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COVID Hits Women Hardest

Margot Roosevelt reports on the effect of the COVID pandemic on women in her Los Angeles Times article titled "'I Don't Know How I Can Survive.' Women Have Been Hit Hardest by COVID's Economic Toll." The consequences for women in the American workforce have been so disturbing that economists refer to it as a COVID-19 "shecession."

California unemployment rose from 4.1% pre-pandemic to 10.4% of men and 12% of women in the last year. This is because the pandemic-driven recession as taken the hardest toll on service roles held by a majority of women, such as hairdressers and housekeepers.

Because a number of white-collar jobs have survived and thrived in work-from-home settings, economists worry that jobs for women in janitorial, restaurant, and retail capacities may disappear.

Even if the jobs that now-unemployed women previously held do reopen, the predictions based on the U.S. census and Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that it will take 18 months longer for women to come back from unemployment, for a number of factors.

For more than 1 in 4 women in the workforce, the pandemic has forced them to consider leaving the workforce or at least "downshifting" their careers. This is a concern for companies who will lose women in vital leadership positions, and it also suggests that companies also risk "unwinding years of painstaking progress toward gender diversity."

More than a million women in California remain unemployed even as restrictions easy and the economy reopens, and women of color are significantly worse off. In all, women of color make up more than 60% of California's female population.

"In March, 13.4% of Latinas, 12.8% of Black women and 12.5% of Asian women statewide were officially unemployed, defined as those actively looking for work. That compares with 11.5% of white women."

What's more, is that as other women are slowly re-entering the workforce, Latinas continue to exit it. They are in especially severe economic despair, and they continue to die of COVID-19 at higher rates than any other demographic group.

Across all ethnic and cultural groups, low- or high-wage, women are the assumed caretakers as family members become sick and children stayed home for school. Mothers were the highest demographic to drop out of the workforce, and were forced to make the decision between "the safety and well-being of their children and providing for them financially."

Some mothers are able to compromise and start online businesses to maintain a small sense of financial security. Others are living out of their cars, longing for a place to take a shower.

“'I Don't Know How I Can Survive.' Women Have Been Hit Hardest by COVID's Economic Toll.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2021, www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-07/will-california-women-bounce-back-covid-unemployment-california

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Marginalized Creators

It has been established that on- and off-screen representation is largely important for an individual's well-being. Studies have show that it can increases self-esteem, where lack of it can be demoralizing. Therefore it is very important to assure that media covers a spectrum of representations but we continue to see that representation of marginalized groups in media is less than adequate.

Twitter user Ashia Monet answers the question of who should be in charge of managing these representations, and the answer is blatantly obvious--marginalized characters should be written by and for individuals from the same marginalized group. She adds that it is not a problem of "how privileged creators can better depict marginalized groups," but a question of:

"How can we give marginalized creatives the more opportunities and resources to tell their stories?"

One answer comes from Justine Abigail Yu, which is to actively foster a culture of storytelling and exchange of experience. She writes in her article "Cultivating A Culture of Storytelling in Marginalized Communities," that representation in media gives marginalized individuals the opportunity to see themselves in situations that would otherwise be unthinkable. But even more important than this representation and imagination, Yu argues, is programming, funding, opportunities, and mentors who can extend that imagination so that people feel encouraged and compelled to write their own stories.

"Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour have been told from their earliest days by the institutions and influences around them that their stories don’t matter, that their stories are not worth listening to, are not valid... are not X ethnicity enough. And so those stories are left not only unheard, they are left entirely untold."

The encouragement and support to share stories is vital for the creation of positive representation in the media. In many cases, there is also the necessity to combat negative, harmful representations with the truth. The beginning of one such event began in 2016 at the first ever Indigenous Comic Con. This environment celebrated culture and provided an opportunity for Indigenous artists and creators to define themselves to combat the forced stereotypes of mascots and the near absence of Indigenous representation in popular culture. Johnnie Jae is one of the creators highlighted in the documentary More Than a Word. The necessity of the Indigenous Comic Con, to her, is that "this is a good way to [show] that... we're more than these stereotypes."

monet ashia (AshiaMonet). "It's strange how people wait for white cis het creators to 'get better at' depicting nuanced marginalized characters instead of giving their attention to marginalized creators who are already good at those stories AND already making them." 12 May 2021, 4:14 PM. Tweet.

Yu, Justine Abigail. “Cultivating A Culture of Storytelling in Marginalized Communities.” Medium, Living Hyphen, 14 Jan. 2021, medium.com/living-hyphen/cultivating-a-culture-of-storytelling-in-marginalized-communities-42e5c809517b.

“More Than a Word - Native American-Based Sports Mascots.” Kanopy, www.kanopy.com/product/more-word.

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Silencing Black American Women

"Too often, black women’s voices aren’t heard. It becomes frustrating to the point where we feel like we have to speak louder and louder until we’re screaming to be heard. Even when we’re yelling, people don’t hear us. They throw the 'angry black woman' stereotype in our faces and tell us to quiet down."

This is a quote from Taryn Finley, editor of HuffPost Black Voices and author of the article "Black Women Are Reclaiming The 'Loud' Stereotype With A Powerful Hashtag." In it, she recounts an experience of Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner who was choked to death in an altercation with a police officer in 2014. Erica was on set at an ABC News Presidential Townhall on race, having been promised to be able to pose her own questions to President Barack Obama. Instead she was silenced, prohibited from asking Obama the "real and hard questions," and claims that ABC used "me, my pain, and my suffering for ratings."

Erica Garner was ignored and silenced, and so she raised her voice in frustration. She was ignored until her voice was loud enough to demand that other's hear, and by that time she was labeled as "loud," and "angry." Other women who experience the same routine of being silenced and that building into rage are labeled as "ghetto" and "ratchet" with an altogether negative connotation. This is not a singular occurrence, nor an unsystematic one. It is the result of a established controlling images applied to Black American women. In Patricia Collins' book Black Feminist Thought, controlling images are defined as objectifications that are "designed to make racism, sexism, poverty, and other forms of social injustice appear to be natural, normal, and inevitable parts of everyday life," (69).

When black women voice their opinions, concerns, issues, they are either immediately silenced and disregarded or they face retaliation because of the way in which they speak. From white men and women discounting their opinions by stereotyping them as hot-tempered "jezebels" who are driven by sexual aggression, to employers habitually referring to black female employees as "girl" to disregard their capability as adults (or ignoring them altogether), controlling images have much cruel variety.

When Twitter user anisahkyera voiced her concern about sexual harassments in her place of work, her manager quickly discredited her story and expressed indignation at her "attitude." The full post and transcript are as follows:

Transcript: [I communicated the issue: there was [another employee] who touched me inappropriately... they told me "oh, well I need to talk to Don (because that's the name of the operator here)." He just tried to fire me for calmly vocalizing how I felt... In the middle of me talking he said "are you done? How long have you worked at Chik Fila? You're bringing down the employees who have been here for twenty years, you've done nothing but walk in here with an attitude," and I said "I think the problem is because I am a black woman and I vocalized my issues."]

There are more issues to unpack when it comes to silencing Black American women and complaints about how they express themselves, especially when it comes to volume or African-American Vernacular English. But behind it all is the controlling images meant to categorize Black womanhood and excuse racist behavior. Challenging these images has been a core theme in Black feminist thought and it is necessary to erase them in order than black women can express themselves freely and without backlash.

nis (anisahkyera). "i worked at Chik fila and today I quit. here is a summary as to why." 13 May 2021, 8:10 AM. Tweet.

Finley, Taryn. “Black Women Are Reclaiming The 'Loud' Stereotype With A Powerful Hashtag.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 15 July 2016, www.huffpost.com/entry/black-women-are-reclaiming-the-loud-stereotype-with-a-powerful-hashtag_n_57891c10e4b0867123e11395.

GARNER, ERICAofficial (es_snipes). ""I was not upset about not speaking with #POTUS . i was upset because #ABC lied and used me, my pain, and suffering for ratings." 14 July 2016, 6:18 PM. Tweet.

“Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images.” Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, by Hill Patricia Collins, Routledge, 2015.

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LGBTQ+ Representation in Fantasy

Alexandra Overy is the author of the queer fantasy novel These Feathered Flames. In her article "Queernorm Fantasy Worlds: Writing as an Escape," she discusses her experience with the fantasy genre. It was an escape to a world where problems were solves with magical swords and spells, seemingly easier than facing real-world anxieties. She read more, and started writing for herself. As she got older it became more obvious that these escape worlds were still seeped in inherent bias and prejudices very much from our own world, and not to unpack and examine them, but to add grit and realism. These stories told Overy that even in fantasy worlds, marginalized people still wouldn't be accepted. Because of what she had read, she avoided writing overtly queer characters in her own stories.

"I felt that if I did write queer characters they would have to be facing homophobia, or perhaps stand up against homophobia in some painful and sacrificial way in order to earn their happy ending."

After reading Audry Coulthurt's Of Fire and Stars, a queer romance without homophobia, Overy came to the realization that there was no reason why she couldn't write a beautiful love story between two women without queerness being the issue. It opened doors for her to explore world-building in a new, unrestricted way.

Of Fire and Stars is among Danika Ellis' compiled list of books in the genre of "queernormative" that are set in worlds without prejudice towards queer people. This genre is high in demand for individuals in the LGBTQ+ community, because, as Ellis says in "Queernorm Worlds: 35 Fantasy Books With No Homophobia," one of the best parts about "queernorm" fantasy books in particular is the "possibility of being immersed in a world that doesn’t have heteronormativity or cissexism... a whole different world [without] the prejudices from ours!" The main characters of the books in her list include a variety of underrepresented identities including asexual, nonbinary, and transsexual, as well as gay and lesbian subplots in settings where none of this is considered to be "abnormal."

Ellis, Danika. “Queernorm Worlds: 35 Fantasy Books With No Homophobia.” BOOK RIOT, 13 May 2021, Queernorm Worlds: 35 Fantasy Books With No Homophobia (bookriot.com).

Lavoie, Alaina. “Queernorm Fantasy Worlds: Writing as an Escape.” We Need Diverse Books, 30 Mar. 2021, diversebooks.org/queernorm-fantasy-worlds-writing-as-an-escape/.

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My Invisible Knapsack

1. I can trust my parents

2. My health was taken care of when I was a child

3. I am physically healthy

4. The world was designed for the way I move physically

5. The world was designed for the way I process things mentally

6. My native language is the predominant language in my country

7. I feel comfortable using the public restroom that matches my gender identity

8. I have not been told that I need to alter my skin or hair to be respected

9. My race is represented in the music, entertainment, and news I consume

10. If I ever need to, I can move back into my parents' home

11. I have never needed to support my family members financially

12. I can reasonably assume that my ability to acquire a job will not be denied on the basis of my gender identity

13. I can reasonably assume that my ability to acquire a job will not be denied on the basis of my race

14. I can easily find role models and mentors who share aspects of my identity

15. I feel safe around members of law enforcement

16. I learn about members of my race in school

17. I can reasonably assume that I will not be denied a loan on the basis of my race

18. I do not doubt that I will be able to meet my basic needs on a daily basis

19. In higher socioeconomic status communities I am not perceived as a threat on the basis of my race

20. I have the option to turn a relationship into a legal marriage

No one is born with the perception that they are either different than or similar to the majority. It all comes down to experience, and how the world acts to accommodate certain groups of people. I was born into the social groups and having identities that the world around me is built to support. My children's books and movies had girls that looked like my and boys that looked like my brother. They represented the culture and society that I was born into and would continue to grow in. I didn't realize that the other students in my black-majority preschool read the same books that I did, and that they were not being offered the representation of themselves that I was.

These characters and stories followed me throughout elementary, middle, and high school. I have never struggled to find representation of people who look and live like me, and I likely never will. This is one of the many special provisions in my invisible knapsack. In her essay "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," Peggy McIntosh reflects on the fact that "whites are carefully taught not to recognize privilege," to see racism only "in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group." Factors of my identity open doors for me and protect me from systematic stigmatization. Like McIntosh, I was taught not to see these advantages as racist because they do not do direct, physical harm to others.

These advantages are not all negative. They give me a platform and a voice so that I can be an effective ally. They give me access to tools so that I can educate myself on systems of oppression and experiences of individuals in marginalized groups.

"What will we do with such knowledge? …It is an open question of whether we will chose to use unearned advantage, and whether we will use any of our arbitrarily awarded power to try to reconstruct power systems on a broader base."

McIntosh, Peggy. 1989. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Peace and Freedom July/August: 10-12.

LaConte, Stephen. “Here Are 67 Signs Of Privilege You Don't Usually Think About - How Many Apply To You?” BuzzFeed, 22 Apr. 2021, http://buzzfeed.com/stephenlaconte/how-privileged-are-you-quiz….

shakoliu. 28 January 2016. http://www.shakoliu.com/2014/12/13/tens-of-thousands-of-new-yorkers-took-the-street-to-demand-justice/.