Short Post 1/31

I found Douglas’s writing on the Riot Grrrl movement extremely interesting. I was unaware of any of those bands before reading Enlightened Sexism.  Allison Wolfe, a woman involved in the beginning of the movement, said, “how can we make this kind of stodgy…feminism have a fresh face that speaks to us, to a younger generation?  And, at the same time, how can we make the punk that we’re involved in less macho, less violent?”  To me the Riot Grrrl movement seems to have gone in the wrong direction.  At the time in the 90s, I’m sure it was a pivotal point for women to express their desire and need of power.  However, based on what Douglas has written about them it seems as if they did not adequately push forward the feminist movement.  I have never heard of the Riot Grrrl bands before and I would imagine if they had significant impact on the feminist movement I would have.  One critique referred to the Riot Grrrl as “strident”, “self-absorbed” and “anti-male”.  I think the Riot Grrrl movement had a hard time getting huge numbers of followers because the media coverage made girls scared to behave in these ways because they were unfeminine.  It seems to be that the stereotype of feminists is unfeminine qualities.  Riot Grrrl was too harsh for many girls and I feel it prohibited girls from getting involved in the feminist movement.  I think at the time this rebellion was a huge new idea, however now it seems feminism is reached through constant change and activism as oppose to just rebelling.  Also, I have put in a youtube video of the band, Bikini Kill.  Based on the pictures in the video, I feel Riot Grrrl is exactly what Douglas defines as enlightened sexism.

Rebecca Walker considers herself a Third Wave Feminist.  Walker struck me as persistent and determined to get women to fight for change alongside her.  Walker’s approach to feminism contrasts with the Riot Grrrl movement.  Walker wants women to fight for personal and political power.  In my opinion, this approach is better than the Riot Grrrl movement because she is identifying the problems women encounter and offering a solution to fix them.  Riot Grrrl simply complains about female problems and feelings of weakness.  Of course it is necessary for all women to have their voice heard, but Walker wants power to be given to women.  Walker believes women will receive power once enough women want to use their rights politically and personally.  At the end of her excerpt, she states not do certain things for men if they do not “prioritize our freedom to control our bodies and our lives”.  This is exactly what is necessary for the Third Wave of feminism to be successful.  The way women will get their power is if they do not take anymore jokes and do not take anymore harassment from men.  Once all women are on the same page and do not settle for inferiority anymore, men will get on the bandwagon and realize we aren’t leaving.

Main Post 1/31

Essential Feminist Reader
Rebecca Walker “Becoming the Third Wave”
This short piece was inspired by Walker’s reaction to the Hill-Thomas hearing in the early 90’s. Walker says, “to me, the hearings were not about determining whether or not Clarence Thomas did in fact harass Anita Hill. They were about checking and redefining the extent of women’s credibility and power” (389). She goes on to question: “can a woman’s experience undermine a man’s career? Can a woman’s voice, a woman’s self-worth and injustice, challenge a structure predicated upon the subjugation of our gender?” She felt that Anita Hill threatened to do so. Walker wanted to expose the misconceptions about gender equality. My understanding is that the third wave was born out of the idea that women already had all of their rights so there was nothing left to fight for. There was a veil over the inequalities that still existed because they were more implicit. This piece of writing really struck me by how passionate Walker was about this issue and I could really feel it in her voice on the page. Her description of an incident on a train where she stood up to some men who were making some disparaging remarks about women in the presence of a young girl was very moving and showed how intensely she felt about the issues of gender inequality.

Baumgardner and Richards. 2000
This list of 13 point agenda for 3rd wave feminism contained a variety of goals for the 21st century in regards to womens rights. Many of them related to sexual health and reproductive rights. I was interested in point number 4 that aims to “bring down the double standard in sex and sexual health, and foster male responsibility and assertiveness in the following areas: achieving freedom from STDs; more fairly dividing the burden of family planning as well as responsibilities such as child care; and eliminating violence against women” (425). These are issues that are seen quite often in today’s society. A great example would be on MTV’s show Teen Mom where the teenage girl almost always ends up taking care of the baby alone because the boyfriend breaks up with them and leaves. It seems to me that although a child is made by a man and a woman equally, because the woman carries the child and is biologically designed to be the nurturing parent, the man has the opportunity to ignore his responsibility. Even though a woman can go through the legal proceedings to obtain child support from the man, it never seems to justify the complete lack of care that the father fails to provide if he is not around to help care for the child. A couple hundred dollars a month does not seem to justify the absence of a father’s care and love. I could go on about this and obviously every family’s situation is different. The bottom line is that men need to be just as responsible about sex as women. Here is a link to a website I found about child-support. I looked this up because I don't really know much about child support and I wanted to know some statistics on it. http://www.rbowmanlaw.com/2010/10/child-support-statistics.html
I was also interested in the goal of “valuing (monetarily) stay-at-home parents, [and] aiding employees who want to spend more time with family and continue work” (426). I don’t know how this would be implemented but it is a very interesting thought. I know that parents work just as hard at home taking care of their children as they do at work. Seeing my mom take care of my siblings and I plus our dog and take care of the house everyday has allowed me to see how much time and effort it requires. I’m really glad that I babysit for other families with young children because it gives me a glimpse of what its like to be a parent. But I only see it for a couple hours at a time.
These 13 points contained so many interesting ideas that I’m looking forward to discussing them in class in more depth.

Enlightened Sexism
1. Get the Girls.
2. This chapter explores the new television phenomenon of the early 90’s where tv shows targeted teenage girls. The combination of sex and merchandizing reiterated the cliché that “sex sells.” The main focus of this chapter was 90210, the show that kick-started the trend of television shows of its kind that followed. You can still see today that shows like Gossip Girl appeal to teenage girls in exactly the same way they did almost 20 years ago. Douglas’s complaint with this style of show (as she usually tends to find fault in just about everything I’m beginning to realize) is that it went against everything feminism had worked for. Melrose Place showed successful women but it also showed that “’success’ and ‘bitch’ just went together” (37). 90210 made teenage girls feel important but it also reduced them to sexualized objects and it glorified material objects like clothes.
3. 2. Castration anxiety.
This chapter analyzed some very publicized news stories in the early 90s where women acted ruthless in a way that hadn’t really been seen before. It also goes into great depth looking at Janet Reno and the response that the public gave to her. That made me wonder whether androgynous women like Reno will ever be fully accepted in society? I feel like feminine men, although not completely accepted, are more accepted in society than masculine women.
4. Warrior Women in Thongs
This chapter looks at 90’s television shows that had strong, ass-kicking young women as the main character. After Douglas shows how many tv shows were of this genre, it made me realize that a new phenomenon became very over-used and I think people got sick of it after a while. Maybe that’s why there aren’t many shows like that on tv today.

Short Post 2/1/2011

Short Post 2/1/2011
The three chapters in Douglas’ book provided a detailed and comprehensive view of the ways in which females are presented in the media. I appreciate the way that she analyzes well known shows because it opened my eyes to aspects of these show that had previously gone unnoticed. I would expect there to be controversial feelings about Beverley Hills 90210, but I was surprised to learn about the aspects of sexism in Buffy as well as national news coverage. Of all the examples that Douglas uses, surprisingly the one that was most evocative to me was Janet Reno. I say surprisingly because I had never heard of her prior to this reading, yet I was very disturbed by Douglas’ account of the media reaction to her. The reason that her story resonated with me is that I firmly believe that all people including women should be able to act as they wish. I have a strong reaction to claims that women only dress up for men and that by doing so we are supporting our oppression. If a woman feels like dressing up then she should be able to do so without feelings of shame. On the flip side of this is that if a women does not enjoy dressing up and wearing make-up she should not be made to feel ashamed either. It is disturbing to me to see that pop culture in America found it necessary to turn Janet Reno into the butt of many jokes.
Her appearance was not affecting her job, in fact from what Douglas recounted it sounds like she was a rare example of an honest person holding a public office. Instead of acting in appreciation for her service, people analyzed her sexual orientation. The fact that she had to defend her heterosexuality by stating, “I am just an awkward old maid who has a very great attraction to men.” I believe that a woman in a position of power should not have to refer to herself as awkward in order to sooth the public’s fears. I find it hard to imagine a time that a man in public office would partake in such self deprecation. By self deprecating women can make themselves appear less powerful and therefore less threatening to males. While this may work in order to achieve short term goals of reaching positions of power, it seems as though it also sets us back. At some point women have to stop playing by men’s rules. Just because we have learned how to work the system does not mean that we have achieved equality. Walker’s call to action in response to the Thomas confirmation states this same sort of message. I find her message clear and powerful, especially the part that states, “do not vote for them unless they work for us. Do not have sex with them, do not break bread with them, do not nurture them if they don’t prioritize our freedom to control our bodies and our lives.” So often it seems that women make excuses for the men they love. Claiming they do not understand what their actions imply or that they are just men being men. In order to achieve real equality women must firmly stand behind the belief that if you are not with us you are against us.

Long Post 1/26

Summary of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions”

Stanton focuses on the rights women deserve based on the statement all men and women are created equally.  And all men and women have inherited inalienable rights from the Creator.  She believes it is necessary for women, half of the family of man, to live up to their intended purpose as being equals to men. Stanton believes the most effective way is for women to examine the causes that have led them to occupy a state of being less than equal to men.  By examining the causes that have kept them from furthering their rights, men and women will be able to understand why change needs to be implemented in the society of men and women.  Stanton makes her argument personal by using the pronouns he and she.  The pronoun usage brings the level of tyranny down to the individual man and woman as oppose to using the collective term.  Stanton understands government as been in place since the beginning of time and that transient causes should not alter government form or legislation.  However, Stanton is calling for all women to realize their suffers delivered by men and to fight for change within the legal system.  She calls for women to not abide by the laws that are not supportive of their rights, for they are endangering their future security.  Men have denied women their rights and have been abusive by keeping them out of the legislation process.  Stanton points out that men have made women abide by laws in which they had no voice in creating.  This is really interesting because of America’s known reputation of freedom.  At this time, the white men were the ones who decided who was worthy of freedom.  Stanton also points out that rights are with held from women that are given to even the scum of men.  The men who are the most degraded in society.  Stanton is calling for all women to fight for their safety, to fight for their freedom that God has entailed for them.  Most importantly, women were given these rights as humans from the Creator and they have been forced to be unused and hidden as men have abused women by making them feel as if they had no inalienable rights.

 Summary of Sojourner Truth’s Two Speeches

Truth’s first speech is moving in ways that a white woman could not convey.  Truth is a former slave who has been on plantations performing the same duties that men had performed.  She related herself to a man by being physically capable to do anything that a man can do.  Isn’t that enough to be considered equals?  I think it is really interesting how Truth proposes the question of if women have a smaller intellectual capacity than men, then why not let a woman’s full intellectual capacity be reached?  Clearly, Truth is pointing out the fact that men are scared women will surpass them and become more powerful.  She foreshadows what will happen in history by ending her speech saying man is in a good place, but slaves and women are coming up right behind them in fury of their inequality.

In 1867, Truth makes another speech as she has aged in to her eighties.  She comes across as that this idea of wanting equality is no big deal.  All women want is equality and that should not affect men.  Women need money and deserve money just like men.  There is no reason why women should not have equal rights.  Truth points out that this is the time for women to get equal rights as colored people have just to some extent achieved their goals.  Truth’s speech is incredibly moving in that she feels the only reason she is still alive on this planet is because she has change left in her.  She wants to see women get the right to vote and encourage women to keep fighting and fighting and when things get tougher to fight even harder.

Summary of Ellen Dubois’ Feminism Old Wave and New Wave

This article is exactly what we were talking about in class on Tuesday.  The first wave of feminism lasted for almost a century.  Women were fighting for suffrage well in to the 1800s.  I found the part of the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London extremely interested.  To me I saw the men in the group supportive of the women in the abolitionist group, but only to a certain extent.  Once it came down to the actual convention, it seemed that the majority of the men carried the attitude that since now we are here let us men take care of business.  If the men really cared about the women involved in their abolitionist group then they would have boycotted the convention as a GROUP, not as a sex.

Short Post 1/26 Michele

Even though Sojourner Truth's speech was the shortest reading for tomorrow's class, that is the piece that spoke to me the most. Because it is her own words as spoken to the audience in an informal manner, the words seems so much more sincere and captivating than a formal speech usually is. I thought it was very astute of her that she mentioned that the women needed to keep fighting at that point more than ever because right after the abolition of slaver people were still fired up and in the state of mind where they could accept some change. If they waited a few years, then people would go back to their comfortable way of life and be more resistant to the idea of womens suffrage. I think that reiterates the idea that if we keep bringing up inequalities and fighting for them, then people will eventually notice and some change will take place.


Depiction of the Seneca Falls Convention

Short Post 1/26

All three of the reading for this Thursday's class were informative about the history of feminism in their own unique way. They each offered a very different perspective on the subject and strived to achieve their end goal in different ways. Stanton was a first wave feminist who approached the subject through a legal and religious standpoint. Sojourner Truth is a first wave civil rights and feminist activist who speeches asked, if women and black people are so inferior why be afraid of giving them rights? Then Dubois a second wave feminist gave a quick run down of the events in history that led to this second wave of feminism. While I really appreciated all of the perspectives, I was especially inspired by the writings of Stanton. I was intrigued by the way she addressed religion. Rather than seeing religion as oppressing women as it has sometimes been asserted, she blames it on man's interpretation of the scriptures. She states that God intended women to be equal and that it is time she rebels against the, "circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her." This argument seems to still be very relevant in modern society. The debate as to whether religion enforces sexism is still common. I found an article on Islam and feminism, which I found to be particularly interesting. The link is
http://www.examiner.com/feminism-and-relationships-in-albuquerque/feminism-and-religion-part-2-islam

I think that is article is worth taking a look at because it shows how Stanton's writing are still very relevant to feminism today.

Suburban Housewives Short Post 1/24/11

I completely agree with Michelle about how shocking the reading was about the housewife’s in the 50s and 60s described by Betty Frieden.  The statistics dealing with college attendance left me in awes.  Frieden reported by the mid-fifties 60% of women were dropping out of college to get married.  60 percent is a huge number of women.  The unfortunate truth was that in the previous century women had been fighting for higher education and had attained their goal.  Women were allowed to attend higher education institutes.  In the 1950s, the average marriage age for women dropped to twenty years old.  Women were giving up their childhood dreams for a new dream: motherhood.  During the 1950s and 1960s, an excessive amount of women dreamt and succeeded at being a housewife.  Frieden describes the suburban housewife as being healthy, beautiful, educated, concerned only about her husband, her children and her home.  This image was what young girls were modeling themselves after.  The suburban housewife was portrayed as the ideal career.  Frieden further discusses suburban housewives and the unspoken problem they all face.  The problem is the lack of self-fulfillment and daily routines of taking care of the house, the children and the husband.  Frieden says, “the only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own” (Frieden 280).  I believe this statement Frieden makes is accurate and holds up respectively.  The “emptiness” these housewives feel is the problem of being a housewife.  This whole passage was very interesting and led to me to ponder upon my aspirations career wise as well as family wise.  Similar I suppose to the housewives depicted by Frieden, raising my children is something I want to do with my husband as oppose to having outside help.  I think it is really important for kids to grow up with their parents as oppose to having two parents working full-time and full-time help.  However, I believe in this day and age my husband would not just assume me to the duties of staying at home.  It is more common for men to be seen taking care of the children during the day.  This link shows a good video of a stay at home Dad. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23903260/ns/today-parenting/

I believe that housewives and stay at home Dad’s can be able to raise their children and have creative work that satisfies and fulfills and emptiness inside them.

Main Post: Summary of Echols and Friedan

Summary of Echols “The reemergence of the ‘Woman Question’”

Echols’ article does a good job of explaining the transition from an all-encompassing Movement to the separation into the Women’s movement. Early 60’s political activism led to the formation of the SDS and the SNCC. Both groups were products of the new left, which differed from the old left in several ways including the encouragement of expressive politics. This called for addressing personal problems through political action. These groups took the front seat in fighting the battle for civil rights and the anti-war movement. Women participated in the activism through these groups, but it slowly became apparent that they were only allowed to do “women’s” work. As this unrest grew divisions began to occur in the group. There was tension between white women and black women, who felt as if they were being treated differently. Then there was a shift away from expressive politics, as well as the emergence of black power as the most popular strategy. All of these divisions created an environment that continually pushed white women’s problems to the side and claim that their ideas were unimportant. Women decided to learn from the civil rights movement and the shift to black power, which showed that having others define and fight for your problems is not the answer. All of these events resulted in the separation of the women’s movement from the greater Movement and gave women the inspiration to fight their own battles.

Summary of Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique”

Betty Friedan’s writing explores the idea of women’s general dissatisfaction with the life that they are living. She calls this dissatisfaction “”the problem that has no name” which accurately reflects the refusal of society to admit its existence. It simply was not socially acceptable for a woman to express that she wanted more in life than a husband and children. To say that one was not feeling fulfilled by this housewife lifestyle was interpreted as an insult to one’s husband and families. Allegiance and love for their families resulted in this unhappiness remaining hidden. Instead it manifested itself physically in “Housewife’s fatigue” and the need for prescription of drugs like tranquilizers. After exploring this hidden discontent Friedan proposed that there should be a bill similar to the GI bill to encourage the education of women. She claims that this bill would not only be beneficial to women, but that it would stop the destruction of families that can come with depression. This problem that has no name is not solely the responsibility of women to fix, but society must help and the first step is recognizing that it exists.

Main Post: Summary of Levy and de Beauvoir

Summary of Levy “The Future that Never Happened”
Levy’s article introduces its audience to some of the famous figures and events of classical as well as modern feminism. It concludes in a comparison and exploration of the way that feminism has changed. Eventually posing the question of whether modern feminism is a revolution forward or a giant step back for the women of today. The first figure we are introduced to is Susan Brownmiller who together with several other important women lobbied for a revolution that would rid us of the oppression of patriarchal society. Brownmiller came into the public eye in the decade when many important events changed the lives of women. From 1960-1970 the feminist movement experienced repeated victories culminating in the ruling on Roe v. Wade. These years held some of the greatest successes for the movement, which may be because it was before factions started to develop in the movement. Some of the factions were spurred by the legendary figure of Hugh Hefner, who embodies the paradox that exists in the relationship between the sexual revolution and the feminist movement. Hefner lobbied for the rights of women, while at the same time still very much expected them to be sexual objects. To some he appeared a hero of freedom of female sexual expression and others saw him as a proponent of continued oppression. This argument stretched beyond Hefner himself and can be seen reflected in the porn and anti-porn movements. When women and sex are combined in the public eye and media there are breakdown into opinions of whether women are being objectified or finally being able to express themselves. The movement began to leave behind its utopian decade as Levy puts it, “what had been clear and beautiful was now messy and contentious”. Out of this division of the women’s movement into different faction came what is now described as “raunch feminism”. This movement is intended to be an exploration of women's sexuality, which boasts of events like CAKE parties where nothing seems to be taboo. This freedom to explore the limits of sexuality is a right that women should have if they so desire. With that in mind it is important to remember that just because now we can dance on a stage or pole in barely any clothing and claim that it is for our own benefit there is infinitely more to the feminist movement than sexuality.

Summary of Simone De Beauvoir
In this excerpt from Second Sex De Beauvoir’s makes many interesting points, the most significant of which is the idea of “the Other”. By explaining the idea that women are “the Other” in the society in which we live helps explain how we got to this point of oppression. If one race, nationality or gender is accepted as the norm this naturally marginalizes the other group and makes them peculiar. De Beauvoir proposes that in our society the male gender is accepted as normal and therefore everything is defined in terms of its relation to the male. A woman is not a woman because of the qualities she has, but rather those that she lacks in comparison to the male. Living as “the Other” has many undesirable effects, such as a lack of desire to solve problems that are specific to only the female gender because these are seen as unique or peculiar problems. When a problem is unique there is no need for the entirety of society to think of a solution. So why have women put up with this subordination? De Beauvoir suggests that it is because the lives of females are so thoroughly enmeshed with those as males. To fight the oppression that we experience can seem like a betrayal of those males who are important in our lives. Herein lays the difficulty of the women’s battle for equality. Women must attempt to achieve happiness in a society that tells her it is her duty to those who she loves to appear always content.

Michele Jan. 24

Simone de Beauvoir exerpt:
I found it interesting that when she wrote this in 1949 she thought that the feminism was practically over. I guess it is a very subjective question to ask whether feminism is over yet? or will it ever end? Personally I don’t know what my answer is to these questions yet.


Betty Friedan exerpt:
This was my favorite piece of our reading for Tuesday’s class. So many of the descriptions she gave of the women in the 50’s shocked me. I didn’t realize how young women were getting married at the time or how they conformed to fit the media’s images of skinny blondes. I can still see remnants of what she described in the 50’s applicable to today’s married women. They are expected to take care of their children, do the house chores, look good, have a career, and make their husband happy all on their own. Many women in the 50’s were dissatisfied with their lives because they had very little meaning and everyday was the same but most women never said anything about it. I wonder how many married women today feel that same depression but are afraid to speak up. I think that most women today feel that they have to deal with a certain level of unhappiness because it comes with the territory. But some women may not realize that the unhappiness they choose to “deal with” also affects their children and spouse as well. How can a child not feel some sense of guilt when his mother is complaining about all the work she has to do around the house? It’s not the child’s fault that the laundry needs to be washed and the carpet needs to be vacuumed. I think that if I woman finds herself in a rut where she can’t seem to keep up with the house chores and she isn’t finding satisfaction in some area of her life then she needs to make some sort of change in her work life, home life, or both.

Susan Douglas: "Fantasies of Power" Short Post 1/19/11

While reading Susan Douglas’ introduction to Enlightened Sexism, I found the difference in viewing feminism from the generation of women born in the 1950s to the women born in the 1980s and 1990s extremely important.  Douglas described the older generation of women who were “Watusi-dancing bimbettes” and stay at home moms were in smaller numbers than the women entering the workforce, joining the Peace Corps and getting involved in fields predominately taken over by men.  However, as we have reached present times, we have found an unsettling difference in the aspirations of the female population.  The older generation of women fought to excel in society as equals to men.  They increased their numbers in higher education tremendously.  They fought to strive in careers that had previously been a “male” degree.  Douglas argues that the younger generation is not fulfilling their duty as women of the United States to keep pushing for equality.  Women have lived up to their potential more and more and have made mind-blowing accomplishments considering the role of women not even a century ago.

Is the younger generation doing enough to further the growth of women in society and fight harder for equality?  Douglas answers no.  She makes a strong argument that the media portrays women as being equal to men, however statistics prove this is not the case.  Women college graduates still are making 80 percent of what a male college graduate is making.  Why is this?  Consider Colgate.  Every student here, with out a scholarship or financial aid, is paying the same amount of tuition.  Women and men at Colgate are attending the same classes and learning the same information.  This brings up curiosity of why women are getting paid less if equality has been reached.  Douglas further depicts the media as delivering fantasies.  She talks of the women of substance in Law & Order, Boston Legal and CSI as the women watched by the “Vintage Females”.  These women are portrayed by the media as equals to men.  Douglas accepts that the media is aloud to fantasy, hence strong numbers of viewers.  But these fantasies created by the media are suggesting there is nothing left to be done for fight for a woman’s equality.  This is false as we know, yet the media prevents the younger generation of women to see the fight that needs to continue for a woman’s equality.  The media tends to blind how much potential women still have to show in society. 

Personally, I am very excited I got in to this class because I feel very unconscious of my gender and the role is has played in society.  I grew up with two brothers and played lots of sports growing up.  I feel that my gender as female has been blinded to me by the way I grew up.  Just by reading these couples articles I can see how important it is for me to be conscious of my gender and understand my duty to desire change, my duty to push the female gender further in hopes of equality.  Douglas intrigued me by defining enlightened sexism.  I had never heard the term before.  This term left me thinking of all the shows I have watched that are this term.  Douglas describes enlightened sexism as feminist on the outside, but sexist in the meaning.  Enlightened sexism gives females the power to do and be who they want, but only to an extent.  As long as they do what they want in a sexy fashion and do not discomfort men in anyway.  My question is how do we stop the media from constructing these women in to sex objects and having young females idolize them.  I feel it is important to educate young girls and teach them how to use their voice and mind to be themselves without having to be a sex object.  For my senior project in high school, my group of five other girls and I created a workshop for 8^th grade girls to attend.  We did activities involving body image and learning how to respect themselves as people and females.  It is important to further educate girls and women of the unfinished business we need to attend to.

Michele Herron Susan J. Douglas Introduction: Fantasies of Power

Douglas’s book addresses sexism in the media and how that has influenced our view of feminism today. She uses copious examples of present day media figures like Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Ellen Degeneres, Prime Time television shows, and MTV reality shows. She points out that there are many shows that feature strong female leads pursuing prestigious careers like Grey’s Anatomy, The Closer, and Commander in Chief. But there is a disparity between what we see on TV and the reality of the present day. The media acts like gender equality has already been achieved so it does not need to be fought for anymore. Scantily clad women portrayed as sex objects on television are therefore justified because the women have “chosen” that image for themselves.
Douglas says that today (for girls our age) power comes from shopping, having the right logos, being “hot,” and judging, dissing, and competing with other girls (usually over boys.) I can see exactly what she means. Girls are very competitive and judgmental of one another for no reason. Its like a mental process that we can’t control or avoid.
All of this builds up to the topic of this book, enlightened sexism. Douglas defines enlightened sexism as “a response, deliberate or not, to the perceived threat of a new gender regime.” It believes that women have made plenty of progress because of feminism (full equality has been achieved) so it is okay to resurrect sexist stereotypes of girls and women. And women’s goals (especially young women) is to get men to lust after them and to make other girls jealous.
Television shows that show sexist behavior and images are saying “its silly to be sexist; therefore, it’s funny to be sexist.” Viewers watch shows like those on MTV because it allows the viewer to judge the people on TV and therefore puts the viewer above the stupid people on the screen.
One of the issues that Douglas addresses is that under the lens of enlightened sexism, women are expected to be superwomen by being independent, powerful, respected, and also accepted, approved, and loved by others. Its hard for anyone to be all of that. Women are also expected to work and take care of their families.
One final topic that interested me in this introduction is when Douglas mentioned in the beginning of the chapter about Christina Hoff Sommer’s book about how boys are struggling compared to girls. She says they are ending up dropping out of high-school, in detention, and ending up working at fast-food restaurants. However, these examples do not cover the whole spectrum of the population. Many boys are still going to college and becoming very successful and many girls are still dropping out of high school too, especially teen mothers. This is an issue that I would like to return to if I have the opportunity and the resources to learn more.

p.s. Abby, I found your response very thought-provoking and I agree with your position. I think that men and women need to focus more on mutual understanding of each other and how we interact with each other rather than studying each gender separately.

Response to Michelle's summary of Rich Article

The article by Rich brought up several interesting points that made me reflect on Colgate's curriculum. Her analysis of the creation of Women's Studies as a course that appears at universities nationwide raised many questions. The most prominent question that came to my mind is, why is this course still necessary? I ask this question not because I think that this class and major are unnecessary, but more due to the fact that I believe that they should be. In this day in age when we believe we have come so far towards achieving equality why is the study of women something that is not naturally part of the core curriculum. Instead we take classes like Western Traditions where we are still reading "books pretending to describe a 'human' reality' that does not include over one-half the human species" as Rich so eloquently put it. In order to get a feeling for the female experience throughout history, students must make a deliberate effort to take classes centered on women.

Since women are half or more of the population it only makes sense that our experiences should constitute half of the history that is taught in schools. The only women that seem to make an appearances in these courses are helpless beauties, such as Helen of Troy. Perhaps this is a remnant of the times when Colgate University was all male, but my question is how has this not been changed? With my interest in the role of Women's studies both at Colgate and in the greater world piqued, I searched NY times online to see what other opinions I could find. Interestingly enough the first article that appeared was about a newer concept, which is that of Men's studies. The link to this is

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/education/09men-t.html

This article was provocative because I began to wonder what men could possibly need to study more about their gender when it seems to dominate most of the curriculum. After reading the article it seemed that these classes were more about getting men to open up and talk about feelings. So it seems that women's studies classes hope to empower women and men's studies classes attempt to create an environment where men feel safe being emotional. Why is it that we need separate classes to provide each gender with special attention? It seems to be that in modern society there is a general lack of communication between genders, which results in everyone striving to fit into their gender roles. These classes provide an outlet for both genders to break free from stereotypical expectations. While these are a quick fix, it seems to me in an ideal world people would not need separate classes in order to be true to themselves. Perhaps this is something that we can only continue to work towards both in and out of the university setting.

Michele Herron Main Post Part 1 1/19

I am still waiting for the Douglas book to be returned at the library but in the meantime I will upload my summary of the Adrienne Rich piece.

Adrienne Rich “Claiming an Education”

Convocation Speech at Douglass College

Rich’s theme for this speech is that women need to take an active role in claiming their education rather than sitting idly by and taking it for granted. They need to voice their opinions and take responsibility for themselves. I actually found this sort of ironic though because she gave this speech at a graduation ceremony when it may be too late for some of these women. I thought it may have been more relevant to talk about claiming one’s place in society such as their position in their future careers.

Rich discusses how there are few women in the upper levels of the faculty at Douglass college, much like other universities or corporations. She talks about how we are taught history based on what white men decided is important. She also mentions how many professors do not think that teaching at a women’s college is a prestigious opportunity but Rich believes that a women’s college is actually a very intellectually fertile place.

Rich outlines a contract that the students and teachers must commit to in order for both sides to succeed; the students must demand to be taken seriously and also take themselves seriously, and the teachers must believe that a woman's mind and experiences are valuable and unique.