The House on Mango Street and Another Brooklyn seemed related to me, similar both in their subjects and writing styles. They’re both told somewhat nontraditionally in smaller vignettes, although I feel that Brooklyn has a more prevalent narrative structure than Mango Street. A common thread within these books is the “danger” spoken about surrounding young girls. They have moments of adults telling children that other women or themselves are dangerous. August was told by her mother that “...women weren’t to be trusted. Keep your arm out, she said. And keep women a whole other hand away from the farthest tip of your fingernails. She told [August] to keep [her] nails long” (Woodson 19). It can be inferred that something bad had happened in the mother’s life that she blames on at least one other women. As we discussed in class, it’s common in culture to blame a husband caught cheating not on the man, but on the other woman. When Esperanza and her friends are walking around in fancy shoes they had been given, a man tells them that “[The shoes] are dangerous. You girls are too young to be wearing shoes like that” (Cisneros 41). Both of these instances involve shifting some sort of blame to women in a way they do not deserve. In the case of August’s mother, it could be a case of internalized misogyny. Telling a young girl that women are not to be trusted could be extremely detrimental, keeping her from trusting other women enough to build meaningful and healthy relationships, and could even go as far as to sow distrust in female family members. It could even continue the internalized misogyny. if August had taken her mother to word, her self worth might have plummeted if she accepted herself as a distrustful member of society. If the theory that August’s mother was cheated on, it would show a lack of holding men accountable for their own actions. In the case of the shoes in Mango Street, the man is essentially blaming the young girls for his own discomfort. Sentiments such as these show a disturbing facet of a culture where women are blamed and men are not held accountable. It’s essentially the same argument as when one would say “She shouldn’t have been wearing those revealing clothes” in response to a women being sexually assaulted, as if her outfit is an excuse for assault, instead of saying “He shouldn’t have assaulted her.” In both of these books, the girls are put in relationships with men that, due to their age, lead to a power imbalance. An older man at Esperanza's job forces himself on her when he asks for a birthday kiss, "...just as I was about to put my lips on his cheek, he grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn't let go" (55). While their relationship seems consensual, the four year age difference between August and Jerome is extremely worrying, especially considering the sexual acts they engage in. While these girls were growing up and begging to learn more about themselves sexually, it's wrong for older, more mature males to interact like that with them. Esperanza feels better when the older man says they can be friends. August doesn't know any better because "At twelve, I thought sixteen-year old boys said this to every girl" (100). She was too young to know that the age difference is not part of a normal relationship. Seeing the similarities in the unfortunate relationships the girls are in, I wanted to see if I could find any information on the rates of child sexual abuse in relation to the children's ethnicity. In a 2010 report to Congress by the Department of Health and Human Services, it was found that rates of sexual abuse- and overall abuse- were higher for for Hispanic children in relation to white children, and even worse for black children. Table Source: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/resource/fourth-national-incidence-study-of-child-abuse-and-neglect-nis-4-report-to
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The trend seems to be that minority groups catch the blame just as women often do. In fact, this reminds me of a social media post I saw referencing the double standard for abuse allegations between genders. In other words, why do women wait so long to report abuse? Is the same said for allegedly abused boys?
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Erik Madaus
3/25/2019 11:17:50 am
I like that you went and found some data that related to a theme you identified in the books. My blog on these books were about female friendship. I also identified their struggle as internalized systems of oppression, but working in different ways.
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