{"id":1675,"date":"2018-09-20T14:38:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T18:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2018-09-20T14:38:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T18:38:44","slug":"capitalism-and-feminism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=1675","title":{"rendered":"Capitalism and Feminism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A movement\/narrowly concerned with pregnancy and birth <\/span><\/p>\n

which does not ask <\/span><\/p>\n

questions <\/span><\/p>\n

and demands<\/span><\/p>\n

answers about the lives of children, the priorities of the government:<\/span><\/p>\n

a movement\/ in which individual families <\/span><\/p>\n

rely on consumerism and educational <\/span><\/p>\n

privilege<\/span><\/p>\n

to supply their own children with good <\/span><\/p>\n

nutrition, health care can, <\/span><\/p>\n

while perceiving itself a progressive or alternative <\/span><\/p>\n

exist only as a minor contradiction within a society most of whose <\/span><\/p>\n

children grow up in poverty <\/span><\/p>\n

and which places its highest priority on the technology of <\/span><\/p>\n

war. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My decision to turn this quote from Adrienne Rich\u2019s Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution <\/i>into a poem was based on the malignancy ingrained in the questions of capitalism and sexism. This excerpt spoke to me heavily because Rich actively acknowledges the power of capitalism when addressing issues of a woman\u2019s body and its relation to society. By integrating conversations of \u201cconsumerism\u201d and \u201cgovernment\u201d with topics such as \u201cpre<\/span>gnancy\u201d, Rich is encouraging a holistic approach when addressing 21st century feminism. When constructing this poem I thought heavily about Chimamanda Adichie\u2019s TED talk \u201cThe Danger of a Single Story.\u201d Her talk discusses how individuals are composed of complex identities and connections and to reduce someone to a single narrative is to take away their humanity. I believe that capitalism is an all-consuming force and to deny its power would be unjust and ultimately fail to dismantle any systems of oppression. Rich echoes Adichie\u2019s sentiments in her TED talk by refusing to strip away conversations of capitalism when discussing motherhood and feminism. <\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, my stylistic choice in how I turned this quote into a poem was based on words that I deemed the most dynamic. I choose to give words such as \u201cquestions,\u201d \u201cprivilege,\u201d and \u201cwar\u201d their own lines in order to emphasize them. When reading this poem out loud the reader is forced to give intentional breaks and breaths dedicated to these three words. I this because I I believe these breaks force both the reader and the listener to reconcile with these words and think deeper about the meaning behind them.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n