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.