Posts Tagged ‘feminism’

Made in LA Humanizes the Immigration Debate

// April 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Human Rights, Immigration

I recently had the chance to view this documentary at the Immigrant Solidarity Network in Chicago. And now I have the opportunity to blog about it.

Made in L.A. is an Emmy-award winning film that tells the story of three Latina immigrants working in garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections while finding their way in the U.S. It’s a very personal story of each woman’s self-empowerment, and it humanizes the immigrant experience and draws parallels between today’s immigrants and those whose families came to the U.S. generations ago.

What I particularly liked about this particular work was that the focus was not on discerning whether the migrant women workers in question were legal or illegal. That was not the point of the movie. The binaries of legal-illegal were torn down in the narrative as it explored the trials and tribulations of three Latina women working in a sweatshop in Los Angeles.

Between April 15th and May 31st (and beyond) national organizations, grassroots groups, faith-based congregations and individuals are coming together in a nationwide effort to share the Emmy-winning Made in L.A. and put a human face on the issues of immigration, immigrant workers’ rights, and supporting humane immigration reform.

It’s always important to tell our stories. And especially the stories of migrant women given the trend towards feminization of migrant labor.

Will you join or support this effort?  You can:
1. Host a screening

2. Send an e-mail to your friends and lists, about the campaign or spread the word through the film’s Facebook and Myspace pages.

3. Post the banner and button on your blog or website, and get the new Immigration Headlines Widget featuring Made in L.A.

By creating a climate of empathy and understanding around immigration reform, we can use Made in L.A. to help lay the foundation for change. Join the movement at www.MadeInLA.com/MayDay!

An Eye Towards Gender

// January 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // Immigration

My CSU East Bay Lecturer, Dr. Sarvasy, would be proud that I haven’t forgotten one of the valuable lessons that she passed onto students: the gender lens.

We just posted an article, “Top 100 Gender Studies Blogs” (http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/top-100-gender-studies-blog/). I thought I’d bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting.

I am happy to let you know that your site has been included in this list.

I am not sure if I deserve it right now, but I will work to remain on lists such as these.

  1. No Borders and Binaries: This blogger addresses issues of immigration as well as opposing diametric distinctions between race and gender.

Immigration is a debate that requires the ‘gender and sexuality’ lens — who really has to worry about sexual abuse while crossing the harsh terrain to come to  America? Who seeks asylum to escape female gender mutilation and other non-state violence? Who works the second-shift or the ‘triple day‘? Who lacks proper reproductive health care? Who carries the fetus that is deemed ‘illegal‘ before birth? Who does the toughest and most low-paying, low-status jobs in society? It’s women – why not research and speak about these things?

Some posts on gender on this blog:

Size Zero Not for Indian Women

// October 6th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Videos

Shilpa Shetty (of Big Brother fame) blasts the concept of size zero in this video, stating that “Indian women cannot be size zero.”

Addendum: Unless you are petite and flat-chested.

I think it is high-time. What began as a cultural phenomenon in the United States with a group of ultra-thin fashion models on the catwalk has pretty much descended to all parts of the globe remotely connected to the ‘fashion world.’ I am glad to see some celebrities take a stand and denounce this image of women — we don’t need more girls with low self-esteem and eating disorders.

P.S. Who missed me? I am retaking the LSAT in December *ducks* and this time I will decimate it! But I won’t neglect this blog or any of my online work anymore!

Feminization of Migrant Labor – Situating Migrant Women in a more Global Context

// July 2nd, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Gender, Human Rights, Immigration, Racism

There is no doubt that women bear the brunt of the toughest and lowest-paying jobs (not to mention UNPAID housework). From sewing garments in sweltering factories to changing dirty diapers to wiping counters to doing the dishes to serving as “sex slaves” — the overwhelming majority of workers in these occupations are women.

img79/9025/311xinlinegallerycm4.jpg

Take a look at the recent ICE raid at the Houston Action Rags USA plant–in effect a sweatshop rag factory where migrant workers–mostly women–would sort through used clothes that would later by exported to “Third World” countries. ICE officials said of the 166 workers they detained, 130 were females, including 10 who were pregnant.

The Houston Chronicle picked up on the gender disparity here:

Juana Maria Olvera, 35, was one of those detained at Action Rags USA and released because she is expecting a child.

”There are a lot of undocumented women working here, and a lot are single women who are working to support their families,” said Olvera. ”What is happening is a lot of the men come here and don’t go back to Mexico. They either bring their women, or find someone here.”

When ICE cracks down on migrant women workers, they devastate the mainstay of the family unit. But we need to situate the random detention of migrant women workers by the ICE in a more global context, as a global oppression of women. It is ironic that these migrant women were working in a “First World” rag-factory to produce clothes for “Third World” countries–countries that they have fled due to “First World” (neo-liberal) policies. For the most part, they would probably do the same jobs at home if the multi-national corporations came to them. Capital will go where it can seek the most profits–and what is more profitable than earning millions on the backs of women who have very little institutional support? Multi-national corporations like DKNY, Levi Strauss, Jessica McClintock to name just a few, have a mutable gendered labor workforce.

In coming to the United States, there is no hunt for the ‘American dream’ but sheer desperation for dollars. As Cynthia Enloe eloquently states in her seminal work Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, women who travel are not creatures of comfort or privileged. These migrant female underclass of workers do not get institutional support, work in increasingly deplorable conditions and are more susceptible to sexual harassment and abuse. Just take a look at this story about an Ecuadorean family suing a bakery over working conditions–

Antonio DiBenedetto [the employer] groped the female immigrants and pushed one woman into an office where he tried to take off her clothes and sexually assault her, but the woman escaped by calling for the help of a co-worker, the lawsuit alleges.

DiBenedetto also forced female employees to watch him undress and walked around naked in front of them, the lawsuit alleges. He was also accused of telling the female employees that he would loan them money or not charge them rent if they engaged in sex.

This is a rare example of an undocumented immigrant family coming out of the shadows to jot down abuses in the workplace. For the most part, women who are sexually abused, harassed or treated inhumanely, simply stay quiet and stay in the shadows. Sometimes they are compelled to do so in order to protect their families and keep nurturing their young, no matter what the costs. And with the ICE, IMF, World Bank, workforce and exportation laws, it is harder for female workers to unite and unionize.

What is the main point of this blog post? Any movement for the advancement of women’s rights or gender equality, MUST address the needs of women who are victims of neo-liberal globalization.

The flawed logic of either/or – Creating spaces for intervention

// June 7th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Discourse Studies

black/white, straight/gay, women/men, left/right, us/them, American/Un-American, nativist/humanist, legal/illegal, liberal/conservative anti-corporate/anti-labor, capitalism/communist, butch/femme, inside/outside, developed/undeveloped, top/bottom, public/private…

Our world is tainted in simplistic, dualistic undertones since we are young and we grow up conditioned to think in this manner. It starts from the household where pink is for girls and blue is for boys going all the way to the President where you are either with him or against him and there is no middle ground, no space to negotiate and intervene.

This blog is a reflection of my personal and political philosophy. I am not concerned with whether anyone subscribes to it or not; for me, it is about building a space without the pervasive duality and dichotomy of everyday discourses. And if that space is only occupied by the presence of few, that is fine with me as well. The point is to make ruptures and disruptions in these hegemonic continuous, cyclical modes of thinking.

The intellectual work that tested my limits was Saba Mahmood’s Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject.

Saba Mahmood rejects secular liberal feminist theory and practices that cast religion (in this case, Islam), as opposed to the interests of women. Through her particular field study of the grassroots women’s piety movements in the mosques of Cairo between 1995 and 1997, Mahmood aims to provide a stark contrast to the often secular liberal depictions of women’s movements. In doing so, she questions the age-old ethnocentric notions of secular liberal feminism that requires feminism and women’s movements to be framed as opposed to structures of patriarchy and power i.e. religion and going a step further, the nation-state project. Mahmood does away with these notions of ethical norms, agency and freedom, thereby posing conceptual problems for secular feminists who would otherwise continue to push for the liberation of women from Islam and actual structures of power in order to achieve their warped-up notions of liberal emancipation of women.

I wrestled for days with this book. Essentially Mahmood was saying that feminism and being political need not denote the emancipation of women from patriarchal structures like religion and the nation-state. Women do not have to completely reject structures of power to actually carve a space and voice for themselves, and thereby work towards transforming it as the women in the piety movement carved spaces for themselves within a traditionally male sphere. I finally realized that juxtaposing Mahmood’s text with secular liberal feminism need not mean that I had to choose or submit to one. I did not and neither do you. Sometimes the questions are more enlightening than the answers to them.

So when I read comments like “how can you be anti-corporate and still pro-exploitation of cheap labor from the Third World?” it is immediately marked as spam. Maybe I should take the time to respond, to expose conditioned minds to different ways of thinking about issues, to bury the either/or in an intellectual manner. Then again, the title of the blog should be clue enough — I do not do either/or and will not submit to that discourse.

You do not need to choose between being pro-amnesty and pro-American. You need not choose between an “illegal alien” and a U.S. citizen. And you definitely do not have to be pro-migrant or anti-migrant. Focus on the becoming, not the being.

When I speak about bridges, I am referring to a metaphor for fluidity, change, channeling, multiple levels of positioning that culminate into a meeting point. I am not speak of ONE compromise or middle point–I am comfortable with no resolutions. Call it folly or postmodern emancipation. I am comfortable in-limbo; after all, that is my conditioning, no?

I realize I am flawed — There are certain categories I hold dear that I did not choose for myself. At times my patience is tested and I do slip up with the anti-_______. And I will not offer love or compassion to those who hate me because of some category, label, classification, documentation, physical feature, or preference. No, I am not a Gandhi or MLK and do not wish to go down that path. It is a tit for tat when it comes to me. But I will agree to disagree heartedly.