Summary Of Looking Beyond The Wall

When discussing the cultural differences that females face, I want to first talk about this week’s reading, “Looking Beyond the Wall”. The author, Robert, describes a class field trip where his students explore both sides of the border that divides Mexico and the United States. After his class met abused migrants, witnessed illegal immigrants sentenced to jail, and heard the heartbreaking stories of people just trying to make a better life for themselves and their family, something in them changed. Students who once supported the wall and wanted to be border patrol agents, were now creating a student club to raise awareness of the injustices with undocumented immigration and the border. They felt empathy and compassion for a different group of people and were now able to truly appreciate the struggles they faced (Shaw & Lee, 2015). Although this story did not directly relate to women’s rights, it so clearly relates to this week’s topic of global feminism. Until domestic feminists actually understand the situations, experiences, and cultures that other women around the world face, they will not be able to truly appreciate their feminist sisters and work together with efforts of global feminism.
In the United States, this practice is seen as abhorrent and is strongly fought against in feminist movements. However, in African populations, females choose to have this operation and are proud of this change. It is a sign of womanhood and respect of their culture, not a disgraceful mutilation (Khazan, 2015). Understandably, domestic feminists fight against involuntary FGC, but it’s important to recognize that this topic is not as important in African feminist movements, and in many domestic cases, they incorporate African statistics to show the prominence of this operation