This document discusses the strength and resilience of women throughout history in facing oppression and abuse. It describes the practice of foot binding in China during the Tang Dynasty, which caused great pain but was seen as necessary for beauty. It also discusses the abuse endured by enslaved women, focusing on Margaret Garner who was beaten while pregnant and ultimately killed her own daughter to prevent her from being returned to slavery. The document argues that despite endless hardships, women have persisted and grown stronger, proving their power and ability to overcome adversity.
This document discusses the strength and resilience of women throughout history in facing oppression and abuse. It describes the practice of foot binding in China during the Tang Dynasty, which caused great pain but was seen as necessary for beauty. It also discusses the abuse endured by enslaved women, focusing on Margaret Garner who was beaten while pregnant and ultimately killed her own daughter to prevent her from being returned to slavery. The document argues that despite endless hardships, women have persisted and grown stronger, proving their power and ability to overcome adversity.
This document discusses the strength and resilience of women throughout history in facing oppression and abuse. It describes the practice of foot binding in China during the Tang Dynasty, which caused great pain but was seen as necessary for beauty. It also discusses the abuse endured by enslaved women, focusing on Margaret Garner who was beaten while pregnant and ultimately killed her own daughter to prevent her from being returned to slavery. The document argues that despite endless hardships, women have persisted and grown stronger, proving their power and ability to overcome adversity.
This document discusses the strength and resilience of women throughout history in facing oppression and abuse. It describes the practice of foot binding in China during the Tang Dynasty, which caused great pain but was seen as necessary for beauty. It also discusses the abuse endured by enslaved women, focusing on Margaret Garner who was beaten while pregnant and ultimately killed her own daughter to prevent her from being returned to slavery. The document argues that despite endless hardships, women have persisted and grown stronger, proving their power and ability to overcome adversity.
Women. The strongest individuals to have ever existed. Males have never had to experience
the amount of agony of what women, specifically minority women, have coped with. One would
have thought that by this time, the 21st Century, things would have changed, but morally not
much has. Things, what are these “things” that women have dealt with? These things are abuse:
physical, mental, social, and economical abuse. Might there be more? Yes, there is tons more but
too many to mention them all, so I stick with these for now. Throughout all these centuries, women
have been belittled and still are, and honestly I do not understand the purpose why. This is my time
to stance my voice and give out my opinions about the issue, I will address every detail I know and
have just to spread some awareness.
Where do I even begin. So many issues to mentions, too many topics to discuss, all about
different types of women and the different things they have all dealt with. Shall I begin with this
quote: “She was powerful, not because she wasn't scared but because she went on so strongly,
despite the fear”. Atticus Finch took the words right from my mouth and displayed such eloquence
in his saying. There is no more desirable way for myself to describe how powerful females are.
Now, I know I had mentioned about minority women struggling so much, but I want to focus on all
women around the world no matter the ethnicity/ race, age, religion, and so on. Each and every
single lady has experienced distinct situations, and that is what I am here to discuss about with
regards to what was earlier mentioned.
Now, I am about to take us all back about 11 to 12 centuries ago, and I will start it off with
the Chinese civilization. From the article On High Heels and Lotus Feet, Summer Brennan gives us a vision of the Tang Dynasty in Imperial China and the torment women have experienced. “A young
dancing girl was encouraged to wrap her feet tightly in cloth so that they would remain small,
dainty and beautiful, while the rest of her body grew to maturity. Or maybe not. Instead of a
young dancing girl, perhaps it was the king’s favorite concubine, who tied up her feet so that they
were shaped like little hooves, to dance with on the golden stage shaped like a lotus flower that
she had built for him. Because the king liked it, the other concubines followed suit. Or, it could have
been a queen born with a clubfoot, who demanded that all of the women of her court wear foot
bandages as well, so that their feet would resemble hers, and she would not feel like an oddity”.
This is sexual abuse. Though it was about women’s feet, they were being sexualised, at such a
young age too. It is crazy to think that young women and little girls had to wrap their feet up to
keep them small and “beautiful”. What is so beautiful about torturing these innocent individuals? If
that is not enough to show one form of strength that women have pursued to defeat the pain they
had went through during the Tang Dynasty in Imperial China, what does?
Brennan goes on, “bound feet were painful, but they were also beautiful, because society
decided it was so. The pain was worth it because beauty was worth. As a woman, the more
beautiful you were, the more worth you had. Beauty was pain and pain beauty”. It just gets more
disgusting as you read. The more “beautiful” a woman was during the Tang Dynasty, the more she
was worth. Worth. Treated as an object. Women were objects, and not to any surprise, to some
people they still are objects, used mainly for sexual desires. Precious young ladies were suffering
through physical and mental pain to be used as sexual objects, putting on a show for men to enjoy,
but “the pain was worth it”? I used to used the phrase “beauty is pain” as a joke or as a saying
when I would want to “beautify” a part of myself, but now I see the bigger picture. The pain I use
to describe beauty, whether it be plucking an eyebrow hair or curling an eyelash, is nothing
compared to the pain these women would use for “beauty”. Or shall I say, were forced to use. Mental, physical, social and economical abuse are all tied together into this situation of torturing
and sexualising women to look more beautiful. These women and young girls were something else,
they were powerful, they were strong.
About four centuries ago, slavery had begun, and it had lasted an amount of almost 200
years. That is about two centuries worth of pain, suffering, tears, and strength. While every slave
and almost every African-American had went through horrendous experiences, I am here to focus
on women. One woman in particular, Margaret Garner. In a novel written by Toni Morrison,
Beloved, Margaret Garner is represented by a women named Sethe. Sethe was truly an eye opening
character to me, her strength empowered me the most to speak out about women and the abuse
they have been through. “Them boys found out I told on em. Schoolteacher made one open up my
back, and when it closed it made a tree. It grows there still. ‘They used cowhide on you?’ ‘And they
took my milk.’ ‘They beat you and you was pregnant?’ ‘And they took my milk!’” She was beaten
while pregnant. Her milk stolen away from her while pregnant. An enslaved mother being tortured
to the point where it was as if her own maternal position was taken away from her. But that did
not stop her. She went on and on, she gave birth to that child on her own while running away from
her slave owner. No one can tell me this woman is not one of the most powerful women to have
ever existed.
Unfortunately, this is not the only thing Sethe (Margaret Garner) had went through. An
even more traumatizing experience was at witness and went down as one of the longest fugitive
slave act cases in history. From the article Margaret Garner: Defying the Fugitive Slave Act w ritten
by Levi Coffin, “ At this moment, Margaret Garner, seeing that their hopes of freedom were vain
seized a butcher knife that lay on the table, and with on stroke cut the throat of her little daughter,
whom she probably loved the best”. A mother’s love lead to killing an infant of her own, not for
hate, but for the better sake of her child. A woman powerful enough to have the guts to murder her own child. Just imagine the mental and physical abuse that Garner had been through slavery that
she had to kill her child to make sure her daughter did not experience what she had experienced.
Margaret Garner was raped, numerous times, beat, whipped, treated like an animal, detached from
her mother at a young age, all by the time she was around 22 years old. “You may shoot me with
your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like
air, I rise”. Stated by Maya Angelou, Margaret Garner rose no matter what she faced, and never let
anything bring her down. She was powerful, she was strong.
Women have been used and abused. Used for “love”, but what love is there really? In a
poem written by Samiya Bashir, You’re Really Faithful to Your Abusers, Aren’t You?, “Like love: first
you pick up; then you lay down; then discard; then discard; then discard. That’s love. Right?” She
sums it all up pretty well. After being hurt over, and over, and over again, we, women, girls, still
have the hope to love and fight again. What is it that doesn’t stop us? What is it that keeps us blind
from the truth? Is it ou strength? Well, our strength keeps us from giving up, and that is why go on
and on for as long as we can go. It has happened to all of us, even myself, we love but we are used.
We love, but we are abused. Maybe not physically, but definitely mentally and socially. The power
women have to repeat what men had done to all of us all the time is the proof that men are weak,
and cannot even imagine the craziness women have been through just to please them all. And this
is not some 18th or 19th century issue, this is happening right now, today, to millions of women
around the nation, around the world. 21st century, women are powerful, women are strong.
Tears, pain, suffering, and torture. What more can I used to describe the torment the female
kind has been across? “Beautifying”, slavery, sexual abuse used for male advantages, women have
never given up and have prospered to keep their heads held up high to prove everyone wrong. The
strongest individuals to have ever existed. People have blocked visions and opportunities for
females to keep on pursuing, but they were silly enough to think women cannot flourish upon their abilities. Never have we ever given up, and that is why we are still here today, dominating
everything that we can. We can vote, we can work, we can own, we can be independent. I am here
to speak for the female voice, I am here to spread awareness. We are strong, we are powerful.
MLA Citations
Angelou, Maya. The Complete Poetry. Random House, 2015.
Bashir, Samiya. “You're Really Faithful to Your Abusers, Aren't You?” Poets.org, Academy of
Fifth Wave of the Feminist Movement: Coochie Power 5.0 Era: 21 Iconic Game Changers for Feminism: Empowering Women to Plug into Power in Celebration of the Most Pivotal Step in the Movement
Fifth Wave of the Feminist Movement: Coochie Power 5.0 Era: 21 Iconic Game Changers for Feminism: Empowering Women to Plug into Power in Celebration of the Most Pivotal Step in the Movement
