Dorothy Allison's autobiographical account, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, examines how a lower-class upbringing affected women's identities of his family. Beauty inadvertently becomes one of the most valued things among her family members, a perceived lack that shapes Allison as a person. Through the lens of intersectional feminism, a story of male entitlement, how Allison fights it, and female solidarity is woven into her lyrical prose. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay The women in Allison's family were taught that beauty didn't exist for them, "[they] are the ones on all these photos taken in the mines. disasters, floods, fires. [They] are the ones in the background with [their] mouths open, in printed dresses or drawstring pants and collarless blouses, ugly, old and worn out. Strong, sturdy, wide-hipped baby machines” (33). The men in her family constantly degrade women, adhering to an outdated mentality that women are inferior and their only purpose in the world is to be mothers. From birth, men are accustomed to believing that the world owes them something and that they deserve everything. Patriarchal society teaches women to minimize themselves – “Don't eat too much, don't talk too loudly, don't take up too much space, don't take up people” (Chernik 602) – while elevating men and allowing them to occupy as much space as they could wish. Men believe they own the world and the women who live in it; they benefit from a complex system that allows them “…to have the power to decide whether or not to engage in a more equitable distribution of power” (McIntosh 7), without any consequences in either case. Allison's story of being raped at the hands of her stepfather is one that helps explain how this system and the rape culture it constructed allows and even encourages men to act in heinous ways without repercussions. social. This is something that does not change by race or social class. Allison's lower-class status early in life deepens the impact of this dangerous sense of male entitlement. Lack of monetary wealth in childhood prevented Allison from believing she had any economic mobility; a perceived lack of beauty – something that had monetary value to the men in her family – kept her from feeling worthy of love. Allison talks about high school and how "the pretty girls at [her] high school... wore blank pins on the right side or knew enough not to wear such cheesy things at all." [She and her cousins] were never virgins, even when [they] were” (36). As poor, “ugly” girls in high school, Allison and her cousins ​​were disposable compared to the boys; they were the “easy” girls, Allison suggests. Combined with their lower class status, the question is asked: “Damn, who could love a girl like her?” » » (36). Identity in any family is linked to multiple factors: ancestry, cultural history, geography, socio-economic status, contemporary culture, society and politics, etc. In Allison's family, this situation is clouded by a reluctance to talk about long-deceased family members. However, she believes that her own personal identity comes from her anonymous, faceless female relatives. His fascination with “ongoing tragedies, great romances, secrets, mysteries, and desires that no one would ever know” (17) – primarily regardingthe women in her family – speaks to the weight Allison places on history in her identity. The value she places on women she never knew is a product of the natural support system women often build around each other: not a system of privilege, but a system of love and care. strength only found among related women who understand what they have suffered. in the hands of men and patriarchy in general. But this understanding of the need for women to support women is not easy to understand. The simplest way to understand this journey is to examine, once again, the role of beauty in Allison's life. The conflict between the society that commodifies beauty and Allison's family that delegitimizes its value was a source of tension between Allison and her sister Anne: "We didn't like each other very much," Anne said. “We didn’t know each other. » 'Yeah? Well, mom always thought you peed rose water.' "But you were beautiful. Hell, you didn't even have to pee, you were so pretty. People probably offered to pee for you (77) Allison's latent jealousy is the product of. a lack of bodily autonomy: her body is not hers, she and her body are not “beautiful” – according to the men in her life – which leads to a desire for a normative ideal of beauty. This is not to discredit simple sibling jealousy, but there are clearly patriarchal overtones. Societal standards of beauty are shaped by men and their ideas of what makes a woman "beautiful." nation of starving, self-obsessed women and the continued success of patriarchy” (Chernik 601) In her article “The Body Politic,” Abra Fortune Chernik explains that self-obsession and vanity are, in large part, due to the patriarchy that forces women into physical submission by reducing their bodies and personalities to fragments of nothingness in the eternal effort to be beautiful in the world. in the eyes of society. This toxic mindset is what leads women, even like Dorothy Allison, to believe that beauty is one of the only valuable things in the world and that they must compete with other women. However, twisted ideas about beauty are not the only product of men's entitlement. As a child, Allison was raped by her stepfather, and the psychological and social impacts of this carried over into her adult life. Rape is essentially a physical manifestation of men believing they own women and their bodies, and it is surrounded by a violent and taboo culture. Rape is a quest for power for weak men. Allison's lower class implications and relationship to rape culture must be considered. Lack of economic stability is often equated with powerlessness, particularly among women. Poverty allows an element of oppression to manifest itself. Although oppression is most often associated with race and gender, it is actually an intersection of race, gender, and class. “The experience of oppressed people is that a person's life is limited and shaped by forces and barriers that are neither accidental nor occasional and therefore avoidable” (Frye). Allison was born as a poor, white woman: a southerner who had no shame or doubt about her origins. But all these factors contribute to his impotence. Her poverty and femininity minimize her value in the eyes of society. Her race grants her certain privileges in white supremacist America, but, combined with her class and gender, her position in society is, ultimately, almost worthless. His perceived lack of value in society leads to a.