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Women and Identity: Identity as a Difference

 

            Of all the people within western society, women have been the most heavily scrutinised by society. By utilising societies tool; the media, society has been able to isolate and identify what is socially acceptable in western society and what is not. By "erasing" certain minority groups from the public eye, society has created a birthplace for strong prejudice against minority groups. Concepts such as racism, antisemitism, homophobia and even ageism erupted. The minority group that the two texts "Black Chicks Talking" and "What do they call me?" focus on is Aboriginal women in Australia. By exploring the stereotypical views held by society about Aboriginal women that is expressed in racial slurs and discrimination it is interesting to see how these women identify with themselves and others. Other factors such and age, environment and experience to have a large impact on their sense of identity and this is evident when looking at the types of discrimination faced by these women. While institutional racism seems to be of great emphasis through both texts it is important to see that despite the negative images projected by society and the institutions that serve it, these women have formed strong bonds with their surroundings, their culture and most importantly, with themselves.
             The most obvious struggle that is encountered by the women in both texts is racism, however it can be argued that it is not racism that these women must fight against but the stereotypes from which racism stems. Stereotypes are often made by people in order to make a quick judgement on a persons character or the ethics that person holds. This is often made by looking at appearance but can be done using any knowledge about a person eg. Sexual preference, religion etc and by using the preconceived images and thoughts that have been associated with that minority group, people develop stereotypical ideas about each other.


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