Activism Log VI

Rachel Miles
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 (Introduction to Women’s Studies)
28 March 2010

Activism
My involvement was interrupted again this week, this time by a severe family emergency that had me heading back home almost every night after my classes let out. As such, I wasn’t able to attend tabling. I’m hoping this clears up by next week, but I’ll have to see; if it doesn’t, I’ll be emailing Rebecca, our community partner, to see if she has any alternative ways I can get involved. I did collect a few more signatures, this time by passing the petition around my anthropology class. My professor was, again, very supportive, but the reception from the class seemed a bit more stilted. It wasn’t nearly as bolstering an experience as soliciting my creative writing class for support was, but I suppose that’s par for the course in activism—some you win and some you lose.

Reflection
My favorite reading from this week was the collection of excerpts from Riverbend’s Baghdad Burning blog. The article and blog entries comprising it provided a fascinating look at an alternative perspective on the war in Iraq, particularly regarding actual versus perceived needs and responses of the Iraqi population. Contrary to popular U.S. belief, Iraq had modern amenities, utilities, and cultural attributes. Most surprising to me was the realization that “females in Iraq were a lot better off than females in other parts of the Arab word (and some parts of the Western world . . .)” (Riverbend 527)—a statement which directly contradicted the image I have always been presented with of Iraqi and general Middle Eastern women as the most severely oppressed and limited in the world. Connected to our project, this realization that presented perceptions of culture/identity are not always accurate is a bit sobering. It’s great to be able to say that my efforts are helping benefit an oppressed community, or that I have a personal connection to that community through a family member, or that I’ve done research on key issues, sure. But the simple, undeniable fact is that I will never understand what it means to be transgendered, which means that I will never fully understand if my actions are actually helping or hurting. I can immerse myself in the culture of the community (which would be so much more involved than what I’m doing now), but without being transgendered and experiencing things as a transgendered individual, I will always, to an extent, be an outsider incapable of completely understanding the situation.

Reciprocity
Again, I’m disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to table this week, although I’m still a bit more concerned about the situation at home. In all, this has been a fairly stressful week for me; the less-than-warm reception I got in my anthropology class didn’t help much, and it has all dampened my spirits about this project and life in general. Better luck next week, I hope.



Works Cited
Riverbend. “Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq.” Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 525-530. Print.