assumptions.

okay, so got a little road block in my way. i haven't exactly been advanced to candidacy. there was some discrepancy with the program policies. so i'm back to writing these revisions that i've been stuck on for the last year. i know and believe that i am in a better place where i am capable of completing this project.

i started reading "feminism without borders," mohanty really challenges me into re-thinking my approach. we tend to victimize communities of color, gendered communities, and other marginalized individuals or communities, therefore taking away their agency and viewing them through an objective lens. i am wary about viewing and constructing of a view of filipinas as victims because we are not victims per say but are conditioned and impacted by social and historical realities such as colonization, patriarchy, and imperialism. when i say reclaim, i am suggesting that pinays construct and negotiate their social location within the structures of society. in a sense, we contribute to the growing communities of resistance because oppression is not experienced in isolation. i am not trying to essentialize the pinay experience but simply engage in transnational, third word feminism which acknowledges and create a dialogue around these shared experiences. my thesis is a humble attempt to understanding how pinays exercise and create their agency.

i am using pinayism as a starting point to examine and name the particular pinay experiences. there really isn't much difference between third world feminism and pinayism all except that pinayism is specific to the flipina experience. i am not suggesting that this is the only approach, but rather attempting to expand our understanding and connection to the broader idea of women issues.

feminism, with its western origins, didn't impact the progressive communities in the philippines the way it did in the united states. rather, during the time of political uprising and nationalist movements, women issues, specifically filipina, were referred to as the "woman question" (Aguilar). There is this assumption that feminism is a global theoretical lens that is applicable to all communities. However, all social and historical conditions must be addressed to understand the varying experiences within gendered communities. During a time when feminism was viewed as the theory and lesbianism was the practice (hooks), not all women in feminist organizations subscribed themselves to this practice. This alludes to the disjuncture of feminism since it did not capture the individual's whole identity and politics. Again, this is not specific to feminism but speaks about the larger social justice movements which fractionalize progressive communities and efforts.

question: how do we have a movement that addresses and liberates our intersectionalities?

and i leave you with this:

Who Said It Was Simple by Audre Lorde

There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.
Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes
a waiting brother to serve them first
and the ladies neither notice nor reject
the slighter pleasures of their slavery.
But I who am bound by my mirror
as well as my bed
see causes in color
as well as sex

and sit here wondering
which me will survive
all these liberations.



-this blog was written in response to elise's recommendations.