Friday, October 31, 2014
It's Not an Oxymoron: The Search for an Arab Feminism
I think its great when a literary piece is able to show you the other side of an specific subject you were never exposed to, it broadens your perspective and change the way you think about such subject. This was my experience with "It's Not an Oxymoron" by Susan Muaddi Darraj. In the U.S and many others technological advance countries, most of the information its citizens are able to obtain is control by the media and it limits such information to a single story. By reading " It's Not an Oxymoron" I was able to pull what I consider the other side of a single story. Darraj, explains from her own perspective what it is to be a feminist and an Arab women at the same time. In the search for her own type of feminist, one that spoke to her culturally and didn't divided her from her family, the author gained a sense of self awareness that she was able to maintain for the rest of her life. What I personally like about the essay was the misconception the media creates about Arab women and the way the author explain these misconception so that the reader is exposed to more than just what the media created. The author goes into great deeps to analyze why these stories are bias and misleading. she also analyze ideas that transcend cultures and we are able to find them in all type of cultures around the world. Never limit yourself to a single story. If you truly wish to understand something, get to know all aspects of such subject. Don't only take what is giving to you, find out more on your own. We can't ever be truly united if we don't understand each others cultures and backgrounds.
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I definitely agree with your final statement and liked that you used Chimimanda's touch to enhance your point. I thought it to be really appropriate to listen to her presentation about the single story and Ted Talk right after reading Darraj's essay. I think many people are guilty of adhering to a single story at one point in their life, perhaps even as a full grown adult. Chimimanda admitted that she kept one, but she was disappointed in herself when she realized it. I don't get disappointed when I realize that I'm holding a single story or two, but I get a bit amazed. I don't just come up with these single stories on my own. It's all these outside factors that affect me that I'm taking in that cause me to create that single story. So really if I have that single story then possibly thousands of other people share that story in some shape or form too. It amazes me to see the kind of effect we can have on each other without even realizing. But it would be more amazing to not have a single story of anyone and to be able to see many different perspectives and multiple sides of just one story. You can take a cliche sitcom suburban family of four that runs for four seasons and then retell the story from the perspective of each memeber of the family and get entirely different shows.
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