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McDole
WMST 100-002
3 May 2019
For years, women of color have had numerous assumptions and judgements made about
them. Because of their race, society determines how someone should be treated and the potential
they have as a person. Gender goes along these lines as well when someone is a woman. For a
woman of color, she is not seen for herself or for the things she can do. She is seen for her skin
and she is treated differently because of that. Society does not care about women unless they are
white.
An example of this is in an episode of the television show Orange is the New Black, a
show revolving around the experience of a white woman named Piper who goes to prison. In one
episode, a man who works at the prison says he will bring back something called the WAC Pack,
WAC standing for Women’s Advisory Council. Piper is called upon by the man who announces
the council’s return, saying Piper should run as representative for the white women as he
believes she could improve life at the prison for the other women. She declines and doesn’t run,
but later ends up actually winning one of the positions. If Piper were, for example, a black
woman, then she would have never even been approached to run for the WAC Pack, let alone to
represent black women. None of the workers would have seen potential in her that she could
make the conditions and life at the prison better if she were a black woman. No one would even
want to give her the chance or take her seriously based on the group of women she’d be
representing with her race. In general, her life in prison would be so much harder in all aspects if
This would happen because black women, and all women of color, aren’t treated the
same as white women. This seems to be especially amplified in prisons as well with imprisoned
women of color being put into toxic power dynamics everyday between themselves and the staff,
with the women as the ones with less power. Women of color specifically have even less power
in this dynamic than white women. Imprisoned women are already seen as beings who are less
than in comparison to the rest of those in society. When she’s imprisoned and already has the
negative connotation that comes with being incarcerated, she is seen as even less of a human
with potential, skills, and talents of her with own. She is treated as such in prisons through these
power dynamics that are predominately Man to Woman as prison jobs are held primarily by men.
Many of these men feel superior to these incarcerated women of color and it makes their lives
Another example of how society doesn’t care about women of color is apparent with
female infanticide in China. Female infanticide is act of purposely killing a female newborn baby
for being female. In China, female infanticide is and has been an issue in China for a long time.
Female infanticide is an issue as well in other countries and raises a lot of concern in India too,
but China has been the worst offender. There are many reasons why this happens with some of
the cultural norms in China, one of which being that daughters in China who get married join the
family of the husband and take all of their emotional and economic support with them. This ends
up leaving the daughter’s family pretty much completely on their own without her. That reason
along with the patrilineal society that China is leaves mothers with a fear and resentment towards
having a daughter. The most common way for female infanticide to be committed would be
“cleaning the baby,” which is drowning the infant in a dish of water shortly after birth. The other
more indirect way would be neglecting and letting the infant become malnourished to the point
of death. There even was a rule put into place that said if an infant was killed within three days
of its birth, then it wasn’t considered murder. This allowed many mothers to get away with
killing their female infant. In countries with a large amount of privileged white people, like
America, people know about this as an issue going on in the world, but not enough are actually
talking about it or trying to help really bring attention to the issue. It’s something that people in
society may hear about, but keep on with their day. If these female infants being killed were
white though, then the reactions from people who could help would definitely be different than
This lack of concern or effort on raising awareness happens because the female newborn
children being murdered aren’t white. If female infanticide was and is occurring amongst white
female infants at the rate it was and is occurring in China, or even in India and the several other
countries it is occurring in, then it would be so much more of a larger issue in today’s society.
But because our society determines a woman’s worth from her skin color first and foremost, then
it doesn’t make these millions of deaths seem like that huge of an issue. Before these female
infants even know if they are a woman, society chooses not to care as much about their deaths
since they aren’t white and equate their sex and gender. People see a woman of color, take note
of her race, and then make a judgement and an assumption about her solely based off of the color
of her skin. They base the worth of her life off of her skin. Even if people were to start to bring
more attention to the issue of female infanticide, it wouldn’t stick long and wouldn’t make as
the most value and capability in society’s eyes. It’s as if she can do no wrong, besides being a
woman of course. If a woman is of another race, then she is ostracized and all of her potential as
a woman and as a human is determined by her skin. There is no question of her putting the color
of her skin aside to determine her worth. Women of races other than white are viewed much
differently by society and in a way, it’s almost as if they aren’t viewed at all.