Analysis Of Orange Is The New Black

1008 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Thesis statement for transgender inmates and health care

Orange Is the New Black; three years ago that statement would have been met with laughing. How could someone possibly think that a colour like orange could even remotely come close to the classic, chic, colour that is black? But now if one were to say that phrase, most people go crazy. Orange Is the New Black is a television show sweeping the world. It has everything we love and are fascinated by: sex, drugs, rule breakers, and personal narratives that keep you on edge. The most interesting part of the show however, is Lavern Cox’s character, Sophia Burset. Sophia is a trans woman, who found herself in prison for fraud charges- using the money to pay for her hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery. Cox’s character brings forth an issue …show more content…

It is no surprise that trans people face many obstacles in their lives; therapy, hormones, possible surgeries and then dealing with the overall public and the discrimination that is soon to follow. Transgendered people know from a young age that they are not comfortable in their body, sometimes there is even a double life that is lead to help deal with the constant feeling that something is wrong (Alegria & Reisch, 2013, pg. 59). So imagine for a moment that you spend your entire life trying to come out to those around you, and then when you do, you are forced to relive it all, and ultimately go back to given sex. That is what many transgendered inmates are experiencing. The first element of their safety comes from mental health and the risks involved with sever depression, and risk of suicide. Prison is already a community in which you are being deprived of all your self worth and control, so that added to having no say about your medical treatment is extremely unsafe. Next the amount of harassment from inmates and guards can lead to serious injury, and potentially …show more content…

So what can we, as a society, do about these issues? First and foremost there needs to be a change in who screens inmates, this needs to be done by a health care professional, not guards. Second a change in the segregation we see in prisons needs to be changed. While it is vital to have a safe space for those in the LGBTQ community who will be targeted more, having these inmates wear different colour is discriminatory, and oppressive. Finally there needs to be a new law passed that trans inmates receive their hormones and any other medications necessary. These three minor changes could help prolong the life and wellbeing of so many trans inmates. While society is solely making waves with acceptance, there is still a lot of work to be done. The treatment of trans inmates is degrading, inhumane, and oppressive, and the prison system needs to alter the way they screen and treat trans inmates before anymore are raped, beaten or

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Orange Is The New Black

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    How does being sentenced to prison affect someone later in his or her life? Many people pose the question, but they have yet to form an immutable response. Oscar Wilde once said, “one of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be”, this quotation engenders the philosophy of prison, which consists of one being held responsible for his or her wrongdoings. The book Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman explores how a once drug money launderer goes to jail for a crime which she committed almost a decade earlier. At the time she committed the crime, she considered herself lost and naive in regards to her life. Throughout the book, the audience witnesses Kerman’s struggles and how she ultimately overcomes them in order to better herself for the future. After examining the book, one can see that Kerman uses many rhetorical elements in her writing such as ethos, the rhetorical triangle, narration, and myriad others to make her memoir a timeless piece of non-fiction.

    Read More

  • How Does Orange Is The New Black Conflict Theory

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Orange is the New Black (OITNB) is a Netflix series that is loosely based on Piper Chapman, a self proclaimed WASP, who was imprisoned in Litchfield Penitentiary, a women’s jail, for drug smuggling. For the majority of the show, it gives insight on the social, personal, and past lives of inmates, as well as the interactions between the inmates, correctional officers (COs). In season four, episode nine, there is one main running theme, power imbalances. The core scene that depicts power imbalance and corruption is when a CO demands an inmate, Blanca Flores, to shower, but she refuses. He then forces her to stand on the dining tables for multiple days as a punishment. During this time, she urinates and defecates herself, causing her to smell even more. Eventually, other inmates realizes that this is wrong, they practice civil disobedience by joining her on the tables. Eventually, this turns into a dangerous riot

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Orange Is The New Black

    1509 Words  | 4 Pages

    I believe that every message has a real meaning behind it, whether the message is important or not. The older I get the more I started to understand the true meaning about the different shows I’ve watched. It’s one of those topics we’re all too afraid to touch, which is exactly why it’s so important to talk about. I still find it very hard to talk about race, and how it is still a very important topic in today’s society especially in criminal justice system. Prison is designed to install fear in us, imagining evil men who were put there for doing crimes unsuitable by law. Prison is known to be the worst place to end up. Orange Is the New Black showed prison all in a new light. Many critics found Orange Is the New Black to be very racist. In

    Read More

  • Solitary Confinement Borders Cruel and Unusual Punishment

    1431 Words  | 3 Pages

    The prisoners that are confined in there for protection may have been assaulted by another prisoner or cell mate and lash out from fear or anger, or have serious thoughts of harming thereselves afterwards. In 2001 Human Rights Watch reported that “Victims of prison rape commonly report nightmares, deep depression, shame, loss of self-esteem, self-hatred, and considering or attempt...

    Read More

  • The Color Purple Literary Analysis

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alice Walker has distilled some of the most controversial literature of her time. Her work has been the foundation for many colored writer's ambitions as well as many others. Her work has stroked passion and evoked a copious amount of different emotion among not only Americans but people around the world. Her story The Color Purple is a prime example of the essence of her persona and the messages she tried to portray. Walkers ideas embedded into this story great strike the souls of Americans, even to the point where this story is being banned from high schools around the country. Jacqueline Bobo states in her book, “This analysis will show

    Read More

  • Transgender in Sports

    2367 Words  | 5 Pages

    Transgendered people in America have made many great strides since the 1990s. They have encountered violence, lack of health care, and the loss of homes, jobs, family and friends. There have been many phases of the struggle of being transgendered in America over the years. The current phase we must be in now is equal rights. There are many variations of discrimination against the transgendered community. In our society we simply do not like what we do not understand. It is easier to discriminate than to try and understand. We are all created different and we should appreciate our differences. The change must come by addressing the views of the public. There is much justification in the unequal rights of transgendered peoples. The Human Rights Campaign has been started to achieve equal rights for all Americans including the LGBQ community. A serious injustice is in the world of sports. Professional sports are one of societies major traditions totally based on rules and regulations that are meant to preserve the integrality of the games, but may not be inclusive to all its players.

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects Of Solitary Prisonation In Prisons

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thousands of people statewide are in prisons, all for different reasons. However, the amount of mental illness within prisons seems to go unaddressed and ignored throughout the country. This is a serious problem, and the therapy/rehabilitation that prison systems have do not always help those who are mentally ill. Prison involvement itself can contribute to increased suicide (Hills, Holly). One ‘therapy’ that has increased throughout the years has been the use of solitary confinement, which has many negative effects on the inmates. When an inmate has a current mental illness, prior to entering into the prison, and it goes undiagnosed and untreated, the illness can just be worsened and aggravated.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Solitary Confinement

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    Prisoners being released from solitary confinement are usually the individuals that need the most help recovering, and adapting back to everyday life. Inmates in solitary confinement have no access to education or job training, making it that much more difficult for re-entry. Since they are completely cut off from human contact, they have a very tough time communicating, and interacting with other people. Inmates are still in that prison mentality where everybody is out to get them and they cannot trust anybody.

    Read More

  • Prison Reform

    2208 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...to be done is our facilities should emulate Mckean prison. Mckean's inmates are denied freedom but they have the ability to teach themselves trades, get drug treatment, and meet god. If we treat convicts like humans they will respond as humans. We cannot dehumanize them anymore and expect our communities to benefit from it. It does not work. There is no need to build more prisons, they need to decrease the rate of throwing non-violent offenders in prison. These offenders could do community service and be under house arrest where they still have the ability to hold their families together, so the vicious cycle does not continue. All I can stress is our system needs reform soon. We can only prepare for it, society's ills has already created these predators. Therefor, we need to push for new plans and theories on how we can shape tomorrow's flowers before they bloom.

    Read More

  • The Color Purple Womanism Analysis

    2102 Words  | 5 Pages

    Womanism in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple “Every time they ask me to do something, Miss Celie, I act like I’m you. I jump right up and do just what they say” (88). This line conveys how obedient Celie is towards others, which she learns from her own people. The black community degrades black women to make it difficult for them to become independent (Tanritanir and Aydemir 438).

    Read More

  • The Problem Of Overcrowded Prisons

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    Religious discrimination in prison is a major problem. In 2011, Holt v. Hobbs was brought before the Supreme Court. Gregory Holt was a Muslim inmate who was denied to grow his beard for religious purposes by the Arkansas Department of Correction (Vallely). Some prisons around the U.S are ignoring prisoner’s religious rights and making them suffer by forcing them to stop their religious activities. Inmates are being tormented because of their beliefs and prisons are doing little or nothing to protect them. It should not matter what religion one follows when spending time in prison, and it should not change the way people treat them. Many prisoners have been tormented by officials and other prisoners for the religion they follow. It has a long term effect on some because the verbal and physical abuse they get will never be forgotten. The government must monitor the officials in charge to assure they are protecting those being bullied for their

    Read More

  • Prison Break Analysis

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Paul Scheuring’s 4 season thriller there is no Gods you need to sacrifice for but rather the bond of family worth doing anything for. In Prison Break, protagonist Michael Scofield would go any extent for his family. Michael had his life together with a masters as a structural engineer while his brother was just a high school dropout. However when Michael finds out that his brother was accused for killing the vice president’s brother and put on death row, Michael gave up that future of his filled with opportunity to save his brother. How far would you go for others? Michael got a full body tattoo and got himself incarcerated in order to break Lincoln, his brother, out. He did this for him because he loves his family. Although Scofield is

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech About Life In Prison

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some prisoners are claustrophobic; they can’t be in small tight places for example their prison cell. The prisoners were used to being on the streets doing whatever they felt they wanted to do; now they got to follow rules and do as they’re told. Inmates with life sentences have to stay in prison until they’re no longer alive, knowing that some even try to commit suicide. No one would like to be in prison for life, just thinking about can make everyone scared. Inmates serving life in prison are able to get special services, depending on their conduct. Inmates have double celled housing space for themselves, a person can get frustrated being small places and since the inmate is going to be there for life they want to at least let him feel good. The inmates also get employment opportunities, also depending in their conduct. They want the inmates to spend their time out of trouble and helping them get distracted can get them out of trouble. In some facilities the inmate can receive meals in their cells, in chow hall or in day room. Some facilities offer academic education; they offer adult basic education, GED, or special

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Transgender

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is still difficult to get a consistent estimate for the transgender population in the United States due to the majority of population surveys that ask about gender, only have the option to check male or female. These surveys not only exclude any one transgender or anyone who is under the LGBTQ umbrella, but any individual biologically intersex; meaning they very well could have both or neither biological sex at birth and identify with both, either or no gender at all. Once a person realizes that their biology and identity do not align, taking action to transition comes with many dangerous risks in a society that only acknowledges either male or female. Transgender women account for 50% of violent deaths related to hate crimes against the LGBT community based on a 2009 report. The other 50% were “gender nonconforming” (Responding to Transgender

    Read More

  • Transgender People Essay

    1251 Words  | 3 Pages

    Transgender people have been around for centuries, yet they still face problems in the eyes of education, medicine, and law; even, with biological evidence of transgenderism being a natural state. People in these professional fields have the influential advantage over the minds of society and help change discrimination and institutional services through making it more comfortable for transmen and transwomen to go through life.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Orange Is The New Black

Open Document