Feminism

Feminism is for Everybody

Feminist lens: understanding feminist theory and intersectionality

Poll

Have you heard of feminism?

• Yes

• No

Sexism

• prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.

•  It has been linked to stereotypes and gender roles, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is intrinsically superior to another.

"Sexism is dead, stop complaining"

• Women are 47% more likely to suffer severe injuries in car crashes because safety features are designed for men.

• 33,000 girls become child brides every day.

• Women in rural parts of Africa spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water.

• Only 6 countries give women equal legal work rights as men.

• For every female film character, there are 2.24 men. (Lack of representation) EVEN WORSE FOR LGTBQ COMMUNITY.

Poll

If we stopped enforcing gender roles, would sexism still exist?

• Yes

• No

What is the patriarchy?

• Ex: Caretaking work, most often relegated to women, is under-recognized and undervalued.

• Ex: Globally, men dominate well-esteemed and well-paid industries (science, political leaderships) and in the U.S. women earn approximately 75% of what men earn in a lifetime.

Multiple Choice

What is the patriarchy?

• a system in which communities decide the political and social direction of it's inhabitants

• a system of social structures and practices in which males dominate, oppress, or exploit women

• an organization in which groups of people are ranked in according to their intellectual status

bell hooks

• well-respected feminist who wrote a book attempting to debunk myths about feminism and clarify what feminism is and what it is not.

• B.A. from Stanford University, her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and her PhD from the University of California

• Feminist theorist, cultural critic, writer, and artist.

bell hook's defines feminism

Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.

Argument Analysis

bell hook's "Feminism is for Everybody"

Multiple Choice

Who wrote "Feminism is for Everybody?"

• Mary Wollstonecraft

• J.K. Rowling

• bell hooks

Multiple Choice

For feminists who want equality between the sexes, what does hooks say is the main problem?

• People who continue to believe that women are lesser

• Any one who perpetuates sexism of any kind

• Those who act as if feminism means the hatred of men

Multiple Choice

How does bell hooks define feminism?

• The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes

• a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression

Multiple Choice

Can men be feminists?

• yes

• no

Multiple Choice

According to hooks, what is a key clue that sexism is still alive today?

• household dynamics most often show the males as dominant and the females as submissive

• women have fought for the right for equal pay, to challenge their abusers in court, and to work at corporal jobs

• men often don't believe that they can advocate for women and also be feminists

Multiple Choice

In the earlier years of the feminist movement, how did the tension between the men fighting for freedom while women worked on the home front lead to a "man hating" rhetoric?

• the women felt that men were more capable than they were to dismantle anti-racist and anti-classist systems if they were given the chance

• the women felt it was ironic and became angry when the men preached about freedom but forced women into subordinate positions.

Multiple Choice

The early feminist movements happen during other civil rights movements, what was a key point that bell hooks wanted to point out about white, female feminists of that time?

• many of them simply wanted respect from their husbands

• many of them did not help to lift the voices of women of color within the movement

• many of them did not want to work in the homes any longer

Multiple Choice

What does hooks say leads to liberation?

• anger and rebellion

• kindness and pride

• violence and revenge

Multiple Choice

Can women be sexist?

• yes

• no

Multiple Choice

What did the phrase "sisterhood is powerful" mean in the 70s feminist movements?

• women could only persist together if more conversations happened to dismantle classism and racism within the movement

• women were the only ones accepted in the feminist movement and men were not allowed to be involved within the organizations

Multiple Choice

The feminist movement started with women having conversations about male dominance. Why does bell say this was important?

• "females were socialized to not believe or understand male dominance.

• "to create the vision that power exploited is power gained"

• "Before women could change patriarchy, we had to change ourselves - we had to raise our conscious"

Multiple Choice

What did these conversations around women's exploitation, abuse, and victimization do?

• create awareness

• spread lies

• instill fear

Multiple Choice

For people that have been harmed by the patriarchal structures, feminist conscious raising can be...

• disenfranchising

• therapeutic

• harmful

Multiple Choice

According to hooks, what is the most important part of continuing the feminist movement?

• organize marches

• engage in a dialogue

• publish stories

Kimberle Crenshaw

• professor of law at UCLA and Columbia Law School

• well-known feminist, she created a term for the way in which gender interacts with a person’s multiple identities, building on hooks’ ideas.

• A leading authority in the area of Civil Rights

Kimberle coined intersectionality:

Intersectionality is a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood within conventional ways of thinking.

Multiple Select

Check off all of the categories that could be applicable to the intersectionality of someone's identity.

• religion

• race

• gender

• sexual orientation

• age/able bodied

Multiple Choice

What is an example of intersectionality from the story we read this week, "The Wife of Bath's Tale?"

• The Knight did not apologize for raping the maiden

• The Wife of Bath was a lower-class, older female.

• The Friar was the richest character in Canterbury Tales

Multiple Choice

What is NOT an example of sexism from the "Wife of Bath's Tale?"

• The Wife of Bath struggling to start her story without being interrupted by the Friar

• The knight taking advantage of the maiden but not wanting to marry the old woman

• The Queen using her power to teach the knight a lesson after he raped her maiden