The Red Tent

Reading all this books made me realize what feminism really is and how it revolves around matrifocal, matrilineal and matriarchal. All these stories talks about the women in different ages have gone through. All these stories are all connected by the message they give. The first story was the introduction from Bell hooks book. my first impressions and personal response of the reading is that people judge us women way too much. They think we can't do things because who we are. Reading further along made me feel really sad that people don't believe in us women we are downgraded by society and that influences the people. Us women have so much to bring to the table as well as men do, we are human and should be treated like humans. One strengths
in this introduction that caught my attention was when the writer defines what feminism means. It has such a strong meaning to it and people misread the definition and define it as something bad. The major points is that people think feminism is so bad, I don't know why they would think that. Us women never used that word for something bad it's all positivity. One word that I would choose to research more about is “patriarchy” because i want to know the meaning and how it makes people feel when this word is being brought up. Reading this chapter it relates to my gender very strongly because use women can't do certain things. Well let me clear it up we can do what we want but will be judged for it or menn doubt that we can't do it because we are “women”. I dislike when men say we can't do certain thing because who we are. and this type of feedback lowers my self-esteem. Linking the reading to contemporary world is very accurate today. In some culture men make the women clean and is banned from working and attending school. One thing that I would share with male friends is the meaning of “feminism” which is the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economical equality to men. They think that feminism is women being against men which it isn’t true. I like the material of this reading because it explained what we go through as women and the meaning of these words that may be misinterpreted. Reading another story from bells hooks called. I explained how it relates to my own ethnicity, class and gender experiences. I feel that men think that since we are women the only thing we have to do it clean and cook. We can't do anything else because the men do the jobs that are hard. Also color has too much do with advantages. White people are most like able to do what they wants, I don't know the reason why but they can. Bell hooks talks about how women want to do the same things as men do. She talked about the way we became sisters through sex class and race domination. If your skin color is different you will never meet the standards of a white women. The sad part is white men are willing to consider women's rights when granting of those rights could serve the interest of maintaining white supremacy. One question i have for this story is what does it mean when she says “Lifestyle feminism ushered in the notion that there could be as many versions of feminism as there were women.” What womanist means to me is the love we have for each other and how we come together if one of us is being treated wrong.
In the story The Red Tent it begins with the day her father appeared.
Later on she spotted a man that looked out of the ordinary. He got closer to her and randomly kissed her. She feels uncomfortable and told her father about it. He was a father that never laid a hand on her and she scared him from birth because of the pain his wife went through. She described that Leah and her aunt Rachel were the most beautiful people and they had features that she loved on both of them. Jacob the random guy that kissed her introduced himself to Rachel and Leban. He is the son of Rebecca’s, Leban’s sister. They thought that Leah’s mother was a witch and her grandmother slapped the woman who said that so hard and cursed her tongue. There were plenty who still remained that the baby was a devil. She was a tall girl, all the men were up to her nose, short men disgusted her. Jacob would smell her and it would remind him of sex but never said a word about her eyes. Her eyes were different colors that people that were weird. One quote that stood out to me was “She loved her sons passionately until they grew beards, but after that could barely bring herself to look at them”. (page.13; para.3) One question that I had through the first part of the book was why did jacob kissed Rachel? Aren't they related? Dinah played a lot with Joseph and a couple of other girls in the camp. She mostly spent the time with her mother, teaching her new things. She would tell her stories about her goddesses and their
mothers were friends but the girls weren't allowed in the red tent until they became women. Leban has gambled her away to a trader who has arrived to claim her as a slave. After telling and telling the traders to leave with the treasure instead of Ruti but Laban's treatment or sins. Jake up plans for his family's departure from Laban's land. In the red tent the sister discusses Jake ups plans. Rachel is eager to leave the land but the others wish to stay near. Leah towels Jacob that his wife are ready to depart for Canaan. The women begin boarding bread and sewing herbs into their clothing preparation for dismantling the camp and pack DJing provisions for the journey. There is sadness in the red tent as the women end up celebrating their last New Moon in their home. When traveling they find Inna , The midwife sitting by the side of the road. One night a stranger appears in the family's camp and introduces himself as Eliphaz, the oldest son of Esau. He reports that his father is coming with his brothers, wives and bondsman to greet him and his family. Dinah sees a girl around her age and later on becomes really good friends. They tell each other stories about their lives and mother. Tabea says that the women of her clan do not celebrate the soul call Newmoon in the tent because their grandmother disapproves of the tent. Dinah finally arrives in Shehem. She finds out that Nehesi saved his guard Re-nefer from the death and that is the only one that survived inside the house. Re-nefer thinks that Dinah is pregnant and later on when they sneak away to a port she realizes that she is pregnant. She feels the baby moving around her and almost time to give birth. She feels like fainting, they had to create a bigger doorway so that the baby can come out. The umbil cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck but then Meryt blows life until he starts crying. Once Dinah wakes up her baby is gone she cried for help. Re-nefer said that her baby will be raised as a king of Egypt and Dinah will serve as his nurse. Four years later Re-mose leaves and Dinah and Meryt attend a hard birth and the other dikes, they got to save one of the two babies. Dinah attends her son’s banquet and addresses the band because they sang a song that sound very familiar to her. The singer was Werenro, her grandmother’s messenger and thought she was murdered years ago. She lifts up her veil and shows Dinah her face. Scares everywhere, broken nose, and eyes gouged out. She told her she had been raped by these men. One day Dinah son comes knocking at her door to be there for his master’s midwife labor. The master said to Re-mose that he once had a sister named Dinah but she died. Re-mose tells joseph that his sister isn’t dead she is the midwife who delivered his baby boy. But Re-mose don’t want to call him his uncle because he accused him of committing murder on his father. They place him under guard and has to be sent away. Several months later Meryt dies. Dinah dreams about her mothers and wonders when she’s going to dream about Leah. Year slater Joseph is at Dinah’s door. He apologizes to Dinah and said if they will join them to be his guest. They go to the camp and see how everything has changed and how people have gotten older. Dinah and Benia stay at the camp to wait for Jacob to die. When Dinah tell her story about her old family to her new family she releases a burden. She said that as long as Jacob's name lives on so will she. Gera tells her that she will name her daughter after her and Dinah feels free. Why didn’t they tell him about his father’s death? Dinah learns that his brothers sold him as a slave when he was a young man but rose to power because he could divine the future by interpreting dreams. (ch.4)
This story I’m going to talk about next is about a women and the things she had to go through. A working mother that provides the reasoning of her human communication. The women was always busy, she didn’t have a long life like her mate or other women. Scientist analysis that women died before the age of twenty. They’ve notice that women adapted to food gatherings, child care, cooking, weaving, tool making and medical applications. Women didn’t rely on the male to bring them food. The women’s gathering didn’t just help the tribe it typically pushed forward their race to civilization. Women work to gather was unavoidably to take on anything when she had an infant to feed. As women didn’t live a day over twenty there wasn’t any show of postmenopausal to look after new generation, Hominid babies were heavy, heavier brains and skulls became larger. Calder shows that infant girl develop handedness like speech faster than infant boys. Women would get their periods if they moved a tiny bit they would get chapped inner thighs and a risk of infection in hot climate. Little did we know that women from the early ages had a calendar for their menstrual cycle. They would show the men how to count, the number and how to organize. Stone Age women could be doctors, leader, storytellers, etc. These women gone through so much creating new life with no doctors, no use of protection for their menstrual or while having sexual intercourse. No attention at all, in fact has been given to the implication. For women when light arid infrequent estrus gave way to full menstruation, with bleeding in varying but substantial for one week. What did early woman do? (Miles, R., The First Women, pg. 10). My First impression of this story is great because I get to find out so much about the women in the stone age and the things they have to do. They are very smart women and could overcome anything.
Gender and Violence is a big problem in this world. February 2001 justice Florence handed down a historic guilty verdict at the international court. She sentenced three Bosnian serb soldiers to a total of six years in jail for rape torture and enslavement of Muslim women. The United nation has documented mass rape in Cambodia, the Brea, Peru, Somalia and Uganda. (Page. 276) in the past violence gender has been tolerated in wartime. Some of the women are raped by soldiers in Kosovo in 1999. Some women committed suicide because they knew that revealing their plight would bring ostracism , Divorce and life long shame. Husbands could physically chastise their wives and parents were able to hit their children. Murder would also be accepted if a family or clan sought revenge for an insult to its honor. After 1850 the woman's right movement in England and the united states expose the problem of abuse husband. Only since the 1970s, however, feminist efforts had a extremely huge impact. The second wave feminist expanded the critique of violence, beginning with a campaign to read define rape to include not only attacks by strangers but also by acquaintance and husbands. Not all feminist agree about definitions and tactics but the three elements characterized the anti-Bilanz movement: The importance of violence against women, The provision of service to heal and empower survivors of any violence they been through, and lastly change mill behavior and the obligations of the state to enforce laws that both criminalize male violence and protect women and children abuse. Question I had when reading the story was what do they mean when said "class and race influenced the politics of rape?"
The shift from matriarchy to patriarchy in western society influenced our methodologies because women ruled society and we had a voice.
Then to men ruling society or government. It could never be both types of genders coming together to agree on one thing that will benefit all of us equally. Here are some of the differences between matriarchal and patriarchal cultures. Out of the six Matriarchal societies is The Bribri are a small indigenous group over 13,000 people living on a reserve in Talamanca canton in the Limón province of Costa Rica. Like many other matrilineal societies, the Bribri are organized into clans. Each clan has extended family, and is determined through the mother/females. Women are the only ones who traditionally can inherit land. Women also endowed with the right to prep the cacao used in sacred Bribri rituals. (www.mentalfloss.com) And now Patriarchal society is consists of a male-dominated power structure throughout organized society and in individual relationships. And where power was held by and passed down through the elder males. (www.womenshistory.about.com) Would the world be different if mothering characteristics were deeply valued? i think yes, because men don’t give women credit on what we have to do. They think well since their women they have to do that but they don’t know what we go through and the pain. It would be great if we we valued on the things we have to do and got through as well. The rise of Patriarchy these last 45000 years have
oppressed not just women but men and other targets groups. Which is a form of being racist because they’re discrimination people of color and race. All of that should be left in the past and should not be brought up and make this world a better place. Matriarchy is such a powerful meaning to women it’s means a system of society and government ruled by women. as women we want to have our voices heard and be someone who can rule something and let it be positive. Let women have a voice, have equality as men do. All we want is to be treated the same. Just because we are women doesn't mean to treat us like nothing and because you’re a man you have to be treated very harshly. That makes us miserable. We should stand up and make our voices hear to have equal right doesn't matter the color of your skin, ethnicity or gender.

Cite http://mentalfloss.com/article/31274/6-modern-societies-where-women-literally-rule http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/a/patriarchal.htm