The Gendered Dimensions of Globalization
Globalization: Making Connections to Strangers
Mistreated women in China who are sought out laborers of transnational corporations; the impoverished citizens of Kensington, Pennsylvania; Mexican women who are systematically raped at the United States-Mexican border; and the first democratically elected president of Haiti: these are all people who seem to have little or no connection because of their different races, physical location, and cultural backgrounds. However, all of these people are connected much closer than anyone would initially think due to the results of systems much greater than they can individually control. All these people are at the cusps of tremendous detrimental failures from a system called globalization. Ever since the 1970’s globalization quickly seeped into almost all the lives of the global population. This has happened because of systematic occurrences which lead to the interconnected powers of global corporations, organizations that allow uncontrolled free trade, international lending institutions, and neoliberal ideology. These building blocks of globalization have caused enormous social, economic, and political shifts around the world, connecting all these people quite closely. In each of my selected readings, Pun Ngai’s Made and China; Michael P. Kelly’s “Globalization: It’s Affects on Kensington Philadelphia, PA”; Sylvanna Falcon’s “‘National Security’ and the Violation of Women: Militarized Border Rape at the US-Mexico Border”; and Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s “Globalization: A View from Below”; each have their own specific situations yet are brought together by some reoccurring themes such as, a complete loss in individual and national self-sustainability, the creation of a faceless monoculture, and a loss of social and economic stability. In this essay I will examine how the course readings all connect together with these reoccurring themes and what that means in terms of globalization. Despite the intentions of organizations
Mistreated women in China who are sought out laborers of transnational corporations; the impoverished citizens of Kensington, Pennsylvania; Mexican women who are systematically raped at the United States-Mexican border; and the first democratically elected president of Haiti: these are all people who seem to have little or no connection because of their different races, physical location, and cultural backgrounds. However, all of these people are connected much closer than anyone would initially think due to the results of systems much greater than they can individually control. All these people are at the cusps of tremendous detrimental failures from a system called globalization. Ever since the 1970’s globalization quickly seeped into almost all the lives of the global population. This has happened because of systematic occurrences which lead to the interconnected powers of global corporations, organizations that allow uncontrolled free trade, international lending institutions, and neoliberal ideology. These building blocks of globalization have caused enormous social, economic, and political shifts around the world, connecting all these people quite closely. In each of my selected readings, Pun Ngai’s Made and China; Michael P. Kelly’s “Globalization: It’s Affects on Kensington Philadelphia, PA”; Sylvanna Falcon’s “‘National Security’ and the Violation of Women: Militarized Border Rape at the US-Mexico Border”; and Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s “Globalization: A View from Below”; each have their own specific situations yet are brought together by some reoccurring themes such as, a complete loss in individual and national self-sustainability, the creation of a faceless monoculture, and a loss of social and economic stability. In this essay I will examine how the course readings all connect together with these reoccurring themes and what that means in terms of globalization. Despite the intentions of organizations