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Intersectionality: The Different Parts of Gina Rodriguez

Intersectionality focuses on the intersecting parts of a persons identity, and how they are positioned within that category.

When considering who I would discuss for this post, Gina Rodriguez came to my mind immediately. Simply because how she is positioned in most of these categories, differs from how majority of the people within these categories are positioned.

Gina Rodriguez is a Latina women, born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. All three are intersecting parts of who she is, which position her differently. However, another identity which separates her from others is, Gina Rodriguez has attended Columbia’s Theatrical Collaboration, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and earned a Bachelor’s Degree, she is now a Golden Globe Award winning actress.

The intersecting parts of Gina’s identity relates to power and privilege because she has had more opportunities than most because of her talent. Her ability to gain an education is a privilege that many Latinx people do not experience. In addition, her place as a women in the industry relates to power. She is well-respected, and continues to use her voice to assist with charities. Her status within these different categories relates to the power and privilege she has compared to most women, and most Latinx individuals.

These identities may not always promote power and privilege. Often, women and Hispanic’s often face oppression. This can hinder her privilege and power because she may not be as respected as she could be. There may be times, especially within the industry, in which her voice isn’t respected because she may be seen as less than her peers because of her ethnicity and gender.

Intersectionality may often promote power and privilege because the way that these identities connect with each other can make someone more powerful. Often times, with identities that are often oppressed, people will choose to fight against this and become powerful and privileged to prove a point that identities like gender, ethnicity, and class does not affect your success.

Intersectional Analysis: Mikasa

The character I have chosen to analyze is Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan. Mikasa is a strong female warrior part of the Survey Corps. She possesses the ability to carry up to eight spears with ease. Alongside that, she is able to aim accurately at Titans, much more than the person who invented the weapons. Due to her Asian heritage and being an Ackerman, she is able to resist memory manipulation from the Founding Titan. This is a power and privilege for her as she is capable of being strong enough to fend for herself and others, developing fighting instincts and self-control faster than some of her fellow warrior comrades. She is also one of the two deuteragonist of the show. Aside from being a powerful asset to this branch of the military, she still possess the nature to be caring towards her friends, which ultimately hinder her capabilities when it comes to her abilities of judgement. For example, when she believes Eren has “died”, she loses the will to live, forgetting her responsibility and pledge as a warrior meant to protect humanity against Titans. However, that is short lived as he is very much alive. She becomes emotional and cries upon this realization. As beautiful as this moment was, it is times like this throughout the show where her character usually falters. While she is capable of being one of the most strongest female warriors, she is still undermined as a character due to her romantic feelings towards Eren. These feelings oftentimes overcome her logical reasoning, where she suddenly makes Eren a priority over everyone else. However, she is lucky to have friends that are capable of helping her understand that while it is alright to love Eren, she can not forget that the fate of humanity depends on her abilities, even if it means going against the one she loves so dearly.

Identity

We are born into an identity – our name, gender, religion, language, and nationality are predetermined by the country, community, and family we belong to. Our personal identity is composed of an inherited identity and a self-curated identity – our family (last) name, our trade (if past through generations), and customs (observing holidays, specific diet – e.g. kosher) are passed on to us from earlier generations. Whereas our self-curated identity is still a result of the influence of society and our socioeconomic status, but it is made of our choices (or our choice to embrace ourselves) such as our occupation, our sexual orientation, our habits (exercising, smoking), etc.

It seems that the clearest and internationally agreed upon as significant identifying characteristics, such as those that appear on one’s passport (e.g. name, gender, and nationality) are assigned at birth. In (some) democratic countries, one can revise those attributions by changing their name, transforming to a different gender than the one assigned to them by their sex, and gaining new citizenship is definitely possible. Yet, the society we live in has the major of control over the identities assigned to us, our ability to revoke them or to attribute other identities to ourselves, especially when those are out of our society’s norms.

The feature image is The Belgian artist, René Magritte’s painting, Son of Man.

Intersectional Analysis

Choose a person (real or fictional, from pop culture, TV, movies, or literature–but not you or someone you know) and write up an intersectional analysis of them. What are their intersecting identities? How do they relate to power and privilege? How does the person navigate the world through their multiple identities? When are they an asset, and when might they hinder (against what kind of oppression or suppression)?

The person I chose is Steve Rogers AKA Captain America. He is one of the main heroes in Marvel Universe. He was born in 1918 and when American entered World War 2 in 1942 Steve had multiple tries to join the army but was rejected every time. At some point he joins the army and was infused with Super-Soldier serum. Steve is a humble person who lost both of his parents, the only person who he had was Bucky Barnes- his best friend. They have been through everything and supported each other no matter what. When Bucky died Steve was left with nothing or no one. Even though he was one of the strongest and most popular people in America, everyone praised him and looked up to him he still had a huge hole in his life. He was a wonderful friend, noble son, a great soldier who was willing to sacrifice himself to save other people. Even when everyone knew he is one of the most powerful people in the world he did not see himself that way. He still considered himself to be a shy and weak guy who was rejected from the army multiple times. Eventually, he became a leader of Avengers and even then his ego did not appear, he still considered himself to be equal and did everything to save others. When he woke up in 2011 he was completely lost. How can a person be okay with a 70-year time shift? Through multiple Marvel movies, it is shown that Steve cannot settle because in his mind he always goes through the war and cannot get it out of his head. He feels obligated to be always prepared for a fight, at the same time when he finds out Bucky is alive his goal becomes to make sure Bucky is safe. At the end of his history we can see that Steve decided to spend the rest of his days with his love interest-Peggy that he thought he lost(when he came back in 2011 Peggy was 90 and he saw her die)

Post 4

The fictional character that I will analyze is Belle from the film Beauty and the beast. she is a female, daughter, and the saver of the beast, she is also a figure of feminism. She is different from the other princesses of Disney; such as Snow White and Cinderella because Belle could be the one to save the prince. And she is put in power, she could be her father’s best help, and also a daughter that can protect her father. The movie shaped her into a characteristic of a strong, independent, knowledge and brave female. This is an asset for her to live her own life without being “a slave of society”.

However this type of characteristic of her is a hinder in the time period in the film, people in the village were gossiping about her, because she read books and she has dreams, the villager think she is different and weird. In this case, the villager is the epitome of society, when a person acts out of the ordinary, other people would gossip about that person.

Weekly Roundup — Mar 16

Hi all,

Looking forward to our regular content next week. For this week, please do the following:

  • Comment on a colleague’s discussion of identity from Post 3! What was interesting or new to you? Did you write about something similar, or different?
  • Post 4: Intersectional Analysis
  • Post 5: Make a Plan for your Independent Project
  • WATCH: The film Black Feminist (details below). Our next post will be about this film. Password to access it is KCCWATCH21
  • Keep reading! We will go over Intersectionality (Crenshaw and others), White Privilege, and Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera on Tuesday, Mar 23.

Also, some opportunities for you (meaning $$$) have come up:

  1. You can get up to $300 to help with access to remote learning– info below!

Through a generous grant from the Kitch Foundation, the Brooklyn College School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) has established a Connectivity Assistance Fund to help students who are majoring in HSS departments or programs and having difficulty accessing their online classes. The fund provides grants of up to $300 to students to help defray costs of hardware, software, broadband access, data plans, etc. necessary to successfully complete their coursework.

Last semester, HSS in collaboration with the Office of Scholarships distributed approximately 107 grants to students who were in need of assistance to do their classwork remotely. We are asking faculty to again identify students who are in need of this assistance and encourage them to fill out the online application.

Kitch Foundation Connectivity Assistance Fund grants do not have to be repaid. Students are awarded based on need. The application will be available until funds run out. The information provided by students will be used for statistical purposes only and will be kept confidential.

Students can apply by completing the confidential form linked below. Please share with HSS students you have identified as having difficulty accessing their online courses.

https://cunybrooklyn.scholarships.ngwebsolutions.com/ScholarX_ApplyForScholarship.aspx?applicationformid=17106&AYID=1057

2. There is a virtual screening event on Mar 25th that might be of interest. Info below!

Black Feminist Film Screening and Discussion with Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey

Thursday, March 25th

12-2pm

BLACK FEMINIST is a lively and illuminating documentary film that explores the double-edged sword of racial and gender oppression that Black Women face in America.

Join us for a talk, “What Time Is It? A Transnational Black Feminist Moment” with Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey, an activist, scholar, and professor working on issues of militarism, armed conflict, and violence against women examined intersectionally as well as a member of the historic Black feminist Combahee River Collective.

Introductory remarks by NWSA PresidentKarsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead and BC WGS Coordinator Dr. Namulundah Florence

Sponsored by the Student Union and Intercultural Center and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at KCC. Offered as part of KCC’s Women’s History Month programming. 

Co-Sponsored by Kingsborough’s Women’s Center, the National Women’s Studies Association, Feminist Press, Women’s Studies Quarterly, the Center for the Study of Women and Society, Women’s and Gender Studies at the Graduate Center, WGS at Brooklyn College, WGS and LGBTQ Studies at Queens College, WGS at Hunter College, the Center for the Humanities, and the Center for LGBTQ Studies at the Grad Center.

Here is the Zoom registration information and film viewing information.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Mar 25, 2021 11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Topic: “What Time Is It? A Transnational Black Feminist Moment”

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kmCX-K7oS5SeeLSSKIqB_A

Here is your virtual screening link:

https://www.wmm.com/virtual-screening-room/black-feminist-watch-page-kingsborough-community-college/

Password to access it is KCCWATCH21

Available to be viewed from March 8-March 26th. 

Post 5: Independent Project Work Plan

Make a Plan

What do you need to know about your topic in order to understand it? What do you need to know about in order to contextualize and discuss your subject? Meaning, what academic subjects does your project relate to? Through research at the library and on the web, identify the different facets of your project, including whether it concerns contemporary news/events, race, gender, sexuality, history, important countries (the US, India, China, etc.), social status/class, media (which media? film, broadcast tv, streaming shows, social media) and any other salient factors. How does each factor relate to your project and what will you need to know in order to discuss it successfully?

Post 4: Intersectional Analysis – Due Mar 23

Choose a person (real or fictional, from pop culture, TV, movies, or literature–but not you or someone you know) and write up an intersectional analysis of them. What are their intersecting identities? How do they relate to power and privilege? How does the person navigate the world through their multiple identities? When are they an asset, and when might they hinder (against what kind of oppression or suppression)?