My Identity through culture, sexism and sexuality. by Jenifer Vallejo

My first blank canvas.

jvall068_ — 2023-11-28 04:01:39 UTC

At the age of seven, I finally had my own room, I was so excited to decorate the walls with Hannah Montana posters, and other boy celebrities that I would find in magazines. My mom however didn't let me. "El cuatro de una niña siempre debe de estar limpo, fotos de mujeres no se ve bien." Basically this translates to " a girls room should always be clean, posters of girls does not look good. My brother how ever, got to pick a dark green color and fill his room with pictures of girls, soccer balls etc. I settled with a portrait of La Virgen de Guadalupe and light switch cover of a princess castle ( I didnt like princess castles). I later learned my mom feared that I'd be lesbian; in my house hold is was frowned upon, especially because during this time an older cousin of mine had just came out to the family as gay, my mom thought I'd be "influenced". She used the term lesbiana with a negative connotation, much like in the reading " Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women defining Difference" by A. Lorde. " A fear of lesbians, or of being accused of being a lesbian, has led many Black women into testifying against themselves. It has led some of us into destructive alliances and others into despair and isolation.

La reyna de esta casa no cocina los domingos.

jvall068_ — 2023-11-28 04:12:46 UTC

A gift given to my mom by my grandma, I remember seeing this hung in the kitchen, I didn't find much humor in this, but my grandma did. The ironic thing about this is there is no days off for " la reyna de la casa". My mom and I are the only women in the house, from a young age I was taught to serve my dad his food, make sure the tortillas cooked right, food not too hot because my dad will be mad and not eat, have a spoon/fork, napkins and a drink ready for when he sits down, and this was everyday, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This sign is still hung in our kitchen, but we most definitely still cook on Sundays. I can only imagine the thought process around whoever made this, almost as taking their power back, where Sunday often means "rest day" since its part of the catholic religion. The philosopher Plato touched on this, he argued that society benefits from women especially when they aren't handed house responsibility.

Ni de aqui ni de alla

jvall068_ — 2023-11-28 06:29:53 UTC

This picture was taking in 2015, I remember just coming back from Mexico for the first time, and truly fell in love with the culture. I wore this to school and did not get the reaction I hoped for. I was laughed at, called names like " La india Maria", was told I looked like I sold tortillas... all of which were not said in a good way, the worse part I was called these names by people from my culture, people who can relate to this traditional wear. I remember feeling confused because all I wanted to do was embrace my culture, but instead I got laughed at. During this time too, I began to play sports and was in the sun a lot, I became really tan. Soon I was nicknamed "prieta" which means dark ( with a negative connotation), much like in The Story of my Body.

My sexual identity

jvall068_ — 2023-11-28 07:21:42 UTC

This Tour was taken at what I like to call the peak of my soccer career, where I really thought I could make this my profession. My family however did not support this "soccer was not a woman's sport". I was really confused at the time because I looked up two women like Alex Morgan who was the spokesperson for the USA women's soccer team. My sexuality got brought up a lot by my family some thing that I've never even thought about at this time my only focus was soccer not about who I liked. At this time too, my family made it a lot about religion. I remember being told if i was "gay" I would not be accepted into heaven. Not once did I even think about my sexuality until my family brought it up, all because I wanted to play soccer. Unfortunately, my soccer career ended right after high school, I had no support from my family to continue playing, and I also didn't want to be perceived as a "lesbian" (which at the time they made it seem like it was wrong).

Homophobia as a weapon of sexism.

jvall068_ — 2023-11-28 07:40:35 UTC

During August of 2021, I began working at a law firm. The lawyer of the firm was a man, everyone else were women. As time went on I began to see what kept everything running, the lawyer only showed up in court, we all did the work for him, translated documents, worked with the clients, he only peaked his face in here and there. Soon enough, the lawyer and I faced a problem, because of some miscommunication, he blamed me for one of the clients not showing up to court ( he said I forgot to remind them; but It wasn't my job to do that). He took me into his office where he began to tell me how bad the situation was. "Ugh, you women sometimes just don't understand" he said, after I explained that it wasn't my turn to call clients. This showed me though all I needed to know, "you women" felt like he generalizing all of us, making it seem like it was our fault that things didn't go how he wanted. When I confronted him about what he said he laughed and said " I never said that". There was no one else in that room so there was no way to defend myself. That was enough for me to quit.