As a student of an all women’s college, the word feminism and feminist get thrown around a lot. In everything I’ve read about feminism or the feminist movement, the definition of feminism has been completely different. In my Core 1 discussion section I think my class came to the decision that feminism is what you personally make of it and that there is no overarching definition. All of these things that have happened to me personally were completely reflected in the Hooks reading. This is in fact the first reading about feminism that I’ve read since being at an all women’s college that has resonated with me personally. When I saw the title of this reading, I honestly was a bit frustrated. I thought, “Oh here comes another definition of Feminism spouting idyllic hopes for equality.” I completely doubted that this reading would do nothing but confuse me further about what feminism is and means in the context of my life as a woman. Within the first several words, my mind was changed. It states “A central problem within feminist discourse has been our inability to either arrive at a consensus of opinion about what feminism is or accept definition(s) that could serve as points of unification” (Hooks 17).
The truth of this statement to me is mind-blowing, and I’m so surprised that this belief about feminism doesn’t arise more often in academic discussions that I’ve been a part of. In every class I’ve had that talks about feminism a reoccurring topic had always come up. Why are men afraid to say they are feminists? Or Why do men fear feminists themselves? In every class, to answer these questions, we’ve simply come to the conclusion that those who are “afraid” of feminism and/or feminists don’t understand what feminism is. This statement alone shows that the entire word/idea creates a sense of confusion and disjointed community. I always believed that the point of the movement was to unify women and men through equality, when what it’s proven to do, at least in the experiences that I’ve had with it, is the opposite. For many people it has created a divide between feminists and others. Other times, people claim to believe in many feminist thoughts but don’t refer to themselves as feminists. For example, my friend one said to me “I believe in the equality of men and women and in the continued support of women’s rights, but I wouldn’t call myself a feminist”.
All of these issues have stereotypical connotations. The stereotype of a feminist is usually, at least from many men’s perspectives, a man-hating woman, and that is one of the core reasons that men “fear” or avoid feminism/feminists. I think, though it may be a slight stretch, that the stereotype of feminists can be paralleled with the stereotypes of ethnicity. When Asian American families were trying to assimilate into American culture and society, American’s showed this strange, somewhat ingrained fear of “allowing” Asian immigrants to become part of American society. I think this was for many of the same reasons, like fear of different or otherness. This entirely new culture and group of people were being introduced into American communities and the majority of people had a very hard time with that idea. In many ways there is also a parallel between the Asian immigrants fight for equality and women’s fight for equality, and thus illustrates the extreme difficulties Asian American WOMEN must have been going through with two levels of equality battles to fight.
I really love the topic which Kristen Bair bring out. We are talking a lot about Feminism in our class but sometimes I was confused by what feminism really means. I always indicate and defend that women is equal to man.However, there is a doubt that what is equal really means in my defense. Does it mean that women should do the same thing as man? For example, in the army , there the same ratio of women and man. I found it is so hard to define what equal is and what feminism is. I may be would consider, the talent of the man and women is different( ex. body power) so that they can play a different role.At the same time, I am afraid that I went in to the trap that I am still in the old stereotype thoughts.
ReplyDeleteAs a new student of Scripps, I can always be stimulated by the astomsphere of concentrating female here. The same feeling as Kristen does, most of my friends and I would believe that man and women should be equal but would not define ourselves feminist. Feminist in our mind is the people who very actively fight for the women right. Sometimes consider it would bring into the extreme.
Another interesting point about race when I went thorough this class. Just as the reading indicates, the black race discrimination is in the spotlight. But the race problem of Asian people is still in some level of the ignorance.
I still remember the election happen between Obama and Hillary, the media in China wrote the article that the result will indicate which would be free first: gender or race.
As Kristen made in the conclusion, Asian American WOMEN, still face two battles to fight.
I think you bring up a lot of interesting points. First of all, the questions “Why are men afraid to say they are feminists? and why do men fear feminists themselves?” are ones that are often discussed about and I recently read an article, “Why I am a Male Feminist” which explores some of these ideas. First, the article says men are turned off by the word and associate it with men-hating women. However, the author continues to say that feminists do not hate men, but rather men have silenced women in the past and did not listen to who feminists really are. The article also mentions that feminism brings up a lot of valid arguments and it is relatable to men as well. He says feminism is an important influence in a male-dominated society where women are not treated fairly. Lastly, I completely agree with you that Asian American women must have had a lot of difficulties because they were treated unequally for multiple reasons. This just reminds my of the articles we have read about Asian American lesbians and they have another battle of equality to fight.
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