Abbe Eliasof

Annotated Bibliography

Alexander-Reid, Sheila. “Black Lesbian Resistance and Resilience.” The Feminist Wire, 18 Feb.

2019, thefeministwire.com/2019/02/black-lesbian-resistance-and-resilience/.

Black Lesbian Resistance and Resilience

In this blog post on The Feminist Wire, the author, Sheila Alexander-Reid, brings up the

struggles that black lesbians face from their own community and society as a whole. Alexander-

Reid recounts how her friend was murdered in 2006 before she had the chance to write a will.

Her partner, who happened to be female, ended up having no rights to her estate because they

couldn’t legally marry, and the victim’s family actively did not respect their deceased relative’s

wishes out of homophobia. Homophobia in the black community stems from all sorts of concepts

of African Americans and femininity and masculinity.

The blog post is not all gloomy though. It discusses an organization that Alexander-Reid

herself started called Women in the Life, Inc. and it aims to create safe spaces for black lesbians

in various major cities. The post also discusses how black lesbians have advocated for

themselves fiercely. The solutions to the oppression that black lesbians face is diversifying the

LGBTQ+ movement and giving black lesbians a platform to speak for themselves as they’ve

been doing for as long as they’ve existed.

 Abbe Eliasof

Bratt, Benjamin and Bratt, Peter. “Confronting Homophobia in ‘La Mission’.” All Things

Considered, interviewed by Marcos Najera, hosted by Melissa Block, National Public

Radio, 5 August 2010. Transcript, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId

=129008761. Accessed 4 February 2019

NPR Segment: Confronting Homophobia in “La Mission”

This NPR Segment hosted by Melissa Block is an interview (conducted by Marcos

Najera) with Benjamin and Peter Bratt, the brothers behind the movie “La Mission” about a

Hispanic boy who comes out to his tough ex-con of a father as gay, going against his father’s

idea of what a man should be, which is heavily influenced by macho culture and cultural pride.

The movie also depicts violence towards the gay son. In addition to addressing homophobia in

the Latinx community, the film also comments on how culture and masculinity can make people

less accepting of and violent towards those with differences.

The Bratt brothers seek to make more films about intolerance amongst the Hispanic

community and believe more representation of LGBT Hispanics and their stories will help to

solve the problem of homophobia and masculinity issues in their community. They are pushing

for their indie film to get into more local theaters, as many people think their film is not needed.

The broadcast also advocated for a clinic for LGBT Latinx youth whose parents abuse them.

Perhaps this can help the problem, but it will not solve the problem. To solve the problem you

need to address it and change the culture. The Bratt brothers are definitely trying to do that.
 Abbe Eliasof

Chapman, Madeleine. “Modesty, Liberty, Equality: Negotiations of Gendered Principles of Piety

Among Muslim Women Who Cover.” Feminism & Psychology 28.4 (2018): 509–529.

Web.

Modesty, Liberty, Equality: Negotiations of Gendered Principles of Piety Among Muslim

Women Who Cover

This journal draws on a qualitative research study with Muslim women who cover to

understand their views on modesty as an Islamic virtue. The study consisted of 38 second

generation Muslim women from London and Copenhagen and their experiences with covering.

Second generation women were recruited for this study because they have a more complex set of

norms (traditional ideals from family, progressive thought from their Western society). All of

these women stated that they chose to cover, and a lot of people question their femininity for it.

They do not see their head scarfs as oppressive, however, Western society’s concepts of

femininity have a lot to say about a woman’s appearance (hair included).

The journal did not discuss this as a problem, rather looked at the concept of Western

Muslim women covering and how their society’s concept and their religion’s concept of

femininity affected them. Since this was not discussed as a problem, no solutions were offered

up, but the conclusion can be drawn from this journal that the issue is not with Muslim women,

rather with society’s concepts of femininity, sexism within the Muslim community, and sexism

towards Muslim women. Possible solutions include educating the general public on the teachings

of Islam (the same way most of the Western world is quite familiar with Christianity) and

working to get rid of the concept that a woman’s femininity is validated by her appearance.
 Abbe Eliasof

Ferber, Abby L. “Racial Warriors and Weekend Warriors: The Construction of Masculinity in

Mythopoetic and White Supremacist Discourse.” Men and Masculinities 3.1 (2000): 30–

56. Web.

Racial Warriors and Weekend Warriors: The Construction of Masculinity in Mythopoetic and

White Supremacist Discourse

In this journal, the ever-changing concept of masculinity is discussed in the context of

progressive political movements. There are arguments for various ideas, yet they all come

together to form one idea: cis, heterosexual, white men feel as though their masculinity is being

disenfranchised because of progressivist movements for women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ+

people. The “strong, white man” is America’s idealized construct of what it means to be

masculine. This is harmful to men of racial minorities because not only does it tell them they

have to work harder to “prove” their masculinity, it also causes white men’s masculinity to feel

threatened when the country works towards racial equality. As white men feel their authority

being discredited, they take out their aggression on women as well, making this not only a racial

issue, but a gender issue as well.

This journal does not explicitly state any solutions and does not necessarily label this

racist and sexist concept of masculinity as a problem. However, the journal does say that the rise

in progressive political movements is redesigning our concepts of femininity and masculinity, so

I think it is reasonable to assume that an increase activism and advocacy efforts will help

redefine masculinity as something less harmful.

 Abbe Eliasof

Finley, Kelly. Personal Interview. 20 March 2019.

For my second interview I had the chance to speak with Professor Kelly Finely. Professor

Finley is a lecturer for the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at UNC Charlotte, and I am

currently in her Intro to Women’s Studies class. Professor Finely started off by explaining the

concepts of the perfect American family with the masculine man and feminine female, and how

this cannot apply to all cultures. During the interview I learned about how American society

views minorities and where it comes from. For example, the submissive Asian female stereotype

comes from the forced prostitution of Asian women in the 18th and 19th centuries. Professor

Finely also discussed how the ruling class (white, cis, heterosexual, men) has devised a system to

keep those who are not them out of power through oppression and exclusion. Some solutions

Professor Finely offered up are to change the way we raise and gender our own children and to

look at what we ourselves can do in our own communities and our own lives to start discussions

and change the way we look at things. If we make improvements in ourselves and recognize the

way we have been gendered and enforce the gender binary, then we can change and help to

create a more open-minded community around us.

 Abbe Eliasof

Gee, Brian, Hui, Ken, and Phoummarath, Marion. “Asian-American Frat Life Marred by

Hazing.” Tell Me More, hosted by Michelle Martin, National Public Radio, 23 March

2009. Podcast, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102233763.

Accessed 4 February 2019

NPR Segment: Asian-American Frat Life Marred by Hazing

This NPR segment hosted by Michelle Martin, is a conversation between Brian Gee and

Ken Hui, both of who are members of Lambda Phi Epsilon, the largest national Asian-American

interest fraternity, and Marion Phoummarath, the sister of Jack Phoummarath who died from

hazing during initiation into Lambda Phi Epsilon. This segment discusses the culture of hazing in

this Asian-American fraternity and how it is connected to masculinity. Young men allow

themselves to go through hazing to prove how tough they are, and men haze each other to exert

their power over other men.

As a solution, Gee and Hui said their fraternity is meeting with the National Asian pacific

Panhellenic Association to discuss the hazing issues going on in their organizations in light of

the death of Jack Phoummarath. The Asian-American Greek organizations have officially taken

an anti-hazing stance. However, this will likely not be enough, as individual chapters can do

what they want in secret. The real solution would be to get these pledges and brothers secure

enough in themselves and their masculinity that they don’t have to go to such great lengths to

prove it.
 Abbe Eliasof

Guzder, Deena. “Ping-Pong Hell.” Ms. Magazine, Summer 2010 http://cp.revolio.com/i/17835-

summer-2010/21?token=YTZhNDE1YjNkYWIxNjMwYmZmODhiNzliZTg2NWI2Y2

NiNGU3MzlmMw%3D%3D

Ping-Pong Hell

In this article, the author, Deena Guzder, tells the story of a 47-year-old woman who

worked in one of Thailand’s famous “Ping-Pong” shows. A Ping-Pong show is an “exotic” sex

show found in major cities of Thailand where women do dangerous and potentially fatal tricks

with their genitalia for the amusement of Western tourists. These shows double as a front for

brothels. The woman this article was about was a migrant who needed money to support her

child, which led her to be “employed” by one of these “shows”. The article discusses how this

market thrives because the Western idea of Asian femininity is submission and putting up with

torture.

The article discussed some potential solutions to the mass sexual exploitation of women

in Thailand such as free education and decent paying work opportunities for women so that they

can become more educated to get a job on their own or be able to work without an education in

an establishment that doesn’t dehumanize and torture them. Another solution proposed in this

article was for the Thai government to create laws that limit or even ban sexual voyeurism.
 Abbe Eliasof

Johnson-Bradshaw, Justin. Personal Interview. 11 Mar. 2019.

For my first interview, I interviewed my friend Justin Johnson-Bradshaw who is a third-

year psychology major, women’s and gender studies minor, part African-American, part Asian,

part Caucasian, self-identified homosexual man. I chose to interview him because I felt as though

he had a good insight into the experience of various minorities. He hopes to be a counseling

psychologist and believes a women’s and gender studies minor will help him understand

intersectional experiences. Justin observed the white-American concept of femininity to be soft,

subtle, and submissive, while he observed some traits of white-American masculinity to be

asserting dominance over women and minorities and hiding emotion. From his experience, he

believes this “dominance” that white men assert over minorities has forced other forms of

“masculine expression’ in minority groups. He has noticed African-American men around him

assert more dominance over women than the white men around him and Asian men try and

control the actions of their family members more so than white men. Justin observed a stronger

sense of misogyny in his minority communities than in his white community. He also believes

white men believe black women are angry which prevents them from understanding or wanting

to understand them. Justin believes these standards of masculinity and femininity created by

white America are harmful to all people and create a divide that keeps diverse people from

understanding each other. He thinks the way to change the way we perceive feminine and

masculine is to change the way the media portrays these constructs and teach future generations

to be more open-minded to diversity.

 Abbe Eliasof

Lafayett, Lakesha. “Dark Times Under the Radar: Black Women and Mental Illness.” Adios

Barbie, 18 Aug. 2015, www.adiosbarbie.com/2015/08/dark-times-under-the-radar-black-

women-and-mental-illness/.

Dark Times Under the Radar: Black Women and Mental Illness

In this blog post on Adios Barbie, the author, Lakesha Lafayett, discusses her struggles

with mental illness and how society treats black women when they have mental illness. The

media portrays mental illness as something that happens to white people, the black community

attributes mental illness as a poor connection with God, and society believes black women are

too strong for mental illness. The concept that to be a black woman, you must be able to handle

more pain and suffering than other people is harmful to black women. The solutions Lafayett

proposes are to fight against the mental illness stigma in the black community, fight against the

racist and misogynistic stereotypes, and find ways to make treatment for mental illness more

affordable. She also says the ignorance about mental illness is a serious root of the problem and

proper education on mental illness is extremely important.

 Abbe Eliasof

Mukkamala, Shruti, and Karen L Suyemoto. “From Exotic to Invisible: Asian American

Womens' Experiences of Discrimination.” American Psychological Association,

American Psychological Association, 26 July 2018,

www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-119.

From Exotic to Invisible: Asian American Womens' Experiences of Discrimination

For my last source, I have chosen to use an article that summarizes a journal from the

American Psychological Association. This article discusses a study and journal conducted and

written by Shruti Mukkamala and Karen L. Suyemoto about the discrimination faced by Asian-

American women in America. Many of these can bed connected to the four basic stereotypes of

Asian American femininity: the submissive girl, the overtly sexual woman, the manipulative

“Dragon Lady”, and the hard worker. In addition to this, Asian women (and all Asians) face the

model minority stereotype. Asian American women consistently deal with the stereotype that

they are exotic and often are victims of fetishization. They also are seen as submissive followers,

rather than leaders, which essentially harms their professional life, as others cannot see them as

leaders. This article discussed 15 types of discrimination faced by Asian women and Asians in

general in America and the authors believe that in order to reduce discrimination against Asians

and Asian Americans, others should make themselves more aware of how they contribute to the

discrimination. The authors also listed a misunderstanding of culture as a form of discrimination.

I believe education others on Asian culture could also help end some stereotypes and in turn, end

some discrimination against Asian American women and Asian Americans in general.
 Abbe Eliasof

Ralford, Leigh. “Front of the Bus.” Ms. Magazine, Fall 2010 http://cp.revolio.com/i/17870-fall-

2010/55?token=NTVhNmMyZTcyYjg2NDY2Yzg2Y2JkMTYzNWFkOTAwNjc1MmQ

4MDk0NQ%3D%3D

Front of the Bus (Book Review)

This was a review of the book, At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and

Resistance – a New History of the Civil Rights Movement From Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black

Power. The book was about how black women had been standing up for their rights long before

the civil rights movement took off. Black women were fighting for their rights to not be raped by

white men, molested on the bus, and treated as less than white women and black men. Within

their own community they faced sexism and were forced to take a backseat during the civil rights

movement because “that’s what women are supposed to do”. Women such as Rosa Parks were

leaders in the fight for racial equality, however, once more attention was brought to this issue,

women were not allowed to speak their truths and fight for their rights as humans, because men

were supposed to be the leaders.

As this was only a book review, the solutions were left a mystery, as to entice the reader

to read the book. One can assume that proposed solutions in the book would include

intersectional feminism, to bring the struggles of black women to the table, and empowerment of

black women from the black community, so that their own race would listen to the oppressions

that the women face and see that it is important to the movement too.