Blog 6
Gun Allen’s consciousness of oppression comes from her knowledge of the American culture vs that of her Native American culture. She sees the differences in the way culture views and treats women. Within her Native American tribe, women are viewed as powerful not only mentally but also physically and metaphysically. She states that Native American women are “far indeed from the ‘weaker sex,’ the designation that white aristocratic sisters unhappily earned for us all.�
Gun Allen’s ideas and experience within two different cultures leads me to believe that power directly correlates to our identity. The biggest example that I can pull from her article is that of menstruation. If we look back at what Plumwood said, women are weaker because of their connection to the body. Menstruation was what made women the inferior sex; whereas in the Native American culture, menstruation blood is seen as powerful enough to kill someone.
As opposed to Gunn Allen’s views from being within two cultures, Lorde’s argument about oppression comes within the American society. As an African American lesbian, she feels oppression from many angles, also known as intersectionality. Through her position in society she realizes that women view their oppression without looking at it from all angles. She says that women believe they are oppressed by their gender and ignore their race, class, age, and sexuality. From her experience within culture, she feels like she must hide her sexuality while within the black community and within the lesbian community she must act differently due to her race. Lorde feels that she shouldn’t have to act different ways depending on her surroundings.
From this experience she believes that we have created artificial barriers for ourselves and that we internalize our differences and somewhat oppress ourselves. Thus, our identity shapes who we are and how we think we should act.
Lorde’s argument is very similar to that of Gunn Allen’s argument. They both feel that your identity shapes who you are and how you believe you should act. They both argue that women are oppressed in society; however using different points of view and their own personal experiences. I think that Gunn Allen creates a stronger argument than Lorde because she sees the treatment of women through more than one culture. Whereas Lorde creates her argument from within many divisions of the same society.