Taylor O’Neal
Women’s Studies
Final Paper : # 2
Feminism to Me
Feminism is a powerful word. It is one word that represents a long list of other conflicting words. Feminism has a sense of history, self-worth, strength, empowerment, pride, and triumph. Yet, it also carries the burden of devastation, misery, struggle, and constant controversy. How can one word come with an endless amount of opposing characteristics? One single word has caused problems for many people for many years because it involves so much background. This word is constantly disputed over because it can contain numerous meanings, and as time presses on, this word continually evolves and reforms. Feminism can hold many different meanings for many different people, but feminism to me is the struggle for equal rights and fair treatment for women anywhere, at anytime, and with anyone.
Today, the word feminism sadly has formed a negative reputation. When most people hear the word feminist, other words such as dyke, man-hater, liberals, bra-burners, and violent protesters come to mind. This so-called feminist stereotype has completely taken a misfortunate path because feminism should be thought of as a positive movement. In the book The F Word written by Kristen Rowe-Finkbeiner, examples are shown where feminism is mocked and frowned upon in today’s society by using words such as “feminazi”. One quote in the introduction of the book sarcastically stated by Cheris Kramerae says,” Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings“. Such sayings and descriptive terms of feminism should be frowned upon because they are wrongly informative on the true meaning of being a feminist. Yet, the most agreed upon correct definition of feminism (also firmly stated in the book) is: the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.
In Women’s Studies this semester, we watched a video called “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” that was on YouTube. It discussed how anyone can be a feminist no matter your gender, age, size, race, religion, or ethnicity. Men can even be feminists! Being a feminists is like being in one huge club full of supporters for women’s equality; it has no restrictions or code to join. The only criteria needed to be accepted into the “feminist club“, is to fully believe that women and men are created equal and that everyone should be given fair treatment. This short 2:49 minute long video fully explains what being a feminist looks like, and how it looks like anyone, because anyone can be a feminist!
Feminism is a movement that started centuries ago, that has since continually progressed. The movement continues to grow, and evolve into different issues. Beginning to start women’s right to vote transforming into fighting for abortion rights today. As it changes, it loses and gains supporters. Some women and men are scared to refer to themselves a feminists, worried that it might associate them with controversial beliefs, because the movement has strayed from its original purpose.
So far there have been three remarkable waves of the feminism movement. The first wave of feminism, beginning in the 1900’s, focused mainly on women’s right to vote. Women were powerless in political decisions until 1920, meaning they had to obey and follow the laws, yet had no say in making them. Women were subjective to men, and socially ranked beneath them. Without the right to vote and share their opinions on matters that involved their daily lives, women weren’t counted fully as citizens. After years of struggle, protest, and oppression women finally were able to speak their opinions, and take part in political processes. They also began working outside of the home, and gained jobs that seemed unusual for women to attain, which gave them more economical status. The first wave began the individualism of women, by giving them their freedom and their voice.
In the second wave of feminism more political and educational rights were gained. More women began achieving higher educations by pursuing college, which came along with more substantial paying careers. By putting themselves through college and rightfully earning respect through their intelligence and dedication, women slowly reshaped the common idea of women staying at home with the children. Also during this wave of feminism, the movement began to take on broader controversial issues. Feminism became a more diverse movement as various sexual rights joined the cause. While women started fighting for their sexual rights such as the rights to contraceptives and abortion, many other women started fighting for homosexuality rights. By bringing these issues to the movement, many more trials and problems were brought to the publics attention, that before went unspoken and ignored.
Finally, the third wave of feminism is still taking its course today. Feminism has evolved into a variety of issues mainly all relating to sex in one aspect or another. These issues are either problems based on sexual rights concerning the body such as abortion, or problems with different sexual orientation rights, or even problems due to the discrimination based a person’s sex or gender. The feminism movement has greatly conquered most of the issues it use to stand for, such as the right to vote, etc., yet most people still don’t see the obstacles that women still face today, and how the stereotypical role of women still commonly stands in our culture. While in this third wave of feminism we face issues of body images, and women in the work force, and sexual insults in the media. The third wave is still pressing on strong. At the rate the feminist movement continues to strive forward, the issues we face today will shortly be the new history we learned about before.
With gay and abortion rights coming into play, the feminist movement strayed away from the original problem at hand. The main goal for the feminist movement is equality in society for women. I believe including gay and abortion rights in the movement increased the negative reputation on the feminist effort, causing a decrease in support, because it weakens the focus on the main feminist issues. Homosexuality and abortion movements should become a separate effort, that way they each effort receives the undivided attention it deserve. When these struggles are broken down into individual issues, I believe they can be better understood and supported, leading to an overall progression. Imagine if each of these issues were divided and then conquered; our society would be a much more peaceful environment.
Women’s Studies invites our molded, conformed minds to see the world of women versus men in different ways. It teaches us to recognize certain aspects of life that once went easily ignored, such as when we learned about sexual advertisements. Before taking this class, most students didn’t give ads in magazines, television, and internet sources a second glance. Yet, after taking this course, we can see the sexual degradingness these advertisements in our culture contain. Women’s Studies also educates us on the history of the women’s movement, and helps us appreciate the rights that women fought for centuries ago, that we still take for granted every day. This class invites us to think out side of the society’s “norm”, and stand up for what we believe in, and live in the ways that make us happy. Women’s Studies, I believe, plays a big role in feminism, because it is the class that reveals the truth about our culture. Most people don’t even realize when they are subjected to gender harassment, or when they are referred to as lower beings, or judged based upon sexuality. This class teaches the difference between the “normal” and the justified.
Feminism to me stands for something empowering. I proudly own the title of a feminist. Saying I am a feminist means that I believe I am equal to every one else in this world as they are equal to me. Being a feminist doesn’t mean I hate men, and it doesn’t mean that I am a lesbian because I have a love/respect for women. This also doesn’t mean I believe women deserve better treatment then men, or that women deserve more in life than men do. It only means, that I believe in equality for anyone and everyone. Mostly I consider myself a humanist - and a feminist is only a subcategory of being a humanist. Overall being a humanist describes myself and my personal views. I personally believe that anyone has the right to be treated fairly. We are all humans, and we all struggle. Everyone deserves equality and respect whether they are male or female, black or white, gay or straight. Being a feminist plays a small part in being a humanist, so I fully consider myself a feminist. Feminism has become a part of me and my life. Even though the word feminism continues to represent various meanings, some bad, and some good, feminism to me stands for compassion, peace, love, equality, motivation, personal growth, and individuality. So why wouldn’t anyone want to be a feminist?
References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YA13GNT8Mc
The F Word by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
final paper # 1
Taylor O’Neal
Women’s Studies
Final Paper : #1
The Problem with Feminism
Feminism has conquered many of the issues it has fought for over the centuries. Women activists have gained women the right to vote, the right to get an education and a career, the rights to protect themselves with contraceptives, and it has brought many different sexual issues to the public‘s attention. However, the feminist movement continues to possess one flaw- the fact that there still a necessity for the movement at all. After years of progress and success, why is there still a requirement for the feminist movement? In this day in age, it’s shameful that in spite of everything it has accomplished, the need for the movement still exists. Our culture constantly evolves and progresses, one improvement after the other, yet social, political, and economical equality of women remains an issue. The feminist effort has been raging on for over a hundred years in our world, and yet we still face equality issues between men and women today. The women’s movement has triumphed over many objections through years of struggle and oppression, you‘d think the problems would be solved and forgotten by now.
This semester we learned a great deal about the feminist movement and the meaning of the word feminism. We’ve learned about the beginning, middle, and now the present stages of the feminist effort. The main concern for me now is: how come there hasn’t been an final stage yet? Five of our assigned readings in class cooperate well together on the issue that there still even an issue of feminism in the world today. The readings : White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack by Peggy McIntosh, Feminist Frontiers by Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp, He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know by Jessica Valenti, The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, and lastly The Will to Change by Bell Hooks, are all relating on women’s issues, and greatly connects to the most important detail that, the feminist movement is still necessary today.
The article written by Peggy McIntosh titled White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack is presenting how feminism and racism are very much similar. Men are constantly unaware of the advantages they have over women, just as many white people don’t realize their upper hand they have opposing to many black people. McIntosh begins the article by calling these men, and white people “privileged“, yet towards the end of her message, she transforms her idea of privileged, and it then becomes an “unearned advantage and conferred dominance“. We didn‘t earn the right to consider ourselves higher ranked above other human beings, but our society and culture teaches us to do so. Our society still maintains the ideas of women’s roles as being subjective to men, which has been born and bred into our culture, and therefore goes unquestioned and unnoticed. Her study of how men go through life unable to notice these advantages they have over women connects with the morality that there is still a need for the feminist movement, because this type of ignorance shouldn’t stay tolerated and unmentioned. Just because oppression isn’t popular, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be changed. The feminist movement opens the eyes to create this needed change.
Feminist Frontiers by Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp studies bicoastal women working in harsh conditions crafting products for the use of the United State. Women in the United States would never be expected to work in the condition as those that work overseas. The hourly wages in footwear factories are dramatically lower than the wages here in the United States. In China, the hourly wages are as low as $0.10-0.14 compared to our $7.38-7.49. With women being the majority of these factory employees, it proves that women in other societies still face feminist issues. In some countries the feminist movements are sadly paced behind ours, meaning that they have many more years of hard work ahead of them to achieve the progress we have accomplished here in the United States. Articles such as the Feminist Frontiers are just more supportive examples representing the present need for the feminist movement.
Next, the sarcastically comical assigned reading “He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut” by Jessica Valenti perfectly describes several different stereotypical scenarios where women receive unfair treatment just because the fact that they are indeed a woman. This article demonstrates that feminism should still be an issue in our culture with absolute perfection. The notion that men and women are thought of differently, and even if they perform the same actions, their consequences can be drastically different. For example, the stud/slut theory: when a woman has sex with multiple partners she is then considered used, promiscuous, and “slutty”, however, if a man has sex with multiple partners, he is given the reputation of a pimp, player, or “stud”. When this double standard is actually given thought, it seems ridiculous, yet the standard remains and endures. Also, the idea of the stay at home mother, and the big business man that works still stands in our society today. Slowly these standards presented in Valenti’s article are starting to falter and women are progressing against the stereotype, yet women still face these common misconceptions everyday.
Women are constantly subjected to body images in our society. Our culture still views women based upon their looks or their sexuality, instead of their minds and their personality. In The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, she discusses the timeline on the idea of “beautiful” that women are judged by. Wolf brings up an interesting point that the myth can destroy feminism, because it turns women against each other through jealousy-jealous of other women having what the others do not involving beauty. Year after year, the idealistic role of beautiful alters and so the women follow suit. Women stress about their weight, their wrinkles, their skin color, their hair styles, their outfits, and every other superficial aspect of appearance. Even though men are also judged upon their looks, women are greater looked after as objects instead of people. The third wave of feminism taking place today is struggling to fight against this so-called beauty myth, because the idea of beauty shouldn’t be categorized according to outward appearance, yet it should be determined by a person’s mind, personality, and soul. What determines beauty anyhow? Beauty isn’t something that should give women constant low self esteems, it should be something that is individual, and makes women love themselves because everyone is beautiful in their own way. The controversy over the Beauty Myth proves that there is still a dire need for feminism.
Lastly, the whole idea of feminism isn’t that women are better than men, or that men should lower themselves to women. Feminism is the idea that women are equal to men, and men are also equal to women. In an article by Bell Hooks called, The Will to Change, men face a lot of the same issues that women face when it comes to their personality and identity. Masculinity can be related to the beauty myth in our culture, because what defines a person’s masculinity or beauty? In the article Hooks expresses that boys at younger ages are more expressional of their emotions because they haven’t been taught to be tough and manly yet. However, as boys get older, they are treated with less emotional care than girls are, in order to toughen them up, and to avoid weakness. This stereotype that men should be masculine is the same wrong conception that women should be feminine. Our culture has determined masculinity as emotionless, strong, handsome, rough, and stable, while femininity is characterized as dainty, fragile, emotional, ditzy, and pretty. These misconceptions of “normal” men and women cause the problems with diversity in our society, making individuality hard to express with out facing ridicule. If women should be treated equal to men, then male issues should be brought to the table along with female issues. By recognizing the similar problems that men share with women, the feminist movement invites more controversies to cover and resolve. This results in prolonging the final wave of the feminist movement.
Each of theses assigned readings have taught me a great deal about the role of feminism still existing today. I strongly believe in the feminist movement, yet I can’t wrap my head around the problem that there still is the need for one. Our culture is so advanced in almost every aspect, yet we still can’t seem to get past the stereotypes of men and women roles in our society. Knowing that there is still a need for the feminist effort in the world I live, and plan on growing up in, makes me aware of the ignorance our culture still holds on to. This ignorance, I believe, will eventually be resolved, and men and women will hold equal respect for another. Yet, until then, the feminist movement presses forward because it will not give up on equality until every bridge has been crossed.
References:
The Beauty Myth “How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women” By Naomi Wolf
The Will to Change “Men, Masculinity, and Love” By Bell Hooks
Feminist Frontiers By Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp
White Privilege : Unpacking the Invisible Backpack By Peggy McIntosh
He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut “And 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know” By Jessica Valenti
Women’s Studies
Final Paper : #1
The Problem with Feminism
Feminism has conquered many of the issues it has fought for over the centuries. Women activists have gained women the right to vote, the right to get an education and a career, the rights to protect themselves with contraceptives, and it has brought many different sexual issues to the public‘s attention. However, the feminist movement continues to possess one flaw- the fact that there still a necessity for the movement at all. After years of progress and success, why is there still a requirement for the feminist movement? In this day in age, it’s shameful that in spite of everything it has accomplished, the need for the movement still exists. Our culture constantly evolves and progresses, one improvement after the other, yet social, political, and economical equality of women remains an issue. The feminist effort has been raging on for over a hundred years in our world, and yet we still face equality issues between men and women today. The women’s movement has triumphed over many objections through years of struggle and oppression, you‘d think the problems would be solved and forgotten by now.
This semester we learned a great deal about the feminist movement and the meaning of the word feminism. We’ve learned about the beginning, middle, and now the present stages of the feminist effort. The main concern for me now is: how come there hasn’t been an final stage yet? Five of our assigned readings in class cooperate well together on the issue that there still even an issue of feminism in the world today. The readings : White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack by Peggy McIntosh, Feminist Frontiers by Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp, He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know by Jessica Valenti, The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, and lastly The Will to Change by Bell Hooks, are all relating on women’s issues, and greatly connects to the most important detail that, the feminist movement is still necessary today.
The article written by Peggy McIntosh titled White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack is presenting how feminism and racism are very much similar. Men are constantly unaware of the advantages they have over women, just as many white people don’t realize their upper hand they have opposing to many black people. McIntosh begins the article by calling these men, and white people “privileged“, yet towards the end of her message, she transforms her idea of privileged, and it then becomes an “unearned advantage and conferred dominance“. We didn‘t earn the right to consider ourselves higher ranked above other human beings, but our society and culture teaches us to do so. Our society still maintains the ideas of women’s roles as being subjective to men, which has been born and bred into our culture, and therefore goes unquestioned and unnoticed. Her study of how men go through life unable to notice these advantages they have over women connects with the morality that there is still a need for the feminist movement, because this type of ignorance shouldn’t stay tolerated and unmentioned. Just because oppression isn’t popular, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be changed. The feminist movement opens the eyes to create this needed change.
Feminist Frontiers by Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp studies bicoastal women working in harsh conditions crafting products for the use of the United State. Women in the United States would never be expected to work in the condition as those that work overseas. The hourly wages in footwear factories are dramatically lower than the wages here in the United States. In China, the hourly wages are as low as $0.10-0.14 compared to our $7.38-7.49. With women being the majority of these factory employees, it proves that women in other societies still face feminist issues. In some countries the feminist movements are sadly paced behind ours, meaning that they have many more years of hard work ahead of them to achieve the progress we have accomplished here in the United States. Articles such as the Feminist Frontiers are just more supportive examples representing the present need for the feminist movement.
Next, the sarcastically comical assigned reading “He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut” by Jessica Valenti perfectly describes several different stereotypical scenarios where women receive unfair treatment just because the fact that they are indeed a woman. This article demonstrates that feminism should still be an issue in our culture with absolute perfection. The notion that men and women are thought of differently, and even if they perform the same actions, their consequences can be drastically different. For example, the stud/slut theory: when a woman has sex with multiple partners she is then considered used, promiscuous, and “slutty”, however, if a man has sex with multiple partners, he is given the reputation of a pimp, player, or “stud”. When this double standard is actually given thought, it seems ridiculous, yet the standard remains and endures. Also, the idea of the stay at home mother, and the big business man that works still stands in our society today. Slowly these standards presented in Valenti’s article are starting to falter and women are progressing against the stereotype, yet women still face these common misconceptions everyday.
Women are constantly subjected to body images in our society. Our culture still views women based upon their looks or their sexuality, instead of their minds and their personality. In The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, she discusses the timeline on the idea of “beautiful” that women are judged by. Wolf brings up an interesting point that the myth can destroy feminism, because it turns women against each other through jealousy-jealous of other women having what the others do not involving beauty. Year after year, the idealistic role of beautiful alters and so the women follow suit. Women stress about their weight, their wrinkles, their skin color, their hair styles, their outfits, and every other superficial aspect of appearance. Even though men are also judged upon their looks, women are greater looked after as objects instead of people. The third wave of feminism taking place today is struggling to fight against this so-called beauty myth, because the idea of beauty shouldn’t be categorized according to outward appearance, yet it should be determined by a person’s mind, personality, and soul. What determines beauty anyhow? Beauty isn’t something that should give women constant low self esteems, it should be something that is individual, and makes women love themselves because everyone is beautiful in their own way. The controversy over the Beauty Myth proves that there is still a dire need for feminism.
Lastly, the whole idea of feminism isn’t that women are better than men, or that men should lower themselves to women. Feminism is the idea that women are equal to men, and men are also equal to women. In an article by Bell Hooks called, The Will to Change, men face a lot of the same issues that women face when it comes to their personality and identity. Masculinity can be related to the beauty myth in our culture, because what defines a person’s masculinity or beauty? In the article Hooks expresses that boys at younger ages are more expressional of their emotions because they haven’t been taught to be tough and manly yet. However, as boys get older, they are treated with less emotional care than girls are, in order to toughen them up, and to avoid weakness. This stereotype that men should be masculine is the same wrong conception that women should be feminine. Our culture has determined masculinity as emotionless, strong, handsome, rough, and stable, while femininity is characterized as dainty, fragile, emotional, ditzy, and pretty. These misconceptions of “normal” men and women cause the problems with diversity in our society, making individuality hard to express with out facing ridicule. If women should be treated equal to men, then male issues should be brought to the table along with female issues. By recognizing the similar problems that men share with women, the feminist movement invites more controversies to cover and resolve. This results in prolonging the final wave of the feminist movement.
Each of theses assigned readings have taught me a great deal about the role of feminism still existing today. I strongly believe in the feminist movement, yet I can’t wrap my head around the problem that there still is the need for one. Our culture is so advanced in almost every aspect, yet we still can’t seem to get past the stereotypes of men and women roles in our society. Knowing that there is still a need for the feminist effort in the world I live, and plan on growing up in, makes me aware of the ignorance our culture still holds on to. This ignorance, I believe, will eventually be resolved, and men and women will hold equal respect for another. Yet, until then, the feminist movement presses forward because it will not give up on equality until every bridge has been crossed.
References:
The Beauty Myth “How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women” By Naomi Wolf
The Will to Change “Men, Masculinity, and Love” By Bell Hooks
Feminist Frontiers By Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp
White Privilege : Unpacking the Invisible Backpack By Peggy McIntosh
He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut “And 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know” By Jessica Valenti