What does feminism look like?

Feminism has its roots in every social, economic, and political vehicle.  However, this does not mean that there is no oppression in these categories. In Shiva's, Development, Ecology and Women', we see that during the Industrial Revolution, development of cash crops, factories, and textile industries destroyed women’s ability to creatively thrive in such linear circumstances. 

 These labor intensive jobs, although occupied by both men and women, devalue the work of women because they are viewed as ‘male dominant positions’.   This has not stopped courageous women who are determined to show that they can do everything a man can do and more.  In an online article titled, What It’s Like To Be One Of The Only Female Construction Workers In America, we are introduced to Patricia Voly who is a female construction worker. Patricia Voly describes her child hood passion of becoming a construction worker as a job that she loved.  However, once she got the job, she realized that it is very sexist and that male workers are given preference in almost every aspect of the job. Voly states, “If it weren’t for the harassment, I definitely think I would have stayed, I loved it, I really did. I liked the changing workplace setting as workers moved from project to project. The hours appealed to me not just now, but if I were ever to become a mother, I think it would work out”.  This statement describes the brutal truth that men and women are still divided and harassment is evident. 

  This ties into the reading Carmen Miranda on My Mind, by Cynthia Enloe, because it shows how sexual representations of women are used to market industries as ‘free from oppression’ yet the same industries are subjugating women to ridicule, harassment, and even underpaid hours.  The reading is based around how colonization and Western countries deliberately oppressed groups of people, including women, to gain economic prosperity.   By making it acceptable to demean women in the work place, it creates an economic and social imbalance in the way we treat men and women.  This contributes to the oppression of women and until we can get rid of our backward thinking ways, women in the work force will always be viewed by society as ‘lower’ and ‘weaker’ than men, despite their great efforts in showing the world that they can do what a man can do.  Feminism does not look like what it is perceived to be by society.  It is a vibrant and peaceful movement to free oppression, racism, inequality, and most importantly allow the human spirit to thrive as one.  While gender is, and will continue for some time, to be a heavily debated topic the strong and will powered feminists in the world are no longer remaining dormant.  From Hilary Clinton running for office to the increasing rate of women working jobs that are supposed to be ‘male dominant’, we can see a shift in consciousness in the world.  This shift of consciousness may be slow, but it and will continue to lay the foundations for a peaceful world where we view each other as a human and not a gender.

 Bryce Covert, What it’s like to be One of the only female construction workers in America. ThinkProgress, 11 June 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.

Enloe, Cynthia H. Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Print.
Shiva, Vandana, and ana Shiva. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development. 2nd ed. London: Zed Books, 1989. Print.

Relationship Between Women's sexual autonomy and Women's Equality

Aside from social norms that tend to stereotype women, society is also putting limits on the woman's choice when it comes to child birth.  People who tend to slut women about birth control are the ones who would rather see a person suffer from a mistaken conception.  Pregnancy is not to be taken lightly, as it has severe impacts and changes on a woman's health.  

We can see that while it may seem that reproductive issues should be considered solely by the woman, it is not the case in our modern society.  The generic discussion on whether abortion is right or wrong has been debated for years.  It must take a deep understanding of the psychology of the topic to see that banning abortion is but another vehicle of oppression on women.  According to an online article, Fifty Years After the Pill: Still a Long Way to Go, the birth control pill was the first reliable contraceptive that allowed women to have control over their own reproductive system.  The pill allowed women to express the erotic without having fear of pregnancy.  The article states, “This perspective requires a tremendous leap in social development, which can be achieved only through sweeping away capitalist rule on a global basis and replacing it with a rational, democratically planned economy.”  This statement advocates that a social revolution is necessary for a women’s liberation.  A social revolution is not an act of violence, but instead a spread of awareness in which we can allow women to express their erotic safely and hopefully without the backlash women receive today.

  The film, The Pill, discusses reproductive rights from the point of view of middle class women.  In the film, the women who had access to birth control were more motivated to achieve educational degrees and have top level jobs.  This exemplifies the points made above regarding how the birth control pill and its ability to allow women to express their erotic safely.  As humans, we all have sexual tendencies and if we can have control over the reproductive system why does society slut shame women who choose to be on the pill?  The shaming of women has led to violence and rape against women.  In Valenti’s reading The Blame(and Shame) Game, we get insight on how rape is overlooked by our judicial system and in turn rape and violence are overlooked as a whole in society.  If we can spread the awareness of the staggering number of rape cases that go by without anyone noticing, we can enforce harsher rules on these horrific crimes.  The female autonomy is meant to attract the opposite gender(men), but this is no excuse to force oneself upon a woman unwillingly.

  It seems that women’s equality will not be achieved until society starts educating the fact that the female autonomy is a conscious, living, and thinking human body.  It is not a mere object of sexual endeavor but instead contains a human spirit that should be able to express its creativity and freedom in choice. 

The Pill (BBC Presentations). BBC, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.

 "Fifty Years After the Pill: Still a Long Way to Go." Fifty Years After the Pill: Still a Long Way to Go. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2016. 

 Valenti, Jessica. Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2007. Print. 

 

Is there such thing as a woman?

Is a woman born or made?  It must take deep thought to dwell on what it takes in order to call oneself a woman. Caitlyn Jenner's name has been brought up in recent times when regarding transgender women.  In a Vanity Fair interview, Caitlyn Jenner discussed how she feels spiritually after undergoing the process of switching from being a man to a woman.  Caitlyn states, “I’m just going to go live life, I’m going to go enjoy life. I have nothing left to hide. I am kind of a free person, a free soul. It’s a wonderful feeling to go through life. I’ve never been able to do that; it’s always been confusion, it’s always been, you know, I’ve got one side [with] boy clothes, the other side’s women’s clothes.”  Caitlyn is a prime example of someone who was not able to express their true self in the body that they were born in.  

This ties back into the opening question because it shows us that in certain situations, a woman can be created just as a caterpillar is formed into a butterfly.  Being a woman is not always a strict ‘gender’ but instead a spiritual awakening in which the person wants to express its femininity in such a way that requires a total change in life.   In The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, we get a controversial view on the opening question. de Beauvoir believes that women have caused their own oppression because they have to reassure themselves through their actions that they are a 'woman' while men do not reassure themselves that they are indeed 'men'.  de Beauvoir also believes that a woman is made through her upbringing and teachings, such as the case of Caitlyn Jenner.  A transgender is a free spirit that can be brought up through any type of sexuality.  Another reading, titled The Transfeminist Manifesto, explores the power of the feminist communities and their ability to help transgender women feel at peace with themselves.  

The author Emi Koyma states, “Trans-feminism believes that a society that honors cross-gender identities is the one that treats people of all genders fairly, because our existence is seen as problematic only when there is a rigid gender hierarchy”.  This statement describes how our education regarding male dominance is the only thing that steps in the way of accepting trans gender women.  Being a woman is not comparable to a line drawn in sand.  It is a way of life and is dependent on your upbringing and values.  This is not a blog advocating any gender to be better than the other, but rather trying to show that gender is not only subject to a person’s body.  Through the articles and interviews, we can see that there are no predetermined roles regarding men or women.  Being a woman or even being a man for that matter is only an issue when society keeps it a relevant topic to debate upon.

 Beauvoir, Simone De. The Second Sex. New York: Knopf, 1953. Print.

 Bissinger, Buzz, and Annie Leibovitz. "Caitlyn Jenner Talks About Life After Procedure." HWD. Vanity Fair, 2015. Web. 13 Nov. 2016.

 Dicker, Rory Cooke, and Alison Piepmeier. Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century. Boston: Northeastern UP, 2003. Print. 

What is feminism?

The beginning of the feminist movement seems to have its roots embedded in the 1920's when women were gaining their right to vote.  The feminist movement had its fair share of problems, one of which were how women of color still did not have the right to vote because of laws passed in the South. 

 In Valenti's Full Frontal Feminism, we learn that colored men received the right to vote before women of color.  The separation that society instilled in the feminist movement caused women of color to march separately from white women.  According to an online article called Black Women & The Suffrage Movement: 1848-1923,  “There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and colored women not theirs, the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.”  This quote from a lady named Sojourner Truth shows us the true implications of oppressing colored women during the women’s suffrage movement. 

 Despite these troubling times, women of color were collective and had the courage to keep fighting for their rights to vote, which eventually caused the 19^th Amendment to encompass every woman, regardless of color and race.  The history of oppressing women stems from the old idea’s which gave the power inside the house solely to the husband. 

 In Friedan’s article The Problem That Has no Name, we explore the social norms that have been created in history and their impact on women.  From being raised and taught how to take care of a child, satisfy the husband, clean the house, and cook in the kitchen, the majority of women have been shut away from their choice to live the life they always dreamt of.  The consequence on women’s conscious is evident because of the fact that society has placed dominance and leadership in the hands of man instead of woman.

 The image of a warrior symbolizes the feminist movement because despite their troubled moments, the movement has grown to encompass humanity as a whole and is slowly but surely working on creating equality in today’s world. 

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton, 1963. Print. 

 Kilson, Midge. "Black Women & The Suffrage Movement." Black Women & The Suffrage Movement: 1848-1923, MLK - Wesleyan University. PBS, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2002.

 Valenti, Jessica. Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2007. Print. 

Women & Power

The idea of women and power was recently displayed in the United States 2016 Presidential Election.  We saw a powerful female figure attempt to gain support so she can lead our nation and mark another step towards equalizing women and men.  However, her Presidential campaign was met with a lot of backlash, including people calling her a ‘bitch’ and ‘weak looking’.

  These terms had nothing to do with her proposals but were instead meant to demean the idea of a women sitting in a place of power. In Modules on Foucault, we learn that we are directly responsible as human beings to create our own individual powers.  The ridicule on a female candidate showed the world that we are far away from the idea that men and women are equal in this world.  However, Hilary Clinton’s campaign showed the nation that the courage of women is strong and if you fight for change, you can overcome great adversities.

  In an online article titled Fear of a Female President, we get an insight of the root of the reasons as to why the ridicule on Hilary Clinton was a sign of sexism.  The article states, “It’s relevant because the Americans who dislike her most are those who most fear emasculation. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, Americans who “completely agree” that society is becoming “too soft and feminine” were more than four times as likely to have a “very unfavorable” view of Clinton as those who completely disagree.”  People did not want America to become a ‘feminist’ nation and therefore a gender backlash was created.  Female empowerment is a potent force to be reckoned with, and Hilary’s candidacy was an example of women’s brave actions to show they can too be world leaders. 

 In Women And The Family, Plato argues that women and men have the same natural abilities, but women are weaker in realizing these abilities.  While his statements are highly debated, they are not meant to put down women.  They are instead insight as to why gender roles are formed in the first place.  Plato goes on to say that educating about women’s abilities and dis-empowering the male hierarchy structure can allow women to occupy positions of great status.  An example of educating women is the Black Feminist groups today, which are comprised of women of color who know they have the ability to do anything a man can do. While it is important to stay educated on topics regarding women and power, it would be even greater to see a woman in power because it will impose equality when viewing gender roles in leadership.  

Beinart, Peter. "Fear Of A Female President". The Atlantic. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"Introduction To Michel Foucault, Module On Power". Cla.purdue.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"Women And The Family". Book V 160-167. Print.