Feminists Who Reject the Feminist Label II

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Here's an intro level activity that has worked really well for me:

I write "what is feminism?" on the board, and ask students to write whatever
comes to mind. They come up en mass, so they don't feel "exposed" by their
ideas. [I usually do this the first or second class, so they don't yet know
me or each other.]

Then I show youtube clips of "I was a Teenage Feminist" - http://
www.trixiefilms.com/teenfem/

I use three, 2 minute clips, in this order:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2utxLaC-Cc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcapO8EsKM8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pdbnzFUsXI&feature=related

Then we go through the responses on the board, add more ideas generated from
the video clips, and talk about how we know what we know (which gets to some
of the previous post ideas about feminist critiques of knowledge
production). I also bring in an analysis (media literacy piece) of the media
clips, asking questions like: How many men did she interview in Times
Square?, How much footage did she shoot?, Why did she select x clip, what
was she trying to show, what do you think could of been edited out? Always,
the discussion brings us to ideas of experiential knowledge, what you learn
from books, school, parents, family, religion, the media, etc...

Hope this helps!

 + + +

Rachel Raimist
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
University of Minnesota
425 Ford Hall, 224 Church St SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Email: raim0007 AT umn.edu
Web: http://rachelraimist.com
Blog: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/raim0007/RaeSpot

Colleagues,

I believe that a gander at the LOC website of American Memory with
information on the suffrage movement would be interesting as well.  Perhaps
an exercise in which they list all the rights, and privileges they enjoy
from the smallest to the largest might bring some enlightenment.  One of my
students became an instant and committed feminist when she did a paper on
the clothes women wore in 1892 at the Chicago World's Fair.  Being in the
classroom of course would certainly be one of those items previously not
generally "permitted".  Discussion of the word "permitted" often yields some
interesting results.  Finally why not ask them to write a list about why I
am a feminist(even if it's fantasy) or why I'm proud to be a feminist.  And
why are they so scared of it? and why are the men so scared/afraid?

Dr. Denise Marshall
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Reference/research/Women's Studies
Madison, NJ
denimars AT gmail.com

Sorry Daphne, have to agree with Rosa and Jessica on this one. It's worth
remembering how young our students are. Everything they know about about
feminism comes from television and the internet. Except in rare cases,
they haven't read any of those feminists you mention. They HAVE watched
Bill O'Reilly and listened to Rush Limbaugh--I hear the preferred language
of the anti-feminist right coming out of students' mouths all the time.

Mike Murphy

************
Michael J. Murphy, PhD, Lecturer
Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program
Campus Box 1078/220 McMillan Hall
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis MO 63130-4899
http://ascc.artsci.wustl.edu/~women/

One quick way that i have found to expose students to feminist issues and ideas is to highlight male privileges.  Barry Deutsch's _The Male Privilege Checklist_ has been one tool that i have used to do that.  The benefit is that it not long like a book, a book chapter or an article, and can be easily incorporated into group discussions as has already been suggested.  The other immediate benefit is that it invites males into conversations about feminist issues at an introductory level. 

For students of color, the _Black Male Privileges Checklist_ may be a very helpful tool.

best,
Jewel Woods
Executive Director
Renaissance Male Project
Please visit our website at http://renaissancemaleproject.com/
woodsjr AT umich.edu

Where might one find this list? It sounds like it would be useful,
although I teach psychology of women, not formally a "women's studies"
but I do teach from a feminist perspective so it's always useful for me
to use tools like this.
Thanks,
Susan

If the mind can imagine it, the mind can make it so

Dr. Susan Clark-Cook
Clinician
Counseling and Student Development
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Natural and Applied Sciences

Reply-To: Women's Studies List <WMST-L AT LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
To: WMST-L AT LISTSERV.UMD.EDU

To see the kind of pop-culture stuff students get on feminism, watch vile Bill Maher (link below) talk about how America has become "feminized." This is a great opening for classes as students get to see just how much contempt there is for women in the mainstream media.  

Gail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z8j4QJ0oiY

Gail Dines
Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies
Chair of American Studies
Wheelock College
35 Pilgrim Road
Boston, MA 02215
gdines AT wheelock.edu

Michael Murphy wrote:

"Everything [our students]  know about about
feminism comes from television and the internet."

This is an astonishing statement.  If correct, it's hard to see how these
young people should be allowed to vote. But, in fact,  I suspect such a view
of  students changes radically when they do hold the ideas "we" believe they
should have. Then do we call them well-informed and realistic??

It seems to me our students may not (yet) be deep thinkers or excel at
ferreting out information, but they certainly do experience a reality that
is beyond representations of it via the media.

In addition, TV and the internet convey many differing and often conflicting
points of view. Thus, even were Michael's observation accurate, it would
still not explain the particular views students hold, or the reality that
even on our rather homogeneous campuses one finds them embracing a variety
of positions and beliefs.  I'd bet their views are in fact far more varied
than the faculty's.

DP 

A big thanks to everyone who's replied to my question!  What a lot of great
ideas!  I hardly know where to start!

And it's interesting: I checked out the archive that Joan posted, and while
the question is the same, or similar, anyway, the discussion is very
different.  So maybe it's a good one to revisit from time to time!

Anyway, I'm not writing to shut down discussion or the flow of great
ideas--I just wanted to make sure I passed along my sincere thanks!

Best--ShaunAnne


ShaunAnne Tangney
Associate Professor of English
Division of Humanities
Minot State University
500 University Ave. W.
Minot, ND  58707
sa.tangney AT minotstateu.edu
www.minotstateu.edu
http://mail.misu.nodak.edu/~shaunanne.tangney/

Here's the Male Privilege Checklist:
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/the-male-privilege-checklist/

but I don't know the Black Male Privileges Checklist--is it online or where?

Thanks,

Frann
fmichel AT willamette.edu

> I don't know the Black Male Privileges Checklist--is it online or where?

It's here, and what a great resource! http://jewelwoods.com/node/9

thanks Jewel Woods!

Max
-- 
Max Dashu
Suppressed Histories Archives
http://www.suppressedhistories.net

New: Women's Power DVD
http://www.suppressedhistories.net/womenspowerdvd.html

Do you think it would help to show different kinds of feminism?  I know that I have always identified with the "street" version of pretty militant separatist feminism but when I gvot to my 1st undergrad university all of the feminism we read had to do with issues of class, it was pretty much all white women wanting to stay home and get paid (outside of the free house, car ect.) or wanting things at work motherhood issues again) that would have no consequences at all for women like myself and other s I love who get no choices- it was all about the (upper)middle class.  After that until I was introduced to Maria Lugones I would NEVER have anything to do with feminism at all as the kind I had been exposed to had nothing to do with my group and it seemed to me they should be worried more about hungry women than women making choices.  Maybe showing that there are different kinds that work toward different goals might help, I don';t know, it might have to depend onthe demographics!
  and types of students I guess. 
Best
Nicole
A rush of anger surprised her. It was unwise to read old books; the fury they ignited wasn't old it was new. She wanted to search out the descendants of the man who had decided so long ago who deserved to know what. But the child shouldn't be blamed for the father's crime, she tried to reason with herself. But should the child also enjoy the father's illicit gain?- Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss

The Black Male Privileges Checklist can by found at the following url: 

http://jewelwoods.com/

I would appreciate any critical comments you good people would be willing to offer.

We are also excited to be releasing widely the _Teen & Male Youth Privileges Checklist_. An important tool for all young males, schools, community organizations, youth groups,sports teams, and families that can be used to assist our young males in becoming the type of adult men we want them to be.

best,
Jewel Woods
Executive Director
Renaissance Male Project Inc.
woodsjr AT umich.edu

"A Day Without Feminism" by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards from
Manifesta is a great reminder of the gains made by feminist and feminism.
This article makes feminism practical and perhaps for your students, more
palatable. 

Jen Moore
Passionate about teaching Women Studies and empowering young girls and women
jenmoore AT principia.edu

Another tool I've found useful: showing a video like One Woman, One Vote or
Iron-Jawed Angels. I find that students  respond very strongly to what they
see at the absurdity of the anti-suffrage arguments and to the terrible
treatment suffragists received at the hands of authorities. That then leads
into a discussion of how feminism created a social/political change that
they now take for granted and support (even the most conservative students
don't believe that women should not be able to vote!) and we can look at how
some of the old anti-suffrage arguments translate into situations faced
today. Also opens up discussions about race and class.

~W Rhea


Rhea Hirshman
adjunct professor of Women's Studies
University of Connecticut at Stamford
rheahirshman AT mac.com

OK: thanks again to everyone--I used articles, discussion-starters, lists,
etc. that folks sent and it really made them stop and think, and I know
we'll return to it over and over again this semester.

Then a friend sent me this (and I hope it's OK to send a video link in a
post):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q2l45yu9vMA

I am totally showing this in class on Monday!!

Best--ShaunAnne


ShaunAnne Tangney
Associate Professor of English
Division of Humanities
Minot State University
500 University Ave. W.
Minot, ND  58707
sa.tangney AT minotstateu.edu
www.minotstateu.edu
http://mail.misu.nodak.edu/~shaunanne.tangney/

I hope you've got it saved.  It's been taken down just now, due to
copyright complaint by Viacom.

Eileen Bresnahan
Associate Professor
Feminist and Gender Studies
Colorado College
14 East Cache la Poudre
Colorado Springs, CO  80903
ebresnahan AT coloradocollege.edu

Comedy Central has it up on their site:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Eileen Bresnahan <
EBresnahan AT coloradocollege.edu> wrote:

> I hope you've got it saved.  It's been taken down just now, due to
> copyright complaint by Viacom.

-- 
tara l. conley, M.A.
Content Writer
YouthNoise
http://www.youthnoise.com/playcity/blog/
Friday025 AT gmail.com
tara AT youthnoise.org

It seems to me that if one challenge of teaching feminism in the classroom
is the assumption that the movement is white-dominated, then why segregate
the Male Privilege Checklists as teaching tools?  Why is the black male
checklist described as a good tool for teaching students of color?  Seems
that it's even more important to teach it to white students, if our goal is
to get past the racist assumptions guiding feminist work.  I would use both,
and discuss why there are two, what we can learn about our society from
that.

Elizabeth Zanichkowsky
Assoc. Professor of English and Women's Studies
University of Wisconsin-Waukesha
E.Zanichkowsky AT uwc.edu

Surely there are far too many categories of nefarious privilege to be
covered in just one women's studies course, or even in just one
undergraduate major. Don't we have a pedagogical duty to not restrict our
checklists of privilege just to the most obvious categories?  What on earth
is the point of going to a unviersity if one can come out of it without a
full and complete reckoning of all the types of privilege that besmirch the
world. I can't think of anything more important than arming our students
with the ability to instantly place any person they encounter within the
overall worldwide network of privilege.

DP 

Personally I think that the Black male checklist is the first of its kind that I have seen that actually deals with gender and/or race, the others I have seen primarily deal with class like the "napsack" or the other male one.  I would absolutely look at this as a teaching tool when I teach my own class in the spring!  I have lost track of the thread but thank you so much for whoever sent this.  It actually takes class out of the equation as much as I have ever seen.  
Best,
Nicole
In the capitalist world, long-term interests no longer hvae any influence: the ruling class that determines the fate of the masses has no fear of sharing that fate.  As for humanitarian feelings, they do not enter into account at all, in spite of the flood of hypocritcal words- Simone de Beauvoir