College Feminists Connect!

What are we afraid of?

There’s a great article up over at Pandagon right now about why some people find women’s sexuality scary, and it really hit home for me because it focused on the fact that many people who look to limit women’s sexual choices have a strong emphasis on how absolutely different men and women are. I’ve actually been in the process of writing a distinction paper about the religious extreme of this position, gender complementarianism, which says that God made men and women inherently different, and that each one needs to act according to his/her position or the whole world will fall apart (including our relationship with God).

So what is it with this obsession for saying that men and women HAVE to be different and that chaos will follow if they aren’t? I think one of the reasons that difference is so important to a lot of people is because it helps to tell you what you are: as a man, it’s easy to tell that you are powerful and wise and strong if you are NOT like a woman (which is one of the reasons “sissy” and similar terms are used to police male boundaries so frequently). Saussure suggested that we only gain meaning for terms by defining them negatively against each other...we don’t know what black is until we’ve said it’s not white. And for something as important as gender, something society tells us is an integral way to define ourselves, the first split made in us versus them, it becomes very very important to know who you are. It also seems as though a lot of these people are afraid of the idea that they might have to define themselves as individuals: that they can’t pick a pre-created character as it were, but they have to make an original. I think we can all understand that fear. Figuring out who we are is a rather daunting task, and it may make it easier for us to have some empathy towards people who push strong gender roles if we realize that they’re afraid we will take away their identities by creating our own. I also think it’s possible that understanding where the fear and anger is coming from might be able to help us reassure those who are afraid of liberation.

Any thoughts? Olivia

Praxis and Thought

As I begin posting here at College Feminists Connect, and also in my personal life of thinking and reading and similar things, I’ve been wondering why I choose to devote my time the way I do. There are many people who choose to live their beliefs by going out and making physical changes in the world: I live my beliefs by thinking and sharing thoughts. Am I really doing anything useful? How much good does it do for CFC to have a blog? Would our resources be better used simply providing info on internships, jobs, and events? I’d like to suggest that the blog and the thought exchanges are an integral part of what we aim to do.

I recently got to read a rather fantastic exchange between Judith Butler and Martha Nussbaum in which Nussbaum (http://www.akad.se/Nussbaum.pdf) accused Butler of theories with no practical application (primarily aimed towards Gender Trouble). Butler’s suggestions of parodying genders in order to introduce more space for difference gender identities, seemed useless to Nussbaum. As she criticizes: “For women who are hungry, illiterate, disenfranchised, beaten, raped, it is not sexy or liberating to reenact, however parodically, the conditions of hunger, illiteracy, disenfranchisement, beating, and rape. Such women prefer food, schools, votes, and the integrity of their bodies.” (Nussbaum, The Professor of Parody). We see that Nussbaum is calling for theories and works that give concrete practical avenues of change for those who are in difficult situations. Butler would have her own response to Nussbaum’s proposition, but here I’d like to say that yes, it is important for academics or for those with some measure of privilege to try to create intellectual propositions that link to actual change. But is there also a place for the more nuanced approach, for changes to thought and paradigms?

There is another layer to this question as well. John McGowan (http://www.michaelberube.com/index.php/weblog/2005/08/) chimes in on the debate by pointing out that even Nussbaum’s very practical approach is not itself practice: “If our criteria for true or real politics is that the formerly hungry now get fed, what academic work will meet the test?...Thinking is not politics.” While Butler’s style of thinking about gender may be less practical than literal suggestions of how to feed the hungry, even suggestions of how to feed the hungry do not themselves feed anyone. So what good are any of us doing by thinking? Do any changes come about through thinking or should we abandon all academic attempts to understand gender and social structures and simply work to create job opportunities for women?

McGowan gives a proposal for how to judge thoughts:

My proposal, then, is straight-forward.  1) Thinking in ways to help the material conditions of others may prove useful indirectly.  But there are crucial and complicated intermediary steps between the thinking and the helping.  Someone who just thinks a lot about the hunger of others is not morally superior to or more politically involved than someone who thinks a lot about his red car.  2) Therefore, any thinking that is going to qualify as even potentially political needs to articulate its political implications clearly and suggest some ways to act upon those implications in the world.  3) But political action per se only begins when one leaves the library or the study.  Even the rhetorical urging of others to embrace this or that political cause is preliminary to political action itself.

At first glance this seems like an entirely reasonable proposal. However I’d like to suggest that there’s far more to the thought changing approach than McGowan allows for. The idea that in order to spread change we must physically leave our homes and change situations seems ludicrous to me. There is great evidence that combined thought can create social change: signing petitions, blog writing, and online activism have created change in the modern world. I do not believe these things are entirely thought or entirely action. They blur the lines between distinct practice and simple thought. For this reason, I think that the sharp distinction McGowan draws between thought and praxis is untenable: often simply by thinking something new and sharing that thought with another person we are acting. 

McGowan does acknowledge that thoughts have their role and they can be beneficial, but when he points to Butler as evidence of this he says “Can her thinking aid in that political work of alleviation?  Yes, insofar as it alerts people to the existence of a problem, gives them a vocabulary and concepts for the articulation of the problem, and suggests some forms of action that would remedy the problem.” This seems off-base to me. Butler is addressing the problem that individuals feel pain because of restrictive gender roles. The way to change this is to open up the possibility of new gender roles. Since gender is constructed, it is possible that simply through thinking in a new way, people can create a new gender role for themselves. This then has to be put into practice, and there are practical problems that need to be dealt with, but the internal mental struggle of understanding oneself is alleviated through new thought patterns. In reading her thought, readers are instantly opened to new gender possibilities: these possibilities are entirely internal and in thought. Butler’s thoughts can literally change lives, and those changed thought patterns for individuals then lead to new actions which can lead to larger social change.

I’d certainly like to believe that the hope someone can find through new thoughts is itself a change and a practical effect that comes from the thinking that academics, bloggers and others do. Therefore, I suggest that while there are definitely instances of complete thought or complete praxis and we can do with both of those for difference reasons, there are also instances in which thought is praxis, and those are often the most subversive and change-oriented. Changing thoughts creates different people, different paradigms and allows us to imagine the options in new ways. These reimaginings are the first step to deep change. This belief is what keeps me blogging and talking and thinking.

 

Let's Talk About Being Pro-Choice

The legislative session of 2011 was fraught with ridiculous attacks on reproductive rights. Limiting access to abortion is a hot issue right now - and abstinence only education is (and likely will be for the foreseeable future) a problem in regards to how people are educated about sex.

When you feel so strongly about an issue it can be difficult to see clearly when people constantly attack it. Reproductive rights are such an intense topic for everyone because they are so personal. I cannot imagine someone telling me I can't have access to birth control or adequate information about sex. And those who are not so liberal as I can't imagine talking about such a holy and personal topic as sexuality in the public realm. Personal, right? This issue goes right to the core of almost everyone's personal behavior and identities. It makes sense for people to be so passionate.

But with passion comes problems. Problems like not looking at an issue from all sides. Problems like not considering several opinions and understanding (though not necessarily agreeing) with opposing viewpoints. Some people struggle to  maintain a logical standpoint and argument to back up that standpoint. And here's the thing - lately I see my pro-choice comrades falling into that "passion trap". We're under attack - and it doesn't just feel like our ideas are being attacked - it feels like our bodies and our reproductive freedom is being attacked. It's quite the unpleasant situation. I understand why people feel the need to protect reproductive rights more than ever before - it's scary to think some of the bills being proposed could become law (remember the Personhood Amendment?) but that is no excuse to become narrow minded, even if it is on the pro-choice side of things.

It started in the blogs I read, then it showed up in my classes, and now it's appearing in pop-culture analysis. It's an intense attitude of disdain for women who exercise their right to choose. The women who are scorned (whether real or characters in a book, TV show, or movie) either become pregnant and decide to have the baby or decide to opt for a birth control method like Natural Family Planning. And they are scorned implicity or explicity for not having an abortion or not using birth control. See, I was under the impression pro-choice was about having access to the choice. Being able to have an abortion safely and using birth control or not having an abortion and using (for lack of a better word) "natural" methods of birth control. As pro-choicers we CANNOT scorn those women who do not make the choices we would have made. Pro-choice should not end at access to birth control and safe abortion. It needs to include resources for women and men who choose to remain pregnant or practice Natural Family Planning.

It is narrow minded, and frankly, detrimental to the fight for reproductive rights to scorn women and men who do not use birth control or abortion. What everyone does with their body is their business. We need to recognize that the pro-choice movement could fall into a narrow minded, birth control filled black hole. We need to stand strong and form bonds with those who believe in personal freedom - but perhaps don't make the same choices in regards to their person as you would. We need to be the real embodiment of pro-choice. -Jen Kaltveit, Hamline University

How NOT to Combat Childhood Obesity

Georgia has started a new campaign against childhood obesity called Strong4LIfe. Commendable, yes? You would think so, because childhood obesity (obesity in general) is a serious health problem that is easily prevented by education about healthy lifestyles - less fatty foods, more exercise - it's fairly simple really. But the focus should be on health, not beauty. A healthy lifestyle (the best way to prevent obesity) does not mean just eating right and exercising. It's much more holistic than that. It's about positive body image, self-esteem, and mental health. Let's face it, our media environment is not a great breeding ground for positive body image and self-esteem. Which is precisely why society needs campaigns against childhood obesity that promote positive body image and self-esteem.

Too bad that's not what Georgia is doing. Check out some ads below.

As Feministing.com's Jos Truitt points out, these images shame children and parents about obesity. They do not address the issue constructively, but instead seem to allude that if you're fat you're gross and far outside the "norm" of society. How ridiculous. It sounds cliche, but bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Apparently nobody actually grasps that concept. These ads push for conformity because of shame - not health and acceptance of an individual's body type. If anything, these ads won't help "cure" or prevent childhood obesity; but they very well might lead to an outbreak of self-loathing and shame. -Jen Kaltveit

That Feminist Thing - Reflections on the Midwest Feminist Conference

Last weekend (November 4-5) I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend the Midwest Feminist Conference in Iowa City, Iowa. After a five hour drive on Friday afternoon, I and two other lovely Hamline students arrived just in time to hear the keynote speaker - Feministing.com's very own Courtney Martin.

The talk was based on Martin's latest book: Do it Anyway: The New Generation of Activists. I have to say, after this semester - in which I feel as though I have literally discussed every social problem on Earth - it was extraordinarily refreshing to have someone tell me that saving the world is an overwhelming and unrealistic goal. Martin profiled several activists who do fabulous, beneficial work close to home and built upon their own lived experiences. The take home message seemed to be: do what you love, and do what benefits others and yourself. The talk was most inspiring and I cannot wait to read the book it was based upon.

On Saturday I was psyched - empowered with the knowledge that I was not a bad person if I failed to find a solution to all the world's problems - I prepared to attend a series of workshops on various topics. While all the workshops were beneficial, two in particular stuck out to me. So, instead of boring you with summaries of all (even if I did think they were awesome), I shall discuss my two of choice.

First, Moving through Issues between Trans and Feminist Communities (presented by stef shuster) lead to one of the most intense, and headache inducing discussions I have ever been a part of. It was not headache inducing in a bad way, but in a "how are we ever going to get through this?" way. While posed as dealing with specifically feminist and trans communities, this workshop lead to a discussion about gender pronouns, micro-aggressions, and assumptions about gender. A handful of individuals carried the discussion and I did not contribute at all, but rather chose to listen. I was definitely out of my depth in this workshop - primarily because of my lack of knowledge about the culture of the Trans community. How would I have contributed to a discussion about Trans issues when all I know is what I have learned in a sociology class? Another problem was I did not particularly agree with one ideology, which was a theme throughout the discussion - the idea that you should never assume a person is a certain gender. Essentially, what people were saying is because some people do not identify as a man or woman,  it is micro-aggressive to make assumptions about someone's gender.

Now, to be clear, everyone has the right to identify as any gender they please, and I will gladly respect and support anyone's choice to do so. But, I think it is important to note that never assuming someone is a man or woman requires a complete tear down of the current gender system. THAT IS A REALLY BIG PROJECT. I do not know how to approach this issue - do I want the current gender system to stay? Do I want it to go? Am a prepared to take sides? How can I be an ally to people who do not identify within the current gender system if there is no language for a new system? See the headache? It's coming back just thinking about it! And the thing that really got me was even the people who so adamantly carried the discussion had no solutions, or potential solutions, or starting points. Was this discussion illuminating and valuable? Absolutely. But I wish I knew where to go from there.

The second workshop that stuck out to me was The Year of the Uterus. Fabulous name, yes? This workshop focused on all recently passed and currently proposed legislation in regards to reproductive rights. Overall, it was a good, informative presentation. But the part that stuck out to me most happened while information on later term abortion (often referred to as "partial birth") was being presented. I was unfamiliar with the procedure for later term abortion, having only received any information about it in a pro-life religion class, so I raised my hand and asked what the procedure entailed. The response was totally alarming. No one knew. Not one of the presenters had an answer until an audience member offered, "It’s similar to dilation and extraction." That was the extent of the answer I was given.

This concerns me because the presenters were promoting later term abortion and they could not even explain what it was. That is a definite problem. As feminists, we are responsible for fighting for gender equality, but we need to be informed. We cannot just pick issues and promote them without deciding if we agree with the argument on a personal level. Feminists as a group are constantly fighting backlash and being uninformed just adds credence to ridiculous claims. We should not be afraid to refuse to support issues we do not agree with - what we need is informed, thoughtful participation is this wonderful movement we call feminism, not blind followers.

Overall, the conference was a valuable experience. Joining feminists my own age and watching other students present was awesome. There are times when I forget how many other feminists are out there and I began to despair, but gathering in Iowa City reminded me that there is a whole Midwest full of feminists! And, after seeing just the tip of what they have to offer I can tell we - us Midwest Feminists - are going to do awesome things. -Jen Kaltveit

Action: Marriage Equality

On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota’s (PPMNS) Board of Directors voted unanimously to oppose the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that will go before Minnesota voters next year. 

As you know, in May of this year the Minnesota House voted to place a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the 2012 ballot, even though Minnesota law already bans same-sex marriage. If voters approve the ballot measure, discriminatory language against same-sex couples will be enshrined into Minnesota’s Constitution.

Planned Parenthood works everyday to ensure the health and well-being of all Minnesotan families because we know that strong families are fundamental to strong communities. But, communities can only flourish when their members are treated equally with fairness and respect.  We believe that people should be free to make life’s most profound choices about health care, childbearing and relationships – and that all people, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, have fundamental human rights that must be respected and responsibilities that must be exercised.

If you agree, consider writing a letter-to-the-editor (LTE) for your University or College paper saying so!  Together we can spread the word that the majority of Minnesotans don’t approve of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and the legal recognition of same-sex couples. 

LTEs are a quick and easy way to make your voice heard in your community.  Want to write and LTE but not sure where to start?  Write Sam at scarolus@ppmns.org and she would be happy to send you sample letters and talking points. 

Together we can make a difference!

College Mom

For over a year now I have been addicted to MTV's Teen Mom. Every week I settle in and watch four very different women cope with all the issues of parenthood, relationships, and college. A large part of why I am drawn to Teen Mom is because I have known several teen or early twenties moms who have gone through the same issues those women face. I can relate, mostly, to their experiences.

Farrah, however, is in a very different situation than the other moms. Her daughter's father, Derek, died before Sophia was born. Throughout the entire series I have watched Farrah struggle to raise Sophia, go to school, work, and cope with the untimely death of her boyfriend. Honestly, it's been a pretty sad journey. I've cried with and for Farrah many times - I cannot even begin to imagine the emotions she feels on a regular basis.

And she tries so hard to get over Derek and be a good mom. So, when she made her decision to move away and complete her bachelors degree in another state, I thought it might be an excellent experience for her to get away from a place where she is so connected to Derek. And then the issue of Sophia arose. Who will care for her? How will Farrah pay for daycare? Is it good for Sophia to move away from her grandparents? So many questions - and then Farrah's mom came up with a plan - why not leave Sophia with her?

And this is the part where everyone freaks out. As Farrah's therapist put it, "You're asking a mother to leave her child?" Interesting how this action could be equated with sub-par parenting. As Farrah's mother explains, it would not make Farrah a bad mom if she left Sophia in the care of her grandparents. Perhaps what Farrah needs is solitary time away so she can heal, so she can accept that Derek is gone, so she can be a better mom by devoting more energy to Sophia and less to her feelings of loss. Is taking time to make you better bad parenting? I think not.

After much deliberation, and a candid discussion with Sophia, Farrah decides to move to Florida on her own. While some might think this decision is selfish or an example of bad parenting, I think Farrah made an excellent decision for herself and Sophia. Kudos to Farrah for realizing she needs her time and taking that time will make her a better person, and parent, in the long run. Not to mention the fact that getting a bachelors will provide multiple economic benefits for Farrah and Sophia. Not many young parents have the opportunity Farrah does and it's fabulous she has chosen to take advantage of it.

So, YAY FOR FARRAH. Way to be the best mom you can. -Jen Kaltveit

How Are You Recruiting Your Future Feminists?

With every new semester comes the excitement of new classes, new faces, and more chances to participate as an activist on your college campus! This is an exhilarating time of the semester, as students are feeling re-energized and invigorated, and aren’t yet burnt out from huge amounts of tedious homework assignments (although, it won’t take long, but I’m optimistic.)

Over here at St. Cloud State University, the Women’s Center is eagerly planning our approach on acquiring new students that are interested in participating in our feminist community. Not only are we reaching out to the feminist minded students on campus, we are also attempting to create an awareness of the Women’s Center. Surprisingly, most students at SCSU do not even know that there is a fully staffed Women’s Center available to them on campus.

On the basis of how we are planning on getting the word out on campus, the University does much of that for us. Every Fall and Spring semester, the University puts on what we call a “Main Street” event. For those unfamiliar with this event, it’s where the entire campus basically advertises every single student organization, campus department, and off-site/community resource that a student will ever need. It is quite a huge event, one that takes up most of the available space on campus. The Women’s Center has participated in this event every year, and is very well known for the women’s symbol pens we hand out (trust me, you WANT a Women’s Center pen – you are not cool without one, I swear).