Thats Better

Overcoming stereotypes and being proud of your own personal identity is a theme that runs through both essays by Wilson and Anzaldua. Wilson talks about how people identify us by the way we look, "...people get so twisted over female presentation and what exactly is feminine that my bald head is a cause for pause." (22). I think that her main point was that there will always come a time when your identity is questioned or harassed but you should not take it seriously, it is a part of who you are and who you want to be. It should not be at the scorn of others, that you feel the need to redefine yourself. As for Anzaldua, her essay was all about how people perceive you by the language you speak. Although she herself speaks a couple different language and many variations of the same, she only feels her true identity when she can freely speak her native tongue. she emphasizes the fact that one should not be ashamed of their language. 
I agree with both authors arguments on identity as they are equally strong. It is easier for me to relate to Wilson about meeting America's standard then Anzaldua's challenging dialects, only because I, myself, only speak one language.


Overcoming stereotypes and being proud of your own personal identity is a theme that runs through both essays by Wilson and Anzaldua. Wilson’s concerns are mainly about the people identify us by the our outward appearance, "...people get so twisted over female presentation and what exactly is feminine that my bald head is a cause for pause." (22). She talks about an experience she had with a white man, which she coined with the name Redneck man, and how he jumped to conclusions from the boyish haircut she adored. I think that her main point was that there will always come a time when your identity is questioned or harassed though you should not take it seriously, it is a part of who you are and who you want to be. It should not be at the scorn of others, that you feel the need to redefine yourself. In short she argues that it is unfair to be humiliated by something as personal as your identity. As for Anzaldua, her essay was all about how people perceive you by the language you speak. She speaks many variations of English and Spanish, she feels ashamed rather the intelligent. I know that trying to learn Spanish over the last two years has been at times agonizing for me, it still gives me pride that I can string together some intelligible sentences. She speaks about the shame she feels when talking with Latinos, Mexicans, and “Americans” not wanting to humiliate herself by using the tex-mex language that is most comfortable. She argues that being ashamed of her language has in turn made she self-conscious of her identity. In her words “Ethnic identity is my twin skin to linguistic identity-I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself.” (58)

I agree with both authors’ arguments on identity, as they are equally strong. It is humiliating and hurtful when someone makes fun of your identity. Throughout elementary school I was always made fun of for my last name, which is Foote. I am proud of it now but then it made me more introvert and unwilling to stand up for myself/ It is easier for me to relate to Wilson about meeting America's standard then Anzaldua's challenging dialects, only because I, myself, only speak one language. Both of the authors experiences are those I can relate to though. I see students making fun of other students over their accents, improper English, race, clothing, sex, anything you name it, everyday throughout the campus. I do think that both of the authors would agree with each other because thought their experiences are not identical, the both have the same foundations. I would have to say that Anzaulda did not in turn judge those that judged her as Wilson did with redneck man, as that seems to me to be a bit hypocritical.