Posted by Lyssalicious on 2005-04-11 17:13:18
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I didn't read the whole thing because I'm lazy, but I read part of Feminist Theory: From the Margin to the Center, and I really liked what I read of it.
Posted by melonade83 on 2007-09-08 23:25:43
Post Subject: Not exactly feminist theory, but...
I know this thread is supposed to be about feminist theory, but this weekend I discovered \"The Paper Bag Princess,\" by Robert Munsch. I think hospitals should send it home with every new mother to read to her child. :-)
Posted by Fonzarella on 2007-02-06 08:50:09
Post Subject: Readable Feminist Theory
hi all,
i know some of you gals are very knowledgeable about the topic of feminism and feminist theory. i am really interested in getting a general understanding of the developments of feminist thinking over the past 50 years (i don't really care about the latest idea, i need to get a historical perspective). is there any book out there that is readable by non experts?
many thanks for any suggestions you may have.
p.
Posted by jean on 2005-01-07 13:40:29
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i graduated from ucla in 1993 with a degree in women's studies. although the program had its limitations, mainly it didn't feel like much of a department, i think it taught me alot and it gave me some freedom to sutdy interdisciplinarily.
it's funny to me that people are so controlling of what other folks study. when i used to tell people i was a women's studies major, they would often make disparaging remarks similar to what soapandwater is experiencing. but i wasn't asing them to study feminist theory. college should be a time of intellectual engagement. i found so many authors who really inspired me from my women's studies days: bell hooks, sandra harding, the woman who wrote cyborg manifesto (what's her name?) and others. although i felt the department was sometimes quite conservative (to be a feminist you had to believe, talk and dress in a certain way), also found certain professors and the ideas we studying to be quite liberating.
what are other people's experiences of the actual classes they are taking in the women's studies department?
Posted by xuli on 2005-01-09 14:38:16
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And I'm interested in hearing what you think about this -- what does being a woman mean? Does it mean anything?
I just wanted to chime in and say I've been following this thread avidly and haven't responded yet because I've been trying to think of how to say everything I want to say, and it's just really daunting.
The feminism threads are the most difficult ones for me to respond to, always, because feminism is so very important to me (so very, very important) that talking about it -- especially in a format like this -- can sometimes seem overwhelming.
But in response to that question, I wanted to mention something that was a pivotal moment for me in a graduate course I took on feminist theory last fall. We were discussing the (now-canonized) difference that feminists emphasize between sex (ie, the biological characteristics that distinguish men from women) and gender (the social and cultural ways that those biological differences are interpreted, so that women are thought to be "this way" and men are thought to be "that way"). We then discussed the fact that a lot of feminist theory has focused on the fact that there will always be sex (ie, penises and vaginas, etc), but that we can get rid of gender (ie, the fact that it means certain things in a culture to be a man versus being a woman).
And then my professor asked, "Do you all want to get rid of gender? Because I don't know if I do." And I suddenly realized that I really don't know either. There is so much about myself that I love that is intimately tied to the way I've been gendered in this world, the way that my identity is inextricably linked to some form of the way I've interpreted being a "woman," and I really don't know how getting rid of that would impact my identity and my way of being in the world. More importantly, I don't know if getting rid of gender entirely would even lead to a more socially-just world.
Certainly, I want to get rid of the power differences that are attached to being "men" or "women." Do we have to get rid of those categories in order to get rid of those power differences? I don't know. Do we want to get rid of those categories if we can get rid of the power differences without getting rid of the categories? I don't know.
Posted by xuli on 2006-04-24 11:03:02
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Honestly, I don't think I took any course that really -- really -- encouraged critical thinking until I took this feminist theory class my second year in graduate school. That professor was amazing ... the first professor I ever had who really pushed us to think things through. She was also great at detecting when students were just saying things to agree with her perspective (which she wasn't shy about expressing) and pushing us to think instead of just knee-jerk agreeing with her.
Posted by amygdala on 2005-01-28 15:17:00
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I don't really consider this "feminist" per se, as it isn't feminist theory or anything, but I am always happy to put in a plug for Natalie Angier's "Woman: an Intimate Geography" as I consider knowledge of one's body and its workings to be extremely empowering.
Posted by sallysunshine on 2005-03-15 10:17:44
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Heh. My advisor claims that when she was in grad school in the early 80s, there was no need for methodology or theory classes, because all you had to do was read E.P. Thompson and you were good to go. I have a copy, and I read chunks of it as an undergrad, but I don't think I've ever read the whole thing straight through.
I consider myself a total feminist, but I have read very little feminist theory. Like, shockingly little. I've read lots of feminist history and feminist policy analysis and feminist stuff, but very little theory.
Posted by brdgt on 2005-03-15 17:21:58
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Heh. My advisor claims that when she was in grad school in the early 80s, there was no need for methodology or theory classes, because all you had to do was read E.P. Thompson and you were good to go. I have a copy, and I read chunks of it as an undergrad, but I don't think I've ever read the whole thing straight through.
I consider myself a total feminist, but I have read very little feminist theory. Like, shockingly little. I've read lots of feminist history and feminist policy analysis and feminist stuff, but very little theory.
Yeah, I felt like I had to read Thompson, Gramsci and Gutman back then (the department was obviously very labor history centered).
On your other point I can not bring myself to read Donna Harraway. The few things I've read by her make my ears bleed.
Posted by Stegosaurus on 2005-09-23 16:47:26
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Oh, anger. That couldn't have been calmer, could it? Do you explode EVERY time your personal view is challenged? Are you doing anything to promote feminism BESIDES sitting around and reading feminist theory and engaging in thoughtful discussion? Have you ever abandoned your pride to make the problem part of the solution? The fear of changing the name because it might opress you it what makes it oppressive.
But that's just one girl's opinion. Hardly anything to indulge in a waahmburger and fries over.
Posted by soapandwater on 2005-09-23 16:29:22
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I hate to sound like a bitch here, but I don't just sit around reading feminist theory and engaging in thoughtful discussion on these matters to be told, "Don't kid yourself..."
Excuse me. EXCUSE ME? Please. I can shake up the patriarchy any damn well I please. And not you or you or you or you can do much of anything about it. If I hurt my partner's feelings, then, waaaah, somebody call a waahmbulance, the patriarchy didn't get to take my name.
Posted by Anonymous on 2005-09-23 17:13:39
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"If it's important to your partner, change it...."
What about what is important to me ? Why should it be important to my partner that I take his name, why does he feel that way ? Why does nobody expect a man to take his wife's name ?
In the UK a woman can change her name to her husband's on production of the marriage certificate. If a man wants to change his, he has to do it by deed poll. If the couple wishes to hypenate/double barrel the name, they have to do it by deed poll. Everything is set up for the wife to change her name, not anything else.
That's a hypothetical, my partner and I don't plan to get married and he's always thought that women being expected to change their name is unreasonable.
I'm not going to list my feminist credentials here, but I do think that a firm understanding of feminist theory, history and the influence of the patriachy on all apsects of women's lives is important, especially as an activist. I'm of the belief that it is silly to try and change something without understanding it first. You can't overthrow the patriachy without knowing what it looks like.
What's in a name ? Depends if you're a published author/academic/doctor/teacher/etc. It's no longer "just a name", it's got a whole lot more attached to it.
My name ties me to my heritage, to my family's crazy fucked up history and I do feel that changing my name would remove me from that. I don't love my partner any less for not having the same surname, anybody that questions that must have some really screwed up ideas about what constitues love.
