Why Feminism (part 1)

This is a simple introduction to Feminism a la Morgan.

"To be a feminist is to answer the question 'are women human?' with a 'yes.'"– Katha  Pollit

In undergrad, I wrote a wiki post titled “The Connotation of a ‘Feminist’.” In it I described what I knew of what people tended to think when they heard the word “feminist” or “feminism,” what I thought was an inclusive definition of the term, and why I thought the movement was necessary. My essay included statements like:

“Globally, women are treated as though they are less worthy than men.”

“Not only are people discouraged from identifying with feminists, but they also mentally check-out when they hear the term.”

“If all the women and men who believed that women should not be abused, taken for granted, or devalued could see the similarities between themselves and feminists, then feminists would have more credibility and thus a larger, more cooperative audience. The fight against the evils that disadvantage women globally would be much stronger.”

and

“When I learned…the spectrum of issues that feminists were really fighting against, I was no longer afraid to be a ‘feminist.’”  

The backlash from my classmates was incredible. I remember wondering if I was really in a Liberal Arts class or had momentarily been transported to a College Republicans meeting (not to take a swipe at republicans but the vast majority of the ones I know are not too fond of feminists). The only person who defended my ideas was my professor. Take a peek at our email correspondence following the ordeal.

On Mon Aug 04 17:44:12 EDT 2008, "SERVICE,MORGAN S" <morgan16@ufl.edu> wrote:

Yay for cancelling the fourth wiki! And thanks for trying to get my group to see something good in my wiki post. lol. Can’t wait for tomorrow: /.

Morgan,

You're welcome. More importantly, don't worry too much about criticisms of your post. In fact, I applaud you for writing about a difficult, complex subject with such passion and dedication. Keep pressing this message!

Best,
JR

Clearly, I appreciated his encouragement to have held on to this email for years. I think about it often. (And clearly I had no qualms about ignoring proper grammar and punctuation in an email to my Advanced Exposition professor. womp)

Sadly I don’t think much has changed in the perception of feminism since then. People who are outside of it still think of the movement as one of angry women who hate men but want a man’s power, and as one of women who are mainly concerned with being pro-abortion and pro- gay marriage. Sure that description fits some feminists (though I know none whom it fits fully)  but feminism is much deeper, much more intricate, and much less cohesive than that. Divides exist in  the movement and everyone has a different issue (or a different combination of issues) that most concerns them—sexuality, race, class, the environment, equal pay, violence against women, religion, reproduction, government systems, theology, law etc.

My introduction to Women’s Studies and feminism was jarring and my initial concerns were very personal. Things that had before kind-of gnawed at my subconscious were all of a sudden thrown in my face with a big “THIS IS NOT RIGHT” label. Things like women being demeaned as sexual objects through the unnecessary exposure of their bodies (and why I felt compelled to show off my body for attention), things like society’s tendency to blame rape on the victim’s lack of caution rather than on the perpetrator’s malevolent intention (and why I  was in constant fear of sexual abuse and felt the onus was solely on me to protect myself from rape), things like society’s skewed beauty standards and a woman’s worth too often being dependent on how physically appealing that same society judged her to be (and why I constantly measured myself against other women, felt most valuable when men complimented me, and felt like my hair should be straighter and my skin lighter).

I finally saw that these issues weren’t just random unfortunate circumstances but rather symptoms of a major societal illness—misogyny.  And feminism wanted to deal with it. Never before had I been in an academic setting that wanted to do that, that even talked about these problems. This awareness came at a time when I was particularly dealing with loving myself as the woman God made me. I realized that I could not do this well without fighting against the woman society said I should be. My faith led me to think about this “illness” in the light of God’s intentions and I could only come to the conclusion that he, like the feminists I was learning about, was displeased. In fact, I could not find a deep enough or more legitimate reason to object to the mistreatment of women than to know that God created women in his image and thus anything that demeaned, hurt, or lessened them could not be right.

So began the Feminism-Christian tag team— in a wonderful organization called Intervarsity Christian Fellowship I was beginning to be affirmed in the value of being a woman apart from what I had to offer a man, and in the value of being a woman whose ethnicity was part of her beauty rather than something that subtracted from it. In my women’s studies courses I was beginning to learn that people existed who wanted to address how I was negatively affected in society not just as a woman, but as a black woman—someone who because of my intersecting identities received daily messages, both blatant and subtle, that I wasn’t good enough or had to change to be acceptable.

Essentially the two combined to begin to answer questions I hadn’t even known I was asking. Was it ok for me to just be me?  Was I fine the way I was created? Did I have worth simply because I existed? Feminism said “yes!”  Christianity said “yes!” and I felt hope.

That was the beginning.

 “These may be termed Utopian dreams. Thanks to that Being who impressed them on my soul, and gave me sufficient strength of mind to dare to exert my own reason, till, becoming dependent only on Him for the support of my virtue, I view, with indignation, the mistaken notions that enslave my sex."

-Mary Wollstonecraft

I concur.