Final Long Post 2/28

Enloe

Introduction: Being Curious about our Lack of Feminist Curiosity

Enloe’s introduction talks about the concept of being curious about things and taking the opportunity to investigate them. She says that it is easy to be complacent because being curious require energy. Other terms like “tradtition,” “natural,” “always,” and “oldest” are words we use to justify our complacency. We don’t challenge the ideas that fit into those categories because it takes too much effort and its uncomfortable to challenge the ideas we grew up with. Enloe says, “uncuriousity is dangerously comfortable if it can be dressed up with the sophisticated attire of reasonableness and intellectual efficiency” (3). I liked when she brings up the questions of “where women are and where men are, about who put women there and men here, about who benefits from women being there and not someplace else…” (4). I always wonder how institutions like patriarchy came to be. How did ideologies form? How quickly? How long will they last? She says that patriarchial systems “make many women overlook their own marginal positions and feel instead secure, protected, valued” (6). I see what she is saying but I still don’t know how we fell into that system. Why do women need men in order to feel safe? Why do young women feel more valuable when they have a boyfriend? She also brings up the point that patriarchy is constantly being modernized. It’s a necessary process in order for patriarchy to survive. But will other societal systems out-evolve patriarchy and lead to its demise?

The Surprised Feminist

She starts this chapter by explaining how we are all “socialized to deny surprise.” We are, but why? Is it because we look foolish when something surprises us because it means we didn’t realize or know something beforehand? Isn’t surprise a good thing sometimes because it means you learn something new and you are forced to see something in a different way than what you expected? Enloe is starting her book by urging people to be open to the idea of being surprised by things. Its unavoidable, so why not embrace the things that surprise you? We all need to admit that sometimes we are wrong in our preconceived notions and assumptions. I think she wants her readers to have an open mind while reading this book because otherwise certain issues will just pass right over them. I really liked these chapters and I wish we had read them at the beginning of the semester instead of at the end. There are definitely some issues we talked about in class that I had to open my mind to in order to fully understand. For example, I learned a lot about abortion and abortion providers from class and the brown bag that I attended. And I was surprised by many of the things that I learned.