Gender Difficulties Faced by Women
It has been directed by Kristof and Wu Dunn basing their literature in Asia and Africa. Women have been subjected to gender difficulties since they are vulnerable. They have had the case of a woman called Srey Rath from Cambodian who has been trafficked to Thailand. Other women are from Kenya, Afghanistan, Liberia, Senegal, Congo, Vietnam and Somaliland. There is difficulty in the way women in this film are treated. They are introduced into drugs and substance abuse which gets them into drug addicts and they can now do anything to have these drugs. As a result, they therefore get involved in sex (Kristof, & WuDunn, pp1). The women undergo humiliation in foreign land and sexually violated. The pre-marital sex they are involved at is form of rape and they therefore become culturally condemned. They are denied the opportunity to having education hence even if they are able to escape; they cannot be able to get themselves a respectable job because they are lacking the education. These girls are seen as outcasts and in some countries especially the ones with Islamic religion, they are subjected to a practice known as \u2018Honor killing\u2019. This is unfair is unfair because the girl is not responsible for what happened to her in the whole deal. The issue was kind of forced on her by the people who forced her to do it.
Connection with the Literature on "Not an Indian Tradition: The sexual colonization of the Native people" by Andrea Smith
This book connects with the literature on \u201cNot an Indian Tradition: The sexual colonization of the Native people\u201d by Andrea Smith. According to it colonization is a tool of colonialism and racism especially for the women of color. Economy and political relations issues are affected by sexuality. For instance, the United State and Hawaii relationship is framed as a cultural prostitution. Prostitution for this case refers to the female as an object for sexual pleasure in degradation whereby victimized sexual values are in exchange with money. Hawaii is ready to give anything to the tourist and visitors from foreign countries in exchange with money. Indian women have been subjected to difficulties. In case of a sexual attack, it is not seen as an abuse to her as an individual woman but as a native. She begins to be viewed as though she is also guilty of sexual violation that she has undergone (Smith, pp70). She can only be married by a divorcee, a widower or a man with another wife. It is seen as though she exposed herself the sexual violation. Racism is a factor in the political moment of the state since it is intertwined with social body. US had its Native people as \u2018present absent\u2019 in colonial imagination. The Indian Americans in US were the dirtiest people on earth in 1860s with ragged clothes, uncombed hair and unwashed bodies. The Americans used to see them as wild until colonization came when they got introduced to the ivory soap. It is since then that sexual sin started been practiced there. The US was looking at the Native Indian women as pollution that hindered them from exploration hence needed to be sterilized. These native women with dirty bodies are considered violable meaning they can be raped. This is ironical and patriarchal thinking because it is only a pure body that is likely to be violated. Therefore the native women should be seen in another angle.
Criticizing Oppression and Providing Solutions
The Half the Sky film has on the other hand criticized the oppression of the women providing them with an opportunity to liberate themselves. The authors use the problems which the women are going through in order to come up with solutions to the women. An example of an obstacle used by Half the Sky;\u00a0 the failure to educate the girls (Kristof, & WuDunn, pp1). Girls are supposed to be empowered through being education so that they can economically be stable. Apart from investing in girl\u2019s education, there is also the microfinance and pursuing empirically based rather than intuitive remedies. At the grassroots level, there should be education programs on gender equality. Through this everybody including those practicing patriarchy will know the importance of liberating the women. It is seen as the moral and economic issue of age and women are catalyzed to take action against oppression.
Connection with "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses" by Chandra Mohanty
The second part of the Half the Sky work is related to \u201cUnder Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses) by Chandra Mohanty. She does not intend to use western women meaning that the middle class and low class women are not equally treated; it applies to all women especially those in urbanized settings. Culture before and after colonization has been regulations made by men. Women have the responsibilities of obeying what has been given to them. There have been so many obstacles which hinder women from being productive members of the society. A good example is that women are responsible for house chores and children rearing. They get tired but it does not add value to women. Mohanty criticize the Third World treatment to women. In most cases the women are married off through family arrangement in exchange for dowry. The richer the man marrying the girl the better for the father. The girl not put into consideration in terms of things like her choice, her age and her education. The article insists on the education for girls since this is the key to her economic stability. If the girl is stable economically, she can be able to get involved in politics and fight for those that are facing gender oppression. The education will be an eye opener for the girl as she interacts with other girls and learn their cultural practice. She will know what is lacking in her culture since most girls are going through the hardship of life since they are not aware that there is another way round. There are other communities which practice the female genital mutilation (Mohanty, pp. 51). The reason for their success has been since the women think that failure to have it done will be a form of taboo. This is misleading since men in such societies have made them face oppression through setting the regulations without involving the women in it. This is because they depend on them for survival, these men end up treating the women like objects. They sexually harass these women since the women are not enlightened on how they should be dealing with life. Women are urged to fight for their rights by saying no to the barbaric religions that is promoting inequality. This can be through campaigning against these ideologies and educating people on importance of empowering women and treating them as equals with men.
Work Cited
Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn.Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.”Gender, 2000, pp. 51–71., doi:10.1007/978-1-137-07412-6_5.
Smith, Andrea. “Not an Indian Tradition: The Sexual Colonization of Native Peoples.”Hypatia, vol. 18, no. 2, 2003, pp. 70–85., doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2003.tb00802.x.
