Wednesday, April 22, 2009

i'll take the small feminist, with a side of bitter, maybe a dash of lesbian?

how do you turn your dishwasher into a snowplow?

smack her on the butt and hand her a shovel.







i never understood why she had to be smacked on the butt. male domination, i guess. i enjoy sexist jokes just as much as the next mysoganist or maybe as much as the next reasonably humorous human being. no really, that's not sarcasm.

i may have made a mistake by taking a women in literature and culture class this semester. the whole two hours of the first day of class were basically a definition of feminism. what is it? how is it different from femininity? what does it mean to be a feminist? so everyone is calling out answers like "empowerment" and "equality" and "women's rights!". i raised my hand and said "how about bitter, angry, possibly lesbian?" hoping someone would back me up. nope. hahaha.
i'm just really over the whole abortion speech, the talks about women's rights, the "let us out of the kitchen" plea. yes, plea.

my teacher made comments throughout the class about how some people think that feminists are angry, cynical lesbians because the media portrays them that way. she hoped that some people's opinions could be changed after taking this class.

so i started the reading assignment for tomorrow's class and was pleasantly surprised. the women and in some cases, men, were making a good case for women's rights without sounding bitter and angry. then the prompt for the response, "what are the complexities of being a woman in society today?" really made me think about it. i'm a lucky one. yeah, i was born the wrong gender, but hey i'm middle class, white, american christian. i don't have to wear robes over my entire body. education is available in full. i'll never deal with castration or genital mutilation like my sistas in the motherland. but i started thinking, really thinking, about what it means to be a woman in society today.

it seems like the theme for my spring experience is learning to love and respect myself. i have some really good examples who are helping me change my preconceived notions (erika and alyssa) and this class might just be another blessing in disguise. who knows?

2 comments:

  1. very very interesting topic.

    I have to admit I have no idea feminists are angry.
    hmm. very deep.

    you're not born the wrong gender. definitely not.
    omg, collette if you were a boy?! I would be a turtle stuck dead in the backyard.

    the reason why I tend to tell stories and not go anything big like yours here explaining a concept. is that I'm never good at forming a well stated idea. things are always missing. that is, I get distracted by myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. apples to apples =)

    maybe a dash of lesbian? bahaha

    ReplyDelete

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