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Allen Donnasia
WGS 2000 Ms. Gina
Reading Response Unit 1
February 2, 2016
Connections and America
The readings of Unit 1 have all peaked my interest in different ways. My favorites
articles reminding me to claim my Education, diving deeper into Societys standards of women
and beauty, and reading about we may be a long way from no longer needing feminism. The
challenges women face are not only interesting but abundant and told in multiple different ways,
and time periods My experiences have been captured in some articles, while others have opened
my eyes to experiences completely different from my own. It is a thrill to be able to connect the
words of these readings to my life in ways I hadnt thought of before.
In Adrienne Richs essay Claiming an Education she is speaking to students at the
womens institution Douglass College. I related to her speech not only as a woman, but a black
woman. Rich really catches my attention when she says When you read or hear about "great
issues," "major texts," "the mainstream of Western thought, "you are hearing about what men,
above all white men, in their male subjectivity, have decided is important (2). I was reminded of
my experience with the Columbus Public School education experience and how I was not taught
about the slaughtering of Native Americans, and how the topic of slavery which lasted over 400
years, was summarized within a week while we spent weeks learning of civil wars and how great
America was. No inventions that were made by black people were talked about, but if you ask
me about the Wright Brothers and who invented the Cotton Gin I could tell you about them no
problem. Rich acknowledges the lack of recognition for minorities accomplishment and even
existence in American history. Black and other minority peoples have for some time recognized

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that their racial and ethnic experience was not accounted for in the studies broadly labeled
human: and that even the sciences can be racist (2).
Growing up with a single mom I was always spoken to about how seriously I need to take
my education. My mother reiterated to me that I already had two strikes against me, the first
being black, the second being a female. In our society white is seen as the superior race, and
male the superior sex. Achieving an education is associated with success and I was trained that it
was my responsibility to acquire an education with no exceptions and to always go beyond
expectations. Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking,
and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence,
grappling with hard work (2) says Rich, reminding me of my mothers speeches.
There were a couple things said which made my think more about my opinions on some
subjects and whether I agree or disagree with Rich. I have always been a strong believer that
women should be able to do whatever they want with their body, and if they so choose to make
money off of what they were born with the decision should go without judgement. Using your
body, whether youre male or female, doesnt make you any less human or respectable in my
eyes. Rich says you do not treat your body as a commodity with which to purchase
superficial intimacy or economic security; for our bodies to be treated as objects, our minds are
in mortal danger (2). I disagree with the statement but it did make me consider that if we as
women want to be respected by men and held in high regard that maybe we should show more
respect to our bodies and not use it for such gains. Then again, who determined that women
profiting emotionally or financially by treating our bodies as commodities is immoral and
should looked down upon? PerhapsMen.

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In the No More Miss America article they compare the contestants to animals in a 4-H
Club county fair, where the nervous animals are judged for teeth, fleece, etc. and where the best
specimen gets the blue ribbon (33). In my experience this describes the scenario you get as a
young woman today walking past a group or peers rather they be male or female. You can feel
the eyes staring at you, judging your appearance even if only few seconds. Depending on the
kind of day youre having and the type of person you are youre either walking past nervously,
hoping the moment will not last long and no one says anything to you or striding confidently
expecting a guy to make a comment about how good you look and his gaze to linger for a while
longer. Whichever response you have in the scenario will most likely impact how you feel for the
next couple of minutes as you were just judged most likely based on the societal standard of
beauty that is advertised so graciously.
The Miss America Pageant contributes to Americas lack of representation among race
and culture. Since its inception in 1921, the pageant has not had one Black finalist, and this has
not been for lack of test-case contestants. There has never been a Puerto Rican, Alaskan,
Hawaiian, or Mexican-American winner. Nor has there ever been a true Miss America- an
American Indian (33). I grew up watching cable television and not thinking about how there
were no people that looked like me on the screen, but when I got to school and I would interact
with white friends of mine, and I would think that they were so pretty and compare them to the
other pretty people I saw on TV. I never considered my own or other black peoples beauty
because I didnt know what that looked like. All my Barbie dolls were either white with the slim
and tiny features of the stereotypical beautiful white woman or black with the stereotypical
features of a beautiful white woman. When I played with my Barbie dolls, I used them to
represent real life, so I came to wonder why I didnt look the any of my dolls, not even the black

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ones. I didnt realize how important representation was until I entered high school and to
acknowledge that not all beauty looks the same and noticing the beauty of someone that does not
look like you is not the absence of your own.
I consider myself a feminist and I find the concept of feminism equal and easy to grasp.
Feminism is defined in Still Needing the F word as Belief in the social, political and
economic equality of the sexes (46). Anytime I come across anyone as that still thinks of a
feminist of being a power hungry aggressive woman that hate men I am appalled and the joy I
find in explaining what feminism is really about overwhelms me. As a young woman living in a
society where looking good is valued, I can relate to the young women at Duke University
reportedly expending an enormous amount of effort on clothes, shoes, workout programs, and
diet (46) according to Still Needing the F word. Nothing is wrong with any of those things if
youre doing it for your own health and enjoyment, but to do it to be noticed in an academic
system because being cute trumps being smart in the social environment (Still Needing the F
word, 46) as the report from Duke concludes, is the opposite of feminism. I encountered this way
of thinking more so in high school than I have in college. Intelligent girls would ask guys
questions they already knew the answer to, and then proceed to act excited when he would help
them figure it out, lowering the standards for themselves to boost the sense of pride for their
male counterparts.
The connections I were able to make to my life help me take interest in the readings that
were assigned. As women it is your responsibility to claim your own education, if you wish to do
so. Nothing is wrong with the goal of being a mother but do not limit yourself to only that
possibility. Youre only aspiration does not need to be to resemble the beauty of Miss America.

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The winner of the pageant may be beautiful but she is not the standard nor is she the definition of
beautify

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Works Cited
New York Radical Women. "No More Miss America." Women's Voices, Feminist Visions:
Classic and Contemporary Readings. By Susan Shaw. Ed. Janet Lee. 6th ed. N.p.:
McGraw-Hill Education, 2014. 1-784. Print.
Quindlen, Anna. "Still Needing the F Word." Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and
Contemporary Readings. By Susan Shaw. Ed. Janet Lee. 6th ed. N.p.: McGraw-Hill
Education, 2014. 1-784. Print.
Rich, Adrienne. "Claiming an Education." Comp. Jennifer Jacovitch. (1977): 1-6.
Isites.harvard.edu. Harvard University. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.
<http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic469725.files/Rich-Claiming%20an
%20Education-1.pdf>.

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ul. It is clear that while women are given the equal opportunity to achieve what men can
they must achieve perfection to do so.