White Sisterhood
“Call for educating girls the Third World: futurity, girls and the ‘Third World Woman’” written by Katie Macdonald examines the tendency of Western nations paint the existence of the ‘third world woman’ as almost a threat to warn young girls living in developing countries on the importance of education. Macdonald describes this illustration as depicting third world women as “universally oppressed, homogeneous and a static representation” (Macdonald). Additionally, Macdonald recognizes the women of the West’s desire to create some form of “global sisterhood” where the need for Western women to help women of the third world is intrinsically binded through our inferred inferiority in comparison to men. Again in an almost Orientalist fashion, Macdonald details the preconceived notions of development in third world nations as “backwards or behind, and often as static or unchanging” and essentially in desperate need for the “white saviour,” or in this case, the “white sister” (Macdonald).
The photo I have attached does not depict the struggles to an education in third world countries. The attachment itself is a mere photo of the high school I attended, Steveston-London Secondary, located in Richmond. What I attempt to illustrate is not the need for girls from the third world to gain an education, rather, the lack of understanding in terms of urgency for girls to receive an education. Throughout my five years at the institution, I realized a shift in value of education mainly based on the just how readily accessible the prospect of it was. Assignments on the structure of literature or the biological make-up of humans were considered subordinate to social interaction, social media, etc. In the absence of urgency, education was the subservient choice to more trivial factors. Therefore, the illustration of the “white sister” who understands the struggle and is willing to supply a helping hand, is entirely erroneous. The sheer collection of pixels above does not fully represent the drastic difference on the value of education from a perspective where it is readily available in comparison to another perspective where it is an entirely foreign concept. Furthermore, alluding to the Orientalist assumption of the third world country being behind or stagnant, Macdonald details the synonymous relationship between “less-developed” and “historically retarded” (Macdonald). The modernization of the Western world in turn presents the Westerner as the expert, the all-knowing figure that possessed the ability to alleviate poverty and suffering through the teaching of basic math and English. Macdonald describes eloquently when she states “a re-working of colonial representations, relations of oppression and exploitations are thus obscured, or reconfigured as “obstacles” which can be overcome through hard work and a helping hand from the Northern donor/consumer.” In this sense, deeply imbedded issues within the politics of third-world countries are de-politicized by the all-knowing Westerner and reduced to a mere lack of basic education.
In further regards to Macdonald’s article, I found it interesting how campaigns such as ‘Because I am a Girl’ felt so deeply inclined to place emphasis on the ‘girlness’ of their work. As Macdonald has stated, by doing so places the rights of girls as a mere extension of rights on their own. Rather than viewing women’s rights and human rights, the explicit ‘girlness’ of this campaign paints women’s rights as a separate branch from that of humans, painting an intrinsic picture that girls are in fact, not human. I found it deeply disturbing how a Western, seemingly feminist campaign, has roots stemming from beliefs that are deeply patriarchal and internally sexist.