Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Response to Readings _ BPhillips

            After reading the articles, Full Frontal Feminism and Women's Studies: Perspective and Practices, I have mixed reviews on the subject of feminism. Yes, I am a female and I want equality and rights for myself, as well as, others. However, in the back of my mind, there is a lingering thought of how hard it is being heard as a black female feminist. I want to be one hundred percent supportive, marching and fighting, but I cannot help but to constantly think of race. Even as I read these articles on feminism, and how they are saying every woman is equal. I know in my day to day life that that clearly is not the case. I did not want to be the one to pull out the race card, but how can we avoid it so easily. Full Frontal Feminism mentions that, “the part of the feminist movement most talked about, most written about, and most paid attention to is the rich-whitey part” (Valenti p. 7). Yes, women have gained so many rights and opportunities since the first and second wave of feminism, but there is still a huge gap in the representation and history of women of color in our modern day society. Even in class Monday, a student did not know the difference between who Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman were and more than half the class could not tell you what she did and what she was known for, but we mention Susan B. Anthony and everybody can give a five-page essay on why she is important to the modern day feminist.
            It is interesting to see Women’s Studies mention transnational feminism, sharing that it is the equality of women across national boundaries and the emancipation of women worldwide (Shaw and Lee p. 10). It’ll be interesting to see how that is integrated and woven into the rest of the course this semester. Below I attached a link from Facebook post I saw earlier that brings an interesting, yet  debatable perspective of transnational feminism, it highlights those women in the Middle East that are fighting for their lives literally for the chance to get equality, but also downplays the struggle of feminism in the United States.


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