Ruiz 1

Jamie Ruiz
English 113B
Professor Ditch
18 February 2015
The Catholic Feminist
How would you define culture? Oftentimes, when people think of culture, their initial
thought is "ethnicity"; however, culture is much more than that. In her article, Inter/Cultural
Communication, Anastacia Kurylo defines a culture as "any group of people that share a way of
life"(Kurylo 1). Culture has a lot more to do with one's identity than their ethnic background, it is
connected to a person's personality and thoughts. With this said, cultural identity can then be
defined as how cultural groups impact one's thoughts and behaviors. Reading Kurylo's definition
of culture has allowed me to become reflective of the cultural groups I consider myself to be a
part of and how that constructs the person that I am. Being a part of the feminist community
allows me to value education and the empowerment that comes along with it, while being a part
of the Catholic community allows me to value my faith. The feminist community empowers
women to think for themselves and formulate their own ideas in regards to a wide range of
topics, including reproductive freedom, while the catholic community does not approve of a
women's choice to receive an abortion. I am torn between two cultural worlds as I find myself
shifting my cultural identity to fit the social norm of the space I am occupying.
Growing up, I never really understood what feminism was. It was not until my freshman
year of college, in my Gender Women's Studies class, that I was exposed to the true definition of
feminism and feminist ideals. Sexuality and reproductive rights were dominant issues of second
wave feminism which began in the 1960s. Today, feminists continue to fight for reproductive

Ruiz 2
freedom, which emphasizes women's rights to control their own bodies; this includes the
decision to use birth control, the decision to receive an abortion, or the decision to experience
pregnancy. The idea of reproductive freedom is one example of how my cultural identity
operates differently in different cultural spaces, from when I'm conversing with other members
of the feminist community in contrast to when I am at church. While I consider myself to be
"pro-choice", it is not something I feel comfortable bringing up around the members of my
church or my Uncles and Aunts who I would consider old fashioned; this is because in the
Catholic Church, both receiving an abortion and premarital sex is considered a sin. Due to the
difference in opinion between these two communities, my space plays an important role on my
willingness to express my thoughts and opinions.
In her article, "My Hips, My Caderas", Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez explains how she "[shifts]
different halves of [her] soul daily to match whichever cultural backdrop [she] happen[s] to face .
. ."(2). I found this quote to be relatable to the idea of altering my opinions depending on the
people that I am around, or the setting that I am in. Space has a large impact on the content of my
conversations, I feel as though I am tiptoeing around my own personal beliefs. As far as settings,
I believe that school is the place where I feel most comfortable sharing my feminist beliefs.
Outside of school, if there were ever a point when I would say something in regards to feminism
or openly consider myself to be a feminist, people would either be confused about what I was
saying or disagree entirely. On the other hand, at school, there are more people who I can share a
conversation about feminism with. If I speak of feminist beliefs in my church, specifically the
idea of considering myself to be pro-choice, I feel as though I would be judged. I think that this
is problematic because although I do support reproductive freedom, I do not think that this makes
me any "less" catholic or that it detaches me from my faith. Some feminists may say that

Ruiz 3
religious institutions are restrictive towards women and this is something that I am not a fan of.
My critiques of feminism and catholic culture is an example of how I constantly find myself
moving between the two cultural spaces.

Feminism, as I stated before, was recently introduced to me this year during my Gender
Women's Studies class. I walked into the class not having an official option towards abortion, the
only side I heard was that it was "wrong", and this was based off of what I had grew up hearing
within the catholic community, but I found myself agreeing entirely with the idea of reproductive
freedom, the idea that women have a choice to use birth control, receive an abortion, or have a
child. An issue I have is that oftentimes people assume that because you are catholic, that you
must believe that abortion is a sin, that's why my identity as a catholic feminist can be seen as
confusing to some people. Margaret Anderson in Thinking about Women: Sociological
Perspectives on Sex and Gender, says that "the issues of abortion, birth control, and pregnancy
are at the heart of feminist politics and are core issues around which feminist analysis has been
built"(Anderson 215). This quote emphasizes not only how important reproductive freedom is to
the feminist community, but how that aspect of my feminist culture is the same reason I find I am
struggling to navigate between the feminist and the catholic community.
I have been a part of the catholic community since the age of five, when I was baptized.
To be baptized is when an individual is anointed with holy water as an initiation into the church.
After being baptized, I would actively attend church with my parents on Sunday mornings. As a
child, I thought the importance of church was to pray, but as I grew older I understood that every
Sunday the priest was reading parts from the bible and would discuss the moral behind each of
the readings. I remember hearing the word "abortion" being said and it usually followed a long

Ruiz 4
speech about how receiving an abortion is "immoral" and a "sin", and this is something that I
continue to hear as I attend church presently. Pope Francis of the catholic church in a apostolic
visit to Korea on August 16, 2014 says that "life once conceived must be protected with the
utmost care; abortion[s] . . . are abominable crimes". This statement conveys the idea that
abortions are unacceptable in the catholic community. For Pope Francis, who is representative of
the catholic community, to feel so strongly against abortion that he would consider it to be a
crime, makes me feel uneasy about expressing my position as a pro-choice feminist. I continue to
attend church every Sunday, and I would consider Catholicism to be the foundation of my
upbringing, but there are still aspects of it that challenge the feminist within me. As a child, I was
only exposed to a single opinion, but as I began my journey in my academic career, I've obtained
new opinions that I have chosen to assert, and this highlights how space effects my beliefs.
According to Ronald L. Jackson, Cerise L. Glenn, and Kesha Morant Williams in their
article "Self Identity and Culture", "people learn to adjust their notions of self-based on the new
social roles they take on as they grow older and interact with new people"(Ronald, Jackson,
Williams 126). My church and the members of it have allowed me to recognize my place in the
catholic community at a young age, while now, as a freshman in college, my academia has
allowed me to realize my place in the feminist community. During my examination of self, I
have realized that both feminist and Catholic cultures share an important role in constructing the
person that I am today. I struggle between two cultural worlds by shifting my cultural identity to
match the social norm of either the feminist or the catholic community. Although Catholicism
has been a part of my life much longer than feminism, they are both important to me. I realize
that I am an adult, and as a college student, I will come across a multitude of new information
and ideas that challenge the cultural groups I consider myself to be a part of right now. Yes, I am

Ruiz 5
a feminist, but this does not shift me from my catholic faith and yes, I am a catholic, but I do not
believe that abortion is wrong or immoral. I hope that's here will come a point in my life when I
am comfortable with openly considering myself to be a pro-choice feminist, who is also a
devoted catholic.

Ruiz 6
Works Cited
Anderson, Margaret L. Thinking about Women: Sociological Perspectives
on Sex and Gender. New York: Macmillan, 1988. Print.
Jackson, Ronald L., Cerise L. Glenn, and Kesha Morant Williams. "Self
Identity and Culture." N.p.: n.p., n.d. 117-39. Print.
Kurylo, Anastacia. Inter/cultural Communication: Representation and
Construction of Culture. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2013. Print.
Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa. "My Hips, My Caderas." N.p.: n.p., n.d. 73-75. Print
"What Pope Francis Said to Make Millions Think Again about Abortion Living Faith - Home & Family- News - Catholic Online." What Pope
Francis Said To make Millions Think Again about Abortion - Livimg Faith Home & Family - News - Catholic Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.