Arambula 1

Erica Arambula
Professor Ditch
English 113B
17 February 2015
Uprising Non- Conformist
The variations between both my feminist culture and Latina culture have a tremendous
amount of influence in the way I perceive myself as an independent individual. While I operate
in different spaces, either at work, home, school, or hanging out with friends, I feel a sense of
judgment because my cultural background and feminist culture seek out expectations for me to
perform differently. In the Latina culture, the traditional domestic roles that have been performed
by most women have an expectancy to stay at home rather than being out independently, while
the feminist culture has more of a dominant uprising non- conformist approach. As a Latina, I
have become more consciously aware of who I am when encountering both cultures, but
nonetheless, I do not want to just hope for one day to combine both cultures but genuinely
perform both in every day-to-day encounters throughout my life.
Culture can be defined with infinite amount of variables. Race, ethnicity or gender all of
which may be an acute description of ones culture therefore, giving one self- identity. There are
far more norms that one may describe within their own culture, a feminist norm is a chunk of my
culture. In this norm of mine, I refuse to follow the traditional roles that have been practiced by
women for a significant amount of years within the Latina culture. I want to expose my feminist
culture more masculine while still performing in my Latina culture.

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I watched my mother play this traditional role of being a stay at home wife, then realizing that
this was not what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She wanted to become independent
and show her daughters that one does not need to rely on someone for both financial and
emotional support (my father). While she broke this role she influenced me in the way who I
wanted to become. She influenced me to brake the traditional barriers and rise with both my
feminine and Latina culture. Although some may have found it oppressing or rather how my
grandma furiously said, Eres una desgrasia a esta raza; you are a disgrace to this race.
Furthermore, my grandmas point of view is that Latina women should follow the traditional
roles, and if one does not, then therefore one could and should not self-identify themselves as
traditional within the Latina culture.
Both in the Latina and feminine culture, I have played out a different role in each. In my
Latina culture I perceive more of a constriction of not being able to perform in masculine
activities such as playing football, going to car meets, or playing video games. In my feminist
culture I tend to perform as a go getter. I do not allow the Latina culture to limit me from doing
what I want to do. Thus far, buying my oldie but goodie dream car which is a mustang that has
deliberated me to go above and rise far from the fragile line between my feminist and Latina
aspects. Having to perform different in certain environmental spaces, Valdes-Rodriquez explains
in My Hips, My Caderas that I dream of the day when bicultural Latinas will set the standards
for beauty and success, when our voluptuous caderas will not bar us from getting through those
narrow American doors (Valdes Rodriquez 3). Valdes has to perform different while operating
in her American culture and Latina culture, thus exposing the transitions she makes upon
encountering both cultures, for one day dreaming that Latinas should not feel the need to present
themselves being inconsistent in the environmental changes. I want to be able to combine both

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my feminist and Latina culture, hoping that other rising non-conformists take a step forward and
carry both cultures tall and proud and not be afraid of the sexist stereotypes.
Furthermore, communication, connection and understanding between environmental spaces
cultivate self-identity in a way that I have developed a way to connect and present myself with
both cultures with non-verbal communication. In the readings of Self Identity and
communication, the authors state, How you view yourself is heavily influenced by how you
view others and how they view you (Jackson, Glenn, and Williams 120). For instance, in high
school, no one other than males played a huge instrument called a sousaphone. As I observed my
peers at an environmental space; my school, I noticed that not one female wanted to play such
instrument because many of them thought it was only for men. If a man can do it why cant a
female? Grabbing the sousaphone and marching down the football field, turned heads with point
blank faces because they could not believe who was proudly holding the sousaphone. Many
traditional Latinas would not have approved of this act of astonishment, but I started a new
culture throughout my schools band, but most importantly among other females from any race,
that they too can perform exotic actions breaking the stereotypes and communicating these acts
with non-verbal communication.
There is more to just being a certain race as Floya Anthias explains in Beyond Feminism and
Multiculturalism , It is important to see why ethnicity matters but without treating it as an
adequate means for pursuing various social and political ends. Moreover, uncovering the hidden
ethnicity of the dominant groups is as important (Anthias 1). Exposing ethnicity and race is one
thing, but going beyond the sexist stereotypes society has brought upon women of not being able
to perform in a masculine way, has yet to be discovered. If one digs deeper into their race or
ethnicity there is a likelihood that there can be things done by women to perform feminine and

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masculine in their ethnicity culture without having to worry about judgment among others from
the same or different race. To my understanding, being any ethnicity one can pursue different
ways to perform their beliefs rather than having a dominant group (males) be the ones who can
perform how they want.
As Marisa Meltzer from New York Times, pointed out how Andy Zeisler, a founder of the
feminist pop culture magazine Bitch, Zeisler explains how the singer Beyonce, publicly
grappled with feminism and found her own path to it thats the right way to do it, rather than
denigrating it, which is what happens with these sound bites.(Meltzer, Zeisler 1). Finding a way
in which one can pursuit a culture through ones owns beliefs rather than being told or following
others is the right way to do it. I found a way in which I can now perceive myself with others
while non- verbal communication has been an effective method that I use, identifying myself and
to others the way I grasp my feminist and Latina culture.
In conclusion, culture and self-identity both play out roles to which one has a cultural identity
and in other cases having multicultural identities. Having multiple cultures identifies one as of
who they are and how they convey throughout every day encounters. Every day I try to compress
both my feminist and Latina culture together, meaning I bring both cultures together rather than
having to conduct them differently throughout environmental changes. I am and will no longer
be afraid of exposing both cultures at the same time; performing as a whole. These cultural
aspects seek out the importance of identifying myself as a non-conformist and revolutionizing
my raza and feminism.
Works Cited

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Anthias, Floya. "Beyond Feminism and Multiculturalism." Women's Studies International

Forum, 25.3 (2002): 275-286
Glenn Cerise L. Williams Kesha Morant, and Jackson Ronald L. Self- Identity and Culture 18
February 2015. Print.
Meltzer, Marisa, Who is a Feminist Now? New York Times. New York Times, 21 May 2014.
Web. 18 February 2015.
Valdes- Rodriguez Alisa. My Hips, My Caderas. 18 February 2015. Print.