Not All Women are Discriminated Against the Same

 Third World Women and Inclusive feminism


In the article Difference “A special Third World Women Issue” by Trinh T. Minh-ha, who is Vietnamese. She creates films, is a literary theorist, musical composer and professor. She received two masters as well as a PH.D. from the University of Illinois. In this writing Mink-ha discusses the generational and institutionalized sexism and racism around the world, the abuse of the minority and the fact that women who are minorities are discriminated against far more than white women. 

Minh-ha starts off her writing by explaining the standards that women are held to. She mentions the “made women(pg 12),” the made women would be one that has conformed, one that follows the rules or social normalities. A made woman knows her place essentially. The irony lies where a women can be made but she could also be an oriental women, african women, or indigenious women and still be discriminated against. Also a woman who is not made is disobedient. Then Minh-ha re-ensures the audience that there are women all over the world who acknowledge this difference, acknowledge that it is toxic, that it is one sided, acknowledge that it excludes some groups of people and acknowledge that sexism and racism has been happening since the beginning of humanity. Minh-ha re-ensures the audience that people realize this issue to emphasize this is an ongoing battle. Another issue she addresses is the segregated development of cultures that is still ongoing as well. An example she touches on in the text and that immediately came to mind was the Native American people being put onto reservations and being told they could keep their culture on the land they were allotted and were not to cross those boundaries. The laws on reservation land are also very different from off the reservation. At the same time those who left reservations were conditioned and conformed into the white-western life-style. Minh-ha explains the minorities used as figures of illusion. She talks about tokenism which is the act of including a few minorities into a multitude of situations to create the notion that equality is being supported meanwhile it just reinforces the separation. The white-western standard is what a majority of individuals are held to. 

Again Minh-ha highlights that discrimination is far different for women of color. In her article she is discussing South African nations but makes it very clear this is a pressing world wide issue. Her main point is that feminism is not kind to women of color and that sometimes feminism does a good job of excluding women of color in the same way tokenism works. Feminism only represents women of color enough to seem like all women are getting equal representation when they are not. I think it is important she points this out because in some parts of the world (many third world nations) womens genitals are mutilated so they cannot enjoy sex or in some extreme cases have it or bare children, women do not recieve education, and women are bought a sold into sex slavery. Horrible things like those are why inclusivity in feminist movements such as the women’s right to choose is vital. 

Georgia O’keeffe, Black Iris III, 1926

Above I included a Georgia O’Keeffe painting from 1926 because her many paintings of flowers and foliage often seem to restore a similar image in the minds of everyone who looks at them regardless of gender or race. Some of O'keeffe's works are notoriously well known for looking like vaginas. I find this quite empowering because most of her paintings are close up images of foliage or flowers and so many people look at these paintings and ask the same question. They don't ask who or what it is because they so obviously see only one thing a vagina. Her paintings are bold and push the limits of scale which attract attention. Her work doesn't have much to do with third world women but her work does resonate femininity and when her flower paintings similar to the Black Iris are seen the audience just thinks “woman”. 


Metmuseum.org, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/489813. 

 Minh-ha, Trinh T. “Difference: ‘A Special Third World Women Issue.’” Feminist Review 25, no. 1

(March 1987): 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.1987.1.


“Trinh T. Minh-Ha.” Department of Gender and Women's Studies, 

https://gws.berkeley.edu/about/department-faculty/trinh-t-minh-ha/.

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