Author: geis.52

Text Review Assignment – Jane the Virgin ; season 4

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The Netflix series Jane the Virgin, is a show that focuses on the life of a family of latina women. While it is a comedy and romance show, it also shows their struggles of being a minority living in a white community. The family lives in a part of Miami, Florida that is a predominantly white area, and most of the other characters in the show are white. The main topic that this show, especially season four, shows is their struggles with immigration laws. Up until season four of the show, the grandmother was not a legal citizen in the United States. She did not have a green card, and therefore was living illegally. All throughout her life she was scared to do anything that would get her seen by too many people, and was very cautious. In season four, she applied for a green card. Once she got it, she was able to take her citizenship test and become a legal citizen. On top of that situation, she was being discriminated against and constantly being “Othered” on the daily. For example, she primarily spoke Spanish and could not speak English without a heavy accent. One of the customers at the place she worked at called her out and told her to go back to her own country. In this situation, the grandmother character is seen as being “Othered”. She is being treated and seen as someone inferior or less of a person. This was a very hard situation for the character, and represents how people of latino descent are treated in the world today. Another example of this character being “Othered”, is the lengths that she went to in order to become a citizen. It took months of work, many appointments, and a lot of legal meetings in order to schedule a day for the test. If she were to miss that test, it would take a long time for her to make it up. For example, in one scene, the grandmother goes to take her test but is late because of her daughter’s cancer complications. The legal workers almost did not let her take her test because she was one minute late. In the end, they allowed her to take the test and she passed. This scene shows how the government do not help with the discrimination against the minorites, and also make it extremely hard for them to become a citizen of the country. They are constantly being “Othered” and treated as less than everyone else. This show inspires a conversation about power and identity between the government and the immigrants in America. The government clearly has power over the immigrants and makes it hard for them to become a part of the country. Overall, the show Jane the Virgin represents the hardships that immigrants face when it comes to power and identity in the world today.

 

             

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase

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When discussing topics of systematic injustice, one topic that stood out to me as a major issue throughout the country is laws on abortion. This has been a topic that fuels conflicts within the country for a while. Throughout the years different states have made individual rules regarding abortion. Many states, like Ohio, Kentucky, and many more, have made it almost impossible to have an abortion. They restrict the process up to twenty weeks and make it very difficult to get an appointment. Other states, like California or New York women are able to have abortions under any circumstance and there is no amount of time they have to get it by (Is Abortion Legal in my State). From some research, I found that recently Texas has changed their abortion laws. This has made for some controversial protests. Their new change has been to the amount of time women are allowed to have an abortion. The new time frame is only six weeks (Batha). Having the time frame going from twenty to six weeks has made for quite the uprising towards the government. Women are protesting their rights for their body and for them to change the rule back. Rules like these take away from womens rights and their choice when it comes to their body. This qualifies as a systemic injustice because the government has implemented these limitations to women’s rights. Women’s rights have always been limited in some way throughout history. From unequal job opportunities to unequal pay to limitations on abortions, the government has always limited their rights. This situation relates to the book and film Persepolis from class. In the story, Marji and the other Iranian women were forced to wear veils over their heads and modest clothing all around. In this situation, the government took away their rights to choose what they can wear. Making limitations on what they can wear is not the same as making limitations on abortion laws, but the concept of taking away womens rights is represented and explained in both situations. 

 

Sources:

https://news.trust.org/item/20201231112641-qfynt/

https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/abortion-access-tool/US

Picture:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-22/abortion-protests-in-texas-1/11136812?nw=0

 

Persepolis

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In the film Persepolis, based on the graphic novel written by Marjane Satrapi, it focuses on her life experiences as an Iranian woman. It goes through every stage of her life, starting with being born and raised in Iran for the first part of her childhood. Then moving onto her adolescent and young adult years moving abroad to escape the war in Iran. Finally it ends with her moving back to Iran and experiencing new challenges there as a grown woman. While this film mainly focuses on her life, it also represents and talks about the hardships that the country went through. It shows what the Iranian people had to go through during the revolution. 

The Iranian revolution was a huge event in Iranian history, and involved the entire country. From government officials and all the way down to the unemployed people, everyone was affected. The revolution started when the Iranian people decided they were not happy with how their country was being handled. The ruler, Shah, was seen as a bad leader and people thought he was very unfair by almost the entire country. With this thought in mind, the people of Iran took matters into their own hands and started to protest the laws that were in place. From research, I found that it started with “slanderous remarks” made about some of the people in Tehran (Afary). From those comments, students and other youth of the country started to protest. This paved the way for the rest of the revolution. This is demonstrated in the film, Persepolis, towards the beginning. Marjane was a very young girl when she first witnessed these protests. Her father then explained the whole history behind the protests and why the country wanted a new ruler.

While the protests may have seemed harmless, they were far from that. Thousands of innocent people were killed in the mists of these protests. Part way through the revolution, the government decided they had enough with the protests and open fired against the people of Tehran (Afary). This amount of death was also shown in the movie. In one scene, Marjane’s parents were attending a protest and while they were standing there, an innocent kid was shot. This was a common thing during the revolution. Along with death, harsh laws were put in place against the Iranian people. Shown in the movie, women were forced to wear veils that covered their entire head and hair. They had to dress and be modest all the time while being out in public. Their rights were very much decreased. Another harsh rule that was seen in the movie was that there was no alcohol allowed at all. People would be arrested for even owning any alcohol. Through all these harsh rules, and new restraints made by the government, it is clear that the Iranian revolution had a huge negative impact on the people of Iran.

“Iranian Revolution.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/event/Iranian-Revolution.