Author Archives: Rukhshona Uktamova

Rukhshona Uktamova – Reflection paper

Rukhshona Uktamova 

Professor Ashton 

WGST 1001  

20 December 2021 

Personal Reflection paper 

                Women and Gender studies 1001 was a very interesting course. When I was registering for the course, I thought we will focus only on Women studies and then during class I realized how we can basically connect anything to gender, even how pink razors cost more than the blue ones, how gender reveal parties aren’t ideal, songs and so many other things. To be honest some of the readings were difficult to understand, maybe because my reading level is low. However, I really enjoyed the hypothesis annotation even though we did a few of them, I wish we did more of them because having everyone’s thoughts, ideas, opinion, analysis of the text on one page helped me better understand the text. The fact we were able to talk about anything, like anything going on our lives, complaints, problems, news we want to share was a great way to start the class because when we did, I felt more connected to the class, people supporting each other, helping others in making decisions, finding names for the cat. I also found the books by Susan Stryker and Angela Davis useful and interesting; I wish we read more of them in class so we could discuss them, but I guess I will read them over the break especially Women Race and Class book.  Show and tell gender texts was a great activity, I don’t think I was able to share both of my gender texts, in class but they are on the website but it was amazing to see what others brought to class.  

               It was my first-time writing blog posts, and I didn’t have much experience with public writing except those few of my poems that got published in my high school poetry catalog and in Stuckinthelibrary catalog in Brooklyn college. To be honest I found the blog post a bit difficult to complete, maybe because I was in group one, and I wasn’t sure what an ideal blog post looks like. Also, sometimes I get too focused on one side and forget to write and talk about the other side so that the readers are able to look at the full picture rather than just a part of it. I do realize the mistake I made on my blog post after posting the second draft because that’s when I got good useful critical feedback where students agreed and some disagreed with me which I liked and it was good to read the disagreements because those feedback showed what I was missing on my blog post but by the time they post their feedback it was late, I couldn’t do anything. I wrote a lot about how marriage is not a form of slavery and how it’s good, but I forgot to mention the disadvantages of marriage. Overall, it was a good experience learning but I had a bit too much confidence in myself that I was going to do great on the assignment based on the first few feedbacks I got but it turns out that sometimes having too much confidence in yourself is not good.  

                    I am glad that you assigned us the Research group project and gave us the option to do it in any format because it gives us choice and flexibility, which is awesome. Also, as you know since Covid – 19 and many classes are online I actually missed seeing people in class and talking to them. This assignment gave us the opportunity to chat with our classmates during class in breakout rooms and as well as outside class. I was part of the high heels group, overall, it was good working with my team members, but we did have a few small issues. I kind of felt like leading the group at some points because I was asking them what you guys have in thought? What do you guys want to write about? And I shared my ideas created a google doc and asked them to jot down their ideas. In some of the meetings it was only me and Amarah from our group who were in class, and even when we were missing many members, we got work done. I created the slides and shared it with all the members. Amarah and I labeled and organized the slides. I sent out reminders about citation, using the same font and size, asking them to make their slides less wordy more interesting. Eliza helped with decorating; the blue theme and Lady Gaga was her idea. A few minutes before presenting I remembered that we could have transformations on our slides and added those in. So, everybody presented on the slide they worked in, I did start the presentation, then did my own slides and then I wanted to ask questions, so we could have some discussion, and I ended the presentation and dressing up for the presentation and having the camera on helped me focus.  Communication is a key, that’s what I learned from doing the presentation because when I send out texts some members like Amarah and Oluwatobi replied back while some didn’t, which was a bit frustrating.  

              I want to end with a thank you note for all the things you have done for us. It was a great semester and I really appreciate that you had time after class to just chat with me and other students. Best of luck in your future endeavors Ms. Ashton!  

 

Marriage!? by Rukhshona Uktamova

Marriage?! 

Rukhshona Uktamova 

          What is marriage? Two love birds living together? Escaping oppression or walking into oppression? A form of punishment? A form of freedom? Liberation? A form of slavery? Paradise? The book Women Race & Class written by Angela Y. Davis brought up many good important issues and topics about women’s history. Some topics are legacy of slavery, birth of women’s rights, racism during the women suffrage movement, women’s education and liberation, rape, women’s role in housework and more. Throughout the book Davis show how women throughout history has faced many unfairnesses, they had to fight in order to have rights to education and to get job outside of their homes. In the book Women Race & Class written by Angela Y. Davis, it states “Well – situated women began to denounce their unfulfilling domestic lives by defining marriage as a form of slavery” (Davis, 33). I respectfully disagree to some extend with this thought that middle class women had because slavery is just more than working for less to no pay it is when one person is treated as property with no rights. Slaves are not free, women are. In the text it said, “They seem to have ignored, however, the fact that their identification of the two institutions also implied that slavery was really no worse than marriage” (Davis, 34). Slavery in my opinion was so much worse than marriage, being taken away from your home, getting separated from your family, forcing to work in difficult conditions for long hours less pay and less food, getting raped by white men, and getting whipped and chained for trying to escape, cruel treatment is not same as marriage. Yes, marriage can be challenging, difficult, especially when the wife is a full-time employee, full-time mother, and a house worker but at least you are at your own home with your family. You chose to get married, to have kids, to work outside of home, slaves did not choose to be slaves.  

          During slavery, White women and Black women couldn’t really get a long because White women believed they were superior to Black women when they were really not. They treated them poorly, Black women were maids, and nannies. When White women started working outside of home, they faced similar unfairness like Black women faced. Long hours of work but low pay. Because of the similar conditions White women compared their situation to slavery. Then they came together and fought for their rights. In 1833, Philadelphia Female Anti – Slavery Society was created and “…enough white women were manifesting their sympathetic attitudes toward the Black people’s cause to have established the basis for a bond between the two oppressed groups” (Davis, 34). You don’t know what somebody is feeling and going through until you wear their shoes, so after experiencing similar treatment White women understood what Black women were going through. “….they learned how to challenge male supremacy within the anti – slavery movement” (Davis, 39). By helping others, White women’s political involvement increased. 

      So, marriage is still not a form of slavery, it can be a blessing, there are people who are out there who want to have their own family, kids and loving partners. There are women who are infertile, who can’t have kids and wanting to have kids. Taking care of your kids shouldn’t be a burden and shouldn’t only be the women’s responsibility. Men did take action in bringing the kids to life they shouldn’t say I am babysitting their own child or helping their wife when they are doing the home chorus. Because cooking and cleaning are basic life skills that everybody needs to learn and use. Women are hardworking, patient, strong individuals if they think marriage is a form of slavery because they are moms, wife, cleaning lady, cook, nanny, worker in factory all at the same time, they should look on the bright side. They are going to advance their multi-tasking skills, they can be role models for their kids, they can increase family income, enjoy their salary by spending on what they want they don’t need to ask for money. If they couldn’t handle this God wouldn’t give them all of this. God gave them all of this because he knows women are capable and strong enough to do anything that they set their mind to.  

Citation  

Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class. Vintage Books, 1983. 

Blog post # 1 draft – Rukhshona Uktamova

Marriage 

by Rukhshona Uktamova 

           What is marriage? Two love birds’ living together? Escaping oppression or walking into oppression? A form of punishment? A form of freedom? Liberation? A form of slavery? The novel/book Women Race & Class written by Angela Y. Davis brought up many good important issues and topics about women’s history. Some topics are legacy of slavery, birth of women’s rights, racism during the women suffrage movement, women’s education and liberation, rape, women’s role in housework and more. Women throught history has faced many unfairness, they had to fight in order to have rights to education and to get job outside of their homes. In the book Women Race & Class written by Angela Y. Davis, it states “Well – situated women began to denounce their unfulfilling domestic lives by defining marriage as a form of slavery” (Davis, 33). I respectfully disagree to some extend with this statement because slavery is just more than working for less to no pay it is when one person is treated as property with no rights. Slaves are not free, women are. In the text it said “They seem to have ignored, however, the fact that their identification of the two institutions also implied that slavery was really no worse than marriage” (Davis, 34). Slavery in my opinion was so much worse than marriage, being taken away from your home getting seperated from your family, forcing to work in difficult conditions for long hours less pay and less food, getting raped by white men, and getting whipped and chained for trying to escape cruel treatment is not same as marriage. Yes, marriage can be challenging, diffucult especially when the wife is a full time employee, full time mother, and also a house worker but at least you are at your own home with your family. You chose to get married, to have kids, to work outside of home, slaves did not chose to be slaves.  

        During slavery, White women and Black women couldn’t really get a long because White women believed they were superior than Black women when they were really not. They tretaed them poorly, Black women were maids, and nannys. When White women started working outside of  home, they faced similar unfairs like Black women faced. Long hours of work but low pay. Because of the similar conditions white women compared their situation to slavery. Then they came together and fought for their rights. In 1833, Philadelphia Female Anti – Slavery Society was created and “…enough white women were manifesting their sympathetic attitudes toward the Black people’s cause to have established the basis for a bond between the two oppressed groups”(Davis, 34). You don’t know what somebody is feeling and going through untill you wear their shoes, so after experiencing similar treatment White women understood what Black women were going through. “….they learned how to challenge male supremacy within the anti – slavery movement” (Davis, 39). By helping others White women’s political involvemnet increased. 

        So, marriage is still not a form of slavery, it can be a blessing there are people who are out there who wants to have their own family, kids and loving parentners. There are women who are infertile, who can’t have kids and wanting to have kids. Taking care of your kids shouldn’t be a burden and shouldn’t only be the women’s responsibily. Men did take action in bringing the kids to life they shouldn’t say I am babysitting their own child or helping their wife when they are doing the home chorus. Because cooking and cleaning is basic life skills that everybody needs to learn and use. Women are hardworking, patient, strong individuals if they think marriage is a form of slavery because they are moms, wife, cleaning lady, cook, nanny, worker in factory all at the same time, they should look on the bright side. They are going to advance their multi-tasking skills, they can be role models for their kids, they can increase family income, enjoy their salary by spending on what they want they don’t need to ask for money. If they couldn’t handle this God wouldn’t give them all of this. God gave them all of this because he knows women are capable and strong enough to do all of this.