Resilience Cafe

Here is a copy of my essay about Frida Kahlo and Sampat Devi for Resilience Cafe:

The Ladies Of Legacy

When most hear the word “women” what do they think of? Mother? Weak? Cook? Cleaner? Washer? Objects? Less important? In many cases our world post 1920 (when the 19th amendment went into play and women could vote) women have endless rights and are generally more respected than in those days, though in many countries, they are still seen as lesser beings. Even now in our country and others of the like we are bombarded with images of “perfection” and “beauty”, haunted with the notion brought upon us that we must look like that. There are even jobs, actions, and behaviors that are automatically dubbed as for or characterized as “male.” However, two women from to utterly different backgrounds bring hope to many, having done things that many in their time or country would not do. Bringing the power and depth of women to a new light, Frida Kahlo with her art and Sampat Devi with activism, luminate with strength through dark in what many would call a “man’s world.”

Known for her surreal and ridden with meaning art and self portraits, Frida Kahlo will always be a famous artist and symbol of feminism. Born in a small town on the outskirts of Mexico City on July 1907, she contracted polio at the age of six and also suffered from spinal bifida affecting the development of her legs and spine (one leg is shorter than the other). In September, 1925, she got in a terrible bus accident were she received many injuries such as a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. An iron hand rail on the bus also pierced her abdomen and uterus, which stunted her ability to have children. She recovered from her injuries and regained her ability to walk, though had many recurrences of pain throughout her whole life. She was frequently in the hospital for sometimes months at a time and had thirty-five surgeries as result of the bus crash. Originally, Frida wanted to pursue a career in medicine and was enrolled in school to do so, however, after the crash her parents bought her art supplies and a special canvas so she could paint in bed and she began doing art. She has created about 143 paintings, 55 of which are portraits reflecting what has happened to her in her life and how she saw herself and the world around her, she quotes, “ I paint my own reality, because I am the subject I know best.” Frida and husband Diego (Rivera, the acclaimed painter) were also active communists and befriended Marxist theorist Leon Trotsky. Frida is one who is very resilient on many levels. For one, she was able to bounce back incredibly from her injuries and even though she was ridden with constant pain throughout her whole life, she managed to create and inspire. She was also somewhat of an activist, standing up for the Native Indians of Mexico (from the way she dressed) and for communism as well. Also, very few of the women during her time were doing what she was doing and making a name for them in the art world, which paved the way for many female artists today.
In a village in Northern India’s Nuttar Pardesh you may see an unexpected flash of pink in the streets, though, it’d not a trick on your eyes, it’s the Gulabi gang led by the feisty Sampat Devi. Sampat Devi, a woman who lives in a very poor area in India (being a member of lowest caste in the Indian caste system, the Dalit). The gang is one that fights for justice in and women in India as well as people in the Dalit caste. “"Nobody comes to our help in these parts. The officials and the police are corrupt and anti-poor. So sometimes we have to take the law in our hands. At other times, we prefer to shame the wrongdoers," says Devi. About the treatment of the Dalit in her country. The Gulabi gang, confront the police, protest, and do many other things that help others and fight injustice (sometimes literally, the woman in the gang are all trained to fight with lathis; an Indian fighting stick). She began the gang in 1990 though the 10,000 women gang just officially decided on their name, Gulabi, meaning pink which refers to their uniform pink saris. Sampat came from a very hard background she was married off at the age of nine even though she went to school (which was very customary for girls in her area) and was pregnant by the age of thirteen. She supported her family by working as a government health worker, though quit for it didn’t satisfy her enough. Sampat is extremely resislient for she is doing something that barely any women in India and in her caste are doing. It is very brave of them to be activists for the Dalit barely have any respect. She is also like Frida Kahlo for they are both activists and huge feminists, not letting anyone get in their way.
I connect very much to both these women in many ways. Even though I am not from heir same times or backgrounds. For one, I relate to Frida because of the fact that she channels all of her feelings and what she believes in into her art, which I try to do with my writing and my photography. I also see myself as somewhat of an activist like Sampat and Frida a like, I have been a vegetarian since I was nine and have always been speaking on the behalf of animals I also try to do that for the environment and other groups and people that are struggling as best as I can. I also share one very common trait with both women-I stand strong and don’t let the boulder of the status quo crush my spirit, I do what I enjoy no matter what others say. This trait will stay in my legacy, for through my whole life I will never back down from my believes and stop being me.
I will try to keep on expressing myself through art and work toward becoming more of an activist. The legacy Frida Kahlo and Sampat Devi left behind is extremely important for many young women (and men) to follow, though especially for women. Women have had many hardships and disrespect throughout history and in some places still do and the media and modern society to look and act a certain way to be accepted also constantly pressure us. Many girls and women out there will only run the track that the world has set out for them, however, I want to make a change. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if (not only women) but everyone was able to run off the track and make their own paths and live in a world everyone was just themselves? That world would be a free and probably more peaceful place to live in and that is the world that a myriad of resilient people have set out for us, we only have to make it happen.

And here is my spoken word I read on the night of Resilience Cafe:
My fate is sealed because I have a vagina.
Sealed, in the folds of plastic surgery skin.
Sealed, in the fact that you think you can put me on a shelf and polish me like one of your prized cars.
Sealed, in the inky leeches of the media, sucking at every last inch of my soul, trying to drain me of all individuality.
Sealed, the harmonic chorus of each individual cry from a beaten wife.
Sealed, in the collegen lips of a tattered face, smiling on the outside and struggling in a deep abyss of a soul on the inside.
Sealed, in the smudged make-up of five year old beauty queens, tiaras glinting in the light brighter than the watering eyes under them.
Sealed, in the perfect image we are sucked into, the blackhole the general public tries to spiral our lives in, one muredered dream at a time.
We are not your toys.
Not another jewel you can string on a necklace, oen after the other.
Not a flower field you can tend with oyur gifts only to be stomped on a few days later.
We live in this, this surreal toy store world, some of us just waiting to be moved by the gurbby hands of another human being.
We live in a world where words on appearence slash our bodies liek razor blades with poison on th tip, leaving a tattoo of self hatred.
Fat.
Ugly.
Anorexic.
Flat chested.
zit faced.
Big nosed.
Weapons, materfully crafted byt he people who said them.
We live in a world where girls get a pair of fake boobs fro their birthday instead of a car.
We live in a world where little girls know how to count calories before they can add and subtract.
We live in a wrold where our outsides are judged and thrashed instead of our insides.
When will we stand up?
When will we walk proud and say who we are?
When will we bathe in the shadows of the strong females of our past and present?
Parade in pink, with Sampat Devi and her gang of freedom fighters.
Or make eye-tricking paitings as Frida did so many years back.
Why must we be huddled into the corners of the rooms of life?
Let's step out.
Stan up,
So maybe, just maybe our fate won't be sealed.
Won't be sealed because of our gender.
Won't be sealed because we have vaginas.

Copyright 2008, Alexandra Chenelle