My Identity When Reading

 My Identity When Reading

In the past few weeks, a lot of the literature we have read in class has had to do with the idea of gender, and by extension gender roles, and their implications on society. A majority of these pieces have been written by women, who use an anecdotal approach to expose the audience to the relevancy of the issue, and the prevalence of this topic in their life. Sometimes synthesizing their identity as a female with their other “labels” within society (such as race, social class, etc.), these readings have gotten me to start thinking about my intersectional identity, and how it affects the views that I have on a lot of these issues. 

Although female, in general, most of my “labels” are similar to that of the majority in the areas I interact with. I’m quite privileged by the metrics of the general population, so a lot of the issues that were talked about weren’t really something that I’ve experienced first hand, and understand the relevancy of. For example, in The Myth of the Latin Woman, a lot of the sexual harassment talked about, although I’ve heard about before, was new to me. Even the recent reading on why a peaceful woman would carry a gun, that feeling of a real physical threat that would necessitate such “drastic” was unfamiliar to me as well. Through exposing myself to different ends of society through these readings, I’ve more and more become aware of my place of privilege from the general population. I don’t think I’ll ever really have their lived experiences, so it’s important to try to understand their viewpoints from their point of view. As my reading becomes more and more diversified I’ve found it more and more important to consider my identity when reading text and evaluating my feelings about it. This heightened metacognition will help me read better and understand more, diversifying my opinions and ideas.