Sojourner Truth

            Shanty Hernandez

            Blog 10/4

           

            In “Ain’t I a Woman” Sojourner Truth is describing what intersectionality is. Intersectionality is described as people who are of either the same race, gender, economic status, religious views are individually treated differently. For example, a white, straight woman who is Catholic is more likely going to be treated better than a black, atheist women who is gay. Although they are both woman who share the struggles of being oppressed by men, both are treated differently because other factors come into play on how they should be treated. This means that not all women are valued the same because some women have opportunities that other women do not. Tubman states “I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?”. Tubman is addressing the problems that only black woman had; no white woman ever had to experience having thirteen children and seeing all of them being sold off into slavery. When she is saying “And ain’t I a woman?” one can assume that she is saying because she had thirteen children, that should make her a woman, shouldn’t it? So why isn’t she being treated like a woman (in this case, why isn’t she being treated like a white woman who is able to keep her children?).       

Another part where Tubman is talking about intersectionality is when she is talking about how men need to help women into carriages and to “have the best place everywhere”. Tubman goes on to say “Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?” Tubman is saying that, as a woman, society as a whole makes sure that women are “taken care of” because they are too weak to care for themselves. A problem is that the woman who are “being helped into carriages” are white upper-class women. Non-white women are ignored because they do not hold the same power as upper-class white women. I agree with Tubman because although women are oppressed each individual has different experiences on how they are being oppressed -not every woman can relate.

Some people might object Tubmans argument of this being about intersectionality by saying that she is trying to just argue for women’s rights as a whole. One might say that because she argues that she can eat like a man and do the same job that he does, so she’s comparing herself to a man rather than another woman. Although there is the obvious problem that women are not being treated the same as men, that is not the only problem. Another problem that isn’t always addressed that women are not being treated the same as other women. Beauvoir might not agree with this argument that all women are not treated the same because she had two categories: the subject and the object. Beauvoir made it seem like women who stood home and took care of others were not true feminists, but she did not take into account that there are women that do not have the means to become the subject. For example, black women at that time were no where near close to having the means to be independent. White women could not relate at all because they had a lot more rights than black women did, so they did not face the same struggles. Mainstream feminism involves a face of a white women, not everyone is taken into account.