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What is Feminism? and other tangents

My feminism is NOT one about women’s rights, and frankly, it really bothers me when the movement is reduced to women’s rights. I understand that it came out of “women’s rights” but I wish that the general movement were beyond that now, the way we are no longer about suffrage.

My feminism is “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression” (bell hooks). hooks tells us that this definition demands that we understand what sexism is.

So what is sexism? I think sexism is sex/gender essentialism— the idea that knowing someone’s sex or gender tells you anything useful and innate about any individual within that gender or sex category. For instance, sex essentialism tells us that if women are weaker than men, than any individual woman should be slower than any individual man, or it tells us that if women are naturally more nurturing than men, than any individual woman is more nurturing than any individual man.

But how do we know what to infer when sex and gender essentializing? In other words, how do we know how to complete the phrase: woman are _____ and men are _____. Ah, yes. From gender stereotypes. But stereotype is really just a word for “something that poses as a definition, but is only sometimes true.” For example, men don’t cry. Okay, so stereotypes are definitions that are not always true, they are definitions that we have already conceded are not really definitions. But what are some ...

On Feminist Marriages

you can love something and still be critical of it, no? Well, I love the feministing.com community but here is my 2 cents on the marriage debate, in the form of an outline for a paper that I am planning on writing in my Gender and Religion class— also, its a rather rough outline so the ideas might not all make sense yet…

Divorcing Marriage From Tradition

The Neoliberal Feminist Fantasy

I.            Introduction:

While marriage is widely accepted among feminists as a heteropatriarchal institution, many feminists still choose to get married. This paper will explore the reasons that feminists give for getting married, and how that informs the way that feminists see themselves retheorizing the patriarchal ...

you can love something and still be critical of it, no? Well, I love the feministing.com community but here is my 2 cents on the marriage debate, in the form of an outline for a paper that ...

Dear Friends, DV 101

I have just completed a 40 hour training course to become a Domestic Violence Counselor. And part of our ‘homework’ in this course was to share what we learn with our friends. So, my friends, here is a short summary of what I have learned:

28% of homes experience domestic violence. This number is probably lower than it actually is.

1 in 4 women will be or are in an abusive relationship.

45% of women and 75% of men who grow up in an abusive household will pass on the abuse in their adult relationships by either being abusive (battering) or having an abusive partner.

95% of batterers are men. The number of women batterers is ...

I have just completed a 40 hour training course to become a Domestic Violence Counselor. And part of our ‘homework’ in this course was to share what we learn with our friends. So, my friends, here ...

Help on starting a women’s discussion group!

So I am planning on leading a women’s issues discussion group at my college next semester. Last semester we had a small pilot group going but this summer I have to really nail some things down.

The main idea of my group is that every week we read some chapters from books (that I will assign) and then come in and discuss them in relation to American society, that of our college, our relationships, our lives and ourselves. The goal is to "decolonize our minds" and wake up from patriarchy (empowerment!), while creating a sisterhood of women (in whatever way) of all races (our school is somewhat socially segregated.) So it’s about learning, growing, and making friends. And then we also ...

So I am planning on leading a women’s issues discussion group at my college next semester. Last semester we had a small pilot group going but this summer I have to really nail some things down.

The main ...

sexist ad?

Hey

so I have been surfing around this sight for ages but this is my first post! and I’d like a little advice. There is a poster ad up around my school right now for a music concert titled "aural pleasure" and the picture was up red lipstick covered lips licking maraschino cherries (or lollypops?) that are actually speakers. And I thought it was a little sexist, but I’m pretty new at articulating this stuff and I can’t put my finger exactly on why, but I wrote in to the people putting on the event and tried my best. I tried to point out how it was very clearly an image of a woman getting "oral pleasure" from the lollypop, ...

Hey

so I have been surfing around this sight for ages but this is my first post! and I’d like a little advice. There is a poster ad up around my school right now for a music ...