Draft blog posts in response to the following questions. In for colored
girls...
what are different types of oppression you see in the text?
what types of internalized oppression do you see in the text?
1) What are different types of oppression you see in the text?
In Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, in the text we see that there are numerous experiences of oppression the women face. From having to deal with men in their lives that they personally know that end up abusing / raping them, making it that much harder for them to let others know about because the perpetrator is not a stranger, to men that are unwilling to listen to them say no (the man who will do anything to marry the woman), the women are really oppressed by the male figures in their environment. Furthermore, it is not always a man’s direct actions that is oppressing the women, but more so just the fear of the male figure, as depicted on page 37, “round midnite / praying wont no young man / think i’m pretty in a dark morning.” Unfortunately the oppression is constant throughout the text, and the women must encounter the oppression throughout their lives.
2) What types of internalized oppression do you see in the text?
In the text, the internalized oppression that the women experience in the text is almost completely based off of their surroundings and environment. From being ashamed of being colored, to feeling like they have to put up with the most ridiculous “sorry” from the male figures in their lives. The women almost present a sense of wanting and feeling a need to stand up, but through the text the male figures respond extremely negatively to this type of behavior, making the women feel obligated to internalize their feelings and dislike for the treatment they must encounter. This internalized depression originates from the actions that the male figures in their lives have with them, but it also comes from the fear the women have of speaking out against it. Coinciding with the oppression the women encounter, the women must internalize the aftermath of receiving the abuse / rape from male figures that to them are not “strangers” because the women do not have the option to inform anyone else of the abuse. And even if they do let someone know about the abuse (the police in the example of the man who wants to marry the woman), the experience she encounters is still the same – letting others know about what she was dealing with did not prevent the man from committing harm.
The different women are all experiencing different types of oppression, mostly stemming from men or patriarchal concepts of “a proper woman.” The men that all these women have in their lives oppress them and prevent them from being strong enough to stand up to them. The ladies buy into the patriarchal concepts and allow it to affect the way they view themselves. For example, the lady in red is oppressed by her desire to be loved by a man. She says that it was an experiment for her to see how selfish she was. But in actuality, it seems as if she is only lying to herself in order to justify why she let the adulterer manipulate her and use her. The lady in yellow also allows stereotypes of the black woman oppress her. She admits that she struggles with her conceptions of being black and being a woman. She thought she was too strong to be hurt, only to realize that love can hurt her more than she anticipated. Perhaps it was the man she was with that treated her poorly because he felt that as a black woman she was too strong to be hurt. She internalized similar sentiments, only to be surprised by her own sensitivity.
In “latent rapists,” the ladies communicate their vulnerability to rape and the doubts that society places on their testimony. Especially as colored women, they are frequently doubted as victims by society. People also fail to see the dangerous communities these colored women tend to live in. The lady in purple expresses in “I used to live in the world” about how she is confined to the 6 blocks of Harlem, where she is frequently exposed to the threat of rape.
We see internalized oppression on pg 42 as the lady in orange expresses her coming to the conclusion that being a colored girl is synonymous with evil, being a “bitch” or “nag” (these ideas are what society projects onto black girls). She speaks of distancing herself from this image, from being this colored girl who changes the texture of her hair with “deep & nasty smellin scald from lye”--this colored girl--bitch--who is loud, vulgar with her language and antics at home, in public. The lady in orange continues, admitting how she had convinced myself colored girls had no right to sorrow.” She “couldn't stand bein sorry & colored at the same time...it’s so redundant in the modern world.” For me, these were the most powerful lines of her poem and embody the depth of a black girl’s internalized oppression. In essence she feels like we, we black girls, are not worthy of the pain, maybe shame, maybe sadness we feel when hurt by those we love or those who don’t even know us. Again there is internalized oppression in the poem titled “Latent Rapists’” on pg. 17. The ladies describe that rape is not rape if it is committed by someone one knows. Here, the blame, the responsibility is taken away from the attacker and placed on the raped woman herself with the woman, represented by the ladies in color, thinking, “you know these things happen”, “if you know him you must have wanted it”, “are you sure you didn’t suggest.” Starting on pg. 36, in “I Used to Live in the World”, the city Harlem ushers oppression into the poets life with poor environment: “ankles are coated in grey filth”, “shit & broken lil whiskey bottles left to make me bleed.” Even more sorrowful is the truth described by the lady in purple who is waiting for a bus. She tells the reader, “wdnt be good not good at all to meet a tall short black brown young man fulla his power in the dark in my universe of six blocks.” The city fosters crime which fosters fear which stifles this black girl’s, the lady in blue’s, yellow’s, purple’s progression. No, these women are stuck in their “six blocks of cruelty.”
1) What are different types of oppression you see in the text? The main source of oppression comes from the male figures in the novel. They find difficulty in saying no to these male figures because of familiarity as well as their internalized sense of their role in society. As result, they become subject to verbal and physical violence.
2) What types of internalized oppression do you see in the text? The women in this novel are subjects of a group that they don’t necessarily belong to, so they are willing to associate with the group, but they are victims within that group. They internalize their past as their present, resulting in a skewed and bleak perspective of the future. Their internalization of being black females, and what that means to them, allows for the males to take advantage of them.
The oppression in “For Colored Girls…” is coming from the men in the women’s lives. The stories of the seven women in the play deal with love, abandonment, rape and abortion, and each character is struggling in some form with abuse and the external oppression received from living in a patriarchal society. There is also this concept of being afraid of the male figure and this fear is also a form of oppression. On pages 17-21 the lady in purple, the lady in red, and the lady in blue talk about how common date rape is, and how pressing charges is nearly impossible. Here they are talking about physical oppression of women as well as the fear they now have of letting men too close. This fear is also illustrated on page 37, when the lady in blue says, “…round midnite/praying wont no young man/think i’m pretty in a dark morning…wdnt be good/not good at all/to meet a tall short black brown young man fulla his power/in the dark.” The fear of man is an oppression just as powerful as the oppression created by the actions men perform against the women. These various forms of oppression are apparent throughout each woman’s story. From pages 31 through 35 the lady in red tells the story of the lady who wears sequins, and portrays this deceptive outer image to get guys who she ends up tossing away and always cries herself to sleep. She is a great example of internal oppression because she believes that she is not worth something better, and plays this part of temptress because for her that seems like the only option.
1) What are different types of oppression you see in the text?
ReplyDeleteIn Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, in the text we see that there are numerous experiences of oppression the women face. From having to deal with men in their lives that they personally know that end up abusing / raping them, making it that much harder for them to let others know about because the perpetrator is not a stranger, to men that are unwilling to listen to them say no (the man who will do anything to marry the woman), the women are really oppressed by the male figures in their environment. Furthermore, it is not always a man’s direct actions that is oppressing the women, but more so just the fear of the male figure, as depicted on page 37, “round midnite / praying wont no young man / think i’m pretty in a dark morning.” Unfortunately the oppression is constant throughout the text, and the women must encounter the oppression throughout their lives.
2) What types of internalized oppression do you see in the text?
In the text, the internalized oppression that the women experience in the text is almost completely based off of their surroundings and environment. From being ashamed of being colored, to feeling like they have to put up with the most ridiculous “sorry” from the male figures in their lives. The women almost present a sense of wanting and feeling a need to stand up, but through the text the male figures respond extremely negatively to this type of behavior, making the women feel obligated to internalize their feelings and dislike for the treatment they must encounter. This internalized depression originates from the actions that the male figures in their lives have with them, but it also comes from the fear the women have of speaking out against it. Coinciding with the oppression the women encounter, the women must internalize the aftermath of receiving the abuse / rape from male figures that to them are not “strangers” because the women do not have the option to inform anyone else of the abuse. And even if they do let someone know about the abuse (the police in the example of the man who wants to marry the woman), the experience she encounters is still the same – letting others know about what she was dealing with did not prevent the man from committing harm.
The different women are all experiencing different types of oppression, mostly stemming from men or patriarchal concepts of “a proper woman.” The men that all these women have in their lives oppress them and prevent them from being strong enough to stand up to them. The ladies buy into the patriarchal concepts and allow it to affect the way they view themselves. For example, the lady in red is oppressed by her desire to be loved by a man. She says that it was an experiment for her to see how selfish she was. But in actuality, it seems as if she is only lying to herself in order to justify why she let the adulterer manipulate her and use her. The lady in yellow also allows stereotypes of the black woman oppress her. She admits that she struggles with her conceptions of being black and being a woman. She thought she was too strong to be hurt, only to realize that love can hurt her more than she anticipated. Perhaps it was the man she was with that treated her poorly because he felt that as a black woman she was too strong to be hurt. She internalized similar sentiments, only to be surprised by her own sensitivity.
ReplyDeleteIn “latent rapists,” the ladies communicate their vulnerability to rape and the doubts that society places on their testimony. Especially as colored women, they are frequently doubted as victims by society. People also fail to see the dangerous communities these colored women tend to live in. The lady in purple expresses in “I used to live in the world” about how she is confined to the 6 blocks of Harlem, where she is frequently exposed to the threat of rape.
We see internalized oppression on pg 42 as the lady in orange expresses her coming to the conclusion that being a colored girl is synonymous with evil, being a “bitch” or “nag” (these ideas are what society projects onto black girls). She speaks of distancing herself from this image, from being this colored girl who changes the texture of her hair with “deep & nasty smellin scald from lye”--this colored girl--bitch--who is loud, vulgar with her language and antics at home, in public. The lady in orange continues, admitting how she had convinced myself colored girls had no right to sorrow.” She “couldn't stand bein sorry & colored at the same time...it’s so redundant in the modern world.” For me, these were the most powerful lines of her poem and embody the depth of a black girl’s internalized oppression. In essence she feels like we, we black girls, are not worthy of the pain, maybe shame, maybe sadness we feel when hurt by those we love or those who don’t even know us. Again there is internalized oppression in the poem titled “Latent Rapists’” on pg. 17. The ladies describe that rape is not rape if it is committed by someone one knows. Here, the blame, the responsibility is taken away from the attacker and placed on the raped woman herself with the woman, represented by the ladies in color, thinking, “you know these things happen”, “if you know him you must have wanted it”, “are you sure you didn’t suggest.”
ReplyDeleteStarting on pg. 36, in “I Used to Live in the World”, the city Harlem ushers oppression into the poets life with poor environment: “ankles are coated in grey filth”, “shit & broken lil whiskey bottles left to make me bleed.” Even more sorrowful is the truth described by the lady in purple who is waiting for a bus. She tells the reader, “wdnt be good not good at all to meet a tall short black brown young man fulla his power in the dark in my universe of six blocks.” The city fosters crime which fosters fear which stifles this black girl’s, the lady in blue’s, yellow’s, purple’s progression. No, these women are stuck in their “six blocks of cruelty.”
1) What are different types of oppression you see in the text?
ReplyDeleteThe main source of oppression comes from the male figures in the novel. They find difficulty in saying no to these male figures because of familiarity as well as their internalized sense of their role in society. As result, they become subject to verbal and physical violence.
2) What types of internalized oppression do you see in the text?
The women in this novel are subjects of a group that they don’t necessarily belong to, so they are willing to associate with the group, but they are victims within that group. They internalize their past as their present, resulting in a skewed and bleak perspective of the future. Their internalization of being black females, and what that means to them, allows for the males to take advantage of them.
The oppression in “For Colored Girls…” is coming from the men in the women’s lives. The stories of the seven women in the play deal with love, abandonment, rape and abortion, and each character is struggling in some form with abuse and the external oppression received from living in a patriarchal society. There is also this concept of being afraid of the male figure and this fear is also a form of oppression. On pages 17-21 the lady in purple, the lady in red, and the lady in blue talk about how common date rape is, and how pressing charges is nearly impossible. Here they are talking about physical oppression of women as well as the fear they now have of letting men too close. This fear is also illustrated on page 37, when the lady in blue says, “…round midnite/praying wont no young man/think i’m pretty in a dark morning…wdnt be good/not good at all/to meet a tall short black brown young man fulla his power/in the dark.” The fear of man is an oppression just as powerful as the oppression created by the actions men perform against the women. These various forms of oppression are apparent throughout each woman’s story.
ReplyDeleteFrom pages 31 through 35 the lady in red tells the story of the lady who wears sequins, and portrays this deceptive outer image to get guys who she ends up tossing away and always cries herself to sleep. She is a great example of internal oppression because she believes that she is not worth something better, and plays this part of temptress because for her that seems like the only option.
-Yeva