Jaselle Abuda - Week 4 Blogpost

Jaselle Abuda

Professor Valverde

ASA 150E

28 January 2017

            Judy Tzu-Chun Wu’s book Radicals on the Road: Internationalism, Orientalism, and Feminism During the Vietnam Era interprets the idea of “Global Sisterhood” as coming together for a radical change of advocating the importance of world peace and equal rights. The sponsors of the Indochinese Women’s Conferences (IWCs) were women activists known as “old friends”, “new friends”, and “third world” women mostly from North America who strongly advocated for the end of the Viet Nam War. A strong strategy that they used to touch the hearts of an international audience was the use of maternal instincts to relate to the global women population. The use of maternalistic propagandas such as “…on behalf of all the world’s children to end nuclear testing and begin negotiations for nuclear disarmament” (Wu 9). Women activists in VOW strongly voiced their ideology of the women activists as “mothers who could not support acts of aggression and violence” (Wu 10). From the social and political interactions that were made between the women’s activist groups, they learned vital information with one another from personal exchanges of life experiences. Although social and political improvements were beginning to grow during this era, it united many women with the same propaganda, which was to end the Viet Nam War. Differences in opinions between people are inevitable, yet these women sought through those disagreements and found so much more similarities with one another. They initiated to understand each other with the sole purpose of uniting as a sisterhood to end the war in Viet Nam.

Image source: http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/11/11/million-women-march-being-planned-for-january-21-2017-in-d-c/

   

     To connect to recent events, the 2017 Women's march was a huge social movement that I immediately thought of. Participated by many countries around the world, this international social movement not only impacted those who identify themselves as women, but the organization made the demonstration as an inclusive space. Representing identities and groups of those who are continually oppressed, dehumanized and misrepresented groups of people such as people of color, immigrants, women, LGBTQIA+ community, of those with different religions, were many that were present within the international, social movement. The gathering of these people represented the resistance of power and injustice, and the formation of a unifying, honest cause for peace and unity.

Question: Comparing the eras of the 1900s to the 21^st century cannot be applicable because of the huge difference in political and social trends in each of the eras. My question is, because there is such an evident divide of the nation right now, how can we gather with one another and make amends with the broken bonds between groups of people without further diving the nation? We may have our differences in opinions, but can there be a consensus for the benefit of everyone’s well-being?

Work Cited

"Million Women March Being Planned For January 21, 2017 In D.C.". Women in the World in Association with The New York Times - WITW. N.p., 2017. Web. 28 Jan. 2017.

Introduction; Part III: Journeys for Global Sisterhood - Chapter 7 “We Met the ‘Enemy’--and They Are Our Sisters,” Chapter 8 War at a Peace Conference, Chapter 9 Woman Warriors.

Judy Tzu-Chan Wu. Radicals on the Road: Internationalism, Orientalism, and Feminism During the Vietnam Era. 2013.