Last week, three young women from the Feminist Majority Foundation visited the large Intro to Women’s Studies class that I work as a TA. They did what I take to be a standard invitation:
FMF member: Okay! So who here is a feminist? Raise your hand!
(a smattering of hands go up)
FMF rep: Okay! So who here [...]
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My first full-time teaching job was as a sociology instructor at Career U. Unlike other career schools, this one actually gave me freedom to design my own Intro to Sociology courses—certainly not the norm at most career schools. I met some pretty cool students in those classes, and we did good work. My job helped [...]
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Posted in Philippines, feminist theory, globalization, social justice, women of color, tagged Catholicism, feminism, globalization, mary john mananzan, transnational feminism on December 24, 2008 | 7 Comments »
I left Catholicism in fits and starts, the way a smoker keeps reaching for one last cigarette. But I did leave for good three years ago. And though I don’t identify as Catholic anymore, Sudy reminds me of teachings that resonate.
Love one another. Whatever you do to the least of my brothers. Ministering to [...]
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Camille Paglia recently wrote a number of gushing statements about Sarah Palin, but here’s the one that made my eyes roll the hardest:
I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns — that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in [...]
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Posted in Philippines, feminist theory, globalization, human rights, social justice, women of color, tagged feminism, feminist theory, social justice, women of color on October 24, 2008 | 5 Comments »
What does it mean to recognize the home as a site of resistance?
Last semester, our professor posed this question to a group of law students at an ivy league university, and was surprised at how many students got so upset. But professor, they cried, women were oppressed in the home. That’s why we fought so [...]
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Posted in Good reads, Philippines, feminist theory, globalization, social justice, women of color, tagged blog action day, chandra mohanty, feminism, feminist theory, gayatri spivak, gender, globalization, poverty, women, women of color on October 15, 2008 | 13 Comments »
I am an immigrant woman of the Two-Thirds World, who is living with the One-Third World.
I first came across Esteva and Prakash’s concept of the One Third/Two Thirds World via Chandra Mohanty’s Feminism Without Borders. The concepts recognize the transnational nature of capital, and how policies instituted by people in the One-Third World (middle and [...]
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Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” tells of a utopian city of complete peace and joy and harmony. Everything in Omelas is beautiful, everyone is happy. The catch is that the whole society’s happiness rests on the intense suffering of a scapegoat –a young child who must [...]
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Posted in Good reads, Philippines, current events, feminist theory, globalization, social justice, women, women of color, tagged Amihan, Caren Kaplan, feminism, gender, globalization, Inderpal Grewal, Migrante, Philippines, Scattered Hegemonies, transnational feminism, women, women of color on July 7, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Back in my student activist days in the Philippines, I’d occasionally cut classes to march with anti-imperialist coalitions. One particular coalition tried to ensure representation by designating a workers’ desk, a peasants’ desk, the migrants’ desk, and so on. To represent kababaihan, women, the organization also created a “women’s desk.”
Choosing representatives for workers, peasants, migrants [...]
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Posted in Philippines, feminist theory, human rights, social justice, women, tagged feminicide, human rights violations, overseas contract workers, Philippines, political killings on June 2, 2008 | 4 Comments »
It’s been almost two months since the murder of Honiefaith Ratilla Kamiosawa, a Filipina waitress working in Japan. Much of the sensationalist news coverage focused on the details of her murder, mutilation, and dismemberment. Her death was painted as an isolated incident, a cautionary tale for Filipina overseas contract workers.
I argue that her [...]
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About a year ago, a heated exchange broke out between two of my students. This was a community college, where most of the attendees were first-generation college students. The discussion topic touched on career goals, and a shy nursing student, I’ll call her Cam, spoke for the first time.
Cam did not really want [...]
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