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Tricia Hersey's Rest Is Resistance Patriarchy

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Sara Oerding Feminist Theory and Gender Justice PHIL- 4800 19 February 2023 Assignment 2 In Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance, she studies how rest affects her life and her daily forthcomings of being a black mother, a student, and a human. In the preface of the book she quotes Harriet Tubman, “My people are free,” (Hersey, 4) Just from this quote I believe this manifesto will be a supporting piece of evidence for the feminist movement and theory. Hersey uses the manifesto to explain her journey with rest and how she is using it to her advantage. She notes that she will not submit herself to a system that has taken labor from her ancestors and refuses to allow that same labor to be taken from herself. I believe Hersey’s work can be used …show more content…

A large part of feminist theory is intersectionality, with Hersey’s theory, we can use intersectionality to define our own version of rest and how it will benefit us. She also notes that women of color during modern American history suffered from white supremacy and capitalism, fitting the basis of feminist theory, the rejection of patriarchy, discrimination, and oppression. Hersey says that rest can be used to rebel against our society’s labor norms, in other words, we are not as much as we produce. (Hersey, 12) The four tenets, Hersey lists on page 13, can be used in favor of feminist theory now and theorists to come. Hersey wants us to use rest as a way to dismantle societal norms and to better ourselves. Hersey uses praxis because she wrote her manifesto from her own studies and testing of her own hypothesis. Without praxis, her entire manifesto would likely not exist. She gives examples from her childhood when her grandmother would use rest and now, as an adult, …show more content…

Although the pages were filled with words bursting with color, she still wrote them in a laid-back manner. While reading, it didn’t feel like I was reading a textbook or other feminist theorists who write formally with vocabulary words with more syllables than I can comprehend. She put her ideas into words nearly all can understand regardless of education level. She shared her own and other members of her family’s personal experiences in a way I can picture. In all honesty, this manifesto gave me a better outlook on feminist theory because of how her novel was structured and

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