For today we read:
• hooks, pp. 44-84| 44 | |
neocolonialism, female circumcision, decolonized | |
| 48 | |
White supremacist, male domination, masses of women | |
| 55 | |
white supremacy, racially segregated, anti-racist | |
ENDING VIOLENCE | 61 |
domestic violence, violence against women, patriarchal violence | |
| 67 | |
men's movement, White supremacist, movements for social | |
FEMINIST PARENTING | 72 |
anti-sexist, sexual abuse, violence against children | |
| 78 | |
marriage, heterosexual, sexual slavery | |
• Seely, Ch. 4 & 5| 93 | |
Title IX, feminist, Wal-Mart | |
| 122 | |
eating disorders, Jean Kilbourne, Sweatshop Watch |
Some quotations from the reading:
Seely, pp. 122, 124: "For years I struggled with an eating disorder, bulimia, that consists of a cycle of binging and purging. I was bulimic for much of my activist life.... I worried about writing this in a book about third-wave feminism.... The fact that feminist women have eating disorders is evidence of the strength of a culture that continues to send the message to women that as we are is not good enough. The culture is what needs to change, not women and not feminism."The Gibson Girl
The Flapper
Rosie the Riveter
Marilyn Monroe
Twiggie
Oprah Winfrey
hooks, p. 31: "Women stripping their bodies of unhealthy and uncomfortable, restrictive clothing -- bras, girdles, corsets, garter belts, etc. -- was a ritualistic, radical reclaiming of the health and glory of the female body. Females today who have never known such restrictions can only trust us when we say that this reclaiming was momentous."
Seely quotes Steele, p. 125: "'...the corset did not so much disappear as become internalized through diet, exercise, and [more recently] plastic surgery."
hooks, pp. 46-7: "A decolonized feminist perspective would first and foremost examine how sexist practices in relation to women's bodies globally are linked. For example: linking [female] circumcision with life-threatening eating disorders (which are the direct consequence of a culture imposing thinness as a beauty ideal) or any life-threatening cosmetic surgery would emphasize that the sexism, the misogyny, underlying these practices globally mirror the sexism here in this country."
Seely, p. 124: "...I realized there is a correlation between the social and political power we hold as women and the projection of an ideal body size fed to us through popular culture. This emphasis is so intense that it can, and does, detract from our quest for political, economic and social representation."
Seely, p. 94: "I never feel alone at the polls. In fact, my booth always feels so crowded, packed with the ghosts of the suffragists who fought for me to stand there, and heavy with the thought of future generations that my vote will impact."
3 min - Dec 2, 2006 -
"Enjoy Please Comment too...WomenRights Rights Women Female Suffrage Sad Vote Power"
hooks, p. 58: "Critical interventions around race did not destroy the women's movement; it became stronger. Breaking through denial about race helped women face the reality of difference at all levels.... The fact that participants in the feminist movement could face critique and chellenge while still remaining wholeheartedly committed to a vision of justice, of liberation, is a testament to the movement's strength and power. It shows us that no matter how misguided feminist thinkers have been in the past, the will to change, the will to create the context for struggle and liberation, remains stronger than the need to hold on to wrong beliefs and assumptions."
Seely, p. 139: "...what we must remember is that both governments and corporations are made up of, and rely upon, people. Their greatest success is not their money, or their prestige and recognition. Their greatest success is their ability to convince people that they exist in a vacuum and that their power lies within their structure and not with people."
From Personal to Political, layers of analysis in Seely, Chap. 5: Good Enough
• "For years I struggled...." -- "isolated by this secret."
• "reluctantly went to a group session..." -- "note that I was not alone."
• "Between 4 and 20 percent of college-age women are estimated...."
•"I realized there is a correlation between the social and political power we hold as women and the projection of an ideal body size fed to us through popular culture."
• history of female cultural icons in a politics of beauty
• family, friends, school, media and advertising
• individual ads and socio-economic uses of branding
• diets, diet pills, thinness & health, young girls' media socialization
• "those under 18 years of age made up 3 percent of the nearly two million American who had plastic surgery."
• Media showcasing of plastic surgery: Extreme Make-over
• "Rather than blaming ourselves and putting our bodies under the knife, I suggest we look at the larger institutional question of how American culture promotes and reinforces an unhealthy lifestyle."
• globalized fashion, women's labor, sweatshops: "How much profit is enough?"
• wealthy nations, host countries: environmental and labor protections
• livable wages: "the minimum wage is not a livable one."
• Sweatshop Watch: "If we could create a movement where it is 'cool' to be socially and globally aware.'"
• "human price tag" -- "we want to buy products that are the result of fair labor practices"
• boycott? or power to change corporate practices?
• Change the image: see New Moon Magazine for girls
In our next class we will think about such layers of analysis in terms of what sociologists consider the debate around structure and agency as we also return to notions of marked and unmarked categories and your projects for Assignment 3.
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