Friday, December 17, 2010

Men and Feminism

Featured here are several pictures of women (and men) who attended Sarah Lawrence College. Founded in 1926, Sarah Lawrence originally began as a finishing school for young women. The college, which William Van Duzer Lawrence created to honor his wife, Sarah Bates Lawrence, quickly evolved into a full-fledged liberal arts institution. Sarah Lawrence became coeducational in 1967, and has since graduated such influential men as J.J Abrams, Damani Baker, and Rahm Emanuel.

Like other fully-female institutions (Smith, Barnard, Mount Holyoke) and schools which began as women-only and now accept men (Vassar), Sarah Lawrence educates with a history of a belief in the female being. Originally recognized as "different," women were able to attend such schools and gain for themselves an education, even if the skills they learned originally consisted of sewing. It's the thought that counts. 

Today, many of these schools are known for turning out women known as feminists; women who believe in themselves and the power of their sex. Furthermore, many men-feminists graduate alongside the females (at any given institution), proving that equality operates through inclusion. Feminism, which may sound to men like a scary, women-only movement policed by Feminazis or "Feminist Police," has, like many schools, become coeducational. 

The poll "Are you a feminist?" refers to this divide. On one hand, literature such as Shira Tarrant's Men and Feminism shows that men have become active within feminism; on the other hand, others shy away from even the term. The polls answer options ("Yes," "No," or "No, I am a boy/man") I provided intended to show the alienation men feel from feminism. That is why no "Yes, I am a boy/man" answer existed; you can be a feminist regardless of gender. With feminism, everyone should be included.

Gerda Lerner, Founder, Women's History Program
Yoko Ono, Artist
Ann Patchett, Writer
Alice Walker, Poet
J.J. Abrams, Director
Sarah Lawrence

Thursday, December 16, 2010

A Right to The Body

Recently, in their December 2010 issue, Marie Claire published an article detailing China's infamous Iron Fist Campaign. The article, penned by Abigail Hayworth, brings to the forefront of news China's population and gender-preference issues. The article interviews one Wei Laojin and can be read in full here: Breaking China's One-Child Law


China's governmental response to the massive urban sprawl overtaking their country was regulated with the introduction of the One Child Policy in 1978. Because the country is patriarchal, a general preference for sons was also born with the policy; leaving baby girls frequently trashed, suffocated, or intentionally left behind after birth. 


Laojin's situation is a bit different. Already a mother of two (Laojin lived in a section of the country where the One Child Law went unregulated), she was forced into sterilization when the government heard she was pregnant a third time. The Iron Fist Campaign, the government's crackdown of the One Child Policy, made sure to kidnap the relatives of Laojin as a method of bribery; eventually she was forced to submit to sterilization. 


As if Chinese women had not already been born into a society in which they are unwanted, forced sterilization only hits home the point that women are seen as the "problem" in China. It's as if the country has totally neglected the fact that it takes two to tango- women can't breed alone. Thus, women are being punished for fertility, for the organs they bear, and for reproductive ramifications beyond their control. Birth control is not as widely available in China as it is in the US; additionally, women are shamed if the gender of their baby does not turn out to be male. 


Thus, China sees a solution in sterilization. Laojin's experience was impersonal and highly foreign to the health codes the Western world holds high. When Laojin turned herself in to sterilization, her menstrual cycle was upon her. She asked first to return in a week; when officials refused, she begged for a shower, which was also denied to her. Sterilization, a term that should never be applicable to humans, has turned the female vasectomy into a grotesque operation. 

~

Over the course of our semester, my Global Feminism class discussed an article by Hortense Spillers, where Spillers advocates that slavery devalues the very physicality of one's body. Though the subject is different, the method is the same: destroy the body until the person inside it no longer assimilates with their very core. 



Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Just Live Your Life

Ruth Orkin's American Girl in Italy
This is one of my favorite photographs. In fact, I'm looking up at my copy of it as I write this. I'm not a fan of what is happening in the photo, but, I think that it provides a telling story about what it's like to be any girl anywhere.

Orkin, an American woman, shot this image while abroad in Europe. Her friend, Jinx Allen, is the woman portrayed in the picture. Though the image was slightly staged (meaning that Orkin had Allen walk that street), the two women, after discussing what it was like to travel as a woman, set out to capture their feelings through photographs. The male gaze in this photo is depicted as omnipresent; the woman concentrates on her feet so as to dispel her objectification. American Girl in Italy really captures the ever-present frustration of the individual female traveler. 

Additionally, perception of this image can go both ways: while the men are slightly playful (and therefore, potentially harmless), the woman clutches her books tight and looks away so as to forget the reality of the situation. Her posture and expression can appear to the viewer as stances of fright. On the other hand, the men are smiling, whistling, and laughing. Their intentions do not seem hostile, for they are simply staring at the woman, not acting. 

The friction between the male's behavior (looking versus acting) and the female's reaction to the males creates drama for the viewer. It is, perhaps, a melodramatic scene. But it is also horrific, at least to the woman depicted. Even if the only thing that bothers the woman is the male gaze that follows her body like a hawk, who needs to deal with that? What self-respecting and confident woman appreciates objectification as just a body, especially from a host of foreign strangers?

Unfortunately, the reality of this picture (which was taken in the 1950s) still occurs today. Last spring, I walked a few short blocks with my friend to a grocery store. Since the weather had just become warm, my friend was wearing a skirt, and I was wearing a dress. As we walked, a man on a bicycle passed by us, saying as he did: "Gotta love spring- your legs are out!" Annoyed, we continued our walk, while venting the frustrations of womanhood to each other. As American girls in America, we weren't showing our legs for any man, we were simply enjoying the breezy weather, just living our lives.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Lipstick



To pick it up or put it down?

Throughout history, women have consistently been held to a different set of standards than men. Perhaps because women are women, or female, sets of rules governing and regulating issues such as the wearing of makeup, clothing preference, etc. developed around the second sex. Once the invention of makeup arrived within society, women were held against beauty standards in magazines and advertisements.

Today, however, many women choose to rebel against those standards set in place by society; they choose not to be confined. Women no longer cook in evening dressings like as in the movies of the 50s. This is why I have chosen MYLAAF's logo: I aim to poke fun at the notion of "Feminist Police," and hope that my readers will gain something from the concept of using or losing the lipstick. In this day and age, more and more women, feminists included, have begun to realize just how silly the campaign for beauty/ standard really is. Women no longer feel that they "need" the latest lip shade to be accepted by society -- and if they do rush out and purchase that lipstick, they are doing it for themselves, not for society, or for men.

Take this example from feministing.com, posted by Vanessa Valenti on December 7th:
http://feministing.com/2010/12/07/quote-of-the-day-brought-to-you-by-secretary-clinton/. The post quotes Secretary Clinton's response to the question "Which designers [of clothes] do you prefer?" Clinton strikes back: "Would you ever ask a man that question?"

Clinton, as a high-profile, one-woman bastion of power, is able to use her position as an example, proving to society that a double bind exists for women. The Obamas are no different. The President might dress snazzily, but there are a good handful of books out now telling women how to "Get Michelle Obama's Arms." With her answer, Clinton is able to prove that double standards are becoming irrelevant, as the majority of women tend to no longer buy into them.

Like Clinton, women everywhere are choosing to dispel the myth of beauty surrounding women; one need not wear makeup or designer clothes to feel beautiful. And, the real beauty comes form knowing that.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Solidarity, Sister!


Get involved! 

Check out these other pro-women publications, blogs, and websites. 


www.feministing.com 
[Created by feminist author Jessica Valenti]

www.bust.com 
[Bust Magazine]

http://feminist.org/ 
[The Feminist Majority Foundation]

http://student.americansforunfpa.org/ 
[United Nations Population Fund, which promotes women's health advocacy worldwide]

http://feminism.eserver.org/
[Eserver's general overview of Women's Studies]

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Facebook's Female Spectacle


Let's talk about Facebook. In an era of rampant technology, Facebook has risen to the top as one of the most widely used and accessed websites, bringing with it a way for humans to establish a virtual connection otherwise unheard-of. The nature of Facebook promotes both positive and negative aspects of the internet, as well as serving as a reflection of human choice. What to post or what not to post? That is the question. 

As a social media site, Facebook users are constantly bombarded with the sharing of information through words and images. New news becomes old news with each and every status update. Facebook has revolutionized the way people communicate. However, that advancement also calls into question the ethicality of the freedom Facebook offers its users. 

As Guy Debord might say, Facebook has enhanced the "Society of the Spectacle" (Debord authored a philosophy book under that title). Although his analysis of social theory relates more to commodity fetishism and its connection to capital, women, especially where Facebook is concerned, are no exception to an adaption of his view. 

All Facebook users participate in the sharing of personal information. As participants, each member must decide what content to post on their site, what to comment on, and who can see their actions. Given that nature, Facebook can give its members too much information through images that border on a collective notion of "the gross," that writer Linda Williams describes in melodramatic movies, horror films, and pornography. 

Each of the three genres that Williams defines as somehow "gross," as an overstepping of accepted social boundaries, becomes "gross" through the camera's treatment of the female image, or female spectacle. Put simply, women are usually the pursued victims in each type of movie, possibly with the exception of pornography (where actresses can choose to participate in the genre). Facebook might be added to this category of grossness when the proliferation of pictures bordering on nudity are posted by females. 

Whether the majority of female Facebook users post these pictures as devices through which one can display themselves to the male (or female) gaze, thus objectifying themselves through the image, or simply to post an image of bodily beauty, can be disputed. Although nudity (or near nudity) is common in artwork, the ethicality of such art-like images comes into question when displayed on a website where someone's employer or younger sibling may have access to such photographs. Furthermore, "sexy" pictures posted on Facebook pose a double bind: are the said images simply an expression of beauty, or are they a deviation into voyeurism through the ability of a spectator to leave comments? 
~
This topic was thoroughly and thoughtfully discussed in my Global Feminisms class. Generally, I would tend to agree that there are images posted on Facebook as simply a display of beauty, and that others are intended as something more. Women are not the only ones posting such pictures, either, and men are not the only ones viewing them. Though every Facebook member should be aware of the content they post, and what their images and words reveal about them, every user has been charged with such freedom. Ultimately, the fate of an image is constructed between the craftwork (captioning, picture-editing, cropping, etc.) surrounding how a user displays his or her image and the eye of its beholder. 

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Alternative Ms.

Yesterday, while perusing the shelves of a bookstore near Columbia University, I was lucky enough to come across the Fall 2010 issue of Ms. Magazine. The magazine, feminist Gloria Steinem's creation, was first published in 1972, and is now owned by the Feminist Majority Foundation. Although I had heard of Ms. before, yesterday was the first time my eyes had actually seen a copy in print.

The general lack of the appearance of Ms. on newsstands presents a feminist problem: women, already historically considered "outsiders" and "others" by the patriarchal world which has written history, continue to be excluded from the public majority. This fact is certainly not a new occurrence within society; while women worldwide have made waves in politics (Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 campaign for the presidency, Switzerland's current female-majority government, the 2005 inclusion of the female vote in Iraqi politics), the United States has never elected a female president, nor are newsstands an accurate reflection of female empowerment.

Magazines like Ms., Bust, and Bitch are all responses to the host of women's magazines available today that, in one for or another, promote female negativity. With the exception of Ms., the other two feminist magazines did not debut until the 90s, leaving girls and women with magazines that tell them how to "Seduce Him!" (Cosmopolitan, September 2010) or provide models (literally) of what femininity should look like and aspire to (Ralph Lauren's 2009 advertisement showing a severely air-brushed Filippa Hamilton). With regard to the Cosmo headline, I am not proposing that women should not or are not interested in such articles; I myself read Bust, Cosmopolitan, Lucky, Glamour, etc. Rather, I am suggesting that women need to be offered all types of magazines and all sorts of knowledge. Females need to understand that women come in all shapes and sizes (Filippa Hamilton is on the slenderer side, just not that slender), and that all bodily forms are normal. After all, how can one began to "Seduce Him!" without first possessing an inner-beauty and self-confidence that comes from an understanding of womanhood?

With mainstream publications (such as Cosmo) that have both existed longer and thus been more widely distributed being the ones most women have come to read and turn to, a whole other bastion of knowledge has been denied from females. So-called women's magazines, by providing male-centric headlines, fail to teach women to remember themselves first. As Beauvoir states in The Second Sex, man has historically been seen as "he who is his body," leaving woman to be defined as "something other than her body," making her a figure of alienation from her body. So-called feminist magazines, by providing an alternative to the mainstream publications, teach women to delight in themselves as well as in the men (and women) with which they choose to surround themselves, are a tribute to the lost knowledge of womanhood and to the reclaiming and empowering of woman as anything but an other.

Friday, December 10, 2010

This is What a Feminist Looks Like

Actress Alexis Bledel

Simone de Beauvoir, Abigail Adams, Gloria Steinem; all of these women are feminists. If you've stumbled upon this blog and dared to read thus far, you are too. Some of you, like Beauvoir, might be French. Others might wear the dramatic eyeliner characteristic of Steinem; other women-feminists, like Adams, might not wear any at all. Feminists might pick up the infamous tube of lipstick or choose to put it down. Regardless, the word "feminist" is not confined to the image of one body; anyone may choose to consider himself or herself a feminist. With  feminism, recently dubbed "the F-Word" by popular culture, there is no right or wrong.

While the title of this blog reads "My Life As A Feminist," my posts will not focus strictly on personal accounts of the impact of feminism in my day-to-day routines or daily life. I will, of course, provide personal anecdotes wherever necessary, but it is my belief that one feminist cannot stand alone. Think of the friendship between Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton or of the husband and wife partnership between John and Abigail Adams. My stories would be nothing without the achievements women worldwide have made and continue to make, without knowledge of a collective women's history and a belief in the existence and validity in woman.

"My Life As A Feminist" has been rolling around in the depths of my mind since 2007, the year which marked my foray into the academic world of Women's History/Women's Studies. That year, I learned a history of women previously largely excluded from the history books of my childhood: a history including the epidemic of female sterilization in China as a result of the country's One Child Policy, the expectation of some women to undergo bride burnings, and the worldwide exclusion of women from voting till the end of the 18th century. I learned about many various types of women that year, but most of all, as a woman, I learned about myself.

Now, as a college student studying at a historically female institution and the nation's home of the first Graduate Degree in Women's History, I find myself constantly standing on my sisters' shoulders. I invite you to do the same.