Feminism

MASSCOM

Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights. Feminism is mainly focused on women's issues, but because feminism seeks gender equality, some feminists argue that men's liberation is therefore a necessary part of feminism, and that men are also harmed by sexism and gender roles.

Feminism
Thus, feminism is the belief that men and women should be equal politically, economically and socially (i.e. equal opportunity). This is the core of all feminism theories.

Sometimes this definition is also referred to as core feminism or core feminist theory. Notice that this theory does not subscribe to differences between men and women or similarities between men and women, nor does it refer to excluding men or only furthering women's causes.

Feminism as Theory
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines womens social roles and lived experience, and extends into a variety of fields such as anthropology, sociology, communication arts, literature, education, etc. Themes explored in feminism include art history and contemporary art, discrimination, stereotyping, objectification (especially sexual objectification), oppression, and patriarchy.

Feminism History
One of the earliest feminist writer
was an African-American woman who called herself Sojourner Truth. In 1851, Sojourner Truth started writing about womens rights issues through her publication, Aint I a Woman? Truth addressed the issues surrounding limited rights to women based on the flawed perceptions that men held of women.

Feminism History
The history of the modern western feminist movements is divided into three waves. Each is described as dealing with different aspects of the same feminist issues.

The first wave refers mainly to womens suffrage movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries (mainly concerned with women's right to vote). One of the most prominent leaders of this movement was Alice Stokes Paul (1885-1977).

Feminism History
The second wave refers to the ideas and actions associated with the women's liberation movement beginning in the 1960s (which campaigned for legal and social equality for women) up to the 1970s.

Second-wave feminists see women's cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked and encourage women to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting sexist power structures.

Feminism History
The Feminine Mystique (published February 19, 1963), is a nonfiction book written by Betty Friedan. It is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism. In 1957, Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former Smith College classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion; the results, in which she found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives, prompted her to begin research for her book.

Feminism History
The book begins with an introduction describing the problem that has no name the widespread unhappiness of women in the 1950s and early 1960s. It discusses the lives of several housewives from around the United States who were unhappy despite living in material comfort and being happily married with fine children.

Feminism History
In the chapter on the mass media, Friedan shows that the editorial decisions concerning women's magazines were being mostly made by men, who insisted on stories and articles that showed women as either happy housewives or unhappy, neurotic careerists, thus creating the feminine mystique the idea that women were naturally fulfilled by devoting their lives to being housewives and mothers.

Feminism History
The third wave refers to a continuation of, and a reaction to, the perceived failures of second-wave feminism, beginning in the 1990s and continuing to the present. Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second waves essentialist definitions of femininity, which, they argue, overemphasize the experiences of Western upper middle-class white women.

Feminism History
Third-wave feminism believes that women are of many colors, ethnicities, nationalities, religions and cultural backgrounds, thus challenging the dominance of Western upper middle-class feminism. Third-wave feminism also include sex-positivity, or the celebration of sexuality as a positive aspect of life, with broader definitions of what sex means and what oppression and empowerment may imply in the context of sex.

Third-wave feminism: Riot Grrrl

Riot Grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement which existed in the early to mid-1990s, and is often associated with third-wave feminism (it is sometimes seen as its starting point). All-female riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, and female empowerment. One of the first riot grrrl bands was Bikini Kill, fronted by its ultra-feminist lead vocalist Kathleen Hanna.

Third-wave feminism: Riot Grrrl

Kathleen Hanna had been working as a stripper to support herself while volunteering at a women's shelter and studying photography at an art college. She also opened her own small art gallery called Reko Muse. Along with her future band members, Hanna published a fanzine called Bikini Kill which would eventually become the name of their band. It was in this fanzine that they wrote the Riot Grrrl Manifesto.

Third-wave feminism: Riot Grrrl

Third-wave feminism: Riot Grrrl

The Riot Grrrl Manifesto
By Kathleen Hanna (published in 1991 in the Bikini Kill Zine 2)

BECAUSE us girls crave records and books and fanzines that speak to US that WE feel included in and can understand in our own ways. BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other's work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other. BECAUSE we must take over the means of production in order to create our own moanings.

The Riot Grrrl Manifesto

BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo. BECAUSE we recognize fantasies of Instant Macho Gun Revolution as impractical lies meant to keep us simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams AND THUS seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit christian capitalist way of doing things.

The Riot Grrrl Manifesto

BECAUSE we want and need to encourage and be encouraged in the face of all our own insecurities, in the face of beergutboyrock that tells us we can't play our instruments, in the face of "authorities" who say our bands/zines/etc are the worst in the U.S. and BECAUSE we don't wanna assimilate to someone else's (boy) standards of what is or isn't. BECAUSE we are unwilling to falter under claims that we are reactionary "reverse sexists" AND NOT THE TRUEPUNKROCKSOULCRUSADERS THAT WE KNOW we really are.

The Riot Grrrl Manifesto

BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock "you can do anything" idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours. BECAUSE we are interested in creating nonheirarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.

The Riot Grrrl Manifesto

BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives. BECAUSE we see fostering and supporting girl scenes and girl artists of all kinds as integral to this process. BECAUSE we hate capitalism in all its forms and see our main goal as sharing information and staying alive, instead of making profits of being cool according to traditional standards.

The Riot Grrrl Manifesto

BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak. BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors. BECAUSE we believe with our whole heartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.

Third-wave Feminism: bell hooks

Gloria Jean Watkins (born September 25, 1952), better known by her pen name bell hooks, is an American author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing has focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination.

Third-wave Feminism: bell hooks

hooks investigated the classroom as a source of constraint but also a potential source of liberation. She argued that teachers' use of control and power over students dulls the students' enthusiasm and teaches obedience to authority. hooks described traditional teaching methods as confining each pupil to a rote, assembly-line approach to learning. She advocated that universities encourage students and teachers to transgress, and sought ways to use collaboration to make learning more relaxing and exciting. She described teaching as a catalyst that calls everyone to become more and more engaged.

Third-wave Feminism: Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler (born May 25, 1953) is an American playwright, performer, feminist and activist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues. Ensler is a prominent activist addressing issues of violence against women. In 1998, her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women.

Eve Ensler: The Vagina Monologues

The Vagina Monologues is made up of a varying number of monologues read by a varying number of women. Each of the monologues deals with an aspect of the feminine experience, touching on matters such as sex, love, rape, menstruation, birth, the various common names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body. A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality.

Eve Ensler: The Vagina Monologues

Some monologues include: I Was 12, My Mother Slapped Me: a chorus describing many young women's and girls' first menstrual period. My Angry Vagina: a humorous rant about injustices wrought against the vagina, such as tampons, diaphragms, and the tools used by OB/GYNs. My Vagina Was My Village: a monologue compiled from the testimonies of Bosnian women subjected to rape camps. Reclaiming Cunt: illustrates that the word "cunt" itself is a lovely word despite its disconcerting connotations.

Eve Ensler: My Short Skirt

My short skirt is not an invitation, a provocation, an indication that I want it or give it or that I hook. My short skirt is not begging for it it does not want you to rip it off me or pull it down.

Eve Ensler: My Short Skirt

My short skirt is not a legal reason for raping me although it has been before it will not hold up in the new court. My short skirt, believe it or not has nothing to do with you.

Eve Ensler: My Short Skirt

My short skirt is about discovering the power of my lower calves about cool autumn air travelling up my inner thighs about allowing everything I see or pass or feel to live inside. My short skirt is not proof that I am stupid or undecided or a malleable little girl.

Eve Ensler: My Short Skirt

My short skirt is my defiance I will not let you make me afraid My short skirt is not showing off this is who I am before you made me cover it or tone it down. Get used to it. My short skirt is happiness I can feel myself on the ground. I am here. I am hot.

Eve Ensler: My Short Skirt

My short skirt is a liberation flag in the womens army I declare these streets, any streets my vaginas country.

Eve Ensler: My Short Skirt

My short skirt is turquoise water with swimming coloured fish a summer festival in the starry dark a bird calling a train arriving in a foreign town my short skirt is a wild spin a full breath, a tango dip my short skirt is initiation, appreciation, excitation.

Eve Ensler: My Short Skirt

But mainly my short skirt and everything under it is Mine. Mine. Mine.

Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey (born August 15, 1941) is a British feminist film theorist. She is best known for her essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, published in 1975. Her article was one of the first that helped shift the orientation of film theory towards a psychoanalytic framework, influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.

Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze

Mulvey refers to the male gaze as bearers of the look. She argues that the cinematic apparatus of classical Hollywood cinema inevitably put the audience in a masculine subject position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire.

Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze

Mulvey incorporates the Freudian idea of phallocentrism in that the cinema is inadvertently structured upon the ideas and values of a patriarchy. Three ways of looking associated with cinema: 1. The look of the camera that records the film 2. The look of the audience that views the film 3. The look of the characters in the film

Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze

Looking is generally seen as an active male role while the passive role of being looked at is adopted as a female characteristic. It is under the construction of patriarchy that women in film are tied to desire and that they hold an appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact. The female actor is never meant to represent a character that directly effects the outcome of a story, but is inserted as a way of supporting the male lead and bearing the burden of sexual objectification that the male lead cannot fulfill.