Anna Fora, Period 2, 11/22/22

Anna Fora

Modern Mythology 2023

11/22/22

Socio-Political Consciousness

What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

As a child, I never understood my mother's judgmental remarks about others concerning their looks or background. I always got embarrassed when my mother would whisper jokes in my ear about a guy's unruly hair or lesbian lovers on the subway. Sometimes, my extreme reactions would send my mother and me into a fight over my tone of voice. However, this doesn't mean that I claim myself as a saint. I still catch my trains of thought falling into stereotypes, sometimes negative ones. But growing up in a society that normalized prejudice, discrimination, and oppression against minorities, I never understood why it was so customary to be mean to others simply because they're different. I never understood why people found it normal to exercise their power over others harmfully.

Maybe I'm biased because I've been experiencing such unfair uses of power, specifically over me, since I was born. Growing up as a girl meant I was regularly told to keep quiet and look pretty in public or around others. It meant that I was at the disposal of harmful comments about my appearance and weight from men around me because "they knew better than me" and were "saving me from humiliation in the future." Even after acknowledging my non-binary identity, I knew it would allow everyone to judge and question my identity because it was different from their perception of normal. So maybe I've rarely come in contact with figures in power who genuinely cared and considered every last person in their decisions, not just people like their own.

Let's take the character Oedipus as an example. Even though he's a very self-centered and stubborn King of Thebes, he's shown to still care for the safety and well-being of his country. That's an essential quality some modern leaders lack when they chase positions of power for fame and reputation. Maybe he proves this genuineness wrong later in the play, but I can go off of what our mythology class has read so far.

On a micro-level, I try to make everyone who feels the pricks of inequity feel heard and equal. For example, in conversations, I try to remind others to listen to the voices of those talked over or interrupted. I make sure anyone who feels they don't have the right to vent their problems knows they can. I know how harmful a word or comment can be to excluding someone and making them feel like an outsider, so I take small steps in my everyday life to influence society's perceptions of others positively. And hopefully, my little efforts and everyone's hard work in trying will change the future into one more accepting, equal, and those in power who can handle the moral responsibility that comes with it.