Final Essay 1: Questioning Social Norms
Before this semester, I had no idea how many social injustices were simply slipping under my radar. I had at least some awareness of feminism and the issues it deals with; my mother was in college during the height of Second Wave feminism, and was also the primary breadwinner in my family for most of my childhood. However, I considered the feminist movement to be primarily about the suffragists' efforts to gain American women the right to vote in the last century, and I thought that it was only really relevant anymore in issues like equal pay in the workplace or abortion rights. I didn't realize that feminist issues are really relevant to everyone, particularities such as race, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual preference, or religion notwithstanding. Also, I have learned that there are many more (and more subtle) injustices effecting women today than earning 75 cents to a man's dollar or being denied reproductive rights.
Perhaps the common factor of the readings I chose is that they all deal with such different problems in society. I made my selections in an effort to emphasize how broad the spectrum of feminist issues really is and how many people these issues effect around the world. I also hoped to demonstrate how subtle some of these problems can be, especially in a time when "feminist issues" is commonly seen as synonymous with "women's issues".
The reading that first made me want to write this essay about injustices which often slip under the radar was the excerpt from Jessica Valenti’s He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut. This collection of articles deals with more typical “women versus men” feminist issues, but I found it interesting because it took so many inequalities which we generally take for granted and made them glaringly obvious. For instance, I was well aware that ‘slut’ is an cruel and ridiculous insult which is often applied with little or no reference to whether a woman actually sleep around (and who’s to say there’s anything wrong with that, anyway?)—but somehow I had never really thought about the fact that English lacks a comparable term for men. In shaming women for the same activity which men are praised for, society is being utterly hypocritical—and furthermore, such a dichotomy of ideas can be used to control, humiliate and devalue women. I also found other observations interesting; for instance, the idea in society that it’s okay to girls to want to be more like boys but not for boys to want to be more like girls. Is this simply an unconscious favoring of masculine traits, or is it that a mere woman could never actually become ‘manly’ enough to pose a real threat to the masculine ideal? Either way, this belief hurts both men and women and is just plain absurd.
The next reading I chose is Mary Pipher’s “Reviving Ophelia”. This article also deals with the issues of women, but in this case many of these women are much too young to be worrying about equal pay in the business world. Pipher’s counseling clients who inspired her to write are primarily adolescent girls, and the phenomenon that she wrote about is the overwhelming loss of innocence that seems to have happened to so many of these girls when they hit puberty. I found the stories of these girls’ lives she related shocking, both in their awfulness and in their number. I am well aware that being a teenage girl can be a harmful experience, but more than anything I was amazed that so many initially promising young girls were falling so far. As she describes it, it seems like it would be almost impossible for a girl to survive her teenage years in this society without experiencing some kind of trauma. Young girls are constantly exposed to women being objectified in the media while at the same time being sexually harassed in schools, they are surrounded by drugs when they still only in junior high, and they are being told that being too close to their parents is ‘dumb’ just when they need them the most. Because they cannot (or will not) turn to their parents for support, they find other means of coping, such as self-injury, eating disorders and drug abuse. Perhaps the reason why the plight of teenage girls is not much talked about is that it is a recent development; Pipher speculates that there has been a rise since the early 1990’s in violence against women, objectification of women in the media, divorced families and chemical addictions.
The two readings I have so far examined have both been concerned mainly with women’s issues, but again, feminism is intrinsically linked with all other issues of human rights—including the issue of racism. Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege” was a definite eye-opener on this subject. In this essay, McIntosh made a list of 26 advantages she had simply because she was white, and it included everything from being able to purchase “flesh” colored Band-Aids that were actually about the same color as her skin to being able to find a neighborhood she could feel safe living in with relative ease. For her, the connection between white privilege and male privilege is clear, both in that they involve receiving advantages simply because of a chance physical attribute and in that, while both whites and men are taught that other groups are disadvantaged compared to them, they are systematically trained not to question their advantages. Racism—and by proxy, McIntosh argues, sexism—includes more than just conscious acts of cruelty against members of the oppressed group. To truly understand how damaging these attitudes can be and just how far-reaching they really are, we must make an effort to notice the advantages we are able to partake of unconsciously.
Another issue which a lot of people are probably vaguely aware of but don’t often think too hard about, but which is actually so much more serious than the issues American women generally face, is the gross mistreatment of factory workers (who are primarily women) in the Asian and South Pacific islands area. According to Cynthia Enloe’s “The Globe Trotting Sneaker”, while women in the United States may make 75 cents for every man’s dollar, the women in these factories might make as little as a penny for every dollar earned by an American woman in a similar factory job. Their pay is often not enough to even raise them above the poverty line, but they are beaten and raped when they try to form unions. If they continue to make a fuss about the way they are being treated, many companies—especially those that manufacture clothing, shoes and electronics—can simply move their factory to another area or even another country. In spite of having at least some vague knowledge that this mistreatment is going on, many people—even perfectly reasonable people who probably think of themselves as entirely for human rights—continue to buy products from major companies which treat their workers this way. Perhaps they do it because it is more fashionable to buy new clothes from the mall than to buy from a thrift store, or because it is simply too inconvenient to learn which companies practice more humane treatment of their workers; either way, it is too easy in American culture to purchase these products without a second thought.
One of the most basic and most eye-opening concepts I learned in this class was that patriarchal society can by just as harmful to men as it is to women. Our reading by bell hooks entitled “Being a Boy” (from the book The Will to Change) explains this clearly and in detail. In such a society, neither women nor men are treated as fully human creatures; women are seen as somehow intrinsically of less worth than men, but men are expected to repress their emotions (because if they did not, Valenti might argue, they would risk appearing too “feminine”). While the commonly accepted belief is that positive portrayals of violence in the media are what leads to violence in adolescent boys, hooks puts forth the counterargument that they are actually resorting to violence as the only emotional outlet socially available to them. Society accepts without a second thought many ideas about boys—that they don’t feel strong emotions, that they naturally go through an antisocial stage in early adolescence where they disconnect with their parents, that they won’t develop properly if shown too much affection—which are simply not true and are in fact harmful to young boys. Such ideas much be challenged every bit as much as the ideas which harm women if we are to see improvement in society.
These readings have all made me wonder why I wasn’t more aware of the issues before. Why isn’t the mistreatment of Asian factory workers right up there with abortion rights for American women among the issues voters are interested in? Why is it that even many feminists continue to be ignorant of the ways in which the patriarchy can control and hurt men? I hope that now that this class has drawn my attention to issues like these, I will continue to be more aware of social inequalities and to question socially accepted norms. I intend to take the class WS 3220-101 this summer to learn more about issues that are especially important to me.
Works Cited
- Enloe, Cynthia. "The Globe Trotting Sneaker." Feminist Frontiers (2007): 458-462.
- hooks, bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love. Atria Books, 2004.
- McIntosh, Peggy. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack. 1989.
- Pipher, Mary. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. G. P. Putman’s Sons Inc.
- Valenti, Jessica. He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut: And 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know. Seal Press, 2008.
Final Essay 2: Defining Feminism
Before I took this class, if you had asked me if I was a feminist, I probably would’ve said yes. This would have been true insomuch as I believed in the same basic things I think feminists believe in, but now I have a better understanding all the different ways feminism can be defined (and has been defined in the past).
The concept of feminism has been redefined several times in America’s history, especially if you take as part of the term’s definition the central goals of the movement. It first began in this country with the first women’s rights convention in 1848 (Rowe-Finkbeiner 20). The primary concern of this convention was to obtain the right for women to vote, and this would continue to be one of the core themes of first wave feminism.
The suffragists’ movement was closely tied from the start with the abolitionist movement. The women’s convention of 1848 was originally organized because certain women had been prevented from fully participating in an anti-slavery movement because of their gender (Rowe-Finkbeiner 20). Although this suggests that open sexism existed within the abolitionist movement, it produced inspiring women such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth who also spoke out for women’s rights (Rowe-Finkbeiner 21). Considering that both movements were going on simultaneously, it is no surprise that women felt cheated when the Fifteenth Amendment passed in 1869 granting African Americans the right to vote but making no mention of women (Rowe-Finkbeiner 21). They did not give up, however; as portrayed in the film Iron Jawed Angels, they organized massive marches, picketed outside the White House, and were fined, jailed, and participated in hunger strikes until they finally achieved victory. In 1920, forty-two years after it was first introduced, the Nineteenth Amendment was finally passed granting women the right to vote (Rowe-Finkbeiner 22).
Although achieving the right to vote was the main goal of first wave feminism, and is what it is remembered for today, some women recognized that there was still more to be done. Planned Parenthood was founded during this time period; it faced staunch opposition because contraceptives were then associated with prostitution (Rowe-Finkbeiner 23). Men could get condoms by prescription for protection against sexually transmitted diseases, but not for birth control purposes, and issuing them to women was unheard of (Rowe-Finkbeiner 24). Furthermore, “respectable” career opportunities for women at this time were limited to jobs like teachers or nurses, and if women could afford not to work, then they were expected not to.
From the 1960’s through to the early 1980’s, second wave feminism tackled these issues and more. In addition to working for equal gender representation in the workplace and access to reproductive health care, they also achieved legalized abortions, put more women in public offices, and worked to ban discrimination based on race or gender and to get equal pay for equal work for women (Rowe-Finkbeiner 26).
Although the second-wavers made many great advances, the movement did have its flaws. Many women at the time felt that the leaders of the movement did not fully understand or represent the concerns of lower-income women (Rowe-Finkbeiner 26). There were similar issues with race; while white feminist spoke of “working to include” African American women, these women felt that they often had more complex gender issues than the ones white feminists were working to address (Rowe-Finkbeiner 27). The movement at this time was primarily focused on specifically female issues, at the exclusion of other problems like race, class, or sexual orientation, when in reality these issues often mesh (Rowe-Finkbeiner 27).
There were other, more complicated problems with the second wave movement as well. In many ways, women reacted to the controls society placed on them by defying all social norms just for defiance’s sake. Debbie Stoller, copublisher and editor in chief of Bust, described the second wavers’ reactionary stance this way:
From the beginning, third wave feminists have been moving away from some of the most basic and most long-standing ideas in feminism. This wave is generally considered to have started in the early 1990’s with Riot Grrl music and the zine scene (Rowe-Finkbeiner 85). This movement reclaimed the often-derogatory word for women, ‘girl’, and had an DIY and anti-corporate philosophy (Rowe-Finkbeiner 85). Riot Grrl introduced the idea of social change primarily through cultural rather than legislative action, and this is something which has persisted throughout the third wave (Rowe-Finkbeiner 88). In some ways this is going straight to the source of the problem—and if you can change people’s opinions, third wavers argue, the change will trickle down to the government eventually (Rowe-Finkbeiner 94).
Another key aspect of third wave feminism is its all-inclusiveness. A feminist “can be a corporate executive, a soccer mom, a transgendered person, an ultrafeminine woman, or even a full-time mother” (Rowe-Finkbeiner 90). With this mindset, third-wavers have been able to reclaim ideals of femininity and have become much more sex-positive than their second-wave predecessors (Rowe-Finkbeiner 90). Third wave feminists have also done much to reject traditional gender and sexual orientation labels; they are generally much more accepting of gender and sexual fluidity than their mothers were (Rowe-Finkbeiner 100).
A major criticism of third wave feminists is, ironically, that they no longer represent a united front with clear goals. By the very nature of its all-inclusiveness, the movement now encompasses a broader range of people with differing concerns than ever before. In general, however, the top ten concerns of college-age women today are: gender equality, reproductive rights, self-identity, work-and-family balance, violence against women, economic issues, health care, education, societal and media images of women, and civic engagement (Rowe-Finkbeiner 59).
The discipline of Women’s Studies is obviously intimately tied to the history and definition of feminism, but over the years Women’s Studies has evolved into an entity in its own right. It has its roots in the feminist consciousness-raising groups where women first began to develop feminist theory about sexist thought (hooks 19). Women’s Studies classes in university settings followed closely in the wake of black studies, and they provided a place where many people could learn about feminist theory and also provided a forum for the rediscovery of women’s literary and academic writing (hooks 20). Although these classes provided a boost to the feminist movement initially, they eventually led to increasing exclusion of those outside of the academic setting (hooks 22). While she acknowledges that great things are being done in Women’s Studies departments, feminist writer bell hooks calls for more easily accessible feminist literature to insure that the message gets spread to as many people as possible and that they are not learning about feminism primarily from the mass media’s skewed perspective (24).
In light of its long and complicated history, feminism is clearly a difficult thing to define. In the midst of third-wave feminism, it can no longer really be defined in terms of its key issues. Although there may still be some second-wavers out there who would say otherwise, I also believe that it isn’t just about women’s issues anymore. Rather, I subscribe to the much broader definition that being a feminist means believing that people should be treated equally. This includes rejecting sexist thinking, yes, but also racism, and any other kind of bias based on gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or any other category. The reason for this is that women are often not just women, but are also members of other groups which are discriminated against. I don’t understand how a feminist who claims to believe in equal rights for all women could say that a lesbian doesn’t deserve the right to marry, for instance. More than anything else, though, I feel that it just makes no sense to arbitrarily say that you think women have a moral right to equality but other groups don’t. By this definition, I definitely consider myself a feminist.
The concept of feminism has been redefined several times in America’s history, especially if you take as part of the term’s definition the central goals of the movement. It first began in this country with the first women’s rights convention in 1848 (Rowe-Finkbeiner 20). The primary concern of this convention was to obtain the right for women to vote, and this would continue to be one of the core themes of first wave feminism.
The suffragists’ movement was closely tied from the start with the abolitionist movement. The women’s convention of 1848 was originally organized because certain women had been prevented from fully participating in an anti-slavery movement because of their gender (Rowe-Finkbeiner 20). Although this suggests that open sexism existed within the abolitionist movement, it produced inspiring women such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth who also spoke out for women’s rights (Rowe-Finkbeiner 21). Considering that both movements were going on simultaneously, it is no surprise that women felt cheated when the Fifteenth Amendment passed in 1869 granting African Americans the right to vote but making no mention of women (Rowe-Finkbeiner 21). They did not give up, however; as portrayed in the film Iron Jawed Angels, they organized massive marches, picketed outside the White House, and were fined, jailed, and participated in hunger strikes until they finally achieved victory. In 1920, forty-two years after it was first introduced, the Nineteenth Amendment was finally passed granting women the right to vote (Rowe-Finkbeiner 22).
Although achieving the right to vote was the main goal of first wave feminism, and is what it is remembered for today, some women recognized that there was still more to be done. Planned Parenthood was founded during this time period; it faced staunch opposition because contraceptives were then associated with prostitution (Rowe-Finkbeiner 23). Men could get condoms by prescription for protection against sexually transmitted diseases, but not for birth control purposes, and issuing them to women was unheard of (Rowe-Finkbeiner 24). Furthermore, “respectable” career opportunities for women at this time were limited to jobs like teachers or nurses, and if women could afford not to work, then they were expected not to.
From the 1960’s through to the early 1980’s, second wave feminism tackled these issues and more. In addition to working for equal gender representation in the workplace and access to reproductive health care, they also achieved legalized abortions, put more women in public offices, and worked to ban discrimination based on race or gender and to get equal pay for equal work for women (Rowe-Finkbeiner 26).
Although the second-wavers made many great advances, the movement did have its flaws. Many women at the time felt that the leaders of the movement did not fully understand or represent the concerns of lower-income women (Rowe-Finkbeiner 26). There were similar issues with race; while white feminist spoke of “working to include” African American women, these women felt that they often had more complex gender issues than the ones white feminists were working to address (Rowe-Finkbeiner 27). The movement at this time was primarily focused on specifically female issues, at the exclusion of other problems like race, class, or sexual orientation, when in reality these issues often mesh (Rowe-Finkbeiner 27).
There were other, more complicated problems with the second wave movement as well. In many ways, women reacted to the controls society placed on them by defying all social norms just for defiance’s sake. Debbie Stoller, copublisher and editor in chief of Bust, described the second wavers’ reactionary stance this way:
If women weren’t allowed in the workforce, then a liberated woman was in the workforce; if a woman was expected to take care of children and the home, then a liberated woman wouldn’t do that; if women were expected to wear makeup and bras and make themselves look pretty, then a liberated woman wouldn’t want to do that (Rowe-Finkbeiner 30).In many ways, feminists were basing what they wanted in society directly off of what men had (Rowe-Finkbeiner 30). Since the beginning of the third wave, feminists have been becoming increasingly skeptical of this ideal.
From the beginning, third wave feminists have been moving away from some of the most basic and most long-standing ideas in feminism. This wave is generally considered to have started in the early 1990’s with Riot Grrl music and the zine scene (Rowe-Finkbeiner 85). This movement reclaimed the often-derogatory word for women, ‘girl’, and had an DIY and anti-corporate philosophy (Rowe-Finkbeiner 85). Riot Grrl introduced the idea of social change primarily through cultural rather than legislative action, and this is something which has persisted throughout the third wave (Rowe-Finkbeiner 88). In some ways this is going straight to the source of the problem—and if you can change people’s opinions, third wavers argue, the change will trickle down to the government eventually (Rowe-Finkbeiner 94).
Another key aspect of third wave feminism is its all-inclusiveness. A feminist “can be a corporate executive, a soccer mom, a transgendered person, an ultrafeminine woman, or even a full-time mother” (Rowe-Finkbeiner 90). With this mindset, third-wavers have been able to reclaim ideals of femininity and have become much more sex-positive than their second-wave predecessors (Rowe-Finkbeiner 90). Third wave feminists have also done much to reject traditional gender and sexual orientation labels; they are generally much more accepting of gender and sexual fluidity than their mothers were (Rowe-Finkbeiner 100).
A major criticism of third wave feminists is, ironically, that they no longer represent a united front with clear goals. By the very nature of its all-inclusiveness, the movement now encompasses a broader range of people with differing concerns than ever before. In general, however, the top ten concerns of college-age women today are: gender equality, reproductive rights, self-identity, work-and-family balance, violence against women, economic issues, health care, education, societal and media images of women, and civic engagement (Rowe-Finkbeiner 59).
The discipline of Women’s Studies is obviously intimately tied to the history and definition of feminism, but over the years Women’s Studies has evolved into an entity in its own right. It has its roots in the feminist consciousness-raising groups where women first began to develop feminist theory about sexist thought (hooks 19). Women’s Studies classes in university settings followed closely in the wake of black studies, and they provided a place where many people could learn about feminist theory and also provided a forum for the rediscovery of women’s literary and academic writing (hooks 20). Although these classes provided a boost to the feminist movement initially, they eventually led to increasing exclusion of those outside of the academic setting (hooks 22). While she acknowledges that great things are being done in Women’s Studies departments, feminist writer bell hooks calls for more easily accessible feminist literature to insure that the message gets spread to as many people as possible and that they are not learning about feminism primarily from the mass media’s skewed perspective (24).
In light of its long and complicated history, feminism is clearly a difficult thing to define. In the midst of third-wave feminism, it can no longer really be defined in terms of its key issues. Although there may still be some second-wavers out there who would say otherwise, I also believe that it isn’t just about women’s issues anymore. Rather, I subscribe to the much broader definition that being a feminist means believing that people should be treated equally. This includes rejecting sexist thinking, yes, but also racism, and any other kind of bias based on gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or any other category. The reason for this is that women are often not just women, but are also members of other groups which are discriminated against. I don’t understand how a feminist who claims to believe in equal rights for all women could say that a lesbian doesn’t deserve the right to marry, for instance. More than anything else, though, I feel that it just makes no sense to arbitrarily say that you think women have a moral right to equality but other groups don’t. By this definition, I definitely consider myself a feminist.
Works Cited
- hooks, bell. “Chapter Four: Feminist Education for Critical Consciousness.” Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2000): 19-24.
- Iron Jawed Angels. Denise Pinckley, James Bigwood, Laura McCorkindale. Katja von Garnier. Hilary Swank, Margo Martindale, Anjelica Huston, Frances O'Connor, Lois Smith. DVD. 2004.
- Rowe-Finkbeiner, Kristin. "Chaper Two: A Tsunami in History." The F Word: Feminism in Jeopardy (2004): 19-33.
- Rowe-Finkbeiner, Kristin. “Chapter Four: Tracing the Divide: Campus Women, Social Issues, and Volunteerism.” The F Word: Feminism in Jeopardy (2004): 55-83.
- Rowe-Finkbeiner, Kristin. “Chapter Five: Signs of the Time: Defining the Third Wave.” The F Word: Feminism in Jeopardy (2004): 85-105.
