Cassie O’Donnell
May 13, 2008
Women Studies250
Assignment 4
Prior to this course, I have heard the word “feminism” many times throughout my life however; I never really understood what it meant. Our society often distorts and manipulates ideals and beliefs that do not coincide with the “norms” of society. Feminism is just that. The media portrays feminism and women in very unflattering ways. Due to the stereotypes about feminism, I was very skeptical about taking this course. Now, I am glad I did. This course has been a huge eye opener for me. I now have a better understanding of what the “story” of feminism is and how my life ties into the story.
The first part of the story focuses on giving an introduction to women, art, and culture. We were required to visit museums in D.C. and write about our findings. At first I was confused. I had no idea what to write about because I really did not understand what feminism means, so how could I tell whether or a not an institution related to feminism? This was a great way to start off the course. It allowed me to visit museums that I would normally not visit and I got a better understanding of what I thought feminism was. I realized that feminism was not about “hairy-legged, man-hating, lesbians trying to gain more power over men. As I studied the institutions, the artwork was portrayed in a way to commemorate woman as opposed to women being powerful. I realized feminism is the movement whose goal is to make social, economic, and political rights for women equal to those of men. Now with a basic understanding of what feminism is, I was anxious and ready to learn more.
After the first assignment, we began reading Seely’s book Flight Like a Girl introduced the stereotypes of feminism. This tied into our first assignment in the aspect of trying to break away from our old assumptions about feminism. I was heavily impacted by the stereotypes of feminism before I started this course and due to the very first assignment, my perceptions of feminism had changed drastically. If I hadn’t gone to the museums and read this book, I would have probably never thought twice about trying to understand feminism.
As we moved on from that aspect of feminism, we then were assigned our second assignment which focused on art activism. Our class worked as a group to create a feminist event and come up with our own definition of feminism. This was a very fun assignment which really got the whole class involved! At first everyone was afraid to share their thoughts because no one was really sure what the precise definition was. Once we began talking, ideas just poured from our mouths. It was interesting to see that almost everyone in our group had the same assumptions coming into this assignment about feminism and women in general. We all agreed that we were guilty of being blinded by the stereotypes of feminists. After researching feminism and some brain-storming, we decided to create a brochure about the misconceptions and stereotypes about feminism. It was named “The Dirty Little F Word”. We decided that this was the perfect title for our brochure because everyone tried to avoid the term feminism. After gathering everyone’s ideas, we came up with our own definition of feminism. We agreed that feminism “is the movement whose goal is to make the social, political, and economic rights for women equal to those of men; eliminating gender barriers, and overall pro-woman but not anti-male. Feminists are not saying that men as individuals are the problem; the problem is the unquestioned power they receive because of their sex. Women’s worth in the world has lead to a system that creates inequalities based on perceived gender and differences”.
This assignment was a great way to interact with the other students in the class and help each other gain a better understanding of what feminism means to us and others. During this project, I found that I too am a feminist as well and that my preconceived images of feminists are merely media stereotypes. I think the guys in our group were also confused because they thought they had to be female in order to be considered a feminist. The guys said in the beginning of the assignment that they didn’t consider themselves feminists because it never occurred to them that they should be. When you’re not faced with challenges thrown up by gender, it’s easy to not think about feminism and its impact on women. By the end of this assignment the guys realized that they their lives may not be challenged daily due to gender, however they believe that men and women should be socially, politically, and economically equal and that alone makes them feminist. This section of our journey was a huge turning point in the story of feminism and how we fit into it. Bell Hooks book Feminism is for Everybody also had a huge impact on the ways I perceived feminism at this point in the class. In this book, she speaks directly to young females who know little or nothing about feminism. I was one of those who assumed that sexism was not a major issue today. I think her work had a significant impact on everyone in the class.
The second assignment was essential for our third assignment. Now with a deeper understanding and perspective about feminism we began reading Kindred. This book allowed us to familiarize ourselves with the ideas of power and marked and unmarked categories. This idea brought us to our third assignment. While using the Matrix of Domination, the third assignment was designed to focus more on ourselves and examine how power is illustrated in various forms throughout our everyday lives, involving race, social class, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, ect. We worked collaboratively with a partner which made it more interesting. My partner was an African American male coming from a different social class, religion, and gender than I am. Working with him allowed me to gain an insight on what it’s like to be a person of a different color, gender, religion, etc. and compare his privileges and limitations during everyday life to my own. There were ways in which I was privileged while he was oppressed and vice versa. Surprisingly, I came to the conclusion that all people are oppressed and privileged in some way or another.
The final assignment is to synthesize the entire class experience into a story and how I fit into that story. At first, this was difficult for me to do because I have taken so much from this course that I could not share all of my experiences and feelings in just a few pages. Now looking back, this class and feminism was already a story and somewhere down the line I became a character in this story. This class started with a simple definition leaving it up to us to define. While trying to define feminism, we began defining ourselves. It was then that I realized I was a part of this story. After that, everything started to make perfect sense. This is a story about how the word feminist has gone from possessing a respected meaning of female strength and quest of equality and happiness to being avoided and unclaimed by most of our generation. There are so many misconceptions and stereotypes about feminism that many tend to shy away from owning the title. In the beginning of this story, I was considered one of those whom avoided the title. Today, at the end of this story, I am proud to say that I own that title. I believe that women and men should be socially, politically, and economically equal, so therefore I am a feminist. I feel that this class helped me grow not only as a woman, but as a person.
I am so glad I got the opportunity to take this course. I am leaving this class more open minded and anxious to learn more about feminism. I am not ending this story here; I am going to start a new chapter. I will take with me everything I have learned from this class and hopefully help others better understand feminism as well.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Assignment 4
Akash Garg
May 13, 2008
WMST 250 - King
Section 0107 – Perez
“The Story of WMST 250: Women, Art, and Culture”
The class WMST 250: Women, Art, and Culture really changed my views about these three things. The purpose of this course was to open our eyes so that we could see how art and culture in the world around us relates to feminism. To do this, the course was divided into four segments. The first segment was an introduction to women, art, and culture and allowed us to get firsthand looks at various pieces of art. The second segment allowed us to become art activists by using art to bring attention to the controversial issue of feminism. In the next segment, we looked at our everyday lives and analyzed power struggles between the marked and unmarked categories. Finally, we looked back on everything we learned to see the overall story of the course and how we fit into it. We used various meaningful readings to relate us to the overall story of the class.
In the beginning of the course, we were able to look at artwork done by different people to figure out the relationship between the artwork and feminism. We visited different museums in Washington D.C. to view the artwork. We went to the museums with our own assumptions about what we would find and we were supposed to write all the reactions we had to the artwork. The assumptions we discovered were the foundation for the other parts of the course. We needed to begin a process of unlearning these previous assumptions in order to really learn the relationship between art and culture and feminism.
Trying to figure out our assumptions in this way was extremely effective. Going out and actually experiencing the museums and then writing down our reactions/assumptions as they came about was not only fun but very helpful and effective. Professor King made it easier for us by making us go out of our way to see the artwork in person opposed to looking at it online or in a magazine/brochure.
After figuring out our assumptions about women, art, and culture we then became art activists in order to use art as a means to get rid of our assumptions and learn the truth about feminism. We created a fictional event in which we would speak about our assumptions and they were wrong. We came up with a general definition for feminism which was: Feminism is the movement whose goal is to make the social, political and economic rights for women equal to those of men; eliminating gender barriers, and overall pro-woman but not anti-male. They are not saying that men as individuals are the problem; the problem is the unquestioned power they receive because of their sex. Women’s worth in the world has to lead to a system that creates inequalities based on perceived gender differences. Making this event and brochure let us take our assumptions and figure out which ones were correct and incorrect. It was not only my assumptions that we looked at, it was my entire discussion group’s assumptions which made it even more interesting because we were able to see which assumptions were more common than others.
In lectures, Professor King stressed the fact that in order to truly learn about women, art, and culture and to truly grasp the main point of the course we would need to unlearn our previous assumptions so that we would be open to newer ideas. Doing the brochure for the fictional event was a perfect way to do this process of unlearning. In discussion groups and other times were my group met we were able to break apart our assumptions and learn about what feminism was really about through discussion. Another thing we gained by doing a brochure was we fought with the issue of making the brochure interesting. One of the assumptions we had was that the majority of people didn’t care about feminism and simply weren’t interested. We were able to experience the same barrier that other feminists had faced when trying to have real events and talks about feminism. Being able to get that experience made doing the brochure even more interesting and enlightening.
At this point in the course we had gotten rid of our assumptions and were open to newer ideas. We began discussing the ideas of power and marked and unmarked categories. This third segment of the course was more about examining our everyday lives and analyzing how individual power is influenced by the idea of marked and unmarked categories. We learned that placement into either of these categories is determined by a person’s race, gender, class, sexuality, language, religion, nationality, or age. The unmarked category is always the majority/what is normal. However, this is dependent on the specific situation being examined. For example, the unmarked category for race in the United States is white, while the unmarked category for race in Africa is black. More specifically, we learned that how much power a person has is determined by which category they are in. More often than not, those in the unmarked category have more power than those in the marked category and are able to dominate the latter because of it. We also learned how this idea of marked and unmarked categories relates to feminism and that women are generally considered marked and because of that have always been dominated by men.
This was the main point of the course, this idea of power and marked and unmarked categories in our society today. The course was set up in a way that we could learn and grasp this idea as best as we could. In the beginning, we learned about our personal assumptions of women, art, and culture, and then we began to unlearn these assumptions after that. Finally, we analyzed the world around us and figured out how the fundamental concept of power and marked and unmarked categories relate to feminism. Professor King made the first two segments prepare us for the third, main segment of the course.
Now as the course comes to an end, I look back at the course as a whole and want to figure out exactly how I fit into its story. I came to a lot of realizations about women, art, culture, and also myself. In the beginning I knew that I had assumptions about the course and about women, art, and culture. The first assignment allowed me to realize all of those assumptions and I was surprised as to how many I had. Going to and experiencing the museums brought all of my assumptions out and really made the rest of the course a meaningful experience for me. Then putting these assumptions into the brochure and talking about why they were wrong and what the truth really was, was extremely enlightening. At first I felt that going to these museums and making the brochure would not really help me realize anything or be meaningful at all, but after seeing how they both related to the third assignment and the main focus of the course makes them meaningful and enlightening. The course was about showing how art and culture relate to feminism and about proving that it does happen in the real world. Looking at marked and unmarked categories I saw the struggles of power that women face from being in the marked category and it really proved the focus of the course. It really allowed me to see what the course was getting at and why we did all of the things we did. I also learned a lot about myself with the third assignment because we looked at ourselves and saw which category we were in for different things. Before the course, I felt that I would be very marked and would be in more marked categories than unmarked, but in reality I am only in the marked category because of my race and religion. With regards to gender, class, sexuality, language, nationality, and age I am part of the unmarked category. This was a big epiphany for me because I had experienced racism and had seen times where people of my race were marked and had less power than others and because of that I felt like I was also very marked, but this simply was not the case.
Throughout the course we were assigned various readings, and a lot of these were very interesting and meaningful to me. One of these was Megan Seely’s Fight Like a Girl. The main thing I liked about her book was that she constantly said that feminism is not about hating men but about making women equal to men. This was really meaningful to me because one of the main assumptions I had about feminists were that they all hated men for putting them in the subordinate position and wanted women to be seen as better than men but that really isn’t the case. Feminists are more about gender equality than anything else. They simply do not want women to be treated differently than men and that is really the fundamental concept behind feminism.
Another one of the readings from the course that I found to be very meaningful to me was bell hooks’ Feminism is for EVERYBODY. One of the main things I really liked about this book was that it was a short, concise handbook about feminism. In her introduction, she talks about how she wanted to write the book because she wanted to have a simple book for people to read because she felt that if they knew more about feminism they would not have such negative biases about it. I agree with her on this point and am glad for a book like this one. It is short, easy to read and gets its point across effectively. She goes back and describes feminism very generally and talks briefly about her experiences with it. One point of hers that I do not agree with is what she said about romantic, patriarchal love being all about possession and male dominance. However, she did make an interesting argument for that point and the fact that the divorce rate in the U.S. has been steadily increasing supports her point.
Out of all of the readings, the one that was most enlightening to me was Cynthia Freeland’s But is it art? In this book, Freeland talks a lot about the reasons behind art and it was very interesting to see that a lot of artwork is done to expand our awareness and to emphasize social reforms. I had always known that art was an artist’s way of expressing his or her feelings but I never really grasped the idea that most of them were making statements about social reforms and about the world around them. Freeland showed many examples of art and then analyzed them and discussed the reasons behind them. These analyses she made are what made this book the most meaningful one in this course.
At the first lecture for the class, I thought that I would not enjoy the course and that it would be all about feminism and about how men were bad and all of the other assumptions I had. However, after going through the class and meeting the requirement Professor King set for us I have been able to realize that the goal of the class was to get us to realize the relationship between art and culture and feminism. After unlearning my assumptions and then learning all about the how power is influenced by the marked and unmarked categories and about how this idea relates to feminism, I look back on the class and am happy to have taken it. I learned more than I thought I would and the class became a very meaningful experience for me.
assignment #4
Throughout the Women’s Studies course, I have learned more about myself as a person. I’ve learned to be more open minded about different topics, particularly feminism and art activism throughout this course. I believe the main focus of the course was to introduce women’s culture as well as teach others to unlearn what they may believe to be the truth. The purpose of the course was also for academic reasons. This course is one of the requirements for the Humanities field here at Maryland. The course was constructed this way to show students the truth behind what many people in society believe about feminism, art, and activism. The reading and writing assignments, notes from class, free writes, and journal entries allowed us as students to explore the world of women’s culture. To do so, we were instructed to complete four assignments, we engaged in discussions in class, we viewed videos and pictures, and we had many free writes to express our ideas and shared them with the class.
The first was to visit four museums in the D.C. area in order to discover and unlearn the assumptions about feminism, women, and art. We were instructed to note our assumptions and what we expected to see. We were also asked to record our findings, particularly those that shocked us. Before visiting the museums, I had many assumptions about each of them. I didn’t know that art could express so many things. I thought feminists were angry women trying to obtain equal rights. I quickly learned that what I think I may be true may actually be a stereotype or myth. All of my assumptions were wrong. Much of the art showed how women have contributed to society and played important roles throughout history. I then tried to determine if the museum itself was actually feminist. I really couldn’t determine this at the time because it wasn’t until assignment two that I learned the true definition of a feminist. In the lecture, we engaged in free writes and open discussions about what we thought would be in the museums. In the discussion sections, we also discussed the experience and how we had grown as a result of the experience.
The second assignment was to actually evaluate what feminism really was. As a group, my discussion members and I were instructed to create a feminist event and a flyer which explained the event as well as give a detailed definition of feminism. As a group, we created a feminist forum in which we gave the true meaning, goals, and description of a feminist. The purpose of the forum was to eliminate the stereotypes of feminists. We portrayed many of those stereotypes in a slide show as we presented to the class. We defined feminism as “the movement whose goal is to make the social, political and economic rights for women equal to those of men; eliminating gender barriers, and overall pro-woman but not anti-male. They are not saying that men as individuals are the problem; the problem is the unquestioned power they receive because of their sex. Women’s worth in the world has to lead to a system that creates inequalities based on perceived gender differences.” After completing this assignment, I learned what feminism really was. As stated before, there are many stereotypes of feminists and some of those stereotypes I had also believed. Some examples of stereotypes of feminists are angry, boring, loud, annoying, butch, lonely, and lesbian. I came to realize that feminists were normal women who just wanted to have equal rights as men. They aren’t man haters or angry women at all. To confirm my findings, I viewed pictures and videos in the lecture as well as engaged in an in depth discussion about feminism in the discussion section.
The third assignment introduced us to the matrices of domination. These are factors that we may or may not control. These factors allow us to be powerful or powerless in a certain situation. We were instructed to analyze ourselves in everyday life and how we fit into society. With a partner, we analyzed ourselves and showed how we were considered marked and unmarked in a certain environment, situation, or society as a whole based on our race, gender, religion, geographical location, etc. I learned that there are many factors in my life which caused me to feel powerless in a certain situation. I explained how I felt powerless as a black person in Montgomery County being that I am from D.C and not used to being around so many white people at once. My partner showed how she was powerless in Brooklyn, New York with her boyfriend being that she was white in a predominately black neighborhood. This assignment showed me that there are factors that we cannot control but have to deal with in everyday life. For some our personal characteristics may hinder us. For others, we are one step higher in society. I learned that we cannot dwell on why we are different but learn to accept it, and then get over the differences. The final assignment is to synthesize the entire class experience. As I put the story together, I realize how much I have changed as far as my views.
experiencing these assignments, I learned how I fit into the story. I learned that I changed as a person. I was more open-minded. I came to realize that I should research something before actually making assumptions and believing stereotypes. I learned the true meaning of feminism and who feminists really were. I agreed with many of the beliefs of feminists but I had never thought about actually considering myself a feminist at this point. I also realized how I fit into society and how I could be labeled marked or unmarked, depending on the situation and my location.
As far as the readings, I felt they were effective in the course. The book Feminism is for Everybody, by Bell Hooks was very helpful when completing the second assignment. Hooks gave us a good but broad definition of feminism and who feminists really were. From her book, my group and I were able to effectively create a more detailed definition of feminism. Personally, I enjoyed reading the book because it taught me the true meaning of feminism. I was able to “unlearn” all of the stereotypes that I had previously had about feminists and I gained new knowledge about who feminists were and why they fought so hard to have equal rights. Hooks showed that feminism isn’t only for women. Anyone who believed in women’s rights could be a feminist.
The next book that was most important to me was Megan Seely’s How to Fight Like a Girl, How to be a Fearless Feminist. This book was very insightful to me on a personal level. One key point that stood out to me was that this book gave the tips and steps to fighting like a girl, or a feminist. The book informed women not to be afraid and fight for what they believed was right for them as a whole. This gave tips about working with the media and how to actually “take action” against the inequality between men and women. The book also showed me the contributions by many women that we fail to realize today. I felt that I could really make a difference if I used the book as a guide because it was so detailed. This book also helped me complete the second assignment because I knew what it took to actually be a fearless feminist and take action against those that don’t believe in women’s rights.
The final book I gained insight from was Kindred, by Octavia Butler. This book showed the power that many people have as a result of who they are. This book gave me a lot of insight as well as helped me complete my own conceptual map of how I am structured in society.
So, after analyzing the course and telling my story, I believe the purpose of the course was to shape the students as individuals and teach us the truth behind women, feminism, and art. It was also used as a way for the students to determine if they were feminists or not. I learned that I agree with most of the arguments of feminists, however, I do not consider myself a feminist. I have also changed many of my views and opinions about feminism. When I began this course, I didn’t see how art could speak to me. I didn’t know that art could be so powerful. I really didn’t take the time to notice and appreciate what was around me. For example, if it wasn’t for the experience in assignment one, I doubt I would have ever visited any of those museums. If I hadn’t done assignment two, I wouldn’t have known what feminism really was. In assignment three, I learned how I fit into society and learned to accept it. And finally, assignment four, I learned how all of my experiences and findings connect to each other. The course as a whole was very insightful and I enjoyed every minute of it.
The first was to visit four museums in the D.C. area in order to discover and unlearn the assumptions about feminism, women, and art. We were instructed to note our assumptions and what we expected to see. We were also asked to record our findings, particularly those that shocked us. Before visiting the museums, I had many assumptions about each of them. I didn’t know that art could express so many things. I thought feminists were angry women trying to obtain equal rights. I quickly learned that what I think I may be true may actually be a stereotype or myth. All of my assumptions were wrong. Much of the art showed how women have contributed to society and played important roles throughout history. I then tried to determine if the museum itself was actually feminist. I really couldn’t determine this at the time because it wasn’t until assignment two that I learned the true definition of a feminist. In the lecture, we engaged in free writes and open discussions about what we thought would be in the museums. In the discussion sections, we also discussed the experience and how we had grown as a result of the experience.
The second assignment was to actually evaluate what feminism really was. As a group, my discussion members and I were instructed to create a feminist event and a flyer which explained the event as well as give a detailed definition of feminism. As a group, we created a feminist forum in which we gave the true meaning, goals, and description of a feminist. The purpose of the forum was to eliminate the stereotypes of feminists. We portrayed many of those stereotypes in a slide show as we presented to the class. We defined feminism as “the movement whose goal is to make the social, political and economic rights for women equal to those of men; eliminating gender barriers, and overall pro-woman but not anti-male. They are not saying that men as individuals are the problem; the problem is the unquestioned power they receive because of their sex. Women’s worth in the world has to lead to a system that creates inequalities based on perceived gender differences.” After completing this assignment, I learned what feminism really was. As stated before, there are many stereotypes of feminists and some of those stereotypes I had also believed. Some examples of stereotypes of feminists are angry, boring, loud, annoying, butch, lonely, and lesbian. I came to realize that feminists were normal women who just wanted to have equal rights as men. They aren’t man haters or angry women at all. To confirm my findings, I viewed pictures and videos in the lecture as well as engaged in an in depth discussion about feminism in the discussion section.
The third assignment introduced us to the matrices of domination. These are factors that we may or may not control. These factors allow us to be powerful or powerless in a certain situation. We were instructed to analyze ourselves in everyday life and how we fit into society. With a partner, we analyzed ourselves and showed how we were considered marked and unmarked in a certain environment, situation, or society as a whole based on our race, gender, religion, geographical location, etc. I learned that there are many factors in my life which caused me to feel powerless in a certain situation. I explained how I felt powerless as a black person in Montgomery County being that I am from D.C and not used to being around so many white people at once. My partner showed how she was powerless in Brooklyn, New York with her boyfriend being that she was white in a predominately black neighborhood. This assignment showed me that there are factors that we cannot control but have to deal with in everyday life. For some our personal characteristics may hinder us. For others, we are one step higher in society. I learned that we cannot dwell on why we are different but learn to accept it, and then get over the differences. The final assignment is to synthesize the entire class experience. As I put the story together, I realize how much I have changed as far as my views.
experiencing these assignments, I learned how I fit into the story. I learned that I changed as a person. I was more open-minded. I came to realize that I should research something before actually making assumptions and believing stereotypes. I learned the true meaning of feminism and who feminists really were. I agreed with many of the beliefs of feminists but I had never thought about actually considering myself a feminist at this point. I also realized how I fit into society and how I could be labeled marked or unmarked, depending on the situation and my location.
As far as the readings, I felt they were effective in the course. The book Feminism is for Everybody, by Bell Hooks was very helpful when completing the second assignment. Hooks gave us a good but broad definition of feminism and who feminists really were. From her book, my group and I were able to effectively create a more detailed definition of feminism. Personally, I enjoyed reading the book because it taught me the true meaning of feminism. I was able to “unlearn” all of the stereotypes that I had previously had about feminists and I gained new knowledge about who feminists were and why they fought so hard to have equal rights. Hooks showed that feminism isn’t only for women. Anyone who believed in women’s rights could be a feminist.
The next book that was most important to me was Megan Seely’s How to Fight Like a Girl, How to be a Fearless Feminist. This book was very insightful to me on a personal level. One key point that stood out to me was that this book gave the tips and steps to fighting like a girl, or a feminist. The book informed women not to be afraid and fight for what they believed was right for them as a whole. This gave tips about working with the media and how to actually “take action” against the inequality between men and women. The book also showed me the contributions by many women that we fail to realize today. I felt that I could really make a difference if I used the book as a guide because it was so detailed. This book also helped me complete the second assignment because I knew what it took to actually be a fearless feminist and take action against those that don’t believe in women’s rights.
The final book I gained insight from was Kindred, by Octavia Butler. This book showed the power that many people have as a result of who they are. This book gave me a lot of insight as well as helped me complete my own conceptual map of how I am structured in society.
So, after analyzing the course and telling my story, I believe the purpose of the course was to shape the students as individuals and teach us the truth behind women, feminism, and art. It was also used as a way for the students to determine if they were feminists or not. I learned that I agree with most of the arguments of feminists, however, I do not consider myself a feminist. I have also changed many of my views and opinions about feminism. When I began this course, I didn’t see how art could speak to me. I didn’t know that art could be so powerful. I really didn’t take the time to notice and appreciate what was around me. For example, if it wasn’t for the experience in assignment one, I doubt I would have ever visited any of those museums. If I hadn’t done assignment two, I wouldn’t have known what feminism really was. In assignment three, I learned how I fit into society and learned to accept it. And finally, assignment four, I learned how all of my experiences and findings connect to each other. The course as a whole was very insightful and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Assigntment #4
Ronak Patel
WMST250
Section 0107 – Ana Perez
Assignment #4
May 13, 2008
Course Evaluation…NOT!
WMST250. I would never have imagined myself taking a course specifically on women, art, and culture at any point throughout my college career here at the University of Maryland. But I finally did this semester, and it has been a definite eye opener and has broadened my knowledge and has opened me up to new doors that I thought I would never encounter.
The course is about a wide variety of experiences divided into four main parts. The first part of the course focuses primarily on giving an introduction to women, art, and culture. Throughout this part of the course, I found myself frequently asking “is it feminist?” and “what counts as art?”. During this particular part of the course, some very interesting things we did were introduce ourselves as a subject of history to our discussion group, visit four museums and study the art they displayed, and of course, complete our first assignment about assumptions about feminism. This was a great way to begin the course, and it was definitely intentional and well thought. With over a hundred students enrolling in the course, everyone has different assumptions about women’s art and feminism and culture. So, it was a great way for students to get their assumptions down, really think about them, and realize which assumptions were correct and incorrect by studying real live women’s art at various museums in our nation’s capitol and in class. Personally, by doing this, I know I finally really understood what women’s art and feminism were all about and this really helped me to kill the stereotype and distinguish what was right and what was wrong. By completing this introductory part f the course, we are ready to further our knowledge in the class and have gained valuable fundamental information to succeed and excel in the course.
After we completed this phase, we moved on to the second part of the course, which was literally called “But is it art?” We focused on various aspects of art, including billboards, murals, and “shadows reshaping possibilities”. During this phase in the course, we really focused on what feminism means to us, as in, coming up with a concrete definition for feminism. In order to efficiently do this, we constructed a leaflet which we presented in class, which discussed feminism and many misperceptions of it. I believe this part of the course really focused on making sure the students understood what feminism really means and really unlearning all of its many stereotypes that have been instilled in our minds throughout our lives, due to media, books, misperceptions, etc. It helped us analyze readings, art, and other works without a constant contextual bias in our minds.
The third part of the course dealt with an analysis in women’s studies, primarily focusing on looking at everyday life with new eyes. Obviously, going through the second part of the course really helped us for this stage in the course. Here, we learned about intersectional ties and histories, as well as the ever so important matrix of domination, which set the stage for our in depth analysis of everyday life for Assignment #3b. Personally, a large part of why I was able to sufficiently and suitably complete this assignment was because of the things I was taught in the previous part of the course. I viewed everything with an unbiased perspective and a free mind. This really helped in successfully completing this assignment, which is exactly why I believe the course is set up in this fashion. Keeping this in mind, I was really able to relate feminism and everyday life,, and to really understand “passionate politics”. In addition, it helped me to understand relate the role of feminism in everyone’s lives. It also helped me read and understand the required reading a lot more flawlessly and easier.
Finally, we reached the final part of the course, which, in a way, put everything together. This part focused on arts, communities, cultures, actions, and spirits. One topic which I felt helped us ease into this part of the experience was looking in depth at art and direct action today, as well as naming ourselves as liberated free zones. Personally, I learned a lot from these aspects, and found naming myself as a liberated free zone peculiarly unusual and interesting. Again, gaining the previous knowledge from the course in the first three parts of the course helped a lot, which is why this part of the class is appropriately placed and executed at the end and final stretch of the class. It helped put everything together, and helped us really see what this was all truly about. It helped me to observe and understand the “big picture” of things. To be perfectly honest, I feel that the four parts of the course put together have really changed the way I perceive and look at things. It may have been a serious struggle to understand things at times and to “unlearn” things, but I managed to grasp the main concepts at the end and I believe that has really helped me to finish the last part of the course.
Obviously, there were many different feelings about the course at different times throughout the various parts of the course. I felt a lot more mature and ready to go through this course after we completed the first stage of the course. To be perfectly honest, at this primary stage, I kept asking myself why I even registered for this course and I told myself to drop it and take another course instead. However, after doing the assumptions assignment, and really understanding women’s art and culture, I was actually interested and decided to stick with it (I’m really glad I did). I’m very satisfied with the order of the course, beginning with the assumptions about art aspect of feminism. I, along with numerous other WMST250 students, really finally began to understand and realize what art and feminism was really about, and it helped us to kill our presumed stereotypes and assumptions, which is a great way to start things. This really connected with and set a ground for the rest of the course.
Branching off from this was the whole aspect of that “f word”, feminism. I really did not understand what feminism truly was until after going through this part of the course and completing our event analysis and leaflet. Because we were forced to formulate our own definition of feminism, all of us really finally interpreted and understood it. Without this, we would all be very dazed and confused at this point in time. This obviously connected with the first part of the course; I felt like it was an “extension” of the concepts we learned then. Obviously, what feminism means and is all about relates to understanding and analyzing what art is and analyzing stereotypes.
One of my favorite parts of the course was the analyzing of everyday life and feminism. In order successfully to do this, we obviously needed the prior knowledge we gained from the preceding parts of the course. My beliefs and attitudes changed drastically during this part of the course, especially when I was working on my Assignment 3b with my partner, Akash Garg. It really opened my eyes up and I came to the realization that feminism is truly in everyone’s lives, that you do not have to be a woman to understand these things, and that we all live very distinguished and personal lives with different, life changing experiences. I also have come to understand that we see power everyday, in so many different shapes, forms, and comings. Power is distributed in everyone’s lives, whether male or female, white or black, heterosexual or homosexual. Personally, this was a great learning experience for me. I felt I could relate a lot more to many people because everyone goes through a power struggle and everyone is part of “marked” and ”unmarked” categories in their lives. Needless to say that my thoughts, ideas, and attitudes have changed throughout the duration of the course, especially during this part of the class. As I have illustrated, this was probably the most moving and compelling part of the course for me, due to the fact that it dealt with real world life, and that is something everyone can relate to and understand.
In addition, one of my favorite parts of the course was the weekly group discussion. After adjusting with everyone and overcoming the primary group tension, I felt really comfortable around my discussion group and my TA, Ana. All of us really converged with different viewpoints and ideas and we had many in depth discussions and debates about various concepts, such as power, forms of violence, and what feminism is. We all became personal with each other and were all very comfortable around each other. Personally, I was never hesitant to state my mind and always was open and engaged in conversations, in part because we were all very comfortable with each other and wanted to hear everyone’s opinion and also in part because Ana provided a very comforting and relaxed environment for us. This helped me to learn and grasp different concepts much easier. For example, one discussion about power really changed my thoughts about things. I saw power struggle in a new light and this helped me with my assignment. Discussion definitely helped me to understand the course better. One of the strongest parts of this class is definitely the discussion we engage in during the weekly group discussion.
Out of the many readings that we have had throughout the course, some in particular really intrigued and touched me. The first was Feminism is for Everybody, by Bell Hooks. It was written very simply and had a lot of meaning to its words. For example, one sentence I found very intriguing was when Hooks talks about feminist politics. She writes, “Feminist politics is losing momentum because feminist movement has lost clear definitions…Let’s start over…Let the movement begin again.” I could directly relate to what she is writing here at the beginning of the course. She is absolutely right, there are so many lost definitions that nobody knows what feminism really is anymore. I had no idea what feminism truly meant until we studied more in depth about it throughout the course, particularly the second part of the course. In addition, what I think is the main objective of her book is summarized by the following quote: “If we do not work to create a mass-based movement which offers feminist education to everyone, females and males, feminist theory and practice will always be undermined by the negative information produced…Feminist knowledge is for everybody.” Again, this quote directly relates to me at the beginning of the semester, where I had my assumptions, my stereotypes, and my own biased beliefs. Bell explains so simply that everyone should be educated about feminism because there is so much negativity associated with it due to media, books, magazines, etc. That is what I think this book is all about, and it really relates to the story of the first and second part of the course, where we really learned what art and feminism is all about, and unlearned stereotypes and biases.
Another reading that I found very interesting was Megan Seely’s Fight Like a Girl: How to be a Fearless Feminist. It literally was an informational of how to be a true feminist. I almost felt as if I was reading an instructional step-by-step manual of how to be a perfect feminist. This book really assisted me and helped me in writing my assignments, in particular, Assignment 2 and Assignment 3b. At some points throughout the course, I did not understand some concepts or was stuck on my writing, so I turned to this book, and many times, it had an aid or a key, which tipped me off. It was extremely helpful in viewing things in an unbiased manner, which is all Assignment 2 is all about. In addition, Seely talked a lot about power and the role of feminists, which really helped in Assignment 3b. This reading was a great extension of the class. It almost felt like the unofficial textbook of the course and I place high value upon it and highly recommend it to anyone who’d like to learn more about feminism.
The final reading which I really found myself engaging in was But is it Art by Cynthia Freeland. I definitely believe that there is a reason behind why we started off with this book at the very beginning of the semester: to truly understand what art is in its very different forms. I learned that art in itself is so general and broad, that art is truly in the eyes of the beholder. One aspect I thought she explained very elaborately was about money, markets, and museums. I also found Dewey’s words about a call for a revolution, a movement, very striking: “…affecting the imagination and emotions of man…” He felt that the values that led to production and intelligent enjoyment of art have to be incorporated into the system of social relationships. This directly relates to what we were discussing in class, about museums and art production and displayed art. His viewpoints really helped me to understand and interpret what this was all about: art is for everyone and is a very complex system. This also explained to me the purpose of the very first assignment. It was mandated by Katie that we visit at least four museums in Washington, D.C., and to be honest, I felt that this rule was tedious and illogical. I forced myself to these museums, but really understood why we should see the art first hand after reading some parts of this book. It really helped me gain a general understanding for this course.
All in all, I am really glad I enrolled into WMST250 with Katie King and Ana Perez. I will not forget the experiences I have had through this course and my discussion section and through its required assignments. I have gained knowledge, respect, and understanding for feminism, women’s art, and culture, and truly believe the experiences in this class have made me a better, smarter, more understanding and open person.
assignment #4
In the duration of this course I have learned that feminism is the social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. This does not mean that women are better than men, but that they are all equal to men in all aspects of life. I have learned that this is a revolution that has formed by women, men and all people who wish there was equality for all, no matter race, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status and economic status. These people want a world that is discrimination and bias free. Feminists see the world as unequal and want to see the gaps that discrimination has caused abolish. They also firmly believe men should not be superior to women. Many feminist and other people who are against prejudice and profiling stand up against prejudice in the form of art. They explain their anger and feelings through different types of art. These art works allow for other people to be able to see and understand that equality is wanted and requested by all. These art works show that being prejudice or profiling against another human being because of any reason, may it be race, gender, sex, religion, or nationality, is wrong. As long people are profiled against, there will be hatred and hate crimes in our world.
This section was the introduction to women in art and culture. The first assignment that we completed was the assumption assignment. In this assignment we visited museums in DC that were related to art and we made our assumptions about feminism and the art work inside the museums. Throughout this assignment we made many assumptions about different art works available at the museums and what the artist was trying to bring across with this piece of art. We also figured out if the meusum or exhibit was feminist. We also learned to unlearn prejudice assumptions and how we all can have our own ideas and thoughts and that no one can be wrong. We learned to unlearn all of the prejudice we had learned about feminism while growing up in this society and how to let go and learn the truth about everything all over again and be able to make up our mind about feminism. After this assignment we started reading a book called Fight Like a Girl. This book explains feminism and different stereotypes that people have when feminism is discussed. At first, I was very hesitant about this book because I thought that this book will be very boring and all about girls this and girls that but it was more about why feminism is a problem and how it is a huge misconception. These assignments were our first assignments because they were the stepping stones in our process of unlearning the wrong that we had learned and relearning the truth and the facts about prejudice and feminism in our society and how materials like art work can express relatedness to prejudice and feminism. Katie King assigned these assignments because she wanted us to have a fresh start with our own thoughts about the subject of feminism, not the society's polluted misconceptions.
We then prepared for our next assignment which was the true definition of feminism. This assignment was a group assignment in which we had to prepare an event about feminism and fighting for the beliefs of feminism in our event to show people what feminism is really about and what it stands for in our society. Every section formed in to one group. During our meetings we decided to come up with all of the possible prejudice and misconceptions about feminism that people make on a daily basis and we defined what we really thought feminism is. The final definition that our group came up with was an overall input of what everyone had learned about feminism. This definition was, "Feminism is the movement whose goal is to make the social, political and economic rights for women equal to those of men; eliminating gender barriers, and overall pro-woman but not anti-male. They are not saying that men as individuals are the problem; the problem is the unquestioned power they receive because of their sex. Women's worth in the world has to lead to a system that creates inequalities based on perceived gender differences." We then hosted an event during lecture with special guests supporting feminism and teaching others what we had learned and what was wrong. The main key was that assumptions are never correct or reliable; you need facts about a subject before you can be pro or con.
The next section was the art activism section. Art activism is about power. We learned about violence against women and violence in general. We discussed and learned about the matrix of domination. The matrix of domination is the marked and unmarked categories within a society. For example in our society the unmarked categories would be a white male, of the Christian religion, who is a US citizen, and speaks fluent English. With the next assignment, we talked about our own past experiences dealing with prejudice and the matrix of domination. In this assignment we talked about how we were chosen to be set aside and profiled against because of the fact that we might have belonged to a marked category. We also talked about how these categories would have relieved as an accent or features that would separate one person form the next allowing the society to easily profile against this person. After we all had presented our experiences to the class, we learned that all of us were somehow in a marked category and profiled against.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a reason why Katie King had us learn everything in this specific order and do these assignment in these order. I believe that the first assignment was mainly to clear our heads from any cloudiness about feminism and be ready to learn the truth and reality. Also this assignment was to see what we assumed about feminism and why we assumed these things about feminism. These assumptions were brought on paper so that we can later refer back to them and see if our assumptions have changed and if we have learned anything. The second assignment was the start of the relearning of everything we had unlearned after our assumptions and unlearning of the false material we then learned the true definition of feminism and the definition we had arrived to we also learned to evaluate conversations and pick out the stereotypes being made by others.
The third assignment was to show us that we all have some time or another in our lifetimes that we have been in a marked category and have had to face profiling, which is not only annoying, but it is also hurtful and disrespectful. This assignment taught us a lesson to think about everything before you judge a book by its cover and make the wrong assumptions. This fourth assignment that we are doing is a conclusion of what we have learned so far and also the reference back to the beginning of the course and our mislead assumptions about feminism and our low knowledge about feminism.
The first book that I read was the book titled Fight Like a Girl. This book, by Megan Seely, is about women's rights and stereotypes. This book shares experiences that the author has gone through with protesting in different fields and also about how she is an activist for feminism. She talks about many aspects of stereotyping and it makes you realize the stupidity behind stereotyping and how it is an extremely bad thing to do. The book also makes you realize that people should really have full knowledge and thought about a subject before they make assumptions and unrealistic stereotypes.
The second book that I read was titled Feminism is For Everybody by Bell Hooks. This booked helped me a lot with understanding the true definition of feminism. This book was a great help on the second assignment with its definition on feminism which is, "purpose of feminism is to bring an end to sexism and the exploitation and oppression that come from it." This book made me get a more clear understanding of the aspects of feminism and their views because of its clear definition.
The third book that I read was titled Kindred by Octivia Butler. This book is about the matrix of domination. The main character experiences a journey through time and has to live with the pas t and her ancestors. The story shows how the unmarked categories are the superior categories and the marked ones are the weak and helpless categories. This story shows that here in the state of Maryland, hundreds of years ago for a person to be of the African descent they were in a very badly marked category. In this story it shows the prejudice against the marked categories committed by the unmarked categories.
Overall I had a great time learning in this class and experiencing with one another's thoughts and views, the discussions really challenged me to be a bit more argumentative and try to help each other understand the truth behind everything. I learned a lot about being fair and not prejudice. This class taught me how to treat everyone equally and allow for my own thoughts to bring a conclusion about others and not what society teaches me about others.
This section was the introduction to women in art and culture. The first assignment that we completed was the assumption assignment. In this assignment we visited museums in DC that were related to art and we made our assumptions about feminism and the art work inside the museums. Throughout this assignment we made many assumptions about different art works available at the museums and what the artist was trying to bring across with this piece of art. We also figured out if the meusum or exhibit was feminist. We also learned to unlearn prejudice assumptions and how we all can have our own ideas and thoughts and that no one can be wrong. We learned to unlearn all of the prejudice we had learned about feminism while growing up in this society and how to let go and learn the truth about everything all over again and be able to make up our mind about feminism. After this assignment we started reading a book called Fight Like a Girl. This book explains feminism and different stereotypes that people have when feminism is discussed. At first, I was very hesitant about this book because I thought that this book will be very boring and all about girls this and girls that but it was more about why feminism is a problem and how it is a huge misconception. These assignments were our first assignments because they were the stepping stones in our process of unlearning the wrong that we had learned and relearning the truth and the facts about prejudice and feminism in our society and how materials like art work can express relatedness to prejudice and feminism. Katie King assigned these assignments because she wanted us to have a fresh start with our own thoughts about the subject of feminism, not the society's polluted misconceptions.
We then prepared for our next assignment which was the true definition of feminism. This assignment was a group assignment in which we had to prepare an event about feminism and fighting for the beliefs of feminism in our event to show people what feminism is really about and what it stands for in our society. Every section formed in to one group. During our meetings we decided to come up with all of the possible prejudice and misconceptions about feminism that people make on a daily basis and we defined what we really thought feminism is. The final definition that our group came up with was an overall input of what everyone had learned about feminism. This definition was, "Feminism is the movement whose goal is to make the social, political and economic rights for women equal to those of men; eliminating gender barriers, and overall pro-woman but not anti-male. They are not saying that men as individuals are the problem; the problem is the unquestioned power they receive because of their sex. Women's worth in the world has to lead to a system that creates inequalities based on perceived gender differences." We then hosted an event during lecture with special guests supporting feminism and teaching others what we had learned and what was wrong. The main key was that assumptions are never correct or reliable; you need facts about a subject before you can be pro or con.
The next section was the art activism section. Art activism is about power. We learned about violence against women and violence in general. We discussed and learned about the matrix of domination. The matrix of domination is the marked and unmarked categories within a society. For example in our society the unmarked categories would be a white male, of the Christian religion, who is a US citizen, and speaks fluent English. With the next assignment, we talked about our own past experiences dealing with prejudice and the matrix of domination. In this assignment we talked about how we were chosen to be set aside and profiled against because of the fact that we might have belonged to a marked category. We also talked about how these categories would have relieved as an accent or features that would separate one person form the next allowing the society to easily profile against this person. After we all had presented our experiences to the class, we learned that all of us were somehow in a marked category and profiled against.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a reason why Katie King had us learn everything in this specific order and do these assignment in these order. I believe that the first assignment was mainly to clear our heads from any cloudiness about feminism and be ready to learn the truth and reality. Also this assignment was to see what we assumed about feminism and why we assumed these things about feminism. These assumptions were brought on paper so that we can later refer back to them and see if our assumptions have changed and if we have learned anything. The second assignment was the start of the relearning of everything we had unlearned after our assumptions and unlearning of the false material we then learned the true definition of feminism and the definition we had arrived to we also learned to evaluate conversations and pick out the stereotypes being made by others.
The third assignment was to show us that we all have some time or another in our lifetimes that we have been in a marked category and have had to face profiling, which is not only annoying, but it is also hurtful and disrespectful. This assignment taught us a lesson to think about everything before you judge a book by its cover and make the wrong assumptions. This fourth assignment that we are doing is a conclusion of what we have learned so far and also the reference back to the beginning of the course and our mislead assumptions about feminism and our low knowledge about feminism.
The first book that I read was the book titled Fight Like a Girl. This book, by Megan Seely, is about women's rights and stereotypes. This book shares experiences that the author has gone through with protesting in different fields and also about how she is an activist for feminism. She talks about many aspects of stereotyping and it makes you realize the stupidity behind stereotyping and how it is an extremely bad thing to do. The book also makes you realize that people should really have full knowledge and thought about a subject before they make assumptions and unrealistic stereotypes.
The second book that I read was titled Feminism is For Everybody by Bell Hooks. This booked helped me a lot with understanding the true definition of feminism. This book was a great help on the second assignment with its definition on feminism which is, "purpose of feminism is to bring an end to sexism and the exploitation and oppression that come from it." This book made me get a more clear understanding of the aspects of feminism and their views because of its clear definition.
The third book that I read was titled Kindred by Octivia Butler. This book is about the matrix of domination. The main character experiences a journey through time and has to live with the pas t and her ancestors. The story shows how the unmarked categories are the superior categories and the marked ones are the weak and helpless categories. This story shows that here in the state of Maryland, hundreds of years ago for a person to be of the African descent they were in a very badly marked category. In this story it shows the prejudice against the marked categories committed by the unmarked categories.
Overall I had a great time learning in this class and experiencing with one another's thoughts and views, the discussions really challenged me to be a bit more argumentative and try to help each other understand the truth behind everything. I learned a lot about being fair and not prejudice. This class taught me how to treat everyone equally and allow for my own thoughts to bring a conclusion about others and not what society teaches me about others.
Monday, May 12, 2008
assingment 4
Women Studies is important to everyday life. Feminism is an issue that we come across everyday. Feminism is about women equality and the rights that women should be granted. This class explains feminism, equality, race, gender, nationality, different situations, violence and many more. This class goes through a story, with me in it, and there are many reasons as to why the class flowed the way that it did. I will be explaining the story of our class through a description/argument of the class story, putting myself into the story, and discussing three readings from the course.
This class started with an introduction to women, art and culture. The class addressed themselves as a subject in history. We were asked to see what events have occurred in our lives, our memories of history, the historical importance, etc. This was a start to the class because women studies has to do with history and how things occurred the way that they did. After this assignment, we were introduced to art. We discussed how to interpret art. With this discussion, we were assigned to go to museums to look at art and how it relates to women and feminism. This was the first assignment because Katie King wanted us to be able to make our own interpretations of feminism and art and how they relate. What do the students call art? How does it relate to feminism? These questions were asked when the students were completing the assignment. We were also asked to give assumptions that we had about certain things in the assignment and how we were wrong. It taught us to think outside of the box and to make our own assumptions and to relate them to feminism. This taught us how to un-learn assumptions and not to make any assumptions and stereotypes. After the first assignment, we were assigned to read Fight Like a Girl which explained feminism and the different stereotypes that people think of when feminism is brought up. I think that this was the first reading assignment because we had all made our own assumptions and Katie King wanted us to see that many people do the same thing and create stereotypes about feminism. Next we learned what the true definition of feminism is. We discussed the many stereotypes that people assume when feminism is brought up.
Our next topic was art activism during which we had our second assignment which was to create a feminist event and come up with our own definition of feminism. Our event was about the different stereotypes that people place upon feminism and how they aren’t what feminism is really about. Our group noticed that we had all made some assumptions coming into this class about feminism and women. It was interesting to learn that everyone is making these same assumptions and that it isn’t true. After that day, everyone in our discussion group learned what the true meaning of feminism is. Art activism is about power, which lead us into our next assignment.
After talking about what feminism is, we started talking about women violence and the different types of violence. In this discussion, we came to the matrix of domination. The matrix of domination is basically that whoever is not in the unmarked categories experiences violence and discrimination. We learned that the unmarked categories were white, Christian, Us citizen, English language, male, etc. We talked about different situations where people are not in these unmarked categories and result in violence and discrimination. Our third assignment was about the matrix of domination. Reading Kindred explained a lot about the marked, unmarked categories and the matrix of domination. For this assignment, we had to place ourselves into the matrix of domination and analyze if we were in the marked or unmarked categories of society and how we were affected by the category that we were placed in. Throughout the semester we did many free writes in the lecture section to see what needs to be improved in our writing, what we liked the most, and ways that we can make our next paper more efficient.
There was a reason to learn the things that we did in the specific order that we did. We first made our own assumptions about feminism through our first assignment. This was first because we had to make our own assumptions and then see that they were not always correct. We then learned the real definition of feminism and made our own definitions of feminism. This was the second main thing because we first made our assumptions and then were taught what it really was. After this assignment was when we were taught to un-learn things. We learned this after we learned the definition of feminism because we had made assumptions and then realized that we were wrong so we noticed that many people do what we did and so we have to un-learn our assumptions because they are not always true. After learning the definition of feminism, we started learning about violence, power and the matrix of domination. We learned that people who are in the unmarked categories have the most power. People who are in the marked categories are discriminated against and go through violence. Then we had to place ourselves into the marked and unmarked categories and prove that the matrix of domination is true. This was the third assignment because after learning about feminism, which is basically about equal rights, we learned that nowhere has equal rights because of the matrix of domination.
When first learning about assumptions and feminism, I had many assumptions of my own. I thought that feminism was about lesbians wanting to get equality. Every time I would think of a feminist, I would see a butcher woman who was very rude and hated the world. With this class, I learned that all of my assumptions about feminism were wrong through my first assignment. When we came up with our own definitions of feminism, our group definition was, “Feminism is the movement whose goal is to make the social, political and economic rights for women equal to those of men; eliminating gender barriers, and overall pro-woman but not anti-male. They are not saying that men as individuals are the problem; the problem is the unquestioned power they receive because of their sex. Women’s worth in the world has to lead to a system that creates inequalities based on perceived gender differences.” Our group came up with this definition by giving different definitions from each individual person and then combing them. I also learned that I am in many unmarked categories but yet I am in some marked categories as well which determines my power in different situations.
The story that the class went through, I fit in because of many reasons and many ways. The main thing is that I am a female and this course was mostly about women and it pertains to a lot of my life because of my gender as well. It is very interesting because before this class, I never saw myself as a feminist because I had so many assumptions of what feminism is and who feminists are. After the first and second assignment, I realized that I am indeed a feminist because the main thing that I believe in is equality, especially since I am Persian and Persian women don’t have any freedom and are not equal to men. The first assignment I learned a lot from because I learned how to walk into a museum or an exhibit and say “This is feminist”. Our second assignment made me open my eyes and realize that there are many events that pertain to feminism. I never thought that different events, TV shows, magazine articles, etc could relate to feminism. I never saw it that way before this class. The third assignment was about art activism and power. We related marked and unmarked categories to our lives. I also never saw life in this way. It never occurred to me that there are these marked and unmarked categories that make you powerless or powerful. This related to me because I am in both marked and unmarked categories and it was interesting to see what the result of each situation was because of the category that I was in. I think that I had a major part in the third assignment because I was powerless in both race and gender, which are the two biggest categories that determine power. It was interesting to relate my life to the other two people who where in the unmarked categories. The discussion section was very good for our assignments because we had a variety of male and female as well as a variety of race. There were rarely two people who had the same standpoints and views on a topic because they were in the same marked or unmarked categories. We all had a different viewpoint which allowed each one of us to look at everyone else’s perspective and to understand where each person is coming from as well as seeing how their situation would relate to us.
The first book that inspired me was Megan Seely’s Fight Like a Girl. This novel opens up with a list of stereotypes under the word Feminist. This is really funny because when we did our event for assignment two, these were all of the same stereotypes that we had and we all believed in. It opened my eyes and made me realize that it is really foolish and immature to make stereotypes about something when I don’t really know about the subject. Also there is a section at the bottom of page 11 that starts with, “Women have the Feminist Movement to Thank for if…” This section also opened up my eyes and showed me that although I believe that women still are not equal to men; there are many things that we are able to do that means equality. For example we can vote, read, and drive without a male chaperon. It also made me realize that Iran really has no equality because women are not allowed to do any of the three that I stated. Also there is another section that says, “Spotlight on Feminism”. This section gives some quotes that many people have said. One of the quotes that meant something to me was, “I think I have always been a feminist, even before I knew what the term meant.” This quote is interesting because it is true and many people are this way. After this course, I realized that I have always been a feminist even though I never knew what the term meant and I had so many assumptions about it. This book tied in with the course because it was all about feminism and the different stereotypes that people have on feminism.
Another novel that had a great impact on my life was Octivia Butler’s Kindred. This novel was about the matrix of domination and power based on sex as well as race. I always mainly saw power as race but this novel was on both. In this novel, at first, Rufus believes in equality and is very accepting of his friends. Later on he becomes a slave owner and everything changes because he believes that since he has been granted that power then he should use it. Also it has to do with power because Dana is a young African American lady and all she did was try to help Rufus in the beginning but she ends up getting a gun pointed to her head because she was black and Rufus was white. It shows that even though a black lady was trying to help a white boy, there still is the matrix of domination because she was almost killed. This novel ties in with the class because we talked about matrix of domination, art activism, and power. This novel relates to those three subjects and shows examples of each. I learned a lot from this novel because I didn’t realize that these power differences exist, but Kindred made me realize that because of race and sex, there are power differences.
The third novel that had an impact on my life was Bell Hooks’s Feminism is For Everybody. This novel helped with our second assignment with trying to come up with our own definition of feminism. Hooks gives a definition of feminism which is, “purpose of feminism is to bring an end to sexism and the exploitation and oppression that come from it.” This helped me because it made me see someone else’s definition of feminism. We all had our own definitions but none of us saw it in this point of view. It allowed me to think feminism in another perspective, especially the way that Hook’s sees it with sexism. It helped with the second assignment because we had to come up with our own definition of feminism.
This class has been a journey through many things that I never would have addressed or thought about if it wasn’t for the assignments, readings, and discussions in both the lecture and discussion group. The class was overall about feminism, but it was put into perspective through museums, events, power, marked and unmarked categories and many more. I really enjoyed and learned a lot from this class. This class has allowed me to open up my mind and think things through a different perspective and not so straight forward.
This class started with an introduction to women, art and culture. The class addressed themselves as a subject in history. We were asked to see what events have occurred in our lives, our memories of history, the historical importance, etc. This was a start to the class because women studies has to do with history and how things occurred the way that they did. After this assignment, we were introduced to art. We discussed how to interpret art. With this discussion, we were assigned to go to museums to look at art and how it relates to women and feminism. This was the first assignment because Katie King wanted us to be able to make our own interpretations of feminism and art and how they relate. What do the students call art? How does it relate to feminism? These questions were asked when the students were completing the assignment. We were also asked to give assumptions that we had about certain things in the assignment and how we were wrong. It taught us to think outside of the box and to make our own assumptions and to relate them to feminism. This taught us how to un-learn assumptions and not to make any assumptions and stereotypes. After the first assignment, we were assigned to read Fight Like a Girl which explained feminism and the different stereotypes that people think of when feminism is brought up. I think that this was the first reading assignment because we had all made our own assumptions and Katie King wanted us to see that many people do the same thing and create stereotypes about feminism. Next we learned what the true definition of feminism is. We discussed the many stereotypes that people assume when feminism is brought up.
Our next topic was art activism during which we had our second assignment which was to create a feminist event and come up with our own definition of feminism. Our event was about the different stereotypes that people place upon feminism and how they aren’t what feminism is really about. Our group noticed that we had all made some assumptions coming into this class about feminism and women. It was interesting to learn that everyone is making these same assumptions and that it isn’t true. After that day, everyone in our discussion group learned what the true meaning of feminism is. Art activism is about power, which lead us into our next assignment.
After talking about what feminism is, we started talking about women violence and the different types of violence. In this discussion, we came to the matrix of domination. The matrix of domination is basically that whoever is not in the unmarked categories experiences violence and discrimination. We learned that the unmarked categories were white, Christian, Us citizen, English language, male, etc. We talked about different situations where people are not in these unmarked categories and result in violence and discrimination. Our third assignment was about the matrix of domination. Reading Kindred explained a lot about the marked, unmarked categories and the matrix of domination. For this assignment, we had to place ourselves into the matrix of domination and analyze if we were in the marked or unmarked categories of society and how we were affected by the category that we were placed in. Throughout the semester we did many free writes in the lecture section to see what needs to be improved in our writing, what we liked the most, and ways that we can make our next paper more efficient.
There was a reason to learn the things that we did in the specific order that we did. We first made our own assumptions about feminism through our first assignment. This was first because we had to make our own assumptions and then see that they were not always correct. We then learned the real definition of feminism and made our own definitions of feminism. This was the second main thing because we first made our assumptions and then were taught what it really was. After this assignment was when we were taught to un-learn things. We learned this after we learned the definition of feminism because we had made assumptions and then realized that we were wrong so we noticed that many people do what we did and so we have to un-learn our assumptions because they are not always true. After learning the definition of feminism, we started learning about violence, power and the matrix of domination. We learned that people who are in the unmarked categories have the most power. People who are in the marked categories are discriminated against and go through violence. Then we had to place ourselves into the marked and unmarked categories and prove that the matrix of domination is true. This was the third assignment because after learning about feminism, which is basically about equal rights, we learned that nowhere has equal rights because of the matrix of domination.
When first learning about assumptions and feminism, I had many assumptions of my own. I thought that feminism was about lesbians wanting to get equality. Every time I would think of a feminist, I would see a butcher woman who was very rude and hated the world. With this class, I learned that all of my assumptions about feminism were wrong through my first assignment. When we came up with our own definitions of feminism, our group definition was, “Feminism is the movement whose goal is to make the social, political and economic rights for women equal to those of men; eliminating gender barriers, and overall pro-woman but not anti-male. They are not saying that men as individuals are the problem; the problem is the unquestioned power they receive because of their sex. Women’s worth in the world has to lead to a system that creates inequalities based on perceived gender differences.” Our group came up with this definition by giving different definitions from each individual person and then combing them. I also learned that I am in many unmarked categories but yet I am in some marked categories as well which determines my power in different situations.
The story that the class went through, I fit in because of many reasons and many ways. The main thing is that I am a female and this course was mostly about women and it pertains to a lot of my life because of my gender as well. It is very interesting because before this class, I never saw myself as a feminist because I had so many assumptions of what feminism is and who feminists are. After the first and second assignment, I realized that I am indeed a feminist because the main thing that I believe in is equality, especially since I am Persian and Persian women don’t have any freedom and are not equal to men. The first assignment I learned a lot from because I learned how to walk into a museum or an exhibit and say “This is feminist”. Our second assignment made me open my eyes and realize that there are many events that pertain to feminism. I never thought that different events, TV shows, magazine articles, etc could relate to feminism. I never saw it that way before this class. The third assignment was about art activism and power. We related marked and unmarked categories to our lives. I also never saw life in this way. It never occurred to me that there are these marked and unmarked categories that make you powerless or powerful. This related to me because I am in both marked and unmarked categories and it was interesting to see what the result of each situation was because of the category that I was in. I think that I had a major part in the third assignment because I was powerless in both race and gender, which are the two biggest categories that determine power. It was interesting to relate my life to the other two people who where in the unmarked categories. The discussion section was very good for our assignments because we had a variety of male and female as well as a variety of race. There were rarely two people who had the same standpoints and views on a topic because they were in the same marked or unmarked categories. We all had a different viewpoint which allowed each one of us to look at everyone else’s perspective and to understand where each person is coming from as well as seeing how their situation would relate to us.
The first book that inspired me was Megan Seely’s Fight Like a Girl. This novel opens up with a list of stereotypes under the word Feminist. This is really funny because when we did our event for assignment two, these were all of the same stereotypes that we had and we all believed in. It opened my eyes and made me realize that it is really foolish and immature to make stereotypes about something when I don’t really know about the subject. Also there is a section at the bottom of page 11 that starts with, “Women have the Feminist Movement to Thank for if…” This section also opened up my eyes and showed me that although I believe that women still are not equal to men; there are many things that we are able to do that means equality. For example we can vote, read, and drive without a male chaperon. It also made me realize that Iran really has no equality because women are not allowed to do any of the three that I stated. Also there is another section that says, “Spotlight on Feminism”. This section gives some quotes that many people have said. One of the quotes that meant something to me was, “I think I have always been a feminist, even before I knew what the term meant.” This quote is interesting because it is true and many people are this way. After this course, I realized that I have always been a feminist even though I never knew what the term meant and I had so many assumptions about it. This book tied in with the course because it was all about feminism and the different stereotypes that people have on feminism.
Another novel that had a great impact on my life was Octivia Butler’s Kindred. This novel was about the matrix of domination and power based on sex as well as race. I always mainly saw power as race but this novel was on both. In this novel, at first, Rufus believes in equality and is very accepting of his friends. Later on he becomes a slave owner and everything changes because he believes that since he has been granted that power then he should use it. Also it has to do with power because Dana is a young African American lady and all she did was try to help Rufus in the beginning but she ends up getting a gun pointed to her head because she was black and Rufus was white. It shows that even though a black lady was trying to help a white boy, there still is the matrix of domination because she was almost killed. This novel ties in with the class because we talked about matrix of domination, art activism, and power. This novel relates to those three subjects and shows examples of each. I learned a lot from this novel because I didn’t realize that these power differences exist, but Kindred made me realize that because of race and sex, there are power differences.
The third novel that had an impact on my life was Bell Hooks’s Feminism is For Everybody. This novel helped with our second assignment with trying to come up with our own definition of feminism. Hooks gives a definition of feminism which is, “purpose of feminism is to bring an end to sexism and the exploitation and oppression that come from it.” This helped me because it made me see someone else’s definition of feminism. We all had our own definitions but none of us saw it in this point of view. It allowed me to think feminism in another perspective, especially the way that Hook’s sees it with sexism. It helped with the second assignment because we had to come up with our own definition of feminism.
This class has been a journey through many things that I never would have addressed or thought about if it wasn’t for the assignments, readings, and discussions in both the lecture and discussion group. The class was overall about feminism, but it was put into perspective through museums, events, power, marked and unmarked categories and many more. I really enjoyed and learned a lot from this class. This class has allowed me to open up my mind and think things through a different perspective and not so straight forward.
Assignment 4
Chris Maltbie
5.10.2008
WMST250:0107
Assignment 4
Epic Feminism
When I consider this course, Women’s Studies 250, Women, Art, and Culture, as a book, I cannot help but feel that it is, indeed, an epic novel. In many ways, this course has taken me on a long, sometimes enthralling and sometimes confusing, constantly informative, journey through feminism. In this paper, I will discuss the various sections that comprise this epic narrative of feminism.
The first part of this journey culminated in the completion of Assignment #1, a paper about personal assumptions about feminism and the revelations that came from breaking these assumptions down. Like any good epic, this section of the course got us started with a sudden jolt/surprise (think Lord of the Rings), and kicked us right out the door, into a world that many of us did not know or understand at all. In being sent blindly out into
At the same time that I was evaluating feminism, we were assigned to read some parts of Freeland’s But is it Art? This book challenged me to consider what constitutes art. Although there had been many times in my life where I had wondered what art was, whether something was art or not, and who could say for sure, Freeland’s book helped to quantify art by objectively looking at it in several areas. These specific areas, such as analyzing how the value of art may or may not affect its qualification as “art” or to what degree art created by females displays feminism (intentionally or unintentionally), are introduced by the author in order to help the reader sculpt their own opinion of art. This reading was in many ways the literary accomplice to the experiences that were found in the museums of
By the end of the first section of the course, marked by the completion of Assignment #1, I had taken the very limited amount of knowledge I had entered with and greatly refined it (almost grinding it down to nothing), before expanding it into my own personal definition of feminism. It is in this way that I consider the first section of the course my “push-out into the world” of feminism. At this point of the course, I felt that feminism was the act of accepting that men and women are different, but equal; the two sexes would never be the same, but one would never be better that the other. For the first time, I was aware of the vast world of feminism around me, although I did not know all of the things that inhabited it.
The second section of the course, in my opinion, was about exploring and discovering some of the habitats in the world of art and feminism. This section of the course focused on things going on within the world of feminism, primarily through art. Additionally, we learned about activism on the whole. Classes on topics such as shadow projects and the manipulation of billboards to deliver a message introduced me to the types of things that people were doing within movement to make a difference.
While working on this section of the course, I feel as if my definition of feminism continued to grow as more material from the course was packed into it. Assignment #2 helped to sculpt this definition tremendously, as I got the chance to join up with a group of other characters on my epic journey. Instead of wandering through the world of feminism alone, I was accompanied with a team to help influence my decisions. While working on this assignment, our group came up with a long-winded definition that was very different than the definition I came up with on my own during Assignment #1. In a nutshell, we defined feminism as the movement against the unchallenged notion of men as superiors, although not in an anti-male sense; it was the structures that allowed this notion to go unquestioned that were the target. This assignment also marked my formal introduction to the feminist movement, not just the world of feminism, as we created a feminism event.
Coinciding with Assignment #2 was the beginning of Seely’s Fight Like a Girl. The first chapter of this book works to identify the misconceptions about feminism in society and the structures within society, namely patriarchy, that allow this sort of thing to go on. The appendices, meanwhile, lay out a basic guideline of how to run a feminist event on your own, in hopes of empowering those with a voice. Overall, after being shoved into the world of feminism by Assignment #1, I felt that Assignment #2 was about getting a bit involved in the day to day activities in the world of feminism and obtaining a better idea of the world around me.
If the second section of this course was about my surroundings in the world of feminism, the third section was about the inhabitants in the world of feminism and their experiences. This section of the course chose to emphasize feminism through other people’s eyes. By giving students access to the experiences that other people have had with feminism, sexism, and oppression, this section of the course greatly helped to both inform me why feminism is so important, as well as how I am impacted by feminism and the things that make the movement necessary (structures of power).
One of the most important parts of the third section of this course was the reading of
On the whole, Kindred was quite shocking. In conjunction with Assignment #3, Kindred made me consider positions of power as I never had before. Like Kevin, I have never had to feel the total weight of a structure weighing down on me; although I have had occasional run-ins with power figures, I have never known what it is like to feel completely helpless. Over the course of writing Assignment #3, I came to understand why so many people have the feelings they do about racism, sexism, and positions of power in general. This helped immensely in making me understand the people who inhabit the world of feminism on my epic journey through it.
Additionally, in keeping with the theme of other people’s experiences with feminism, this section of the course featured some other people’s views of feminism. One of the first readings for this section of the course was Bell Hook’s Feminism is for Everybody. In discussion, we talked about her definition of feminism, which stated that the purpose of feminism is to bring an end to sexism and the exploitation and oppression that come from it. This further helped me to understand how other people see feminism and was a great point of comparison for my own definition that was refined in Assignment #2.
The final stretch of this epic course is where we are right now; now that I have been introduced to the world, gotten equated with the surroundings, and met the people in it, I finally have a real sense of what is going on. I am now able to pull together the different areas of the course to formulate a final definition of feminism as I see it. Feminism is a movement to refine the structures of power that surround us. There are no individual targets of feminism necessarily, but rather a firmly entrenched set of beliefs that allow oppression and sexism to carry on unquestioned. Although there cannot yet be a true “happily-ever-after” for this epic story, reassurance can nevertheless be found in the power and consistency of the feminist movement that has grown and continues to gain support from newcomers such as myself. In my opinion, this is where the full strength of the movement lies; there are a countless reasons to start supporting feminism and no reasons to stop.
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