The Master's Tools

The Master's Tools


On a cloudy day, reading the "Master's Tools" from Audrey Lorde again provides a different kind of reaction. It really sheds a light on the message Audrey Lorde was trying to inform her audience. Audrey Lorde recounts a specific time where she was asked to participate in a conference where she would be providing comments about the role of difference within the lives of American women; particularly regarding the difference of race, sexuality, class, and age. She comments about how it would be a pointless conference without the inclusion of these conditions. It angers Audrey Lorde that as an African American, lesbian feminist she was a somewhat last minute addition to this conference. As if there was going to any representation from an African American female, or lesbian, or feminist. It is interesting to note that she was invited to this conference in 1970. At the time this was when the women's revolution was really starting to take shape. But it wasn't an inclusive movement, it was only a movement lead by white well-worth women. And these women took inspiration from different women movements. Parading off of their hard work. And at this conference they are also using her to contribute to their movement. They were not concerned that there was no inclusion of African American or African American lesbians. All of the reading explorer the further theme of women's movement but the increasing polarization of between race, class, and sexuality.

"When you leave take the picture's with you", addresses the shift in the women's movement. What was once intended on becoming a unified front from women has become greatly polarized. This section talk about how white women benefit all the most from the women's revolution, taking all of the credit leading the movement, while discrediting the other races oppressed from their privilege. While "the original intent"(57, The Bridge on my Back) was to show the connection with white women, but now feels more like a separation. But the author makes a good point as well. How can we acknowledge this separation with others, if we cannot first acknowledge it within ourselves. This concept links in quite nicely with Gloria Anzaldua's How to Tame a Wild Tongue. "We clearly have a different relationship to racism than white women, but all of us are born into an environment were racism exists" (58, The Bridge on my Back) further exemplifying the connection of racism within ourselves and our culture. Gloria Anzaldua adds more to this message in her journal entry How to Tame a Wild Tongue.

Gloria Anzaldua brings up a power talking point in How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Our human bodies have interesting functions that our brain commands as normal movements. The eyes blink. Our lungs breathe. When we speak our tongues use the natural movement to emphasize words. But what happens when a person from a different language struggles to communicate to the normalized language. In Borderlands: La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldua explorers how the foreign language is not normalized in the society she lives in. Raised speaking Spanish in her native country, but once moving to the United States she was forced to get rid of her "Spanish accent" and only speak the normal language "English". So she's forced to try and learn a new language and get rid of her accent. Meanwhile being criticized at home for speaking with a non-native accent. This puts a new kind of social presure on the females that are caught in the middle of this. These represents the struggle of racism and oppression within her own race. As she is forced to conform to her cultural heritage as well as the normal put out by society.

What I have learned from both of these readings is the difficulties women must face. On top of the milestone they must face as women they must overcome other inclusions such as sexuality, race, and language barriers. Women have come along way in the movement, but along the way the white race has forgotten to acknowledge the hard work contributed but African American Women, Hispanic women, and more. In a way they have disassociated themselves from the Women's movement and taken credit all for themselves. Audrey Lorde brought this up in 1970s! The issue of inclusiveness was already an issue back then, and in todays era, it is even more separated.




Resources

Anzaldua, Gloria, Moraga, Cherrie, "This Bridge Called My Back: writings by radical  women of color", (2015) Fourth Edition

Anzaldua, Gloria, "Borderlands: La Frontera, The New Mestiza", How to Tame A Wild Tongue, 1980