The story begins with a young girl named Ji Won who questions her babysitter, "in a sad voice...'Why do I only learn about boys?'". Her babysitter Ximena consoles and teaches about revolutionary, influential, innovative, successful and brave women such as Phyllis Wheatley, Sybil Ludington, Mary Elizbeth Bowser, Madam C.J. Walker, Mary Anderson, Jane Addams, Clara Lemlich, Claudette Colvin, Authurine Juanita Lucy, Patsy Mink, Wilma Mankiller, and Peggy Whitson.
In creating this picture book, I struggled with presenting a wide array of women from different social economic backgrounds and of different races. Upon research, I noticed that the majority of the very little history that is devoted to talking about women, is devoted to white women.
Furthermore, among the early black women figures, it was interesting to note that the entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker was the first to invent the hair-straightening iron. My naivety had led me to think that her Company was manufacturing beauty products that embraced natural, black beauty. And that poet Phyllis Wheatley wrote extremely racist and self-deprecating literature such as this:
On Being Brought from Africa to America
By: Phyllis Wheatley
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
The making of this book was a cathartic process of reclamation. In the fourth grade, I had an assignment to create a children's picture book. I chose to depict a narrative of a boy named Todd: illustrated by me, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and his struggles of trying to host a birthday party on a rainy day. The finished product is a testimony to the ways in which children are influenced at an early age to represent and identify themselves as a young, white male as they are the major focus of nearly all general narratives: whether it be in books, TV, film, what have you. I wanted to show young girls, just because you don't see them in your school textbooks doesn't mean they never existed! There have always been great women in history, and I am genuinely thankful that I am part of the first or second wave of feminist students who have been connected with feminist teachers who share the truths and beauties of Women's Feats with the rest of us.
Works Cited
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.