October Blog Post - Rhian Sage

I’ll be the first to admit that I have slightly too much attachment to my phone; I scroll through hundreds of Instagram photos, blog posts, news articles, and tweets every day. However, it is not every day that I come across a photo like this:

            After my initial disgust at the “humor” of this costume, I was quickly reminded of our class discussion about cultural appropriation in the form of costumes. This particular costume does not depict the culture of a different race, religion, or ethnicity, but instead the sad reality that we have a culture of domestic violence as a norm in today’s world. Domestic violence is not always something people feel comfortable talking about, but to my surprise many people responded to this photo with some sort of opinion and criticism. On the other hand, there were also a handful of people who did not “see what was wrong it”. This is the problem we have to fix. Speaking up about often uncomfortable topics can be difficult, but there is a way to guide conversation to be opened up.

Amy Arellano is a great example of someone who is taking a stand to start the conversation surrounding this subject. After reading several of Arellano’s poems, I was left with a sense of shock but also a real recognition of the implications that often come along with being a woman. In her piece titled, Word Wielding Womb: In Response to Comments Concerning “Legitimate Rape”, Arellano writes, “That women are meant to be seen and not heard”.  This sentence stood out to me because it truly hits the nail on the head to explain what many women struggle to battle each day. Arellano uses her poetry as a way to stand up and protest this. Each of her poems are all titled with right that we assume every individual in America has but she juxtaposes these rights next to some very real, very serious personal stories about those rights being taken away. I think Arellano is successful in protesting this unacceptable culture because she chooses a stance that is not the type of protest we typically think of. Arellano makes a point to show that protest doesn’t have to come in the form of violence or outrage or large groups of people. Protest can come from the personal truth. The truth that we live in a world where women are abused and as much as we want to believe that things are equal they simply aren’t.

Although many people won’t have the chance to read her work, I am glad I had the opportunity to come across it. Our culture sometimes forgets that there is a fine line between humor and disrespect, and some things as simple as a costume on one day of the year can convey a very negative image. The hardest thing to do is be sensitive to something that you haven’t seen or experienced first hand, but by opening up conversation surrounding these issues, we can work towards creating a space where more people can be mindful to do so.