Feminism is a lucid and, hopefully, free flowing concept that the US has struggled for generations to define and enact. The ability for the definition of feminism to change is part of the appeal of its fight, as well as a disadvantage because at this point in our culture everything is about speed and efficiency so if there isn’t a catch-phrase or slogan associated with a cause it’s more difficult to attract volunteers and advocates. My personal definition of feminism is: an advocate for equal rights.
In the beginning or the “first wave” of feminism it was all about the legality of the vote. Those original women were idealists who thought that as soon as women had a role in politics their role in all other aspects of life would become better. The issue is that women have taken the two rights of going to work, the battle of the second wave, and voting and have accepted them as all they’re able to get. This is in large part due to the Equal Rights Amendment continually failing in Congress, during both the first and second wave.
I do find myself a feminist, but I don’t think it means much until the third wave either begins, or if it has already begun that it gains some notoriety. The battle of gay rights is a large step for equal rights, but there is a lot more ground to cover and few finding the advantage of taking part.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Final: Part One
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher, Ph.D. Alpha Girls: Understanding the New American Girl and How She Is Changing the World by Dan Kindlon, Ph.D., and The Eternal Feminine by Rosario Castellanos were the most touching readings of the semester. They all emphasized the importance of a girl or woman’s confidence and its role in her empowerment personally, which reflects culturally and thus globally. Before a woman can take a role in politics or even in an environment as small as her community she has to believe that she can make a difference and create a support system that allows her to continue believing that regardless of adversity, which is what these readings tell the world.
To begin with Faludi tells us that the our culture is against us, not to defeat women or feminism, but to make women aware of the subtext of the media and how it treats women as a whole and how that effects each woman’s psyche individually. To be forewarned is to be forearmed and to begin a semester of Women’s Studies with this reading is incredibly effective, because it begins with a moral outrage and the following readings turn that moral outrage into a cause that this generation is desperately in need of.
Baumgardner and Richards Manifesta even the small bit given to the class underlines the importance of creating a community of women within the larger community in which those women live and work. There is no doubt that these women faced a lot getting to the high ranked positions they were in at the time this was written, but having one another’s support has everything to do with why they didn’t give up, which encourages this next level of women to do the same.
Mary Pipher takes us back to before these women were exploited in the media, or banded together to overcome these underminings into the importance of development in who a woman will become. Pipher reminds us that regardless of how sullen and moody a teenage girl may be she has a potential that needs to be encouraged rather than stifled by the common conceptions of who or what she should be, because at the point she starts making choices based on brand names and how she’s supposed to appear she becomes a what rather than a who.
Kindlon gives us the other side of that argument in that some girls develop beautifully on their own. That they are not as easily influenced by the media and culture as Pipher seems to think, but both perspectives are true in that there is no formula for a girls adolescence. She may walk in to the world confident and determined to change injustices, but on the same token she may not understand they there are injustices or more importantly that she has the power to change them.
The Eternal Feminine by Rosario Castellanos gives the image of what could be. The reading is a bit more user-friendly in that it isn’t facts and graphs, but a play and thus entertainment by definition. Having a wide rather of options to access the information is important. This also broadens our Women’s Studies’ horizons past that of just the U.S. and our history, but that of other women, and how other cultures have treated their citizens, their life force, without the reverence and respect each individual human deserves. Castellanos gives an outline of what each woman can be: a revolutionary, someone who works within the system but still tries to create change, a wife, a mother, a lover and so on.
All of these make me realize that while I may never run for office I can make a difference by giving girls an outlet, so when I can I will open teen writing workshops and create an internship role when I’m working on my novels that involve research. I also intend to write about strong women, both recreating history and establishing new images of the anti-damsel in distress.
To begin with Faludi tells us that the our culture is against us, not to defeat women or feminism, but to make women aware of the subtext of the media and how it treats women as a whole and how that effects each woman’s psyche individually. To be forewarned is to be forearmed and to begin a semester of Women’s Studies with this reading is incredibly effective, because it begins with a moral outrage and the following readings turn that moral outrage into a cause that this generation is desperately in need of.
Baumgardner and Richards Manifesta even the small bit given to the class underlines the importance of creating a community of women within the larger community in which those women live and work. There is no doubt that these women faced a lot getting to the high ranked positions they were in at the time this was written, but having one another’s support has everything to do with why they didn’t give up, which encourages this next level of women to do the same.
Mary Pipher takes us back to before these women were exploited in the media, or banded together to overcome these underminings into the importance of development in who a woman will become. Pipher reminds us that regardless of how sullen and moody a teenage girl may be she has a potential that needs to be encouraged rather than stifled by the common conceptions of who or what she should be, because at the point she starts making choices based on brand names and how she’s supposed to appear she becomes a what rather than a who.
Kindlon gives us the other side of that argument in that some girls develop beautifully on their own. That they are not as easily influenced by the media and culture as Pipher seems to think, but both perspectives are true in that there is no formula for a girls adolescence. She may walk in to the world confident and determined to change injustices, but on the same token she may not understand they there are injustices or more importantly that she has the power to change them.
The Eternal Feminine by Rosario Castellanos gives the image of what could be. The reading is a bit more user-friendly in that it isn’t facts and graphs, but a play and thus entertainment by definition. Having a wide rather of options to access the information is important. This also broadens our Women’s Studies’ horizons past that of just the U.S. and our history, but that of other women, and how other cultures have treated their citizens, their life force, without the reverence and respect each individual human deserves. Castellanos gives an outline of what each woman can be: a revolutionary, someone who works within the system but still tries to create change, a wife, a mother, a lover and so on.
All of these make me realize that while I may never run for office I can make a difference by giving girls an outlet, so when I can I will open teen writing workshops and create an internship role when I’m working on my novels that involve research. I also intend to write about strong women, both recreating history and establishing new images of the anti-damsel in distress.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Reading Gender
I am regretfully behind in most of my courses at this point, I'm not sure how I let it happen, but I have, so here is the beginning of my paper so that you know I'm working on it and I will continue to revise.
"The Eternal Feminine" by Rosario Castellanos
The most poignant scene for a modern American/Western woman in this work is that of the Apotheosis, which opens with Lupita being pleased with her choices of getting rid of her husband and children and enjoying her life of solitude. In this scene Lupita, our protagonist and representative of what women should be, dreams that she's won a sweepstakes providing her with all of the appliances a woman should need. The image of a woman's worth being measured, not by her own satisfaction, but by that of the household/personal goods she has accumulated is common and discouraging to women searching for a fulfilled existence. The irony comes when Lupita awakens and says "What a horrible nightmare! I never would have believed it..." because this is to be believed and still happens over thirty years after the publication and in a completely different country ("The Eternal Feminine" 296). While this scene is short and seemingly bizarre it portrays a lot of what women are fed and led to believe by the media and modern society. Castellanos makes a lot of points about how poorly historical images of women are portrayed, which is true, but unless we address how modern women are portrayed we will never be given the credibility to set history straight and will have a further laundry list of images to modify. Lupita in her “disguise as a white-haired old lady” is contented with her life, but is told that because she is a mother and the image of a perfect woman she “deserves” and must have appliances to make her life easier, while she has no desire for such.
"The Eternal Feminine" by Rosario Castellanos
The most poignant scene for a modern American/Western woman in this work is that of the Apotheosis, which opens with Lupita being pleased with her choices of getting rid of her husband and children and enjoying her life of solitude. In this scene Lupita, our protagonist and representative of what women should be, dreams that she's won a sweepstakes providing her with all of the appliances a woman should need. The image of a woman's worth being measured, not by her own satisfaction, but by that of the household/personal goods she has accumulated is common and discouraging to women searching for a fulfilled existence. The irony comes when Lupita awakens and says "What a horrible nightmare! I never would have believed it..." because this is to be believed and still happens over thirty years after the publication and in a completely different country ("The Eternal Feminine" 296). While this scene is short and seemingly bizarre it portrays a lot of what women are fed and led to believe by the media and modern society. Castellanos makes a lot of points about how poorly historical images of women are portrayed, which is true, but unless we address how modern women are portrayed we will never be given the credibility to set history straight and will have a further laundry list of images to modify. Lupita in her “disguise as a white-haired old lady” is contented with her life, but is told that because she is a mother and the image of a perfect woman she “deserves” and must have appliances to make her life easier, while she has no desire for such.
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