http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,537261,00.html - Controversial Doll Lets Little Girls Pretend to Breastfeed
I received this link from a friend, and had I not been meditating the last couple of days I'd surely be consumed with rage and disgust at learning a Latino toy maker is making a doll teaching toddlers how to breastfeed.
Is this a prank???
Will we ever stop perpetuating such stereotypes?
This hits close to home because not only am I a Hispanic woman constantly having to deal with the Maria complex most people outside my race have of me, but also because even with my own family I am constantly being pressured to conform to old stories that didn't work for my parents but are supposed to now somehow work for me.. I don’t think so~
When everyone was getting pregnant I was leaving the "perfect” (oppressive) Dominican partner after an eight-year relationship. To have at least 20 cousins, many of which are younger than I, and be the only one without a kid can be somewhat alienating, and now this? Just what the Latino community needs, another tool to persuade my nieces into believing that it is only by procreating that one can prove to be a real woman, whether you can actually afford it or not never seems to be an important issue. I think about Jose Abalos’ book The Latino Male: A Radical Redefinition, where he tells the story of emanation that doesn’t serve us as individuals or a community... like this...
This is not who we are.
Diosa
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3 comments:
It comes with the territory. As a young Black man I constantly seeing images of what I am supposed to be all over the media. Im supposed to be playing a sport or on the block hustling. Im supposed to wear super baggy clothes, Jordans, and carry a gun. I hate having my clothes baggy, I only wear skate shoes, and my favorite group is the Beatles. I can read, write and articlate myself just as good as any Ivy League student. Im too "white" for the Black kids and too "black" for the White kids. I feel alienated all the time. But I know who I am and what I like and refuse to be anything else. we all have to match choices to be leaders or follows... I choose to be a leader and go down my own path. Enjoy your path and whenever you see all of your cousins with kids be proud that you came to the fork in the road and went straight!
thank you for sharing your experience. luved that!
Watching CNN's Latino in America this past weekend, I knew that there were some stereotypes that were being shared.
Unfortunately I feel that when you are a cultural minority in America that those who are in the majority are afraid of not being in power. Do not allow someone else's weakness get you down.
I can testify for I am an African American female, and I have to battle with the same stereotypes everyday but in various capacities. However, I will never forget doing a CNN iReport response to Black in America last year and one of the commentators told me that I needed to take care of my children. I never mentioned in my iReport that I had children. I don't have children, and I have never been married. By the way, I am 35 years old!
It can be so annoying sometimes when ignorant comments are made but keep God in your life and positive energy around you so that when you are confronted with ignorance like that you know how to brush it off.
If someone wants to confront you assuming you fall into a stereotype, you always say how you have pride in your culture and there isn't any stereotype that won't define you for you create your own destiny.
Sending you positive vibes!
[aka 2Serenity on twitter! xo]
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