Similarities Between Feminine Mystique And I Am Joaquin

Take-Home/In-Class Assessment on Revolutionary Writer

Comparison Between Betty Friedan and Gonzales Rodolfo

In Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and I am Joaquin by Rodolfo Gonzales, both authors discuss the impact that society often has on how one chooses to identify oneself. In both works the authors talk about how America society often attempts to erase individuality by means of assimilate. In Feminine Mystique, Friedan explains that in the 50s and 60s society constantly tried to tell women they should strive to become one thing; a suburban house wife. Similarly, Gonzales states that's that there is an internal battle within many people with native ancestry on whether or not to abandon and forget their culture heritage and assimilate

into the “gringo society” or continue hold and acknowledge their heritage as their identity and suffer the consequences of being discriminated against. Betty Friedman and Gonzales both argue that conforming to these identities can make a person feel dissatisfied. Gonzales states that as a result of assimilating in white America culture many Native people feel a “sterilization of the soul”. Additionally, Betty Friedan states that many of these women who achieve the status of ‘perfect housewives’ often feel, “empty somehow” and “incomplete.”

In Malcom X’s autobiography he states, “In this year, 1965, I am certain that more—and worse—riots are going to erupt, in yet more cities, in spite of conscience- salving Civil rights Bill.

The reason is that the cause of these riots, the racist malignancy in America, has been too long unattended.” This passage immediately stood out to me because it reminded of the very similar perspective I had received when I was interviewing my interviewee from the Oral History Project. My interviewee had lived during Civil Rights movement and had witnessed the Hough and Glenville riots, while living in East Cleveland Ohio. When I asked him if he could draw a comparison between the riots that happened in Cleveland and some of the more recent years, he answered that, “You can’t hardly separate the two. A riot is a riot. A riot is caused by people’s discontentment.” The racist malignancy in America that Malcolm X indicates Ignited these riots stemmed from (as my interviewee explained) Slavery and the Jim Crow era and the effect it had on. The civil Rights Bill attempted to fix the issue of inequality of right’s but as my interviewee, Malcolm X, and I argued, failed to address the long existing sentiment that Blacks were inherently

inferior.

Che Guevara said, “The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.

It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

Che Guevara’s quote strongly relates to revolutionary writer, Betty Freidan. Freidan was passionate about advocating for women’s rights and bring light to the concepts of gender stereotypes and femminity that women silently struggled with. She talked about these issues out of compassion for other women who might have been subjected to the same societal pressure she had experienced as women. If she did not have any empathy in her heart for others, then she would not have even considered exerting a tremulous amount of her effort in writing and speaking out for women’s

issues.

Gandhi said, “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

Gandhi’s quote symbolizes the shift in Malcolm X’s perspective regarding racism and the nature of people. Many of times when he spoke of white people in his earlier years of activism he regarded them as inherently evil and racist, in one speech he even called them ‘devils’. He had lost faith in humanity, specifically white folk, because of all of the terrible atrocities that some had contributed to his and other black’s own life. These “dirty drops” shaped how Malcolm viewed the whole white race and it was not until he traveled to Mecca, where was able to meet and talk to ocean of different types people, that he that he was able to see that there were some white people that shared the same beliefs that he did on religon and same frustration of the racial injustice still prevalent throughout the world. This restored He states in his autobiography that “I had tried in every speech I made to clarify my new position regarding white people- I don't speak against them he sincere, good meaning white people. I have learned there are some.