Julia's Justifications

I usually don’t like talking about my religion, but after reading and discussing “The Clan of One-Breasted Women,” I was excited that we were reading something that I could relate to.   I belong to the group of Christians called Mormons.   My entire family is Mormon.   On my father’s side, his family has been Mormon and resided in Utah since the 1840s.   As Williams states in paragraph 5, “Mormons have a low rate of cancer,” (Williams 928) is very true.   We do not drink coffee, tea, alcohol, or chew tobacco, so one would think that we would not get cancer.   My own grandmother got breast and skin cancer, not even ten years ago.   The effects of the nuclear testing that the government was doing over fifty years ago did not even hit her until 2010.   Her father also had prostate and bone cancer that ended up killing him before my father was even born, which can be traced back to the government’s coverup of the testing.   They also lived on a f...

While reading Judy Brady’s “I Want a Wife,” I was able to see the light in what being a woman; specifically wives and mothers was like almost fifty years ago.   It was interesting seeing the disposition of being a wife in society that did not allow women to do much of anything compared to today.   Looking back, I admit I have been guilty of thinking that once women had the right to vote, all would great and then there would be equality (I am ashamed of that now).   As you all might know, even with the ratification of the nineteenth amendment, women were still paid much less, and were pressured to stay at home to cook, clean, and tend the children.   And now, while we are living in 2020, I ask this question; how far have we really come as a society? In “I Want a Wife,” Brady touches on the demands and requirements placed on a woman (and wife) in the 1970s.   I was curious on how far we have come as a society in terms of being a wife and a mother now in 2020, a...

When reading “There Is No Unmarked Woman,” I concluded that Tannen’s essay is even more relevant today because as society changes, and women start to break barriers of gender expectations, they are criticized and sexualized.   Today men (and some women) are still ignorant on the very much prevalent gender differences between unmarked men and marked women. I too believe that women are marked, however I must say that black and Muslim women are the most oppressed in our society.   A Muslim woman that is simply just practicing her religion by wearing a hijab, is put down.   If a black woman goes out in a natural hair style, she is labeled as “unprofessional” or “lazy,” “which can disqualify her from many positions” (Tannen 554).   Not to mention black women are then labeled as “ghetto” if they are seen wearing an ethnic, protective hair style such as box braids. In January 2019, Brittany Noble, a news anchor at WJTV in Jackson, Mississippi was reportedly fired after...