My Semester Sex, Sexuality, & Gender Experience

SAFIRAH FEQUIERE

Table of Contents

• Beyonce’s Lemonade
  1. a political stance for Black Feminism
• The Hollywood Scandal
  1. men in power and the use of subject-object relations theory
• Reproductive Access to Women
  1.  access for feminine hygiene for women in Puerto Rico
• Museum of Sex
  1. the politics and history of sexuality with Foucault
• Nicki Minaj’s Paper Cover
  1. the hyper sexualization of Black women compared to Sarah Baartman
• The Ideal Type
  1. the internalized Panopticon view for the ideal type
• Black Girls
  1. the lack of outrage compared to Angry White Boys

• Applying what I have learned with intersectionality and applying it to everyday topics.
• Organizing material in a way that is clear and consistent to the different topics taught throughout the semester.
• Learning a thorough amount about a topic in order to engage in public conversations related to it.
• Contributing my insight and respected opinion.
• Identifying topics discussed throughout the class in the environment around me.
• Analyzing various situations around sex, sexuality, & gender and dissecting them thoroughly.
• Drawing my own conclusion, based off my knowledge.
• Developing a thorough interest in the course to create a fine portfolio, and continuing my research and understanding of such topics.

Earlier this semester, the Office of Diversity held a screening of Beyonce’s Lemonade, with a dialogue after the viewing. 

Throughout this course, I have realized how extraordinary this art was in reference to Black Feminism. The Lemonade album told a story of the pain and suffering Black women have gone through, and still go through. In her video, she quotes Malcolm X’s 1962 speech saying “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman” which urged black men to always protect their black women.

She took the anger, depression, and helplessness emotions of most black women, and turned it into redemption, empowerment and hopefulness. She declares her pride for her race by having these black women wear bold black hairstyles and outfits, while holding their fists up. She also takes another jab at politics by protesting against police brutality in her video, and showing mothers of victims to police brutality.

This album directly challenged the harshness of treatment of Blacks, specifically Black women and politics; which is a topic we discussed heavily in class. No matter the struggles of black women, whether it be systemic or internalized racism, there is still strength and power that will overcome.

 

“I was served lemons, but I made lemonade”

 

A prominent, yet extremely controversial topic that is on mostly every social media and news story, are the collection of Hollywood sexual assault scandals that have made headlines recently. 

Famous and definitely powerful men have been accused by several women for sexual harassment. One of the most notorious case was Harvey Weinstein, a mogul and Hollywood film producer. Approximately fifty women, including big names like Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd, came forward stating that Weinstein has harassed them in some form from early starts in their career.

This topic relates back to the class discussion on Simone de Beauvoir’s subject-object relations theory, which speaks of the man being the absolute, and independent human, while the woman is the dependent, inferior “second sex”. In this theory, women are the objects and the men are the subjects, where the women are there for the pleasure of men, putting men in power.

I have realized in many of these allegations against these predators in the entertainment business, that the reasoning for sexual harassment is not merely due to sexual pleasures, but the power that they have, which is why they do it. This further explains why even some men in Hollywood have been assaulted by people they could have easily fought off, but could not due to the power they had over them at that time; which for most, if not all, included their acting and entertainment career being in jeopardy if they did not comply to these sexual advances.

In the recent tropical storm disaster in Puerto Rico, most were left without shelter, clothes, food, water, and many more daily essentials. The items that were collected in the United States and sent to Puerto Rico were very minimal and not enough to cover many  of their needs.

For women, this meant that they did not receive reproductive tools throughout this natural disaster, such as tampons and pads. In a tragedy such as Hurricane Irma, many were focusing on providing as much food, clothes, and water for the people in Puerto Rico, while not focusing on other items that would greatly benefit the women experiencing this as well. Though there was action put forth towards this, it was minor.
The reason, I believe, is due to the poor attitude the nation has towards Reproductive Rights in the United States is a controversial topic, due to the political stress that is involved. Reproductive Rights are not just abortion rights, as many people think when the subject is brought up, but it includes access to several other benefits, such as: contraceptives, access to clinics, sexual education, right to an abortion, birth control, etc.

My direction action’s topic is Reproductive Rights, where we communicated and thoroughly analyzed the subject. We discussed the history, the political backlash, the ethical issues, and many more. Thanks to the contribution of my group and myself, I was able to get a very clear understanding of Reproductive Rights.

For that reason, the club that I am the Vice President of, the American Association of University Women, recently had a tampon & pad drive where we collected feminine hygiene products and money donations for the women in Puerto Rico and sent it over. It was an event that myself, as well as the rest of the club, were very proud of due to the difference it made.

 

I went to the city this past week and visited the Museum of Sex with a friend of mine. In this museum, the nature of sex was explained from the beginning of time and continued and explained from all major eras and cultures in the world using the subjects of history and politics to develop the art.

The image I incorporated in this presentation speaks about the capturing of sex and how it has changed art and media as time progressed. As we have learned in class through Michele Foucault, sex and sexuality is something that was not allowed to even be thought of three centuries ago. This subject was repressed, restricted and dismissed if ever brought up, while also punishing those who disobeyed this control.

Today, sex is something that is taboo, labeling people that engage in such conversations are as immoral & inappropriate. I believe the goal of the museum is to make sex and different sexualities something that is acceptable to speak on in conversations we have. It should not be something we whisper, and talk about secretly as if it’s an awful topic. The discourse should flow naturally, as we talk about other things.

One of the most intriguing pieces I saw that day was the image of sexual acts taking place that were drawn onto stones from the ancient times. It is a reminder to everyone that sex and the freedom of sexuality is very natural and has been present since the beginning of time.

Nicki Minaj, a prominent rapper, broke the internet recently for her Paper magazine cover shoot. This photo turned many heads as Nicki Minaj is seen behaving in a highly sexual manner, with the caption Minaj A Trois, which translates into “threesome”.

There are two factors that play a huge role as to why this image caused such an uproar. The first one being the very sexualized image. This image shows Nicki, in three different characters performing acts that today’s society would deem “immoral” because it challenges the “normal” hetero-monogamous sexual relationship that is considered appropriate. However, if sex and the freedom of sex and sexuality were something that was discussed openly, without a repressive tone, this image would not have been so shocking. It is the lack of discourse around sex that Foucault speaks of in History of Sexuality which makes the topic so controversial.

The second factor is that Nicki is a Black woman with huge physical assets, that caused it to be that much more of a scandal. A non-black woman, with smaller physical assets would still cause an uproar, but not to this measure. The obsession with “exotic” women and their larger “abnormal” body parts goes back to the hyper-sexualization and sexual-objectificatin of black women from a long time ago. Specifically speaking, Sarah Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman who was taken from her African village to an exhibit in Europe, where she was a freak show attraction due to her large buttocks.

Lately, the most common face and body you will see on social media includes the very caked face, with plump lips, a heavily contoured face, huge lashes, a big butt and a large chest. This is the current trend that many women try to accomplish when doing their makeup and working on their body.

Though I love makeup, and enjoy working on my body, and believe that everyone has the right to change what they feel necessary, there is a harsh reality that comes these trends that is often over looked.

The reality is the constant pressure women and girls who do not look like this are put under. The Panopticon, a particular prison structure where prisoners are under constant surveillance, can be used as a metaphor for understanding the self conscious body monitoring that women develop when they see a body or a face that they do not have.

This is an interesting way of looking at The Panopticon, because we fail to realize that sometimes we can be our own worst critic when it comes to our bodies and physical features. The metaphor of the Panopticon is a power tool that can be used by anyone towards anyone. In reference to self-image and positivity, women often look down on not only themselves but others who do not follow these trends.

In the last few weeks, I have noticed many black girls and women have been going missing, being murdered, or committing suicide at high rates. In September, a young African American girl by the name of Kenneka Jenkins was found dead in a hotel refrigerator. Her death was claimed as an “accident” though many believe otherwise. In the recent week, I have heard of two young black girls killing themselves over bullying and at home issues.

Yes, suicide and murder happen, but the rate within this particular group is rising, I am wondering where the outrage is for these black girls. I then step back and remember facts of history and from our readings so far in this semester, and start to draw my own answer. For as long as black women have been in this country, we have been overlooked. The problems we had were always last due to two very strong identities: our race and our gender. We read about this in the first wave of Feminism, where black women formed the National Association of Colored Women, because of their constant neglect when it came to their political stance on both race and gender, and this issue still stands today in current politics.

I have noticed that being black, but also being a woman, is one of the most difficult intersectional identities a person can have while living in this country due to the inequality.

There is no outrage on this topic due to the group it is focused on. If this current epidemic was based around white men, or even white women, the outreach of sympathy would be immense. Author, Michael Kimmel, touches on this slightly in his Angry White Men book, where he emphasizes that gender, race and socio-economic status play a huge role on why certain groups get media attention, while others don’t. Rich, white men are not expected to experience hardship or cause trouble, so when they do, it is a media frenzy (Kimmel, 73). However, black girls and black boys are expected to, which is why the coverage on such issues is not as prominent.

“The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” – Malcolm X