WGSS Exam #1

What is rape culture?

"A culture that actively promotes — or at the very least tolerates — sexual violence" (Katz, 2006) "Once we accept the basic truth that rape is not a crime of irrational, impulsive, uncontrollable lust, but is a deliberate, hostile, violent act of degradation by a would-be conquerer designed to intimate and inspire fear, we must look towards those elements in our culture promote and propagandize these attitudes, which offer men... the psychological encouragement to commit their acts of aggression without awareness, for the most part, that they have committed a punishable crime, let alone a moral wrong." (Brownmiller, 315) -- For her, rape culture is part of the structure of compulsory heterosexuality

More on Anzaldua

"I am visible - see this Indian face - yet I am invisible. I both blind them with my beak nose and am their blind spot. But I exist, we exist. They'd like to think I have melted in the pot. But I haven't we haven't" "Other than a common culture we have nothing to hold us together. We need to meet on a broader communal ground" "I still feel the old despair when I look at the unpainted, dilapidated scrap lumber houses consisting mostly of corrugated aluminum. Some of the poorest people in the US live in the Lower Rio Grande Valley... I walk through the elementary school I attended so long ago, that remained segregated until recently. I remember how the white teachers used to punish us for being Mexican" "This land has survived possession and ill-use by five countries... it has survived Anglo-Mexican blood feuds, lynchings, burnings, rapes, pillage" "This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is. And will be again"

Myths promoted by rape culture

1. The rapist as a crazed, unstable, loner ("stronger in the bushes") Makes it harder to recognize when it happens in other situations - safety of your own home, with people you know and trust 2. Nice guys and normal men don't rape But, we teach normative masculinity in ways that teach violations of consent 3. Women invite sexual assault by the way they dress, act, or other choices they've made ("she was asking for it") 4. Women have the power to prevent assault and are responsible for doing so 5. Sexual aggression is normal, natural, and even expected of men ("boys will be boys") 6. It's romantic when a man pursues a woman aggressively and refuses to take 'no' for an answer ("the heroic rapist") Ex the scene in The Notebook - threatening to throw himself off the ferris wheel if she doesn't agree to go out with him Connects back to enlightened sexism - we still consume these things even if we claim to know that it's not okay 7. Women lie about rape and/or can't be trusted to given accurate account of their experience 8. Men's reputations are more important and worthy of protection than women's safety

Lorber (2/2)

3. Gender as difference "In the social construction of gender, it does not matter what men and women actually do; it does not even matter if they do exactly the same thing. The social institution of gender insists only that what they do is perceived as different" (34) Ex Q-tip advertisement, sports, clothing, razors/ hygiene, height, hair, professions Gender is something that we use to enact a separation But not only are they separated - the male version has a higher status, higher quality, etc Sexuality is one of the scripts of gender - breaking gender 'rules' can mean that people say that you are gay or not associated with the sexual scripts of that gender 4. A vs Not-A "From society's point of view... one gender is usually the touchstone, the normal, the dominant, and the other is different, deviant, and subordinate. It Western society, 'man' is and 'wo-man' is Not-A." (38) One has a higher status and is thus the default This can be illustrated through what we call the Universal Masculine in language (ex saying mankind but we mean all of humanity) Ex group of all women conjugate different ways v group of mixed genders

Combahee River Collective - notes from class

Above all else, our politics originally sprang from the inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody's else's but because of our need as human persons for autonomy. This may seem so obvious as to sound simplistic, but it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever considered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression" (212) "If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression" (215)

Feminism and the abolitionist movement

Anti-slavery was one of the first issues that provided (some) space for white female reformer's voices to be heard, giving them a foothold in the public sphere White women were understood to be uniquely qualified to weigh in on slavery because of their perceived connection to Christian motherhood The ideology of separate spheres made them the moral center of their households and constructed them in some cases as 'morally superior' to men Women are understood to be detached from affairs of the state - men did politics, women stayed home → because they were protected from the corruption of politics, they were more spiritual, more connected to God, more faithful to the Bible Women were somehow as mothers and caretakers, there was a purity to womanhood that made something like slavery an issue that women were uniquely qualified to weigh in on as anti-Christian, bad for families, bad for children, etc - something that corrupts to family Many argued that slavery was a threat to the family It was also a favorite cause of white women because it allowed them to highlight the question of human equality (which opened space for talking about gender equality - and to draw "analogies between slavery and marriage" Aka we understand the issues with slavery because we are essential slaves in our marriages (obviously very problematic to say) As a result of their participation in the abolitionist movement, white women developed organizing skills and strategies that they eventually applied to the fight for suffrage Even as they advocated against slavery, many of them pushed black women to the sidelines within the movement and made racist arguments when black men were the first to win the vote

Key authors of black feminism

Audre Lorde (1984) Bell Hooks (1984) Combahee River Collective - Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, and Demita Frazier (1977)

Critique of lesbian separatism

Author: Combahee River Collective "Although we are feminists and Lesbians, we feel solidarity with progressive Black men and do not advocate the fractionalization that white women who are separatists demand. Our situation as Black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women of course do not need to have with white men, unless it is their negative solidarity as racial oppressors" (213)

Critique of the "Common Oppression" of women

Author: Hooks "A central tenet of modern feminist thought has been the assertion that 'all women are oppressed.' This assertion implies that women share a common lot, that factors like class, race, religion, sexual preference, etc. do not create a diversity of experience that determines the extent to which sexism will be an oppressive force in the lives of individual women. Being oppressed means the absence of choices... many women in this society do have choices (as inadequate as they are) therefore exploitation and discrimination are words that more accurately describe the lot of women collectively in the US" (35) Aka let's not forget how your race or class opens certain doors for you

Burden of education

Author: Lorde "Women of today are still being called upon to stretch across the gap of male ignorance and to educate men as to our existence and our needs. This is an old and primary tool of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master's concerns. Now we hear that it is the task of women of Color to educate white women - in the face of tremendous resistance - as to our existence, our differences, our relative roles in our joint survival. This is a diversion of energies and a tragic repetition of racist patriarchal thought" (27) "In the face of tremendous resistance" - it's not going to be listened to, anyways

Root of the word mystique

Basic definition of mystique: an air or attitude of mystery and reverence developing around something or someone (Miriam-Webster) More accurately, we can connect it to the term, mystify: to make mysterious or obscure And its related etymology: "borrowed from French, hoodwinking, trickery; from mystifier "to hoodwink, dupe" And finally, we can link it to more political definition of mystification: an obscuring especially of capitalist or social dynamics (as by making them equivalent to natural laws) that is seen in Marxist thought as an impediment to critical consciousness Ex the mystification of the sources of wealth Type of false consciousness

What arguments were being made against women having the right to vote?

Because 90% of the women either do not want it or do not care Because it means competition of women with men instead of cooperation Because 80% of the women eligible to vote are married and can only double or annul their husbands' votes Because it can be of no benefit commensurate with the additional expense involves Because in some States more voting women than voting men will place the Government under petticoat rule Because it is unwise to risk the good we have for the evil which may occur Same with arguments for gay marriage, changing the electoral college, etc - change could open the floodgates Votes of women can accomplish no more than votes of Men. Why waste time, energy and money, without result? Origin and development of a suffragette: At 15 a little pet, at 20 a little coquette, at 40 not married yet, at 50 a suffragette These suggest that giving women the right to vote would totally flip the society - framed as the most radical thing you could possibly do You can't be a traditional woman and a suffragette - you have to be 'othered', either by dressing like a man or failing to get married, etc "Real women don't ask for the right to vote"

Cooper (2/2)

Beyonce's performance of Flawless with the clip of Chimamanda Adichie's TED Talk Juxtaposed with the words of "bow down bitches" She argues that bitch is not gender specific, and loving women is messy - at least Beyonce owns the messiness of it [The hatred of Beyonce] read to me like grown black women using the power of feminism to punch down (or up) at the mean girls who they resented in childhood. I'm no therapist, but I'm a black girl's black girl, and I know black- girl pain when I see it. Misdirected rage is a dangerous thing ... a deadly thing. First, I'm not merely a feminist who happens to be black. I'm a Black Feminist, capital B, capital F. Far too often [white women] are straight-up enemies to the work of ending patriarchy and racism. But we still can't let white women become the center of a conversation that isn't about them. Yet when a young black man gets killed by police, my ass is in the street proclaiming that "Black lives matter." When black women get killed, black men never manage to plan such marches in solidarity with us. Though our bros ain't loyal, we insist on showing up for them.

Hooks (2/2)

Black men may be victimized by racism, but can oppress women Women may be victimized by sexism, but can oppress black people They both have a vested interest in the continued exploitation and oppression of others Black women's unique vantage point gives us a perspective to criticize this hegemony and also to envision a counter-hegemony

Combahee River Collective (1/2)

Black women's negative relationship to the American political system has always been determined by our membership in two oppressed racial and sexual castes National Black Feminist Organization (NFBO) - reactionary and racist forces obscured our movement in other organizations Focused on a politic that was anti racist, unlike those of white women, and antisexist, unlike those of Black and white men Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because our need as human persons for autonomy To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough We also find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously We feel solidarity with progressive Black men against racism but struggle with them against sexism The liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political-economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy Our consciousness seeking is even deeper because it's dealing with the layers of both racism and sexism The major source of difficulty in their work is the fact that they are fighting against oppression on two fronts without any privilege that those fighting on one front have If black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression

Dicker (2/2)

But, NOW was divided on two issues: ERA and reproductive rights Nine members severed ties at 3rd annual conference → around birth of radical feminism Main org was the Students for a Democratic Society (but, people became disillusioned because had the same issues) Freedom Summer - SNCC, issues with sexual relations and conflict with Black women - and borrowing the language of black oppression Growth of groups around the country to fill the gap - ex New York Radical Women Consciousness raising - the personal is political Continuing to exclude Black women and just have a white-centric focus Lots of divisions between women's liberation and the New Left - continued to break into smaller fractions Growth of reproductive movement Ex sharing their stories publically Formed National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws 1971 - Roe v Wade case New York Radical Feminists (outshoot of NYRW) fought against sexual/domestic violence

Roots of intersectionality

Coined in Crenshaw

1970 Lavender Menace

Disrupts the Second Congress to Unite Women They left the NOW and reclaim this term - "The women's movement is a lesbian plot" "What is a lesbian? A lesbian is the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion" (Rich)

Katz (2/2)

Ex Eminem His music is heralded as a "brilliant, boundary-crossing contribution to lyrical performance and comic art" When his lyrics were read like a poem, female students began to cry, several got up and left, and the men looked uncomfortable Ex lyrics in song Kim - realistic narrative about a verbal confrontation and throat-slitting murder of his then-wife, named Kim Has he achieved his success in spite of his misogyny and homophobia, or in part because of them? "No wonder Eminem is so hot to suburban kids... he's as nasty as they wanna be" His fans argue that lyrics about mistreating, raping, and murdering women are not to be taken seriously - "we know it's just a song" But, one of his impersonators actually did what the song lyrics say - murdering a woman For victims, this is not an academic debate about the diff between literalist and satirical art - it hits closer to home Myth for battered women that violence is her responsibility and if she loved him more, his abuse would stop "Ex I had a tough childhood" His popularity with girls sends a dangerous message to boys and men "They certainly do not want to be physically or sexually assaulted or sexually degraded... but they cannot have it both ways. They cannot proclaim their attraction to a man who has gotten rich verbally trashing and metaphorically raping women, and yet reasonably expect that young men will treat them with dignity" Sexism is a way to unite men across race and class lines Mother blaming - Class is also a critical factor here - poor (women of color, esp) are easy scapegoats for societal problems Why not be angry at his dad? Sexism "This sort of hate humor is not just harmless fun" He would actually be more of a rebel is he rapped for equality

Crenshaw (video notes)

Example of police violence against women and men - if we don't have frames for things, we struggle to conceptualize them Ex judge not willing to acknowledge that they did not hire African American women - just African Americans or just women → only if they could see the intersectionality of the situation would they be able to see the double discrimination she was experiencing Did not broaden the frame to include African American women The court made it legally inconsequential When there is no name, you can't see a problem. When you can't see a problem, you can't solve it Intersectionality - would only protect you if you were harmed on either the race road or the gender road, but not if you were in the intersection Intersectionality is not additive - this is synthetic, these parts combine together to create a whole that is more than the sum of its parts And because it's different, it is hard for us to see → oppression looks different depending on the categories that intersect with it (ex hyper-sexualization of Black women) It's not the degree to which you are oppressed, it's how you are oppressed (the specificity) It's qualitative, not quantitative - not the Oppression Olympics

Key inspirations for first wave feminism

Feminism and the abolitionist movement

Posters (anti-rape)

Heroism in it when it should be basic "I'm the kind of guy who takes a stand" - othering the rapist The posters with large text saying perpetuating things - maybe people wouldn't read that actual important parts "I told my buddy that's no way to treat a lady" - they're probably still friends, treating a 'lady' "My strength is not for hurting" - the men are the more powerful ones in this situation, doesn't do anything to break the association between masculinity and strength

Abu-Lughod (2/2)

I had never received a petition from such women defending the right of Palestinian women to safety from Israeli bombing or daily harassment at check- points, asking the United States to reconsider its support for a government that had dispossessed them, closed them out from work and citizenship rights, refused them the most basic freedoms I do not think that it would be as easy to mobilize so many of these American and European women if it were not a case of Muslim men oppressing Muslim women Fatima Gailani, a U.S.-based ad- visor to one of the delegations, is quoted as saying, "If I go to Afghanistan today and ask women for votes on the promise to bring them secularism, they are going to tell me to go to hell One of the things we have to be most careful about in thinking about Third World feminisms, and feminism in different parts of the Muslim world, is how not to fall into polarizations that place feminism on the side of the West "The desire for freedom and liberation is a historically situated desire whose motivational force cannot be assumed a pri- ori, but needs to be reconsidered in light of other desires, aspirations, and capacities that inhere in a culturally and historically located subject" It is deeply problematic to construct the Afghan woman as someone in need of saving When you save someone, you imply that you are saving her from something, you are also saving her to something "Please join us in helping to lift the veil" - fantasies of intimacy Could we not leave veils and vocations of saving others behind and instead train our sights on ways to make the world a more just place? RAWA - They are not obsessed with the veil, even though they are the most radical feminists working for a secular democratic Afghanistan

More about Machado

If you want to be my friend, you must forget I am a lesbian and never forget I am a lesbian Discussions of lesbian murders Ex Alice Mitchell killing Freda Ward - see notes above Using battered woman syndrome to justify Green's killing - it didn't work the same as it was in a heterosexual relationship Debra Reid - Framingham Eight, killed their abusive partners - she was black and a lesbian Tried to paint as the woman in the relationship (see above) All of the other ones got their sentences commuted or were otherwise released Documentary didn't include her "But then, I didn't know what it meant to be afraid of another woman" "You were dropped from the boat of the world, climbed onto a piece of driftwood tougher, and after a perfunctory period of pleasure and safety, she tried to drown you. And so you aren't just mad, or heartbroken: you grieve from the betrayal" Story of pair of women breaking into another woman's house - "Jackie's a part of the community... Well, we all are" Queer people fail each other too - the sole lesbian on the jury did not want to convict because she didn't want to convict a queer sister (regardless of the fact that the defendant was also a queer sister Abusers smuggle patriarchy into lesbian utopia Women who are women don't abuse their girlfriends, proper lesbians would not do this

Crenshaw (notes from reading)

Immigrant women have a hard time meeting the requirements for a waiver for hardship caused by domestic violence because they don't have the professional reports because of language barriers or cultural norms (ex Asian community) LAPD not releasing stats because they didn't want to make AA community 'look bad' Asian community - shaming the family is more important than protecting women Women of color are reluctant to call the police Feminist concerns often suppress minority experiences as well "I was not supposed to be a battered wife" from white women Only politicize the problem in the dominant community 48 hours - CBS program that showed seven women who were victims of abuse The 7th one was never into focus - never got to know her like we got to know the others - also, she passed away and they communicated that she was responsible for her own victimization by not communicating with the police PODER - Latina in crisis, turned away from shelter because she couldn't speak English fluently and they wouldn't let her son translate for her (group classes) New York State Coalition Against DV - had been critiqued for language exclusion and other practices that marginalized interests of women of color Issues integrating Latinas into it - rejected those that did not have traditional feminist credentials even though they were well qualified in the community Coalition ended when women of color walked out The women who dominate the anti violence movement aer diff from women of color but that they frequently have the power to determine whether the intersectional difference of women of color will be incorporated at all into the basic formulation of policy It's not a petty conflict over who gets to sit at the head of the table, it's a serious matter of who will survive

Combahee River Collective (2/2)

The reaction of Black men to feminism has been notoriously negative - scared by the possibility that Black feminists might organize around their own needs NBFO also experienced fractionalization with lesbian-straight split as well as class and political differences, but continued to grow As Black feminists, we are made constantly and painfully aware of how little effort white women have made to understand and combat their racism, which requires among other things that they have a more than superficial comprehension of race, color, and black history and culture We do not believe the end always justifies the means - believe in collective process and nonhierarchical distribution of power without our own group and our vision of a revolutionary society

Discussion on Crenshaw and Machado

In both, they express numerous examples that illustrate how important it is to understand intimate partner violence and abuse through an intersectional framework. To what extent do these illustrations point to the kind of 'framing problem' that Crenshaw discusses in her Ted Talk? Love murder in Machado - have to conceptualize as a scorned lover (but that would mean accepting lesbianism) or madwoman? Should she be charged for murder or put into a hospital for unnatural passions? If we don't even have the frames to understand lesbian love and desire, we don't have the frames to understand lesbian violence Framingham Eight - the lawyers painted the only Black lesbian in the group as traditionally feminine, the abused needed to be a feminine figure A real woman wouldn't abuse someone (idea) Woman being restrained from the social services because she didn't speak English and couldn't attend to group therapy sessions Maybe this resistant to accepting lesbian violence comes from the fact that they don't want to give their community a bad name (Rich is saying that going to the lesbian community is a way to escape all of this) - this idea can prevent us from seeing this violence "Guilty of smuggling patriarchy into lesbian utopia" - the women who do these things are foreign to us/ man-like What would it look like to have a framework to make sense of this experience and not have to 'fend for yourself'? Intersectionality is more than just Black women, too

Liberal v radical feminism

Liberal feminism: focused on creating equality by working within existing political and economic structures- emphasis on legislative change Represented by Betty Friedan (wants people to pursue their careers, not criticizing capitalism, wants equality in marriage but not questioning the institution of marriage) and NOW Ex closing the wage gap, breaking the glass ceiling, etc Radical feminism: focused on dismantling existing political and economic structures, especially those which are rooted in patriarchy Represented by Lavender Menace and Adrienne Rich Ex questioning marriage and compulsory heterosexuality, thinking beyond capitalism

Banet Weiser

Main concept/ title: popular feminism Refers to feminism's recent increase in media visibility (including social media) which has led to an increase in its popularity - no longer considered a fringe movement Has led to misogyny becoming newly visible as well, in the form of anti-feminist backlash (popular misogyny) In its most visible neoliberal forms, rebrands feminism as being about individual empowerment and confidence (rather than being about collective struggle) Can also include more resistant threads, often led by women of color, though these threads tend to be less visible Feminism is when we connect these feelings that something is 'wrong' to the greater political system We all have multiple origin stories that brought us to the point of being a feminist There is feminism from the top (hyper-visible feminism) and feminism from the bottom (the most invisible feminism)

Kristoff and WuDunn (things that align with other discussion)

Rath's saga offers a glimpse of the brutality inflicted routinely on women and girls in much of the world, a malignancy that is slowly gaining recognition as one of the paramount human rights problems of this century In the wealthy countries of the West, discrimination is usually a matter of unequal pay or underfunded sports teams or unwanted touching from a boss. In contrast, in much of the world discrimination is letha Now her good looks and outgoing personality began to work in her favor, turning her into an effective saleswoman. She saved and invested in new merchandise, her business thrived, and she was able to support her parents and two younger sisters. She married and had a son, and she began saving for his education Poor, family oriented, victimized, tradition-bound "Look for a shop on your left, halfway down the strip, where a teenage girl will call out to you, smile, and try to sell you a souvenir cap. She'll laugh and claim she's giving you a special price, and she's so bubbly and appealing that she'll probably make the sale." "Rath's eventual triumph is a reminder that if girls get a chance, in the form of an education or a microloan, they can be more than baubles or slaves; many of them can run businesses." "Women aren't the problem but the solution. The plight of girls is no more a tragedy than an opportunity." The reason there are so many Muslim terrorists, they argued, has little to do with the Koran but a great deal to do with the lack of robust female participation in the economy and society of many Islamic countries → led to the US (Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff) focusing on girls education in 2008 Aka we know what's best for you and we're going to make it happen

Enlightened sexism

Refers to media that is "feminist in its outward appearance but sexist in intent" (10)

Anzaldúa

She is biracial, bilingual, poet, someone who's sexuality has made her feel like an outsider in her racial community (and vice versa) She feels this pressure to choose She focuses on this idea of intersectional synthesis a lot "Your dual consciousness splits off parts of yourself, transferring the 'negative' parts onto us" (108) Dual consciousness: - Borders/walls - Purity within identity - Erasure of multiplicity - Intolerance for contradiction - Representing or exiling the other within the self - Exclusion - Rigidity - Fragments Mestiza consciousness: - Borderlands - Impurity/mixing - Embrace of multiplicity - Tolerance for contradiction - Incorporating the other within the self - Reconciliation/ healing - Flexibility - Synthesis - seeing these parts of your identity as part of you who are as a whole person, you don't have to exile parts of yourself "As a mestiza I have no country, my homeland cast me out; yet all countries are mine because I am every woman's sister or potential love (as a lesbian I have no race, my own people disclaim me; but I am all races because there is the queer of me in all races)... I am an act of kneading, of uniting and joining that not only has produced both a creature of darkness and a creature of light, but also a creature that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives them new meanings" (102-103)

Douglas

Title: "Fantasies of Power" from the Rise of Enlightened Sexism Key features of enlightened sexism: It assumes that feminism's work is done, allowing us to take a more light-hearted approach to sexist language and stereotypes It uses irony as a shield to get us to dismiss the problematic aspects of certain representations It offers "fantasies of power" that celebrate the strength and success of individual women (and downplays the necessity of collective organizing) It reduces women's power to consumerist purchasing power, the power to attract men, and the power to competitively outdo other women It blurs the lines between sexual objectification and sexual empowerment It expects women to "exhibit hyper feminine physical traits" to compensate for "no longer hav[ing] to exhibit traditionally 'feminine' personality traits"

Gordon (Week 6, 2/2)

Single greatest influence on women's liberation was civil rights But, could make problematic comparisons Sexual attacks on black women were commonplace - white men virtually never prosecuted for these crimes In all movements related to civil rights/anti-imperialism, men dominated the leadership and women did the organizational maintenance work "Render women invisible as subjects, only visible as bodies" Feminism not welcomed by male leftists (ex "take her off stage and f*ck her") Consciousness raising occurred within the women's liberation movement Able to act more fluidly than in a big organization, but were also a bit less efficient because of the lack of organization NOW held together a national network - more diverse than women's liberation because labor union leaders and women of color helped start it NOW focused on the two-party system, while women's liberation members de-emphasized electoral campaigns Ex election of Shirley Chisholm as the first AA woman in Congress, in 1969 Also focused on legal issues and defense fund Ex Title IX of Education Amendments - sports and now campus rapes Throughout 1970s focusing more on the ERA Earlier opposition had come from feminists who were concerned it would cancel other legislation Labor unions were now pro-ERA, many were not less worried about loss of legislation than they were about continued discrimination But, more opposition from the right wing - argued it would destroy the family, free husbands from having to support wives and children, send women into combat, end separate women's and men's toilets, uphold abortion rights and homosexual marriages, and destroy businesses Required ⅗ approval - could not reach this In retrospect, critique NOW for focusing so exclusively on this

Gordon (Week 5, 2/2)

Socialist feminists - ex Boston's Bread and Roses, Chicago's Women's Liberation Union Sought a modified capitalism Emphasized collective political engagement with the 'male' world of activism, rather than withdrawing from it Combahee River Collective - insisted changing conditions for all women Did not assume gender discrimination was the major issue, emphasized structural sexism (putting women in power doesn't just solve the issues) NOW continued as a liberal feminist org, focusing primarily on changing the laws and creating equality between the sexes The women's movement brought female friendship into a position of honor, not second place after heterosexual dating and marriage The lesbian question Deported men from position of being necessary for sexual pleasure But feared stigmatization if associated with lesbians - "lavender menace" and reclaiming of the term Some argued lesbianism was the highest form of feminism and that heterosexual women were compromises Some thought it was intrinsic and didn't have to do with their politics

Common structure of first wave feminist speeches

Taking traditional writings and flipping them to be used - ex Bible in Truth's speech, the Declaration of Independence as the basis of the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments Communicates that they are intelligent, well-read, etc can pull off a parody of these revered documents

Margin to center approach

The idea that if you think about the margins as people who are at the outskirts of multiple types of oppression (ex sexism, white supremacy, ableism, heterosexism) When politic evolves from people who are close to the center (ex white women, black men), then it's how single issue politics take shape (called center to margin approach - incremental change) These authors of black feminist papers really oppose this ideas -- We can't work towards incremental change from the center because we would be working against our best interests You can't work within the system because the system is the very thing that's oppressing you Ex if you use your whiteness to get closer to the center, you're perpetuating patriarchy (because sexism is tied to racism) We shouldn't look at the differences as the weakness of the movement, they are the power of the movement

Kang, Lessard, and Heston (1/2)

Title: 19th Century Feminist Movements S​​uffragist leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, primarily focused on women's suffrage (the right to vote), striking down coverture laws, and gaining access to education and employment Enshrined in Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, which is the resulting document of the first women's rights convention in the United States in 184 Lead by white middle class women Cult of true womanhood (piety, purity, submission, domesticity) were confronted in their demands Ideology of white womanhood that systematically denied black and working-class women access to the category of "women," because working-class and black women, by necessity, had to labor outside of the home Stanton and Anthony formed National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) to break from suffragists who supported 15th Amendment And barred participation of Black women in their organization But, working-class women and women of color knew that mere access to voting did not overturn class and race inequalities But, the movement did have overlap with the abolitionist movement Nancy Cott argued both were about having self-ownership and control over one's body Brown (problematic) - "The wife owes service and labor to her husband as much and as absolutely as the slave does to his master"

Brownmiller

Title: Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape A world without rapists would be a world in which women moved freely without fear of men Women are trained to be rape victims Little Red Riding Hood - wolf lurking in the shadows, saved by the good, friendly man - "I will never again wander off into the forest as long as I live..." "Funny, every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from" Three little pigs aren't afraid of the wolf The claim that no woman can be raped against her will - brings all sort of victim blaming about The belief that a woman seduces a man into rape is part of the smoke screen that men throw up to obscure their actions "If you're going to be raped, you might as well relax and enjoy it" This advice that a violent sexual encounter can be fun if you play along and suspend you own judgements and feelings is predicated on two propositions: a, the inevitability of male triumph and b, all women want to be raped Do women want to be raped? The sad answer is yes, it must be dealt with, because the popular culture that we inhabit, absorb, and even contribute to, has so decreed We either hear that all women want to be raped or there is no such thing as rape at all - either way, the woman is at fault We have to acknowledge that rape is not an impulsive, uncontrollable act of lust but a deliberate, hostile, act of degradation and possession designed to intimidate and inspire fear By daring to speak about and fight against rape, women had discovered yet another part of our oppression, perhaps the central key: historic physical repression, a conscious process of intimidation, guilt and fear Women turned around and seized the offensive Rape can be eradictated - but the approach must be long rage and cooperative, and must have the understanding and good will of many men as well a

Hooks

Title: Black Women - Shaping Feminist Theory Betty Friedan's work only speaks to college educated, middle/upper class white women These issues are not the pressing concerns of the masses - who are concerned with economic survival, ethnic and racial discrimination, etc White women who discuss feminist discourse have little or not understanding of white supremacy as a racial politic The central tenet that all women are oppressed does not create diversity of experience that determines the extent to which sexism is an oppressive force in the lives of individual women Quote about being oppressed being the absence of choices (see above) Feminism has been co-opted by the interests of conservative and liberal feminists - ex wanting equal pay, wanting social equality, wanting an alternative lifestyle People with different strategies/ ideas find themselves ostracized and silenced White women often had never considered these issues until now - but people of color have known for ages (it is not a new revelation, we don't need a theory to tell us that we are oppressed) I had not known a life where women had not been together, where women had not helped, protected, and loved one another deeply College educated black women were dismissed ... real blackness meant to speak with the patois of poor black people being uneducated, streetwise, and a variety of other stereotypes Attempts by white feminists to silence black women are rarely written about Racist stereotypes about strong black women allow white women to ignore the extent to which black women are likely to be victimized Out overall status is lower than that of any group, we are allowed no institutional other that we can exploit or oppress

Ahmed

Title: Bringing Feminist Theory Home Feminism: how we pick each other up Feminism is bringing people into the room A movement is also a shelter Feminism is happening in all the places that have been bracketed as not political - and everywhere In one poem I had used he. "Why do you use he," she asked me gently, "when you could have used she?" The question, posed with such warmth and kindness, prompted much heartache, much sad ness in the realization that the words as well as worlds I had thought of as open to me were not open at all When you become a feminist, you find out very quickly that what you seek to bring to an end, some do not recognize as existing Feminism is homework... If feminism is an assignment, it is a self-assignment. We give ourselves this task. By homework, I am not suggesting we all feel at home in feminism in the sense of feeling safe or secure. When we think of feminist theory as homework, the university too becomes something we work on as well as at. We use our particulars to challenge the universal.

Rich

Title: Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Existence Compulsory heterosexuality A political institution that requires women to direct their energies towards men rather than each other ("male-identificiation") Frames heterosexuality as inevitable, especially for women (ex accept an older bachelor but see an unmarried woman as a failure) Connects to the Bechdel Test - women are incomplete without a man but men are fine without them The primary tool that the patriarchy uses to control and isolate women Lesbian existence and the lesbian continuum The political choice to prioritize your bonds with other women over your allegiance to men ("woman-identification" - centering and prioritizing your bonds with women over your bonds with me ) Shows us that meaningful alternatives exist (we can unearth records of women never getting married, women living together) Represents feminist solidarity and resistance through sisterhood Says that you don't have to be attracted to/ have sex with women to be on the lesbian continuum - all you have to do is prioritize your bonds with women over your bonds with me and resist the bonds of patriarchy with your sisterhoods You can resist compulsory heterosexuality without being a lesbian Friedan argues that lesbians are peripheral - this article is saying that they are central/ the heart of the feminist movement Passage relating to homophobia/ men on page 136 - Shutting down lines of allyship - seems to be arguing a lot for separation? Gender essentialism in this piece - what do we mean by a purely female experience? → TERF-y moment, trans women aren't welcome in these all female spaces and trans men thought to be internalizing the rhetoric of the oppressor

Stanton, Anthony, and Gage

Title: Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men and women are created equal" "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward women, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her..." He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise He has compelled her to submit to laws... He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men... He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead Etc Resolutions - That all laws that prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore no force or authority That woman is man's equal - was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such That the speed success of our cause depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman an equal participation with men in the various trades, professions, and commerce Etc

Fine

Title: Delusions of Gender Neurosexism: the ways we use scientific discourses to perpetuate sexism and gender stereotypes

Joannides

Title: Dirty Word Chapter Perhaps even an eight-year-old child knows that the way to insult someone in our society is to tell them to take the woman's place in a sexual act, How is she supposed to enjoy performing the very insults that our society has taught her to hurl at others? You don't have to be religious to know that when a boy has intercourse for the first time, he becomes a man. Yet a girl who has intercourse loses her virginity and is no longer pure as the driven snow, assuming she was in the first place.) Perhaps the real problem is our culture's concept of sexuality, where being a woman (e.g. getting f*cked) is a common insult, where "scoring" makes a boy feel like a man, and where respect, friendship and caring are not necessary conditions for sex. When it takes its more usual form of"We're totally f*cked now!" it's got "girl" all over it.

Abu Lughod (1/2)

Title: Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? If you were to substitute Christian or Jewish wherever you have Muslim, would these questions make sense? We need to be wary when Loid Ciomei in British-ruled Egypt, French ladies in Alge- ria, and Laura Bush, all with military troops behind them, claim to be saving or liberating Muslim women Liberals sometimes confess their surprise that even though Afghanistan has been liberated from the Taliban, women do not seem to be throwing off their burqas The Taliban did not invent the burqa Symbolized modesty, enabled women to live in segregated living spaces while observing moral requirements of separating from unrelated men If liberated from the enforced wearing of burqas, most of these women would choose some other form of modest head covering, like all those living nearby who were not under the Taliban Two major points from discussion of veiling: We need to work against the reductive inter- pretation of veiling as the quintessential sign of women's unfreedom, even if we object to state imposition of this form, as in Iran or with the Taliban We must take care not to reduce the diverse situations and attitudes of millions of Muslim women to a single item of clothing Perhaps it is time to give up the Western obsession with the veil and focus on some serious issues with which feminists and others should indeed be concerned

Martin

Title: Egg and the Sperm Conception as a battlefield - what does that mean for sex and the narratives around it? Women's reproductive system as hostile and passive, sperm are the main characters and celebrated

Katz (1/2)

Title: It Takes a Village to Rape a Woman Men who rape are not just a handful of sick people - they are the products of a culture that glorifies and sexualizes male power and dominance while glorifying and sexualizing female subservience and submission The myth that the rapist is a masked man who hides in the bushes is reassuring for women and for men On college campuses, 90% of rape victims know their assailants 1/12 men admitted to committing acts that met the legal definition of rape Undetected rapists are men who typically behave in stereotypically masculine ways, see sex as conquest, and are hypersensitive to any perceived slight against their manhood - but they are not crazy, and they are not sociopaths Our culture tells girls that their bodies and sexual behavior are the only things that are valued by heterosexual men Friends with benefits - only girls performing sexual acts and boys never returning the favor "I believed that men had a right to my body and I was supposed to let them" Forced choice between virgin and ***** Victim blaming when wearing provocative clothing Sexual violence is part of a broader cultural pattern in which masculinity comes to be linked with power and control over women Ex Kobe Bryant - sexual assault charge Attacking the woman - impugn her morality and question her mental stability, character, and sexual practices (and even death threats) He was received with a standing ovation at a game Communicated their loyalty to him People will not believe you - they will actually blame you for damaging his reputation Even though the decision to prosecute was made by the district attorney - clearly there was sufficient evidence, and rape crisis counselors and advocates fully supported her Unless the alleged perpetrator looks like Freddy Krueger and the victim is a nun, it is the man who can e

Masters

Title: My Strength is Not for Hurting Strategies of men's anti-rape websites/ campaigns: 1. Othering the rapist Rape is not a normal behavior, but an act committed by individuals who are distinct from the general population Separates rapists from the broader community by portraying them as outliers who lack empathy and respect for others' autonomy 2. Claiming the rapist Rapists are not mysterious strangers but often individuals known to the victim or even within the same social circle This approach aims to dispel myths surrounding rape and challenge the idea that perpetrators are always outsiders 3. "Real men don't rape" Using masculinity as a way to keep men from committing assault If one of the ways we teach masculinity is to say that this is normal, we need to re-define masculinity 4. Androgyny advocacy Promotes the breaking down of traditional gender roles and stereotypes by encouraging individuals to embrace characteristics and behaviors typically associated with both masculinity and femininity (ex walk a mile in her shoes campaign) By advocating for an androgynous identity, it aims to foster greater gender inclusivity and equality in society 5. Framing rape as a communication breakdown You need to work on being better communicators so you don't end up in a situation of sexual assault

McIntosh

Title: White Privilege Categories: Gender, race, citizenship status, class, sexual orientation, gender identity (cis/trans), ability, family structure, age, language Privilege becomes visible to us when we lose it We need to think about the individual and the system as being in dialogue - they are not separate, we are individuals participating in a system

Lorber (1/2)

Title: Night to His Day This connects to our previous discussions because we are still talking about the systemic Gender is one of these systems that is so omnipresent in our lives that we don't realize we are taking all of these paths of least resistance that perpetuate this system Main concepts: 1. Sex v gender "For the individual, gender construction starts with assignment to a sex category on the basis of what the genitalia looks like at birth... a sex category becomes a gender status through naming, dress, and the use of other gender markers" (30) 2. Gender as sameness "Individuals... have to be taught to be masculine or feminine... children learn to walk talk and gesture the way their social groups says girls and boys should" (33) "As adolescents they conduct their sexual behavior according to gendered scripts" (33) If you are female, you are called upon to perform the scripts of femininity and vice versa for males This isn't to say we don't resist these scripts, but that they exist - girls should be the same as other girls and the same for boys Often these things don't really occur to us until we are policed for them Ex this is something my sister is allowed to do but I am not If this is so biological, why do they have to be enforced? Or why are there different gender roles in different cultures?

Marilyn Frye

Title: Oppression Oppression happens when someone is "caught between or among forces and barriers which are so related to each other that jointly they restrain, restrict, or prevent the thing's motion or mobility" (42) Metaphor of the birdcage - the fact that they are interrelated, we have to look at it at a whole and see the cage, not just the bars What allows us to name something as a result of "oppression" instead of just misfortune? It exists "in a systematic relationship with other barriers," creating a series of "double binds" Double binds - America Ferrera's monologue in the Barbie Movie These barriers are revealed when we take a "macroscopic" rather than a "microscopic view" (seeing the cage rather than a single bar) It is the result of membership in a group You are oppressed as a woman, as a person of color, etc You are oppressed when you are locked in the cage, not when you are locked out of it. Men are not oppressed by gender roles, even if they suffer as a result of them "Members of certain racial and/or economic groups and classes, both the males and the females, are oppressed as members of those races and/or classes. But men are not oppressed as men." (49) Lacks intersectional thinking - want to focus just on patriarchy as the model that's the most important to think about

Johnson

Title: Patriarchy, the System Misunderstanding that patriarchy means all men are oppressive people, which results in defensiveness - we need to clear this up Individualist perspective - we would ask why a particular man beat a woman, but we wouldn't ask what kind of society would promote persistent patterns of such behavior The system can't be reduced to the people who participate in it We are not the system - patriarchy can exist without men having 'oppressive personalities' or actively conspiring with one another to defend male privilege "What evil requires is simply that ordinary people do nothing" Monopoly analogy - the game encourages me to feel good not because I am greedy or merciless, but because the game is about winning and this is how you win We ignore the fact that we could choose not to play or suggest a change in the rules A capitalist system makes this a path of least resistance and extracts real costs from those who stray from it It's easy for men to fool themselves into thinking they can find nicer, less oppressive ways to participate in an oppressive system without challenging it "It may be larger than us, it may not be us, but it doesn't exist except through us. Without us, patriarchy doesn't happen" We can think of a society as a network of interconnected systems within systems Patriarchy isn't static - it is an ongoing process that's continually shaped and reshaped "No one wants to think of themselves a sinvolved in social oppression, but being involved doesn't mean we're bad or to blame for oppression, for people can and do participate in systems that produce horrible, immoral consequences without being horrible and immoral people"

Mainardi

Title: Politics of Housework Even people with 'woke' partners still have this experience After him agreeing to split the housework "Women have been brainwashed more than we can even imagine" Excuses: I don't mind sharing the housework, but I don't do it very well. We should each do the things we're best at" Aka I can do the things that are rare like changing light bulbs and you do this every day I don't mind sharing the work, but you'll have to show me how to do it I'm going to annoy the hell out of you until it's easier to do them yourself We have different standards, and why should I have to work to your standard, it's unfair Women are the ones that would be judged for having a messy house I've got nothing against sharing the housework, but you can't make me do it on your schedule Passive resistance, I'll wait until you do it essentially Housework is too trivial to even talk about Housework is beneath my status, but not yours In animal societies, the top animal is a male even when he is not chosen on the basis of strength, but on the basis of intelligence I have biological, historical, psychological, and anthropological justification for keeping you down What great man would have accomplished what he did if he had to do his own housework? Oppression is built into the system, and I, as a white American male, receive the benefits of the system. I don't want to give them up.

Dicker (1/2)

Title: Second Wave Feminism- Seeking Liberation and Equality Even after gaining the right to vote, women still experienced inequality (ex thought of as wives and mothers, made less money, couldn't own their own CCs, etc) And after this point, the movement didn't have as much of one unifying goal anymore Alice Paul Amendment - Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction" Divisions in the movement that led to losses of power Pro thought it would elevate status legally and symbolically, anti thought it was too abstract and even elitist People were still hesitant to describe themselves as feminists (esp during Cold War) WWII - change in women's lives Domesticity celebrated in the post-war, growth of the American dream rhetoric Blossoming of civil rights movement in 1950s/60s set stage for women's rights reforms Friedan exposed the feminine mystique Kennedy made a Commission on the Status of Women to overcome discrimination Opened up a conversation about women's place in American society Congress passed and Kennedy signed to EPA in 1963 Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Title XII made the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Someone included sex as a way to make it be voted down, but that did not work But, the EEOC was really apathetic towards any complaints Created the National Organization for Women to serve as a watchdog (nongovernmental) to advocate for women's civil rights Worked within the system to gain women's legal equality

Betty Friedan

Title: The Feminine Mystique What is the feminine mystique? A form of ideology, and a mystification of reality It is a myth of feminine fulfillment sold to American women that all they need is a husband, children, and a house in the suburbs in order to be happy The problem with no name is the disconnect between that fantasy of fulfillment and the reality of discontentment: "In the 15 years after WWII, this mystique of feminine fulfillment became the cherished and self-perpetuating core of contemporary American culture. Millions of women lived their lives in the image of those pretty pictures of the American suburb housewife, kissing their husband goodbye in front of the picture window, depositing their station wagons full of children at school, and smiling as they ran the new electric waxer over the spotless kitchen floor" (18) Looking to meds, not political change Ex "now she can cope... thanks to Butisol," "Raise the emotional threshold against everyday stresses... Serpasil," "You can't set her free. But you can help her feel less anxious (Serax, oxazepam)"

Lorde

Title: The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House What does it mean when the two black women who did present were literally found at the last hour? (panel of conference) Community is pathological and redemptive, but feared by the patriarchal world Without community, there is no liberation "For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master's house as their only source of support" Why weren't other black and third world women found to participate in this conference? Why were two phone calls to me considered a consultation? Am I the only possible source of names of black feminists? Cop out is that "we did not know who to ask" "It is the same evasion of responsibility, the same cop-out, that keeps black womens arts out of women's exhibitions..." White feminists have educated themselves about an enormous amount over the past ten years, how come you haven't also educated yourselves about black women and the differences between us - white and black - when it is our key to survival as a movement? I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives there. See who's face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices"

Ward

Title: The Tragedy of Heterosexuality How do you transcend the baggage of sexism in heterosexual relationships? To be a woman in a heterosexual relationship means that you will be fighting against a lot of oppression innately

Gordon (Week 5, 1/2)

Title: The Women's Liberation Movement Consciousness raising groups started with the evidence at hand - their own lives Most important feminist theoretical contribution to social theory was the concept of gender - distinguishing it from biological factors Understanding sexism as learned means it can be unlearned Personal is political - idea that many problems previously considered individual and private were created by social structures Ex even sexual activity reflected political power Feminists began to challenge wide range of institutions - ex could function well and happily without marriage, women friends are just as important for support and contentment as a husband, loving sexual partnerships don't have to be legalized by state or church Women's liberation created a space for lesbians to live their lives without hiding and helped gay men free themselves from stigma Through structural racism, women began to understand structural sexism - discrimination did not arise from attitudes but structures like the economy, society, and culture Experimented with cutting themselves off from men - ex question that oppression by men created direct benefits from men, male-female antagonism Some defined lesbianism as a political choice Wanted to replace male superiority with female superiority, women would lead the world with less conflict

Gordon (Week 6, 1/2)

Title: The Women's Liberation Movement White feminists were oblivious to the depth and strength of racism in the US, and to the need to put civil rights foremost There was never exclusion; feminist groups badly wanted nonwhite and poorer members. But their conversations were at times so different, and their conversations so insular, that their groups felt exclusionary to women of color White feminists gave uncritical support to Black Panther Party "Asking Black women to step back into the protection of their men" Development of separate male-dominated and autonomous women's groups like the Third World Women's Alliance (developed when black women's group reached out to Latinas) These developments did not weaken the movement, it became stronger and more successful Feminist activism often came from labor struggles and movements for children Chicanos resisted development of feminism, but that didn't stop the Chicanas Native American women - even greater history of leadership (ex fish-ins in 1960s defending tribal rights, campaigning against sterilization) Asian American women - affected by Vietnam War, found that the Asian American New Left was less sexist and less violent than the black and Native American New Lefts Feminists of color faced similar denunciations by their racial/ethnic brothers New Left is really a developing, interlocked chain of social movements that began in the 1950s with civil rights, extended through campus protests, the anti-Vietnam War campaign, the women's liberation and then gay liberation movement, taking in also the environment that continued throughout

Mohanty

Title: Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses Using colonization as an explanation implies structural domination and suppresses the complication of each situation By focusing on a monolithic notion of patriarchy, we create the 'third world difference' - characterizes that all women are oppressed in these countries Western feminism does have to situation itself into the greater global economic and political framework But this writing does have to be considered in the context of the global hegemony of Western scholarship Three main principles for her critique: Strategic location of woman vis a vis the context of analysis Assumption that women are a coherent group with identical interests and desires, regardless of class, ethnic, or racial location, implies the notion of gender or sexual difference or even patriarchy which can be applied universally and cross-culturally Methodologically, uncritical way that proof of universality and cross cultural validity are provided Political presupposition - model of power and struggle they imply and suggest All of these combines to form the notion of an average third world woman - leads an essentially truncated life based on her female gender (sexually constrained), and is third world (ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, domestic, family oriented, victimized) Contrasted with western woman as modern, educated, in control over own bodies and sexualities, and freedom to make their own decisions Time to move past the idea that "they cannot represent themselves; they must be represented"

Cooper (1/2)

Title: Why Feminism Needed Beyonce If black women don't figure out how to love other black women (cis and trans, queer and straight, and everything in between), it will be the death of us. One of feminism's biggest failures is its failure to insist that feminism is, first and foremost, about truly, deeply, and unapologetically loving women. Until the release of her magnum opus, Lemonade, an album so self-consciously about the interior lives, struggles, and emotions of black women that even most of Bey's haters had to bow down, I have never seen so much vitriol, particularly among black feminist women, as I have seen in their reactions to Beyoncé. Never. It's as if the girls who were bullied finally have the chance to be the mean girls, and, where Beyoncé is concerned, they have embraced that role with gusto and absolutely no sense of irony. Beyonce said "I think I am a feminist, in a way. It's not something I consciously decided I was going to be; perhaps it's because I grew up in a singing group with other women, and that was so helpful to me. It kept me out of so much trouble and out of bad relationships. My friendships with my girls are just so much a part of me that there are things I am never going to do that would upset that bond. I never want to betray that friendship because I love being a woman and I love being a friend to other women."

Kang, Lessard, and Heston (2/2)

Truth - Akron Women's Convention in 1851 Critiqued the exclusion of black women from the women's movement while simultaneously condemning the injustices of slave Nell Painter (1996) has questioned the validity of this representation of the speech, arguing that white suffragists dramatically changed its content and title Black women were powerful leaders Ida B Wells was a founding member of NAACP and journalist Thousands of African American women were members of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, which was pro-suffrage, but did not receive recognition from the predominantly middle-class, white National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) 19th Amendment passed in 1920 Showed that getting the right to vote would not provide unfettered access to the institutions they have been denied from, or equality with men Also, 18th Amendment faced backlash (separate by equal with Plessy v Ferguson in 1896) While equal rights existed in the abstract realm of the law under the 18th and 19th amendments, the on-the-ground reality of continued racial and gender inequality was quite different

Sojourner Truth's speech - 2 transcriptions

Truth delivered her speech at Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron One month later, Marius Robinson, editor of Ohio newspaper The Anti-Slavery Bugle, published his transcript of Truth's speech It did not include the now famous phrase "Ain't I a Woman?" Ideas thing in support of this being the accurate speech - it came out 1 month after, and he was friends with Truth Twelve years later, in 1863, Frances Gage (one of the authors of the "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions") published her transcription of Truth's speech Though Truth was from NY and had a Dutch accent, this version gives Truth a southern dialect Also, in this version of the speech Truth says "What's that word? Intellect?" but Truth has said to have been proud of her grasp of the English language, so this doesn't make sense Also, in this version Truth says that she has 13 children, but she only have 5 in reality This is a common trope used by white abolitionists - we can understand the plight of enslaved women because of our connection to our children

What is privilege, according to McIntosh?

Unearned advantages including things you're freed from having to consider or worry about Often unconscious and invisible to the beholder - we tend not to notice ways we causally benefit from oppressive systems Conferred not as a result of our individual merits but due to our membership in a dominant group "An invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools... emergency gear, and blank checks" (10) We assume everyone has the same backpack and the same tools as we do

Kristoff and WuDunn (2/2)

We had been so shaken by her story that we wanted to locate that brothel in Malaysia, interview its owners, and try to free the girls still imprisoned there. Rath voyaged back to Kuala Lumpur with the protection of an interpreter and a local anti trafficking activist. Nonetheless, she trembled in the red-light districts upon seeing the cheerful neon signs that she associated with so much pain. That doesn't seem like the most secure situation and why would you put her back in that context? "That is the process under way — not a drama of victimization but of empowerment, the kind that transforms bubbly teenage girls from brothel slaves into successful business women." Transforming into more of the Western ideal - modern, in control of their own ideas, independent

Mainardi Takeaways

You have to remember that men have never had to think about this, they don't think of themselves as benefiting from oppression and exploitation, be prepared to discuss the animal models, men are divorced from the reality of maintaining life, death will not happen if men have to do the dishes, keep checking up, he is not above these things (ex I'll cook dinner for you tonight as if it's really your job), women can't straint themselves in the presence of men but men can't take care of themselves without a woman

Timeline of first and second wave feminism

first wave starts 1848, 1920 first wave ends, 1963 Feminine Mystique published and people think that this marks the start of the 2nd wave In between, there was a lot of labor organizing which also connects to feminism (but wasn't named as feminism at the time) Second wave continues to 1991

Even if women have the right to vote...

there are still things that can go wrong - ex popular vote in Trump election, class struggles with no voting holidays, time and effort it takes to learn about candidates