Assignment 4

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.