Sojourner Truth's Ain T I A Woman

Feminists today are viewed as raging, man-hating bitches, but feminism in its true sense simply advocates women’s rights. While there are extremes on either side of the scale, most feminists fight

Sojourner Truth was a strong, courageous woman. She once met President Abraham Lincoln and told him the story of her life as a slave. Sojourner has been through many rough patches in her life but also has helped revolutionize the rights of women. She became a supporter of both women's rights and abolition, or the fight to end slavery. Also, at women's rights convention in 1851, she gave one of her most famous speeches, called "Ain't I a Woman."

Women are often confined to a set of ideals and expectations because of one simple fact: they are women. Many of the women who contributed to this book have faced gender stereotyping and discrimination. Instead of allowing traditional social norms to confine them to an unwanted lifestyle, they challenged these conventional ideals, risking failure and facing condemnation from strangers as well as people close to them. People often associate feminism with negativity and pessimism. In “Feminism is a Dirty Word,” Cindy Simon Rosenthal talks about how people refuse to define themselves as a “feminist.” However, the movement does not advocate for women’s special privileges. Feminism celebrates social equality and supports the utilization of all talents.

Roxane Gay, author of the article entitled “Bad Feminist”, is a very accomplished American feminist writer. Her publication of “Bad Feminist” in 2012 gained national public attention (1). Feminism, as defined in the dictionary, is “the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes” (2), but Gay explains throughout her article that being a feminist is not just as simple as agreeing with this need for gender equality. The feminist label is too narrow and because of this the feminist movement is breaking apart. In this piece, Gay addresses how our society currently defines feminism and explains why this definition does not encompass everybody that it should.

In Sojourner Truth “AIN”T I A WOMEN”, she gives a speech about women can’t have as much right’s as men and color rights. One event that shows this is the man says “women need help into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have best places everywhere”. But nobody helped her into a carriage, or over mud puddles or give her best place. This shows the theme because she is a different color she get treated different and she a women and they should be treated equally. Another place in the story that supports this theme is the man in the black says “women can’t have as much rights as men”. But that not true cause women can do just as much as a man can do the only difference is that

Many people may think that women and men were treated the same or that women got treated equally in society but in reality they didn’t. Two women of races are not treated equally and not paid equally to men. First, in the story “Ain’t I A Woman” it states “The man over there says women need to be helped into carriages nobody helps me into carriages.” This quote is basically stating that white women were treated and helped into carriages when black women weren't and that is exactly why in 1851 Sojourner Truth spoke up on getting the rights that black women deserve.

In May of 1851, the black abolitionist and former slave, Sojourner Truth delivered her extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, “Ain’t I a Woman?” at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio (“Sojourner Truth Biography”). This spontaneous speech of only a few minutes long was a landmark moment in American history. In her speech, Truth addressed her views on women’s rights and to advocate equal rights of men and women everywhere.

Strong, influential women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony—women who changed the face of American politics for women—are the embodiment of feminism at its finest. They, along with many other men and women, fought for equality between men and women. However, to many people feminism is representative of man-hating, excuse-making, manly women who play the victim to gain advantage over men. This negative image of feminism prevents both men and women from fulfilling their potential, but if people removed that barrier and accomplished feminism’s objective then men and women would be empowered to rise above gender stereotypes and accomplish more good in the world.

Mostly everyone has heard of feminisms, yet there is an array of opinions on whether or not to support it. Feminisms can be defined as, “A philosophy that sees the oppression of women as a denial of equal rights, representation, and access to opportunities” (Kirk & Margo Okazawa-Rey, 2013). Gloria Steinem is an esteemed writer, strategist, and cofounder of the feminist magazine Ms. Steinem gave a speech the day before she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work in women’s equality and empowerment. It is the highest civilian honor in the United States. In the article, “Our Revolution has Just Begun,” Gloria Steinem speaks bluntly about why feminisms still needs support through the frank nature of the article and effectiveness

The goal of feminism is to achieve equal rights among gender regardless of political, economic, or social status. And yet this can be a difficult goal in a patriarchal society where in most cases males dominate due to the fact that power and authority are in the hands of adult men. (Lee and Shaw 5) Douglass acknowledged that equal rights for women was one in which men and women were interdependent for its success

Initially, the word feminist weighed heavy on my tongue, foreign and full of skepticism because at sixteen I had a fallacious view of the girls who wore the title like a homecoming crown. My APUSH class proved me wrong. The girls at my table taught me that feminism was far more than unshaven armpits and misandry as society so often reduced it to; instead I learned it to be about empowerment, the uplift of women to rightful equality. That was a value my mother instilled in me from early childhood --- that I, a woman, am invariably equal to a man so the incredulity

Feminism is more than a word, more than an individual, and more than an identity. In the words of Tavi Gevinson, editor-in-chief of Rookie Mag, an online feminist magazine for teen girls, feminism is a discussion, a conversation, and a process. It’s not a set of rules and restrictions, and it’s certainly not an attack targeted on men, but it is a fight, and it’s a long one. Over time, various connotations surrounding the word “feminist” have developed to form an image of angry, misandrist, bra-burning women who shouldn’t be taken seriously as thinkers and agents of social change. A dismissal of feminism that I hear often seems to be that feminists are just looking for things to be angry about, seeking out reasons to complain so we feel

“Ain’t I a Woman,” written by Sojourner Truth, is a speech that is meant to unite women and all who stand for the same beliefs as the speaker. “Ain’t I a Woman,” written in a time of racial, ethnic, and gender inequality is made to convince others of the unjust actions made by others. Sojourner truth uses hypophora, repetition, and relatively low diction to reinforce the point she wants her audience to believe.

What does it mean to be a feminist. The meaning has taken many twists and turns throughout the various decades it's been through. Society has transposed,humiliated and belittled the true purpose of the word Feminism. Often, when we hear the word feminist, most people associate it with the stereotypical image of an angry protester running in her bra down the streets. Or perhaps the image of an ‘Ugly philosopher’ who is angry for not receiving male attention. Feminism still exists because women still do not have equal rights to men, in New Zealand or globally. I would like to re-establish the rightful definition of Feminism.

The social order of civilization advanced tremendously during the past few decades and the oppression of many minority groups ended. The restrictions placed on women, due to societal beliefs and values, in the past appears unconceivable to women nowadays. Nonetheless, the freedoms, many women take for granted, established by the tears, sweat, and blood of feminists who fought judicially and some physically to establish a better equality for all. Children read of these injustices and the marches organized to establish a deliverance for women to receive constitutional rights, such as, to vote, work, and reproduce when they choose. Of course, people continue to argue that feminism developed from a group of angry women who just wanted to stir up trouble. This form of immature, uneducated, and prejudice thinking turned out to be the antagonist of the feminist movement. Still, many people, including me, shied away from feminism to avoid the stigma associated to it. However, the reality remains unchanged for many victims of abuse and oppression while people stand idly by not willing to help another achieve the same rights someone once fought for them to have. Oppression comes in many forms and often, the victims are defenseless. In the event of the discriminated against others, I choose to believe, there would be no hesitation to my helping others achieve their personal constitutional rights. Feminist seek out the hopeless, helpless victims with the intention of legally helping