Week 9: Difference

Difference: "A Special Third World Women Issue"

-by: Trinh T. Minh-ha

From Trinh T. Minh-ha's Naked Spaces - Living Is Round

This week we read Difference: “A Special Third World Women Issue” by Trinh T. Minh-ha in the reading she discusses the struggles for equal rights for women and how it expands to those women of color as well, and at points women of color experience extreme resistance due to stereotypes and how these stereotypes may affect the approach some women have on fighting for equal right, and she even talks about the ideas of inclusion. When thinking about the idea of equal opportunity it is meant to be seen as something good, but sometimes these opportunities are helping to continue the cycle of oppression by using terms within a type of guideline that are made to include a diverse amount of people by meeting certain criterias to fall under that inclusive title, causes problem by making these companies seem as though they are an open minded and an inclusive environment but, they really are just following a type of protocol to be considered inclusive or diverse. This creates a false environment that kinda acts as tokenism like it’ll make someone wonder if they are there because they really qualified or are they just that token person to help that company pass as inclusive. We can see this kind of thing with workforces to give their companies a good name and reputation.

During Trinh T.Minh-ha’s essay she discusses stereotypes and writes: 1“I had actually been contributing to my own stereotyping. . . . When the Asian American woman is lulled into believing that people perceive her as being different from other Asian women (the submissive, subservient, ready-to-please, easy-to-get-along-with Asian woman), she is kept comfortably content with the state of things”. This statement talks about exceptional women who can achieve success and defy the stereotypes that are placed on them. The author specifically writes of an Asian American woman who is perceived as being different or is looked at as this good version of the Asian stereotypes that she listed. because she is looked at as non-problematic compared to others like her; she is at content. There is this idea that these women shouldn’t try and challenge the problem within racial society because they themselves are not the target of these stereotypes, therefore it shouldn’t matter to them; it becomes irrelevant to that woman, she becomes selfish as she'd just ignore the problem. She would be content with her privilege within society.

Now the problem with cultural authenticity is that we can’t say that one culture is the original or right one or the true one, being authentic brings up this idea of being a true source from some kind of origin whether it’s material or a lifestyle but who gets to decide these things? Why would there be a limitation of what is meant to be the correct way of life? This puts power into some random person’s hand and lets them determine the worth of others’ lifestyle based completely off whatever that random person would want to choose to categorize with. This simply couldn’t be the right way because not all people are the same and think the same. There are different perspectives from all over that are valid in some way or another, but that doesn’t make that one person’s thoughts more true then the next ones. To say that there is an authentic culture is degrading to the other cultures by basically saying they are less than that authentic culture that was chosen by someone purely based on their own perspective of the cultures.

Eventually the idea of having diversity and inclusion committees became a thing these probably were meant to be for a good cause but it backfired, as Trinh states, 2“We never came to the business table as equals. Women of color joined us on our terms. ... I started seeing the similarities with how men have excluded the participation of women in their work through Roberts Rules of Order, encouraging us to set up subcommittees to discuss our problems but never seeing sexism as their problem. It became clear that in many ways I act the same way toward women of color, supporting them in dealing with their issues. . . . I'm now beginning to realize that in many cases men do not understand because they have never committed themselves to understanding, and by understanding, choosing to share their power.” This shows the problem of these diversity and inclusion committees within society. By explaining how women tried to explain to men that we wanted to be equal and though some men may agree that we should be treated equal; they never used the power they had to actually help women get that equality. but instead suggested that they make a group to talk about their problems which was then reflected back at the author when she realized she approached another woman of color the same way men approached her. experiencing something like this helps you understand these struggles and relate better especially once you can realize that same outcome. But men are a lot harder to get to because they don't need to relate because they always had the power and simply wouldn't understand. Today we still experience this lack of understanding from others and now there are more groups then ever that cover over our political beliefs, our religions, our sexual orientation, our race. This difference in us creates a division among people, but these groups help enforce that we are supposed to stay where we are socially allowed to be. By isolating these groups we aren't allowing others to understand but sometimes others just don't want to understand. This is something we can't change.

The author discusses the term I and uses that word for power she writes with I to be a way to speak from another perspective that gives off power. The author writes: 3“I (not you) will give you freedom. I will grant you autonomy - not complete autonomy, however, for" it is a liberal fallacy to suppose that those whom freedom is given will use it only as foreseen by those who gave it.” The author uses this statement to explain I as an Identity in a way of say how the authorities use their power to control those they want to listen to them; whether it's their status, money, power, or race they Say "I" to give them that power over another group of people by basically saying they the authorities in power, are the ones who can 'free' the people. To give autonomy your promising the conditions of self-governing and having your own independence but by saying that 'I' will grant you this freedom you're automatically taking that power into your hands your stripping people of their own identities because they are stuck to believe that they owe themselves to the power that freed them. rather than letting them have power over their own selves, this is stated at the end of the quotation, saying; who freedom is given to, then uses that freedom as it is expected from the power that gave it.


Citations_

Trinh, T. Minh-Ha. Difference: 'A Special Third World Women Issue'. Feminist Review, 1987.

1-pg.21

2-pg.20

3-pg.13