...and the flies are on their faces

Before I begin this blog, I would like to start with a bit of honesty. Whenever I hear the term “third world” I immediately think of poverty, lack of education, people living on top of trash dumps with diseases and flies flying around their mouths. I know this is terrible. But I am just being honest…and sadly, I believe that most Americans think the same exact thing I do. Thanks history channel. Perhaps that is why Uma Narayan’s article “Contesting Cultures: Westernization, Respect for Cultures, and Third World Feminist from Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions and Third World Feminisms” was shocking from the title. Third World Feminism? Could there be a such thing. Can poor people think about anything else but being impoverished? Who cares about the equality of women…does somebody have some food or clean water though? (Okay, I’ll stop because I am really being an ass). After reading the article, I well understood that Narayan was a westernized as I am but came from a family that escaped the third world. The author raised some very valid points; I have never thought that educating women is still considered, in some parts of the world, to be a westernized practice or idea. I have always assumed that as our world became more interconnected through technological advances that such things as denying women education would have to cease to exist. However, religion, tradition and power still play a strong role in the oppression of women no matter how many advances the world makes. It is up to the women who escape those oppressive situations to return to their homes and share their acquired information with others. There are still many “third world” practices that prevail in America. Men are still beating the shit out of their wives, men are still sticking their dicks and a bunch of different women, men are still treating women as if they are less than equal…and the list goes on. I guess the only difference is in America there are laws against such practices and in other countries there are laws that uphold such practices. But hell, what’s the big damn difference to the woman getting her ass beat.