Theory to Praxis Assignment

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Former Student

In today’s society kids are growing up with factors that are very different from what parents grew up with. Starting with technology. Kids’ actions and beliefs are influenced by what they see and hear, and less by what they are told. TV especially is a major influence on kids’ behavior and views on society. These factors include body image, diversity, and influence on societal beliefs. This last one is less obvious, for example in elementary school and high school I watched Jessie, Liv and Madi, and Wizards of Waverly Place. All of these shows have main characters in high school, these shows are what I based high school off on and how I expected high school to be like. TV can influence people’s expectations of real-life situations. Tv, especially Disney, (at least when I was a child) had very little diversity, and many of the main characters were skinny, pretty, straight, white women. This shows both a lack of diversity in race and sexuality. It can also create body image issues when little kids grow up with role models that look like actual models. Creating a stereotypical belief that all women are supposed to look that way when they are older.

Although many tv programs including Disney are starting to work on becoming more diverse, there is still a long way to go to create shows that support and show all bodies and sexualities. Since our generation is the first to be influenced by tv and some of us will raise children in the next 15 ish years, I believe that we are the solution to help future generations understand and analyze what they see on technology. Learning how to analyze shows and media will not only help our generation understand factors that have influenced us without our knowledge but it will also help the next generations. This is a goal of many feminists, as seen in many of our texts including “You Say Nature, I Say Nurture… Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off” by Suzanna Danuta Walters. Whether it is a younger sibling, a kid being babysat, or our own children. If our generation gets educated on how we were and kids are being influenced by television then we can be more attentive to what we are watching and what the kids around us are watching. We have the ability to prevent kids from watching certain shows, although that method may not work because kids have access to their own phones and computers earlier. Rather than attempting to control our kids’ freedom, we need to equip them with the ability to understand and see what is wrong with shows. This limits parents from being super controlling while giving kids the tools they need to analyze what they see on television.

Once you start to analyze television shows you begin to realize the number of issues that are ignored or looked past. These issues need to be understood and recognized. It will take time to completely fix this issue, although many television programs have already begun to recognize and fix this issue and expand their diversity. And even though there is change, our generation, including the students at Davidson, needs to recognize these issues so they can prevent future generations from perceiving these shows as reality. A class that analyzes televisions and technological physiological effects on kids and teens would benefit our generation and future generations.

Theory to Praxis: Reimagining Greek Life at Davidson

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Former Student

As a school that was founded by white genteel slave owners and remained segregated until the 60s and all-male until the 70s, Davidson has a long history of elitism. Unfortunately, the college has done a poor job of repealing exclusive traditions and making the school as welcoming and safe as possible to people of all walks of life. One particularly glaring area of inequality is the social structure of Greek life on campus.

There are many things wrong with the status of Greek life at Davidson. Racial disparities are perhaps the most visible problem. My friend Michaela Gibbons is working on a project called Stories Yet To Be Told, conducting research on the history of Patterson Court Council (PCC) – the governing body of Greek life at Davidson. We have had many conversations about PCC this semester, and a lot of them have centered around PCC’s dominating whiteness. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality and Lorde’s “There are No Hierarchies of Oppression” (1983) emphasize that racial equality (and other equalities) are necessary to realize gender equality. All of the nine predominantly white PCC organizations have individual houses on campus, while the six PCC organizations for students of color must share space at the BSC (Black Student Coalition) house. This is clearly a problem for feminism, although solutions are somewhat difficult to propose. In this case, the simplest method to reduce white special power on campus may be to disband PCC or consolidate the predominantly white organizations.

Aside from racial inequality, another issue with Greek life at Davidson is its relationship to the gender binary. As a collection of organizations with membership based on male or female gender identification, PCC reinforces ideas that there are only two genders, which is clearly false when one understands Lorber’s perspective that gender is constructed. Since humans have made up the concept of gender, there is no reason to believe in all-or-nothing gender rules. And yet, PCC membership is exclusive to men and women. (Turner House, one of the eating houses, does allow anyone who is not a straight cis male to join, but this introduces the problematic circumstance of requiring people to out themselves). Furthermore, the predominance of “bristerhoods” (fraternity-eating house mixers) perpetuates heteronormativity. Requiring all PCC organizations to be open to all genders would be the easiest solution to make Davidson more feminist, although that would require converting some fraternal organizations to eating houses.

A final, and particularly glaring problem with PCC at Davidson is rape culture. We briefly talked in class about how society conditions males to violate and disrespect female bodies, and there is a prevailing willingness to let this slide. Society reinforces hegemonic sexual scripts, an orgasm gap, and poor understandings of consent, all of which lead to unequal sexual citizenship. This means that women have less power than men to make the choice to have sex. This is obviously problematic for feminism. At Davidson, PCC hopelessly perpetuates rape culture. For liability reasons, the school has strict rules about alcohol for parties at PCC houses. Because PCC organizations are too lazy or busy to plan detailed weekly parties and want to avoid strict scrutiny from the school, weekly parties are predominantly hosted at Armfield, the only residential space on campus where open consumption is permitted. Currently, Armfield apartments which host parties are exclusively rented by predominately white men with strong fraternity ties. This leads to constant sexual misconduct and a lack of safety at parties. Once again, it is not simple to find a solution to male ownership of party space at Davidson. However, some viable options would be disbanding PCC, creating more school-sponsored social events, and preventing Armfield apartments from having five male residents.

PCC is rife with inequalities, much of them a byproduct of Davidson’s elitist traditions. Thus, disbanding PCC and ending Greek life at Davidson is probably the most feminist solution. This would introduce a social vacuum for some time, but it couldn’t be any worse that the forced quarantine of the 2020-21 academic year.

Theory to Praxis: Ending Child Abuse and Building Resilient Families

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Former Student

Written by Anna Newman

Overview:

I will be implementing my knowledge of gender and sexuality studies, specifically on women’s rights, feminism, and rape culture, to plan a civic engagement experience over the summer. Through a collaboration with SAFEchild in Raleigh, North Carolina and Strong Girls United, the goal of the project will be to educate children on noticing and responding to child abuse appropriately before it escalates, while also learning more about the implications that domestic violence has on parenting.

About the Partners:

SAFEchild is a non-profit advocacy center that ensures children have a safe living environment, free from abuse. SAFEchild empowers the children and their families by providing counseling services and childcare. One important aspect of SAFEchild is a program they run called “Funny Tummy Feelings” which is a program that educates first-graders about noticing and appropriately handling child abuse when they see it or are subject to it. Funny Tummy Feelings has been implemented in the Wake County public school curriculum for first graders; however, the goal of this project is to expand Funny Tummy Feelings to the Strong Girls United program.

Strong Girls United is a mentorship program for young girls which pairs collegiate athletes with elementary school girls and the groups meet to discuss confidence building, mental health, and new sports skills. I believe that Funny Tummy Feelings could also be a beneficial addition to the Strong Girls United curriculum. Unfortunately, rape and sexual abuse are pervasive parts of society, but one way to combat this is to educate about rape culture and the ways you can stand up to it and notice it before it escalates.

Connections to GSS:

This project will be focusing on providing children and mothers the skills needed to build confidence in response to child abuse and domestic violence. Confidence and mental resiliency begin at a young age, and if we can empower elementary school girls, we can empower an entire generation to put an end to domestic violence and child abuse. My research would overlap with several articles that we studied in class about feminism. In the article titled Committee on the Status of Women in India, the author discusses how marriage can become a “hindrance for women seeking career advancement” which demonstrates that a marriage with power imbalances is the basis for domestic violence and abuse of power. Betty Friedan talks in the Feminine Mystique that in the 1970’s, rape was not considered a penalty. Friedan also discusses the topic of women not being fulfilled simply by staying in the house, making beds, washing dishes, and cooking for the family, which relates to the lack of liberties that the woman has within a marriage. These hindrances that married women face are the basis for domestic violence and patriarchy. One notable quote from the Feminine Mystique is “when she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity, she finally began to enjoy being a woman” (279). When women stop allowing their husbands to control and abuse them, they enjoyed being women. Additionally, bell hooks’ work called Feminism is for Everybody encourages the notion that equality is the goal of feminism, and the goal is not to subvert men. In relation to my book review on the book titled Medical Bondage, white male physicians were abusing enslaved women’s bodies by taking advantage of their position of power and conducting unsolicited gynecological research and painful experiments. The consequences of these experiments were destructive, both physically and mentally, for these women. The enslaved women’s experiences with the gynecological experiments parallel the domestic violence that women today face in abusive relationships. Abuse within a relationship affects the way a mother can parent a child, which demonstrates the vicious cycle of domestic violence at a young age starting with a lack of self-confidence, then getting wrapped up in abusive relationships, and to then raise kids in an environment filled with abuse and neglect. So, my goal for this project is to confront and help children notice domestic violence at a young age so that they can grow up to be confident people in healthy relationships. After doing an analysis on the film Moonlight in my writing class, it was brought to my attention that some abusive family dynamics are avoidable, while others are out of one’s control. In Moonlight, a young boy by the name of Chiron was being raised in an abusive and neglectful household because his mother was involved with dangerous drugs and did not have time for her child; however, the opportunities available for the mother to parent her child were lacking. While I’m doing my research, l will be sure to look at the context of the situation (what resources are available to the family?) versus judging the situation and the parenting choices.

Limitations:

The limitation of this project is that Strong Girls United does not mention anything about transgender children, non-binary children, or gender-nonconforming children. This is a research question that l will be asking the SGU executive board in hopes that something is done to make the organization more inclusive of children of all gender identities. Part of feminism is creating equity across the genders, so this feminist project is aimed at creating equity for boys, girls, and gender non-conforming children. Overall, the goal of this project is to provide a form of mentorship for children seeking assistance with confidence, mental health training, and skills needed to confront abuse if they ever need to use them.

Implementation of Plan:

A few summers ago, my mom and l volunteered at SAFEchild and we babysat the children while their mothers were in a counseling meeting. I am hoping to resume my volunteering with SAFEchild by babysitting the children and then shadowing one of the leaders during the counseling meetings. I feel like I would gain another dimension of appreciation for the struggles that these families deal with by listening to the mothers speak. Also, it would be impactful to listen to the women’s stories of domestic abuse within their marriages and how this abuse impacts their ability to mother their children.

After shadowing a counselor, l would ask one of the leaders/counselors at SAFEchild to be a guest speaker at one of the meetings with Strong Girls United. The counselor can focus on teaching a Funny Tummy Feelings course for the SGU children. The plan is to empower young girls by giving them to skills to notice and respond to child abuse in a confident way. One possibility of furthering my research experience would be to shadow a pediatric physiatrist to learn about the impacts of child abuse, neglect, and domestic violence on youth’s mental health.

DRI Grant Proposal: Intersectional Feminism Workshop and Research Project

Posted on November 27, 2021 by Former Student

Prompt from DRI Application Directions

Introduction:

The purpose of this project is to study the types of feminism and their intersectionality that Davidson students identity with, as well as how a structured workshop impacts students’ feminisms. For the project, we would create an intersectional feminism workshop and survey students before and after they participate to gauge how their identification with and knowledge of intersectional feminism changed. There are two main objectives. The first is to have a greater understanding of the student body’s feminist views. The second is to create more space for inclusive feminist frameworks on our predominantly white campus.

Justification:

As a first-year student of color, I’ve already noticed that most of the feminisms from students are white and centered around issues of the west. They are also not all-encompassing of queer/trans feminists or feminists of color. A 2019 Davidsonian perspective article discusses the need for intersectional feminism, especially for women in STEM, and raises the question: is Davidson the most welcoming, inclusive place it can be for all women on campus? The author of the piece acknowledges that she doesn’t see the inequalities that others see on campus because she is a white cis woman, but even posing this question requires a look into how the campus’ environment fuels inequalities.

This research project is also essential because it studies all students on campus, not just marginalized communities (students of color, queer/trans students, etc.). The campus places the burden on marginalized students to grapple with their own trauma or uncomfort through group therapy sessions, communal dinners, etc., rather than addressing attitudes that may be coming from the dominant culture. This workshop is one way to strike that notion.

Furthermore, there is a handful of literature on the importance of dismantling privilege on PWIs and creating supportive spaces for students of color. Intersectionality and Dismantling Institutional Privilege: The case of the NSF ADVANCE Program suggests frameworks for dismantling race and gender-based institutional privileges. While the academy relies on eliteness, intersectional frameworks can minimize the effects of its violence.

Implementation:

First, I would create a survey that assesses the types of feminisms with which students identify. Questions would include how students feel about different social, political, and economic issues. The survey would also address how they see feminism on Davidson’s campus. I would create a second survey for after the workshop that is similar to the first. This gauges how an interactive educational workshop can impact one’s feminism.

Second, I would work with GSS professors to plan an intersectional feminism workshop that addresses different types of feminism, creating inclusive spaces as an individual, and why intersectionality is necessary at a PWI.

I would advertise this workshop through flyers, GSS classes, and Sociology classes, as many students need to participate in research for their major requirements.

Preparation:

I am prepared to execute this research project for three reasons.

First, although I’ve only taken GSS-101, I feel equipped to begin or expand conversations about types of feminism and the need for intersectionality. In GSS-101, we read works from many feminists, including Kimberlé Crenshaw who coined the term intersectionality.

Second, in high school, I led an annual feminism workshop for my school. This is because I read a lot of feminist and queer theory including authors like bell hooks, Sara Ahmed, and Judith Butler.

Third, during my senior year of high school, I executed a research project that was structured similar to this project. I surveyed local middle and high schoolers about their experience with menstrual stigma before and after presenting about menstrual stigma and global menstrual oppression.

Dissemination:

I’ll detail the findings of the research project in a report that is presented to the general Davidson community. This will provide faculty and students with an understanding of how inclusive the feminisms that Davidson students identity with, as well as if workshops are a practical means of making students’ feminisms more inclusive and intersectional.

I would also present these findings to the Freshman Orientation Team to propose a similar workshop for incoming first-year students. This would help incoming freshmen begin to grapple with their privileges before beginning classes, contributing to a supportive environment on campus.

I’d also share this report with other student groups at PWIs that may have similar questions about how supportive and inclusive their campuses are for marginalized communities.

Example Survey Questions:

Do you identify as a feminist?
- If so, how do you describe your feminism?
- If not, why not?
Do you consider yourself an intersectional feminist?
- If so, how do you define intersectionality?
- If not, why not?
In your experience, is the Davidson community inclusive?
- If so, please provide examples.
- If not, why not?
In your experience, do you see intersectionality on Davidson’s campus?
- If so, please provide examples.
In your experience, do you see feminism on Davidson’s campus?
- If so, please provide examples.

Works Cited:

Arday, Jason, and Heidi Safia Mirza, editors. Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy. 1 ed., Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. Link Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60261-5.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Why intersectionality can’t wait.” The Washington Post, 24 September 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/09/24/why-intersectionality-cant-wait/.

Helena. “Teaching Intersectionality: Activities and Resources.” DISORIENT, 2020, https://disorient.co/teaching-intersectionality-activity/. Accessed 22 November 2021.

Hickman, Ross. “Exclusion, Harm, and Disillusionment at Davidson.” Davidsonian, 10 November 2021, https://www.davidsonian.com/editorial-exclusion-harm-and-disillusionment-at-davidson/.

Hunt, Valerie H., et al. “Intersectionality and Dismantling Institutional Privilege: The Case of the NSF ADVANCE Program.” Race, Gender, & Class, vol. 19, no. 1/2, 2012, pp. 266-290. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43496873.

Stanton, Domna C., and Abigail J. Stewart, editors. Feminisms in the Academy. University of Michigan Press, 1995, https://www.press.umich.edu/10669/feminisms_in_the_academy.

Winters-Mccabe, Annabel. “Let’s Talk About Feminism On Our Campus Now.” Davidsonian, 3 October 2019, https://www.davidsonian.com/lets-talk-about-feminism-on-our-campus-now/.

“God is a Woman” by Ariana Grande

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Former Student

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHLHSlExFis

As Ariana says, “You’ll believe God is a woman” by the end of an intimate act. In her song, “God is a Woman”, Ariana emphasizes women empowerment and raises awareness to a topic that is frowned upon in society- woman finding pleasure in sexual relations. Ariana encourages female empowerment through lines such as “And I can tell that you know I know how I want it” and “I’m tellin’ you the way I like it, how I want it”. In doing so, Ariana sheds light on the idea of women placing their needs and desires above men, this way the act of intimacy shifts from being man-dominated to woman-dominated. These lyrics emphasize the importance of women openly speaking about their sexual desires and reclaiming their bodily autonomy.

This idea of being confident in speaking about sexual desires relates to Foucault connections between knowledge and pleasure, and how sex is just not supposed to be a learning experience, but also an opportunity to teach us something about ourselves. There is an urge to know something from sex and pleasure, but there is still the paradox of the sex talk where sex is silenced, yet we still talk about it explicitly and incessantly. Ariana paves the way for women to skip the act of silence and feel confident in speaking about their needs in a sexual relation.

However, it is important to note there are limitations that exist in how gender plays a role in her song. Ariana references intimacy in a relationship between a male and female both in the song and the music video. For example she sings, “And he sees the universe when I’m the company.” With the usage of the pronoun, “he,” Ariana excludes homosexual relationships. Also, the exclusion of queer relationships does not address other women’s sexual experience, such as those who are transgender and lesbian.

Despite this, “God is a Woman” by Ariana Grande encourages female sexual liberation and celebrates female pleasure.

Feminist Mix-Tape: “Kings and Queens” by Ava Max

Posted on November 24, 2021December 2, 2021 by Former Student

Image of Ava Max on a throne from the music video for her song “Kings and Queens”

The song “Kings and Queens” by Amanda Ava Koci, known better as Ava Max professionally, is a feminist song of empowerment. Max compares the positions of kings and queens and how they are differently perceived by society. She points out the inequalities and expectations of women compared to men. In addition, she sings that women are much more capable of things than men. Women can rule and lead others, control their emotions unlike many think as a result of stereotypes, and give birth. Women are strong and amazing and Max makes sure that this is known to the listener with her analogy containing royalty.

Continue reading →

Feminist Mixtape: “What A Girl Is”

Posted on November 24, 2021December 6, 2021 by Jo (they/them)

*Dove Cameron singing “What A Girl Is” in the episode “Rate-A-Rooney.”*

I had been trying to think of a song for the mixtape and suddenly this bop started playing in my head on repeat. I love Disney Channel shows but I know that Disney is highly problematic in its representation of women and marginalised people, so when Dove Cameron sang this bop back in 2015 I was very pleasantly surprised.

On the Disney Channel show “Liv & Maddie,” on the episode “Rate-A-Rooney,” a group of guys had been rating girls, giving them numbers on their appearances. Protagonist Dove Cameron sings “What A Girl Is” in response to their comments.

“On a scale from 1 to 10/I am perfect like I am/I don’t need your number”

This is Dove Cameron’s response to the rankings of the men. She expresses that she determines her beauty, that beauty is something internal and personal, not determined by others.

“And these stupid magazines/Want me to change my everything/They don’t even matter/They’re not taking my power”

Magazines nowadays feature and promote impossible beauty standards for women. Like Jean Kilbourne mentioned in her TED Talk “Killing Us Softly,” “the image of women in media is worse than ever” and puts unnecessary pressure on women to look thin and young. These lyrics convey that women’s diversity and uniqueness is their power and they shouldn’t try to conform to what magazines and the outside world deem ‘beautiful.’ These lyrics also reminded of a quote in Feminine Mystique: “When she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity she finally began to enjoy being a woman” (Friedan 279) which is similar in mindset since Dove Cameron is singing about not conforming to the standards for femininity.

“I’ll show you what a girl is/’Cause all of me is perfect/Who cares about a dress size?/It’s all about what’s inside”

As Jen Baker said in her TED Talk “Complete and Total Body Love,” happiness is not a number on the scale or a size, it’s a state of mind where we say “I’m okay just the way I am.” This is exactly the message being passed on through the first few lines of the chorus.

While Disney has a long way to go regarding its diversity and inclusion in TV and films (with TV taking steps forward a tad faster than the films) this song of female empowerment and independence, even though it is sang by a white cishet actress, is certainly a step in the right direction.

“Little Miss S.” by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Former Student

This image may contain Cushion Pillow Furniture Human Person Couch Bed Room Living Room Indoors and Bedroom — Edie Sedgwick posing in *Vogue*.

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians is an alternative rock band that originated in the mid-1980s, broke up for a few years, and got back together in 1997. Since releasing their debut album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, the band has released four other albums, all highlighting the band’s eclectic personality and style that was not made as present in their first album and more popular songs.

One song on the album, “Little Miss S.,” chronicles the life of Edie Sedgwick, an actress/model who rose quickly to fame, but died young at 28 after overdosing on a mixture of barbiturates and alcohol. “In a blink of the public eye,” Sedgwick was seen as a feminine icon, dubbed as an “It Girl” at the time. She became known for multiple reasons, one of which being her popularization of the miniskirt, noted by the lyrics: “Little Miss S. in a mini dress” (Songfacts.com). She also became a muse for the artist Andy Warhol, who included her in many of his films but mainly helped her create a media presence for herself, specifically focusing on her avant-garde style. This outside judgment reflected on her private lifestyle, creating a misunderstanding between her public and private image. Her private life of “shooting up junk in the bathroom” and “swinging on the branch of a broken family tree” was drastically different from the role model facade she outwardly displayed.

In Luisa Capetillo’s A Nation of Women, she describes how women dedicate themselves entirely to their appearance, “squandering their intelligence in trying to become more beautiful” (Capetillo 8). She argues that in doing so, women are no longer themselves and are wasting time, money, and health by trying to live up to society’s expectations. She says that women should be “beautiful because of [their] strong constitution,” which is exactly what Sedgwick embraced (Capetillo 9). By living to create her own style in a way that was comfortable to her, she was admired by others, “living it up to die” rather than wasting away following the strict confines of daily life at the time.

The representation of Sedgwick in “Little Miss S., however, is a limited portrayal of femininity. While she is portrayed as a role model, changing the name of femininity in the 1960s, her story is ultimately influenced by pressures from society; forming relationships with famous men like Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan and coping by using copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, leading to her early death. Her social status as a celebrity allowed for her to be free in expressing herself in more controversial forms since that was the way she gained popularity. While she stood as a role model, her story is not representative of an entire generation of women, simply due to diversity in social classes, races, and sexualities.

Works Cited

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/edie-brickell-new-bohemians/little-miss-s
https://genius.com/Edie-brickell-and-new-bohemians-little-miss-s-lyrics
Luisa Capetillo, selections from A Nation of Women (1910s)

Feminist Mix-Tape: ‘Flawless’ by Beyoncé

Posted on November 22, 2021December 2, 2021 by Former Student

American singer Beyoncé has long been a leading icon in the feminist movement. She is often found uplifting women in her emphasis of inner beauty and self-worth through the messages of her songs. The song ‘Flawless’ featuring Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is no different –perhaps even more direct– as Beyoncé sings about female independence and autonomy in a society that is historically patriarchal.

The first verse of the song is a response to the criticism Beyoncé has received from other artists about her being the leader of female artists, as well as the discourse about her hiatus from music in 2010:

I know when you were little girls

You dreamt of being in my world

Don’t forget it, don’t forget it

Respect that, bow down, bitches

I took some time to live my life

But don’t think I’m just his little wife

Don’t get it twisted, get it twisted

This my shit, bow down, bitches

Beyoncé pushes back against the social norm that women rely on their husband for happiness. Her opposition is similar to Betty Friedan’s stance on second-wave feminism in her book “The Feminist Mystique”. Friedan emphasized the regression of the feminist movement after World War II in which women were convinced that their ultimate goal was to find a husband and start a family. Friedan simply argues that the notion of the ‘perfect housewife’ should be challenged, stating “the time is at hand when the voices of the feminist mystique can no longer drown out the inner voice that is driving women on to become complete” (Friedan 282). Beyoncé’s lyrics support this as she claims her success and fame independent of her hip-hop star husband.

The critic of marriage as a social norm continues in the bridge, which is a snippet of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TedTalk “We Should All Be Feminist” as she embarks on the consequences of normalizing the importance of marriage:

Because I am female

I am expected to aspire to marriage

I am expected to make my life choices

Always keeping in mind that

Marriage is the most important

Now marriage can be a source of

Joy and love and mutual support

But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage

And we don’t teach boys the same?

We raise girls to see each other as competitors

Not for jobs or for accomplishments

Which I think can be a good thing

But for the attention of men

We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings

In the way that boys are

The overall message of the song is a call to action for women to express their independence and freedom from social and cultural norms that oppress them into gender roles. Through showing appreciation of all of her possessions and multiple identities, Beyoncé claims that her life as a successful business woman and a happily married woman is ‘Flawless’.

One limitation of this song is its lack of discourse about Beyoncé’s struggle with being a black feminist figure. This course has taught us that the feminist movement has often times left out the thoughts and concerns of the Black women throughout history. Some feminists, like bell hooks, would argue that the power and authority that is used in Beyoncé’s lyrics paradoxically promotes the image of white women being powerless, when in reality they are the ones controlling the feminist narrative. By addressing the issues of racism in the feminist movement, Beyoncé would’ve tackled the overall issues of intersectionality of sexism and racism that all Black women face.

“Blk Girl Soldier” by Jamila Woods

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Former Student

Few artists are able to capture the strength, beauty, and struggle of being a Black woman in America as well as Jamila Woods does on her track “Blk Girl Soldier”. Woods, a Chicago-based singer/songwriter, released “Blk Girl Soldier” as the 9^th track on her debut studio album HEAVN, a project with themes ranging from loss and police brutality to black womanhood and beauty. While HEAVN (2017) predates the emphatic resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement following the 2020 murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, many of its themes are still, if not even more, applicable today than during HEAVN’s initial release. “Blk Girl Soldier” focuses specifically on the strength and beauty of being a Black woman while acknowledging the historical struggles they have faced in America.

In just the first forty-five seconds, Jamila Woods provides a basic framework for the understanding of her song. She sings,

“See she’s telepathic

Call it black girl magic

Yeah scares the government

Déjà vu of Tubman

We go missing by the hundreds

Ain’t nobody checking for us

The camera loves us, Oscar doesn’t

Ain’t nobody checking for us

They want us in the kitchens

Kill our sons with lynching’s

We get loud about it

Oh, now we’re the bitches” (Woods, lines 1-14)

With proud declarations of being “telepathic” and possessing a “black girl magic” that “scares the government”, it is clear that Woods celebrates being a Black woman. However, the depiction of conflict and struggle is not far behind, with Woods quickly identifying the hypocrisy and bigotry of larger society. In 10 swift lines, Woods touches on contemporary discrimination towards Black women in the entertainment industry (Woods, line 8) and historically racist views of Black women as servants (Woods, line 11), all while attacking the heartless and dismissive nature of a society where “Ain’t nobody checking for us” (Woods, lines 6-10).

With her focus on the experience and liberation of Black women, Jamila Woods is undoubtedly womanist. Looking back to Alice Walker’s original definition of womanist in In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, Woods definitely fits the bill of a “feminist of color” with “courageous…willful behavior” who is “responsible”, “in charge”, and, most of all, “serious.” (Walker). In addition, I believe “Blk Girl Magic” is great representation of second-wave feminism, especially in regard to the ideas of bell hooks. In Black Women Shaping Feminist Theory, hooks writes “There is much evidence substantiating the reality that race and class identity create differences in quality of life, social status, and lifestyle that take precedence over the common experience women share” (hooks, 4). Woods echoes these beliefs by directly focusing the song on Black women as opposed to women in general, a more general idea that fails to address these significant “differences” that bell hooks mentions.

Finally, I’d like to address the role of “Blk Girl Magic” as a sort of “fight song” empowering Black women to persevere in the struggle against oppression. Beyond “scaring the government”, Jamila Woods also writes Black women as “freedom fighters” that don’t and won’t “give up” (Woods, lines 40-60). Woods namedrops multiple iconic civil rights activists like Rosa Parks and Sojourner Truth, as well as famous Black feminists such as Angela Davis and Audre Lorde, both of which we read in class as well. Overall, “Blk Girl Soldier” is a testament to the complex reality of Black women, especially in America. Jamila Woods touches on Black women’s strength, and beauty, and struggles, all while reminding us that “she don’t give up.”

“Man’s World” by MARINA

Posted on November 21, 2021November 21, 2021 by Former Student

“Man’s World” by MARINA

MARINA, previously known as Marina and the Diamonds, is an Indie/electro pop musician who is no stranger to female empowerment in her music and on social media. She recently dropped a new album Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land which spreads the important message of ecofeminism and the downfalls of a capitalist society. The most popular song on the track is “Man’s World.” “Man’s World” is an anthem of feminist power and resilience. This song not only recalls specific historical moments where women have been oppressed and mistreated, but also indicates discrimination and violence that LGBTQ+ individuals have faced. She references the Salem Witch trials in the lyrics:

“Burnt me at the stake, you thought I was a witch
Centuries ago, now you just call me a bitch”(MARINA, lines 5-6)

These lyrics are based on the incident where violence against women occurred due to society’s view of “abnormal” activity of girls and women during the Witch trials. Expectations of what a “women” should be and act like are still prevalent today and it causes those who don’t fall into those categories to be treated as outcast. It also points out how women used to be called “witches” to the more recent derogatory use of the word “bitch.” While also recalling the controversy regarding The Beverly Hills Hotel that Marilyn Monroe is linked to, MARINA’s lyrics state:

“Marilyn’s bungalow, it’s number seven
In the pink palace where men made her legend
Owned by a sheik who killed thousands of gay men
I guess that’s why he bought the campest hotel in LA then”(MARINA, lines 12-15)

This references the controversial event where the recent stakeholder of the Beverly Hills Hotel passed a law in the South China Sea, where he made queer sex and adultery punishable by stoning. These violent anti-gay policies caused a boycott of the Beverly Hills Hotel by many celebrities.

“Man’s World” hints at a theme explored in Contesting Cultures, where Uma Narayan states, “Women’s inequality and mistreatment are, unfortunately, ubiquitous features of many “Western” and “non-Western” cultural contexts (Narayan 401).” In cultures all over the world, women are mistreated and oppressed against. Violence towards women is everywhere even though the specific situations differ. This brings the question of intersectionality into the mix. While “Man’s World” doesn’t cover the topic of intersectionality, it’s important to note that through class, gender, race, and sexuality, women can be more susceptible to different levels of violence in their day-to-day experiences. Lorber writes, “Within many social groups, however, men are advantaged over women. The more economic resources, such as education and job opportunities, are available to a group, the more they tend to be monopolized by men (Lorber 61).” This goes hand in hand with the line “So don’t punish me for not being a man”(MARINA, line 23). From birth, our assigned gender places expectations on the life we are supposed to live and unfairly places cis-gender men at the top of the social structure.

While “Man’s World” comes from more of a Westernized approach to feminism, it’s still a solid start to educating listeners about violence and oppressions towards women and LGBTQ+ indiviudals. “I don’t wanna live in a man’s world anymore” (MARINA line 9) illustrates the strength and resilience women have demonstrated for centuries.

Works Cited

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obxFWNeGDOg

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/opinion/sunday/the-sultan-and-the-salad.html

Feminist Mix-tape: The Man by Taylor Swift

Posted on November 20, 2021 by Former Student

Taylor Swift portrayed as a man in the music video.

Taylor Swift dominates the music industry in 2021, but it was not easy to get to the top when she was fighting misogyny for her whole career. In February of 2019, Swift released her hit song “The Man” confronting sexism in the music industry, and declaring that if she was a man, she’d be the man. Her lyrics compare her achievements and life as an artist to the same of a man, and how society interprets both very differently. Men are far more respected in the music industry, and women who make it to the same place as men are often portrayed as “lucky”. Some lyrics that struck me the most include these two:

“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can
Wondering if I’d get there quicker
If I was a man (Swift, lines 11-12)”

and similarly,

“They’d say I hustled
Put in the work
They wouldn’t shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve (Swift, lines 19-21)”

These ideas date back to the first wave of feminism. This reminded me of when our class read “Declarations of Sentiments and Resolutions” from the Women’s Rights Convention held at Seneca Falls in July of 1848. This document argues that women are oppressed by the government and the patriarchal society of which they are a part. One quote that emphasizes the ideas that are present in Swift’s song is, “That woman is man’s equal—was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such,” (Stanton 1). Women were first fighting for suffrage against the existing notion that they should not have careers outside of the household, but instead their only duty was to tend to the home and take care of children. This was a time of expanding the women’s role to the outside world and creating new opportunities. They were regarded as incapable and had to fight exponentially harder to just obtain a similar place in society among men. Unfortunately, I think that this is still a present idea that is attributed when women outrank men. It is almost seen as intrusive when a woman holds a lot of power, as if she is not welcomed to have such a high status. Society resorts to wondering how she got there or if she had connections, instead of recognizing her hard work and drive. Women in this position are also called bossy and bitchy, instead of being viewed a strong leader like men.

One limitation of how this song represents feminism is that Swift herself is a wealthy, white female who through hard work was able to make it to the top. I think this view is not inclusive with the intersectionality of different races, disabilities, etc. that other female artists have to face. Swift did not have these added obstacles to work past on her journey to success. Overall, this song, accompanied by its music video, is a way to expose the sexism within the music industry and how women need to work harder for the same results and recognition that men receive.

Music video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqAJLh9wuZ0

Citation:

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902. Address of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Delivered at Seneca Falls & Rochester, N.Y., July 19th & August 2d, 1848. New York :R.J. Johnston, 1870.

Swift, Taylor. “The Man.” Lover, Republic Records. accessed November 9, 2021.

Miley Cyrus: “Mother’s Daughter”

Posted on November 18, 2021November 19, 2021 by Former Student

Miley Cyrus [@mileycyrus]. *Instagram*, 4 June 2019, https://www.instagram.com/p/ByStizPJcO6/.

Miley Cyrus is no stranger to controversy. Her 2019 song “Mother’s Daughter”, its music video, and her partnership with Planned Parenthood continue this legacy of getting her fans -and critics- talking. In these mediums she advocates for choice and bodily autonomy, while simultaneously reclaiming misogynistic epithets and portraying diverse resistance against patriarchal control.

The song opens with Miley praising that she is a “freak” and that she is in control: “Oh my gosh, she got the power, oh look at her, she got the power”. Later describing herself as “nasty” (almost certainly a reference to Trump’s comments about Hillary Clinton), “evil”, and “a witch”, Miley affirms that she is defining her own power, employing language that typically is used to demonize women. In the chorus of the song, Miley attributes her fierceness to “something in the water or that [she’s her] mother’s daughter” (Cyrus).

Continue reading →