Development of Feminism

Rosemarie Tong does an excellent job of laying out the progress of feminism and how it has changed through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. In the 18th century middle class ladies were perfect women. They sacrificed everything for their husbands and were not permitted to make their own decisions. What I was surprised to learn about was that there was a well known woman author speaking out for women at this time. Mary Wollstonecraft urged women to become autonomous decision makers. For her the ideal woman was less interested in fulfilling her duty that in self control and was a rational agent whose dignity consisted of self determination. Then as the 19th century came around people began to build on the idea of women's rights with the beginning of the suffragist movement. Men began to get involved in the movement following Wollstonecraft's idea that women need to be able to think rationally. I was very interested when Tong began to talk about John Mill a man supporting women. I really enjoyed Mill's saying that "even if all women are worse than all men at something, this does not justify forbidding women from trying to do it." This is a very important step for the women's movement because this is a man saying it is okay for women to try and to be able to  do the same things men do. By the time the 20th century came around women gained the right to vote and the focus moved more towards equal rights. What I found interesting is that the equal rights they were fight for then are still being sought after today. We are waiting for the day when all human beings are able and willing to manifest both traditionally male and traditionally female traits.

Feminism in Pop Culture

Valenti does it again in the chapter on pop culture from her book Full Frontal Feminism. She manages to make feminism and its ideal easy to understand and interesting for her readers. In this section specifically she talks about the view of sex in pop culture. One thing she talks about that I think is very interesting is ideal of a "sexy virgin". This is essentially an oxymoron that our culture today has come to see as the norm for girls these days. It is a fine line that all girls are working around. Trying to be as sexy as possible and enticing the approval of men, while at the same time virginal and uncorrupted. This image was extremely popular when I was younger with celebrities like Britney Spears. She went from an innocent girl to a sex symbol in a matter of a few years from "Baby One More Time" to "I'm A Slave 4 You". Suddenly this person that young girls looked up to was all about "I'm a slave for you. I cannot hold it, I cannot control it". Everything was about being the perfect girl to get the guys. Valenti's book addresses this fact and tells girls and women alike to remember their purpose is not for man's enjoyment but to be a person too.

Biology of the Sexes

I highly enjoyed today's class and our discussion of the more biological side of what makes males male and females female. I thought is was quite interesting the amount of research that has been done on the subject. I found it interesting that many of the stereotypes we know about men and women are actually supported by biology. Like the stereotype that men don't listen is supported by the fact that women tend to use both sides of their brains while men exclusively use only the left side of their brains. Also the stereotype that women are picky is based on the way that woman choose a mate to reproduce with. Women have to be more selective when choosing a mate because they need to make sure the male can take care of them and their offspring. I also found it interesting that the professor argued that homosexuality isn't a choice due to biological studies done of the nuclei behind the first few layers of the eye. Another interesting fact that we learned is that men tend to choose a more normal sized life long partner over the super skinny woman that society has led us to believe is the most attractive. I found this bit of information to be very comforting as a woman who has grown up in the shadow of this stereotype. While I do not believe I am fat, every girl at some point has had that feeling that they are not beautiful and not attractive to guys and will never get a boyfriend. At those points this bit of science is very comforting for any girl who has ever felt that way.

Male Feminism

In "Feminism is for EVERYBODY" by Bell Hooks I loved the chapter on Feminist Masculinity. It went right along with the questions I posed in one of my other posts, why isn't there a maleist group? Well it turns out there is, it's just not really publicized. While Hooks' stance on maleism is a bit different than what I originally outlined, I really like what she says. Hooks says, "What is needed is a vision of masculinity where self-esteem and self-love of one's unique being forms the basis of identity." Men need to move away from the patriarchal masculinity that says they get their identity from dominating others. In other words men need to become less macho in order for women and men to be equal and for feminism to be seen as okay. I agree with Hooks in that melding of the sexes instead of stark division is what is needed. There needs to be more literature stressing the development of an identity based less in sexism and more in other aspects.
At the Beyond Tolerance lecture on Thursday, Mark Rhodes made us examine the emphasis we ourselves and society place on different aspects of our identity. One category was our sex. Most people I talked to put down that your sex played a big part in the identity we and society creates for us. Two of the columns on the works sheet were list the ways in which this identity is positively viewed by society and list the ways in which this identity is negatively viewed by society. A friend of mine put that being a female is society means being beautiful (positive) and weak (negative). And I had to agree. Society has made the female seem only for show in its beauty and worthless in its weakness. But I know many beautiful, strong women, beautifully powerful women, and utterly amazing women. Still society sees these women as weak of body and mind, only around to please men. Society needs to start embracing the idea that a woman can be strong and that a man can be weak. In class we pondered whether one sex, being defined in relation to what it has and the other doesn't, could change without the other one changing. I have decided that no it cannot. Until the definition of a woman can stand alone from the definition of a man, one cannot change without the other changing as well. Until a man can be accepted as sensitive and "womanly", a woman cannot fully be accepted as strong and "manly".

Exploring Roles in Gender

When people were first asked to volunteer in class yesterday, I was a bit wary of what was to come next. But what followed was great. I loved watching how women and men viewed the opposite sex and their interactions. The great part about it was that although the actors played to many of the gendered stereotypes, not all of the acting was incorrect. The two girls playing guys were more aggressive and competitive while watching the "football game." And the interesting thing was that when we were given a chance to say what was wrong with the interaction, many of the guys said they were not aggressive enough instead of too much. Then the two guys pretending to be girls going shopping played directly into the stereotype of women. Although there was more criticism of them than the male scenario, much of what they did was accurate. Through this class I found that not all stereotypes are complete fallacies and that most of them actually have some ground in truth.

Hardcore Feminism

Valenti's criticism of the stereotypes of feminisms was absolutely great. She managed to talk about feminism without it being the elephant in the room. She didn't tiptoe around the point. She confronted the issue from the very beginning with her question "What's the worst thing you can call a woman?" Then responded with some words most of us would never dare say in front of our parents, let alone our friends. This approach continues through out the entire chapter, bold and in your face language. But at the same time she confronts the issues surrounding feminism while also clearing up what feminism actually means. I found it interesting that the definition she gives for feminism (from the dictionary) is: belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. This got me thinking, why is it called feminism? and why is it unacceptable for a guy to be one? Now I know that the term came about with the beginning of the women's rights movement and that essentially a feminism goes against male superiority, but nowadays why can't a man be a feminist, or better yet a maleist? The term feminism does not specify male or female in the definition. So why isn't there a male equivalent? Why aren't there any maleist's out there fighting for men to be seen as something more than just dumb jocks who think with their libido or geeky nerds who only play with computers?

I also found that this article went well with our discussion in class on Thursday. We asked why are girls seen as perfect and beautiful in the media and why anyone who doesn't fit that bill is seen as ugly or a dyke. Valenti addresses this issue as well, in wondering why do we have these stereotypes and why women have to fit into one category or the other. She says all women should think of themselves as beautiful and not ascribe to the categories of fat, ugly or beautiful. A woman should not accept one of these levels in life just because that is what society has ascribed for you. She emphasizes the fact that no woman should be threatened by the "ugly stick". Just because someone says your ugly doesn't make it so.