RachelH

Week 2:

I would just like to start by saying, it really frustrates me that men/people will work so hard against women just because they’re women. I.e. the mandatory 30 percent quota for female candidates in 2003, Mexico.

I thought it was interesting that “most of the women that occupy decision making positions are fair-skinned and Spanish speaking” (Htun 118). I don’t find this surprising, but it is interesting to think about the different levels of racism within a community. When I was in Peru, I had a friend who has a very dark skin tone. We were walking on the street one night coming home from a salsa club and someone shouted N*gger at her. I was shocked. I had never thought that a person who is already discriminated against for having brown skin could be racist toward someone darker than they are. I always thought wouldn’t you be mad at white people?

Something else I thought was smart and frustrating was that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina’s president 2011) made a point to avoid “any feminist label.” It makes sense not to take on the feminist persona in order to appeal to all women because often times the label is misunderstood. I wonder however, if her values line up with feminists ideologies. 

Florencia Cortés-Conde & Diana Boxer mention social rights over individual rights. I am curious as to what are social rights versus individual rights. In my mind, I think of social rights as a change in the culture and the attitude towards women and individual rights as the rights set in the law. Individual rights makes me think of RBG and changing the code in order to allow for equality.