror struck their faces as I danced away. I made sure they knew I was proud to be a feminist. In spite of Rosie the Riveter being the heroic image of the 40’s that allowed women to work, the secretaries remain politicized by their own sex and unable to realize the historical importance of her being the transformational image of American iconography.

 

Some women can escape social conformity and become conscious of the incredibly sexist, patriarchal society we live in. Others are trapped and are incapable of realizing their true identity because they are the product of someone else’s identity formation. I fortunately have been able to remove myself from the worldwide view of women that objectifies and degrades us. Through years of breaking barriers that prevented me from formulating my own thoughts, identity, and beliefs, I’m able now to shape my own experience and to empower women as they have empowered me. Why is it that some women are able to see their political potential and others only see envy?

 

Ever since Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique used the identifiers feminist, feminism and feminists, these words have gained negative connotations. When I began to voice my opinions and argue back to conservative views that inherently put down women, I and many others who wished to combat the patriarchy obtained a sort of nickname; we were called the FemiNazis. I didn’t get tough by allowing a petty nickname to stop me from fighting for women, but the fact that people are comparing us to murderers who assisted in a genocide against Jews is unfathomable. Why are people so afraid of equality? Is this because we only earn roughly 75 cents to a dollar for doing the same job that a man does? Why so mute if not to suggest that silence equals acquiescence? Are they so reluctant to not see their enlightened self interest ought to have them representing equal pay as workers? I am haunted day and night by the resistance to delivering equal status for all. While women have been objectified for centuries, and men have always been the ones to issue power, I can somewhat understand the resistance to changing what some people may call normality. Just because it is tradition doesn’t make it just. For example, slavery was an American (peculiar) institution until 1865. I do not seek to diminish the road to freedom that African Americans were on, but sometimes I wonder about the American grain. Do we want women as property or do we want women as persons? I am sick and exhausted of this war against women and I will not stop until it is over.  Breaking social and economic gender barriers is not a job that can be accomplished overnight, nor can it be done alone.

 

I never really understood the power of voicing my opinions and standing up for my beliefs until this past year when old friends from high school contacted me to let me know how much I inspired them. One student wrote: “I respect you embracing how you are different from others from how you dress to your interests…I love that you are firm on your beliefs. I love how you strive really hard for the social equality of women as well as overall feminism. I love that you are trying so hard to make social change and make you voice be heard” (Small, par. 2).

 

Although one often hears about activists like Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr. and their leadership in civil rights, one never really believes that one has the power of doing the same. This is the mindset that is hindering society from moving towards gender equality. As smart and capable as I know I am to lead a movement, I need help from fellow individuals who experience the same passion and drive for justice as me. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King states, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (Par. 11). By demanding that we break gender norms and fight back anti-feminist comments, we are following King’s nonviolent path to social change. What we need to bring to light is how absurd it is to be so terrified of our sex. Does a women scare us so much, that we feel as though we must do everything in our power to keep us from becoming equal to us? Like King asks his readers to imagine what we are supposed to tell our colored children about Jim Crow, I wonder what do American mothers tell their daughters. As Gloria Anzaldua puts it, do they tell them to tame their wild tongues? The tongue is to feminism as the non violent sit-in is to the Civil Right’s movement. 

 

Many men and women have claimed that my wild tongue is intimidating and “unattractive,” but underneath what they are saying is the acknowledgement that I can be articulate. I am strong, independent, and verbal about issues affecting women and I will never give in to intimidation by men and counterproductive strategies by women. If we want to destroy the walls that separate us, then we must stand strong and continue to bring to light the issues that have been pushed aside and ignored by politicians for decades. 

“We know how to survive. When other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours. We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture. But more than we count the blows, we count the days the weeks the years the centuries the eons until the white laws and commerce and customs will rot in the deserts they’ve created, lie bleached…Chicanos will walk by the crumbling ashes as we go about our business. Stubborn, preserving, impenetrable as stone, yet possessing a malleability that renders us unbreakable. We…will remain” (Anzaldua pg. 85)

 

 

Despite the various negative connotations of the word feminist, I will never stop identifying as one. Although it takes many hits, feminism is actually an indication of progress. In Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, she states, “In national surveys 75 to 95 percent of women credit the feminist campaign with improving their lives, and a similar proportion say that the women's movement should keep pushing for change” (Faludi Par. 23). If women are benefiting from the feminist movement, why stop?

 

Works Cited

 

Anzaldua, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 

Web. 28 March 2016.

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]." Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]. Web. 28

March 2016.

Small, Jennifer. Text message to author. 8 November 2016.

 

Mastering a Free-Thinking Perspective by Brittany Davis

 

It’s amazing to me how certain texts can generate profound reactions, inciting my thought and broadening my outlook. Whilst reading the works of Franz Kafka, Susan Faludi, Plato, and Walt Whitman, I became particularly introspective due to the relatability of the concepts and the artistry in which they were written. With Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, I was forced to confront the magnitude in which I use my voice, and if my voice is considered a leading component of my character. Susan Faludi’s Backlash educated me on the struggles that adult women encounter, motivating me to denounce and reform the current structure in which women are marginalized. The symbolism behind Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” demonstrated the obligation I have to be both free in my thinking and influential in my liberation. “Song of Myself,” written by Walt Whitman, contains an abundance of complexities, but, as he elegantly expresses, I am not alone in understanding the convoluted perplexities the world puts forth. Not only have these texts forced me to reflect on my identity, but they have also promoted me to further my advancement in both my attitudes and my judgments.

In Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, the protagonist, Gregor, wishes to be rid of his mundane job and household responsibilities. To his surprise and his family’s, he wakes up one morning as a giant bug. Though his family tries to assist him in his new condition, they end up finding him to be a burden and want to be free of him. The novella ends with Gregor’s demise from depression and lack of care. Metamorphosis is grim not only because of Gregor’s unwelcomed transformation and consequentially his end, but also due to his immediate exclusion from society as a result of his noncompliance to societal norms.

 

Gregor is unable to speak, therefore suppressing his identity. He is unable to explain his actions and is therefore chastised for behaving in a manner that renounces norms because he is unable to justify such actions. Subjectively speaking, I have never been one to repudiate the status quo; however, I can relate to the protagonist’s conflict with speech. Unlike Gregor, I have the opportunity to communicate with others; however, my aversion to speech tends to put me in a position similar to Gregor’s. Great communicators can oftentimes undermine the voices of others. With this work, I was forced to ask myself if I am repressing my own identity by allowing those with more potent voices to assert their opinions over mine. Kafka also challenged me to observe how much of our identities come from the nature of speech. Those who may not have the capacity to sufficiently verbalize their thoughts may find an interest in writing; however, today we rarely communicate through writing and if we do, it is mostly through shorthand and Emojis. Although we can attempt to express ourselves through appearance, like Gregor, we are forever subjugated to the unwarranted disapprovals that are cast upon us. Through voice, one can learn, engage in compromise, and speak up for themselves and others. Kafka challenges me to use the voice I have to construct my own identity.

 

I don’t find that our nation’s gender gap is apparently distinct in my everyday life; however, the media, one of the greatest influences of my generation, is always prone to highlight gender disparities and even widen the gap for further self-interest. In Susan Faludi’s Backlash, she exposes the inequalities women face today, despite the many misconceptions people have made in believing that women have overcome all of their obstacles. Faludi concludes the debate by offering several instances in which females are deemed inferior to men, including government representation, occupational and domestic positions, our nation’s failure to accommodate for women’s reproductive rights, and the way we are portrayed in popular culture. Due to Faludi’s work, my stance on women’s rights expanded, because at my age, many of the divergences between genders are not necessarily conspicuous in my position. Through her outlook and research, I am able to better understand the challenges I might face if  adequate progress in the women’s rights movement is not made.

 

Faludi argues that female dilemmas derive from the media, calling it “an endless feedback loop that perpetuates and exaggerates its own false images of womanhood.” I find that it has been increasingly difficult to overlook the prevailing portrayals of women in the media. Through advertisements, women are repeatedly over-sexualized, and onscreen, in television and movies, they account only for 12% of the protagonists in 2014 programming. This depiction of women gives society the impression that women’s voices are less valuable compared to men’s, and their appearances are the foremost component of their identities. Women’s voices are also extremely underrepresented in the media. In 2014, women comprised merely 25% of writers, 23% of executive producers, and 20% of show creators (Alter). As expressed by Simone de Beauvoir, “Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth” (141). It is difficult to achieve genuine images of womanhood if men are the ones constructing female ideals. Faludi’s writing settled my position on women in media: the lack of female involvement in the media’s influential portrayals of women generates further insignificance for women’s central identities. In acknowledging this issue that women continually endure, I can aim to resolve the ongoing imbalances and false depictions, furthering the advancement of gender equality.  My identity as a woman should not be established by distorted ideals, and other women should not feel the need to alter themselves in order to match any corrupt standards. 

One of the concepts created by Plato is the Theory of Forms, which explains that in our reality there are true “forms” that we cannot necessarily observe with our five senses, but function as our reference point for everything, from beauty to goodness. Plato taught that humans are born with an understanding of the real forms, but as we grow, society alters those forms, obstructing us from being able to see the truth (“Plato’s Theory of Forms- What Does it Really Mean”). In the “Allegory of the Cave,” prisoners have been held inside a cave since birth, and while they are unable to see the world outside of the cave, they do observe the shadows that the world makes, accepting that to be reality. One prisoner frees himself from the false world presented to him, and by leaving the cave, the prisoner is attempting to unearth the true “forms.” The environment the prisoner discovers represents the World of Forms, and all elements in the world derive from the sun, which represents goodness. The World of Forms is believed to be where honest beauty exists. Plato’s work broadens my outlook on what is deemed beautiful. Society establishes standards of beauty and forces humanity to perceive them, through advertisements and media, although the ingrained standards are merely reflections of the true “forms.” Plato teaches that those who seek the genuine model of beauty will find that it derives from goodness.

 

As humans, our knowledge is limited to the civilization that we are born into, similar to the prisoners enduring the entirety of their lives in a cave. They perceive the world from solely their position inside the cave, observing inaccurate depictions and refusing to believe that they are being deceived. “The Allegory of the Cave” can also be resolved by understanding of what it means to be open-minded. As described by Alan Watts, “If we are open only to discoveries which will accord with what we know already, we may as well stay shut” (103). In order to interpret the world on a broader spectrum, I must learn to detach myself from what I was taught in order to justly perceive a world that is unlike the one I have come to know.

 

The best way to learn is through experience, according Walt Whitman. In his poem “Song of Myself,” he is not only commending himself, but also humanity in its entirety. According to Whitman, we are all connected as he illustrates through the nature of grass. Grass grows upon the deceased, connecting humanity to earth and individuals to all of humanity. Just as humans and nature are equal, Whitman considers body and soul to one as well. Whitman’s emphasis on the integrality that exists between humans and nature builds by notion that humanity should fixate on what we know, rather than what we hold to be true, as in religion. Whitman rejects prioritizing one God over others, because God is everywhere and we are all one collective world. I am inspired by his rejection of complete isolation, because regardless of the circumstance, one is never alone on his or her journey of existence. The difficulties in life are easier to conquer when an individual recognizes that they are not unaccompanied. Whitman declares, “And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes” (79). He is assuring readers that their identity is great and able to overcome any of the challenges that life presents.

 

It’s a beautiful concept that poetry, stories, and memoirs can forge one’s individuality. The publication and dissemination of history’s and today’s influential perspectives persuades the mindsets of several individuals, not only connecting people to the past, but also connecting people together here and now. People might not always think the same way as me either because their identities have been more or less developed, or because their identities have been established in a completely dissimilar system; however, this difference in identities is one of the grand advantages that humanity tends to overlook. Those who possess identities that have been forged by numerous experiences can influence and inspire those who have not or may never be able to undergo those experiences. The works that I read have guided my growth as an individual, and my interactions with others encourages me to continue to expand my own perspective.

Works Cited

Alter, Charlotte. "8 Sad Truths about Women in Media." Time. N.p., 5 June 2015. Web. 7 Dec. 2015. <http://time.com/3908138/women-in-media-sad-truths-report/>.

De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. N.p.: n.p., 1989. Print.

Faludi, Susan. "Blame It on Feminism." Introduction. Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. N.p.: n.p., 2009. Print.

Plato. "Book VII." The Republic. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.

"Plato's Theory of Forms- What Does It Really Mean?" Philosophyzer. N.p., 8 Oct. 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2015. <http://www.philosophyzer.com/platos-theory-of-forms/>.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Metamorphosis Summary." Shmoop. N.p., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 7 Dec. 2015. <http://www.shmoop.com/metamorphosis/summary.html>.

TED- Ed. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave - Alex Gendler. Youtube. N.p., 17 Mar. 2015. Web. 7 Dec. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RWOpQXTltA>.

Vlach, Michael. "Plato's Theory of Forms." Theological Studies. N.p., 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2015. <http://www.theologicalstudies.org/resource-library/philosophy-dictionary/158-platos-theory-of-forms>.

Watts, Alan. The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself." Leaves of Grass. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.