Feminism, A Definition (Post from May 15, 2006)

Originally Posted in Xanga- Sugar_katana

Today, I was taking to Maria about my paper, which is a literary analysis on By The Light of My Father's Smile, by Alice Walker. For all of you who aren't familiar with her work, She is a black, bisexual "womanist" (a feminist who is not only concerned with the 'white' issues, but also the issues of poor black women as well-or poor women in general of every race.)

I was talking about how my critical lense was a feminist lense, and a very obvious one at that, when Reema lent over, and told me "I'm sorry, but I just don't get the whole bra-burning thing."

I was just about to explain that to her, when I hiccuped and asked her "How did we get to this subject?"

She told me it was because I was talking about feminism. I made a face, but then explained it to her that the bra-burnings were symbolic of throwing of the restraints of a patriarchal society- they used bras, because bras are primarily designed by men, which is why it's so hard to find one that fits. Then I said it was all just a metaphor.

She said "I don't see why they would do that, because it would just give guys something to grin about."

I totally spaced that the bra-burners didn't even take off the bras they were wearing to burn- they brought extra ones. But I did say "Well, the burnings made people so scandalized, they started to think. If these people were scandalized or curious enough, they'd go and study feminism to see what the big deal was, they'd pay attention. The whole point was to get people to think."

Maria said "I still don't see why Bra-burnings are so important."

I told her "The Bra-burning weren't done by a majority of feminists, and being a feminist isn't about hating men, or burning bras. Being a feminist means being able to vote, choose weither you want to have a family, being able to own your property and keep your wages, to love who you wish, to control your own body, being able to be a church leader."

Maria said "Well, we have all that already."

"But it's more than that. If you believe that you deserve all those rights, deserve it from birth, that you shouldn't have to fight for it, then you are a feminist."

"Well, it's hard to understand these things. I didn't even hear about slavery before I came here. In my country, you didn't even hear about slavery. So when I came and heard about bra-burnings..."

"It's hard to take it serious, I know. But really, being feminist isn't a bad thing. It's more than all that. There are just alot of pre-and misconceptions about it."

And then we talked about her country, and stuff.

It's really disconcerting how many people think being a feminist is a bad thing. I remember my english teacher making a mini-fuss about writing "Ms. Lindsay" on our papers. I didn't know if she was married, or single, so "Ms." was a safe bet. You could be either with "Ms."

But she said "I took my husbands name, and I like being called 'Mrs.' I'm not a mean, hairy old feminist!"

I made a face and walked away at that. It's just so...

Lame!!

People are really ignorant.