Blog Six
Anzaldua believed that the kind of consciousness that results from being oppressed by multiple different power systems is a sort of fragmented consciousness. Anzaldua believes that belonging to multiple different groups, or power systems as the case may be, makes it difficult to be able to feel like you belong completely in at least one of them. This is produced because so many of the different groups conflict with each other, so you have to pick and choose which personality, or part of yourself, that you are revealing more of depending on which group you are in. For example, if you are a lesbian and a feminist at the same time, like Anzaldua, it is difficult to fight for just one or another. As a lesbian she was disclaimed from her people; However, as a feminist, she fights for the beliefs and rights of the women of her people. Having a consciousness like this compels a person to draw the conclusion that he/she will never be able to belong to a certain group and will therefore possibly never get all the power that they may deserve. They must live on the 'borderlands' or just reside upon the edges of each group, never fully apart but never really leaving, and make due as best he/she can.
Gunn-Allen, however, believes in a more 'hybrid' version of consciousness from being oppressed from multiple power systems. This type of consciousness is produced by getting two different ideas of the same thing from two different groups. For example, Gunn-Allen is Indian and from that part of her culture she believes that women are supposed to be strong, smart, practical women; However, she also goes to school in a white community and from that part of her culture she has learned that women are supposed to be weak and mindless and rely on men completely. This kind of consciousness compels a person to draw the conclusion that you can only have a certain personality depending on the group you are in at a particular moment (like you can only be a strong, smart woman when among your own tribe, otherwise out in white society you must portray the weak, unintelligent woman that they expect).
Both of these author's descriptions of gender and power relate because both deal with having to be a part of multiple oppressed groups and both relate how you have to be careful which part of yourself you show more of depending on which group you are in. Anzaldua's description could perhaps be strengthened by Gunn-Allen's, because Gunn-Allen lived pretty much her whole life seeing both sides of the 'story'. She saw the oppression of woman and the strength of women at the same time and lived both lives and so is able to probably draw a better conclusion than Anzaldua about how to deal with being in multiple oppressed power systems.