ISP Blog Post #4

Feminism
In the novel, The Book of Negros, woman are not seen how they are today in our society. A major observation that I made is that when Aminita was looking out the window of a castle and saw newly captured slaves in a yard, separated by gender. The men were all tied together, but the woman were not tied up at all. To me this speaks volumes. The people who kid napped them thought that they were unable or not smart enough to escape because they were women.
Through out the rest of the book men seem control most everything. The men worked and he women were house wives and did what pleased their husbands. The females did not make any choices regarding anything. A few of the white women did do somethings but it seemed that they mostly relied on their husbands.
Women were also used a lot through the book, for sex. Some were raped, like Amintia was, and others assaulted. When Aminitia is in New York she learns of a 13 year old was impregnated by a 21 year old. The young girl thinks that she should abort the baby because thats what he wants her to do and she thinks he loves her. One day she wakes up and he gone. In the end she has her baby and realizes that men aren't all they crack up to be.
Overall I found that the women in this book were treated very poorly. They were used, and did not seem to be of much value unless being used for sex, even then they were sometimes just seen as pieces of meat (being raped or assaulted). I found this rather disappointing to read about, I believe in everybody being an equal. I found that the African women were treated even more poorly then the white women, which ties in the racism.