Let's stick together like peanutbutter and jelly (unless you're allergic to or don't like peanubutter, and then we can use almond butter ?)
Yo, so here we go, do girls need feminism?
I'm going to talk about the U.S.
I think it's obvious that girls get pushed around, judged by their looks, sexually assaulted, taught to fear men, taught to fear authorities, used for the pocket change they have to spend at Hollister and Hannah Montana conerts...The debate over whether girls "have it all" or not is ridiculous: white girls with money don't have the same power in our society that white men, women, or boys do. And a person who says to working class girl of color that *if she works really hard*, she can be Donald Trump with all his power, deserves serious dismissal.
And of course here in the U.S. we're sold a storyline our whole lives that boys and girls are equal, just different. So when we notice that we have a lot more pressure to look right and act right, instead of having the tools to get together as girls do something about the way we're treated, we consider it just a normal part of being a girl.
I thought about what Young Femininity says on the topic of telling girls to fix their own problems, alone, (I think usually through good grades, looking good, and making money). "Budgeon suggests that young women perceive gender inequalities in social relations, and name them as such. However, because of a new emphasis on individualization and personal choice that pervades late modern societies, their solutions to these structural problems tends to be individual rather than collective" (196).
It made me ponder, where do we see girls getting together and demanding change? Social movements of girls? Who are their targets? What would the demands be?
I had a super nice, comfortable growing up experience but on the stuff that did make me angry I'm not sure how we could have addressed the problems collectively. I dealt with body image and appearance issues a lot, of course, and with feeling objectified by/being in love with men teachers. Also, I had a lot of stress around making stellar grades and balancing extracurriculars with being a good, caring, nurturing friend and family member. Okay I'm going to brainstorm collective action campaigns that we girls could have launched...more on this later.
Is the feminism the answer? I am a feminist, and feminism is the tool that I use to look at power imbalances in the world. I think feminists as an international movement are committed to identifying inequality and bullying/domination of all forms and struggling to replace it with communication, understanding, and the sharing of resources.
Not everyone views feminism this way though. The quote from Green on disabilities is challenging to us able-bodied feminists:
"the movement has come far in acknowledging the diversity of women with respect to ethnicity, sexual preference, and economic status. But where the movement still fails miserably is in disability. Women with disabilities are grossly concentrated in the margins. We are women, yet our histories are ignored" (197).
If feminism has ignored women and girls with disabilities, why should they reclaim it and expand it as their own? Maybe their analysis of power and privelege and justice will be centered around anti-ableism. Maybe girls who have been excluded from an "adult" feminist movement need girlism, not feminism. I think that if feminism is adaptable to any oppressed group, or else it's not being true to its principles. I guess my response is that yes, girls need the tools to make lasting improvements in their lives, and that yes it needs to change society, and that yes that takes people working together because when we don't have power, we need numbers and stick-together-ness. So yes, everyone needs feminism. [And I know what other people need, dammit! ; )] But if folks want don't want to be ""feminists"", whatever, you know?
Girls doing feminism:
Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) is a youth led organization in 6 underfunded highschools in Philly that demands a high quality education in their public schools and focuses on building student power and organizing skills for social change. Racism, the gross inequalities in distribution of resources, and the increasing presence of private businesses making money in public schools are central in their analysis. I met two activists from PSU, Zakia and Eric, this weekend at a Student/Farmworker Alliance conference. PSU is building a seriously powerful high school movement in their area. While I haven't seen any place where Philadelphia Student Union uses the word feminism as part of their analysis, I think the girls who participate are doing feminism in the sense that they are taking collective action to resist being used as "products" in the privatization of schools, in the words of PSU activist Zakia. Also, the students use organizing tactics that are characteristics of feminist organizing, including consensus decision-making, DIY (doityourself) media, and demanding to confront authorities by speaking for themselves.
I didn't find anywhere on their page where gender inequality is used as part of their analysis, and I saw that the group's "sex" on myspace is male. The areas I noticed where they do pay attention to gender are staffing and gender based meetings. One half of their adult staff is made up of women, and there are weekly meetings of Bros and Soul Sistas. "Soul Sistas is the young women’s empowerment group of the Philadelphia Student Union. It meets every other week and is open to all female-identified members. It is a space where young women can talk honestly about what is going on in their lives and receive support from trained mentors and health educators who are former members of PSU." The description for the Bros group is the same, but insert "male-identified members."
http://home.phillystudentunion.org/
http://www.myspace.com/psu4u
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6474669972#/group.php?gid=6474669972
I'm going to talk about the U.S.
I think it's obvious that girls get pushed around, judged by their looks, sexually assaulted, taught to fear men, taught to fear authorities, used for the pocket change they have to spend at Hollister and Hannah Montana conerts...The debate over whether girls "have it all" or not is ridiculous: white girls with money don't have the same power in our society that white men, women, or boys do. And a person who says to working class girl of color that *if she works really hard*, she can be Donald Trump with all his power, deserves serious dismissal.
And of course here in the U.S. we're sold a storyline our whole lives that boys and girls are equal, just different. So when we notice that we have a lot more pressure to look right and act right, instead of having the tools to get together as girls do something about the way we're treated, we consider it just a normal part of being a girl.
I thought about what Young Femininity says on the topic of telling girls to fix their own problems, alone, (I think usually through good grades, looking good, and making money). "Budgeon suggests that young women perceive gender inequalities in social relations, and name them as such. However, because of a new emphasis on individualization and personal choice that pervades late modern societies, their solutions to these structural problems tends to be individual rather than collective" (196).
It made me ponder, where do we see girls getting together and demanding change? Social movements of girls? Who are their targets? What would the demands be?
I had a super nice, comfortable growing up experience but on the stuff that did make me angry I'm not sure how we could have addressed the problems collectively. I dealt with body image and appearance issues a lot, of course, and with feeling objectified by/being in love with men teachers. Also, I had a lot of stress around making stellar grades and balancing extracurriculars with being a good, caring, nurturing friend and family member. Okay I'm going to brainstorm collective action campaigns that we girls could have launched...more on this later.
Is the feminism the answer? I am a feminist, and feminism is the tool that I use to look at power imbalances in the world. I think feminists as an international movement are committed to identifying inequality and bullying/domination of all forms and struggling to replace it with communication, understanding, and the sharing of resources.
Not everyone views feminism this way though. The quote from Green on disabilities is challenging to us able-bodied feminists:
"the movement has come far in acknowledging the diversity of women with respect to ethnicity, sexual preference, and economic status. But where the movement still fails miserably is in disability. Women with disabilities are grossly concentrated in the margins. We are women, yet our histories are ignored" (197).
If feminism has ignored women and girls with disabilities, why should they reclaim it and expand it as their own? Maybe their analysis of power and privelege and justice will be centered around anti-ableism. Maybe girls who have been excluded from an "adult" feminist movement need girlism, not feminism. I think that if feminism is adaptable to any oppressed group, or else it's not being true to its principles. I guess my response is that yes, girls need the tools to make lasting improvements in their lives, and that yes it needs to change society, and that yes that takes people working together because when we don't have power, we need numbers and stick-together-ness. So yes, everyone needs feminism. [And I know what other people need, dammit! ; )] But if folks want don't want to be ""feminists"", whatever, you know?
Girls doing feminism:
Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) is a youth led organization in 6 underfunded highschools in Philly that demands a high quality education in their public schools and focuses on building student power and organizing skills for social change. Racism, the gross inequalities in distribution of resources, and the increasing presence of private businesses making money in public schools are central in their analysis. I met two activists from PSU, Zakia and Eric, this weekend at a Student/Farmworker Alliance conference. PSU is building a seriously powerful high school movement in their area. While I haven't seen any place where Philadelphia Student Union uses the word feminism as part of their analysis, I think the girls who participate are doing feminism in the sense that they are taking collective action to resist being used as "products" in the privatization of schools, in the words of PSU activist Zakia. Also, the students use organizing tactics that are characteristics of feminist organizing, including consensus decision-making, DIY (doityourself) media, and demanding to confront authorities by speaking for themselves.
I didn't find anywhere on their page where gender inequality is used as part of their analysis, and I saw that the group's "sex" on myspace is male. The areas I noticed where they do pay attention to gender are staffing and gender based meetings. One half of their adult staff is made up of women, and there are weekly meetings of Bros and Soul Sistas. "Soul Sistas is the young women’s empowerment group of the Philadelphia Student Union. It meets every other week and is open to all female-identified members. It is a space where young women can talk honestly about what is going on in their lives and receive support from trained mentors and health educators who are former members of PSU." The description for the Bros group is the same, but insert "male-identified members."
http://home.phillystudentunion.org/
http://www.myspace.com/psu4u
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6474669972#/group.php?gid=6474669972
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