Contesting Cultures: "Westernization," Respect for Cultures, and Third-World Feminists

When reading Contesting Cultures, I easily related to the "conflict" between the mother cultures and feminism.  Growing up, the influence that the women and particularly my mother had on me, shaped my outlook on how to present myself in society.  The women in my family are very conservative and this was particularly hard for me once I came into my own as a young lady.  Typically I stray away from the norm and am liberal in my thinking, therefore I sometimes face a lot of friction with my mother.  For example, getting  tattoos was something that was totally off limits in my family.  Putting markings on my body went against respecting my body as a temple.  I agree with the idea to respect one's body, but having tattoos represents significant experiences that have occurred in my life.  Although I respected my mother's opinion I followed my own intuition for what I wanted to do.  This is just one example of something that I have gone against with my mother, but I believe everyone has a similar experience just in a different way.  

Once I was introduced to feminism, I found my "own" in a sense.  Having the opportunity to respect diversity among all women was intriguing to me.  The "ideal" woman or the "correct" women, which is educated, conservative, well spoken in corporate America was never appealing to me.  However, being educated and presentable in society has it's advantages, but I do not support all women having to be molds of each other, instead of diverse.  Freedom of expression seems to be overlooked in order to sometimes conform in society.

Gender roles also existed when I grew up, not necessarily instructions on correct gender roles, but what I witnessed second handily.  Gender roles I witnessed were in church for the most part.  Watching women support their men was at the forefront.  Women's roles in the church seemed to only be watching after the kids, and whenever a women spoke up, it was only a suggestion that a man would get credited for.  The lessons that our parents teach us, are based on what will make our lives easier sometime. Our voices sometimes seem silenced, in order for us to have it easier if we just follow protocol.  Feminism has its' own influence on the way people matriculate in life, but I don't believe it is a symptom of Westernization.  Feminism is a new outlet to compare the influences one has had in their upbringing and make a personal decision on how they choose to live their own lives.