In the Susan Bordo piece, Are Mother’s Persons? She raises the
question of the lack of subjectivity a pregnant woman lacks. Bordo explains;
through clear mapping of her choice of topic how she will explain the
criminalization of mothers along with the lack of say to what happens to their
bodies. To me, that was a relevant topic. Not only women not have say over
their reproductive rights but they also cant do anything right, if they are not
providing for their children in the way that they do. It is a statement that
goes beyond the subjectivity of a pregnant woman; I am interested in this
hierarchy of the mother. I am referring to the article written by Sarah Jaffe,
Mariame Kaba, Randy Albeda and Kathleen Geier “How to End the Criminalization of America’s Mothers. In this
article published in the blog The Nation. The authors explain and have each a
piece to say and explain how mothers, and mothers of color are especially
criminalized, charged, and painted in the worst light through news media if
they show neglect of their children at all.
One of the main examples the article
has is about a mother, Shanesha Taylor.
Who left her two children in the car, while she interviewed at a part
time job. The family of a single mother I presume was currently homeless, she
had one job interview and she took it. The children were found in the parking
lot taken from her and she was later in jail for the neglect of her children.
What is missing from this narrative that is often heard of in any city or town,
is the one of the mother, and her struggles. The general narrative that this
mother is painted with is a careless, poor woman of color that cannot take care
of her children. Where the truth, is that she needed that job in order to
provide for her children, she needed that interview to get a job, which will
gain her some income. That would lead into that family not living in a car
anymore. It would lead to those children being provided for by the mother, who
in fact is probably all they have. In the later reports when healthcare
officials checked the two children, they were not harmed in any way-- Yet their
mother was in jail. After much public outcry at the mistreatment of the mother,
many organized to raise money to pay her legal fees, and signed a petition in
her favor and was able to leave jail.
This example and the mistreatment of
this mother is something that happens everyday. Yet the dominant society fails
to see the intersection of race, gender and socioeconomic status within the
role of a mother. Even more so a mother who struggles to find a baby sitter to
watch her children while she looks for a job.
A woman who might not have the resources to get to an interview, has to
take the bus, maybe she doesn’t know how to drive. Higher intuitions that keep
these issue stratified are an issue, the root of the issue. Along with
stigmatization of working mothers, poor mothers with their inability to provide
for children. In not one of the examples did the father seem to make an
appearance, maybe because most of these mother’s are single mothers. They might
be father and mother, the only source of income and care. Nonetheless, dominant
society always paints them as deviant for not taking care of children. Yet we
have Father’s Rights watch groups. Yet we tell these women they can’t have an
adoption, that they can’t have access to birth control and limit it. If they do
have access it might be against their will.
The whole idea of men’s rights
groups is complete vile. However, they try and reserve their ground on the idea
of equality. Just as Bordo along with James Bopp try to describe in the article
Are Mothers Persons? To me if the
father wanted the right, to have the
responsibility and the need to have a right in the life of a child, you should
prove being a father. It is just not enough to be a participant of how the baby
was made but rather raising the child and taking the responsibility of bringing
this child into the world. Not taking too much interest in Men’s Rights
groups. I will move onto another issue
that goes without being talked about.
It is always the criminalization of
women of color, understanding that the term “women of color” is to describe anyone who is
not white. I will assert the following: women of color do not mean everyone is
on the same basis, Latina, Asian, black, indigenous women are not the same. It
is to say that by being categorized in one group as well takes away from all
the other factors and facets that we are not thinking about in an
intersectional way. I should also point out that across race women get paid
less in the workforce.
(Women's Round table discussion on Gender Pay Gap, Oregon University)
As a Latina woman, I am supposed to
understand, and experience what other women with the same ethnicity feel. That
once again lumps me together with the rest of the women that come different
backgrounds and other countries. I have been very privileged, I am able-bodied,
I am a cis-gendered woman, I am a legal resident of the United States of
America, and I attend a higher learning education institution. Unlike many Latino
women do not, same with men. Often these voices never get out, often we don’t
hear them because they don’t exist, because they do not have citizenship.
Understanding that is it not a fight to see who is more oppressed but, the
article speaking of Shanesha Taylor reminded me of something that other mothers
have to face, not speaking the language of a country that they have emigrated
to, not knowing how the world works, and leaving the other world behind in
other to give your children the best possible future. Some of these mothers
might have their children, some mothers leave their children behind in their
countries of origin, offer domestic labor in the U.S and raise other people’s
children and not their own, in order to provide for their them. This topic is
also something that we need to keep in mind in the lack of subjectivity women
have, those of color, that have so many other facets to worry about. This topic has been widely discussed by Arlie Russel Hoschschild and Barbara Ehrenreinch in Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in The New Economy.
Disclaimer: I should mention, that I mean
no disrespect white women, or men in the case of Men’s issues. But for this purpose,
I do not wholeheartedly agree on men’s rights activist. I wanted to raise the topic
on other women of color that suffer from this criminalization, from the stigma
that reaches them differently because of their background.
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