Born in Flames
April 09, 2018, by Meryem
Sante’s writing in “The Lost Sisterhood” and the film “Born in Flames” both mark the struggles that women have undergone and continue to go through in the city life and in the world in general. Both of these pieces show how women have very limited options and obstacles within employment. Sante starts his writings by talking about how if a man was poor he had a plethora of job options. However, if a woman was poor “who harbored similar ambitions only had one route open to her: prostitution” (Sante 177). He also points out that this was the only route for women to become independent. “Born in Flames” carries a similar theme of the main struggle that women faced for jobs. Throughout the movie, women were being consistently laid off for jobs because of the pressure from men. The ultimate example was the final solution from the President to make the housework women conduct paid, which further enforces the consistent expectation that women should work only at home instead of the having careers. Both of these writing pieces show a strong contrast between the career prospects between men and women.
What really struck me about “Born in Flames” was the fact that many of the issues and the themes within the movie are still relevant today. “Born in Flames” included many scenes of women being harrassed in the city. This included a woman walking by and being catcalled on the street and another scene of a woman being cornered by a man on the subway. These instances are still unfortunately are large part of the culture of New York City. I have personally experienced many situations similar to what was shown in the movie. Because a place like New York is an area that is so populated where you could pass by someone and never see them again, many men feel the freedom to say comments to women walking alone without any consequences. A man can just simply say whatever he wants to a woman and walk or drive away, without even seeing the woman’s reaction. Another interesting aspect that “Born in Flames” brought up were groups within all of the women. The main contrast was shown between Honey and Isabel. Isabel initially held the belief that the current state of their society met all women’s needs while Honey still held on the belief that there was a lot of work left to be done. In our times, this is especially prevalent in the concept of intersectional feminism, as for a long period of time only the issues that were relevant to white women were only discussed. Women of color have a whole other set of obstacles that were not brought to light for a long period of time in the history of feminism. The film itself exhibits this contrast between different races. Overall, “Born in Flames” represents many nuances that are still issues in modern day society.