Fdaniel's blog

After reading Rose Marie Garland-Thomson's article I was left disturbed and confused about the comments/ points she makes in her paper, especially, the point about genocide. Using the word genocide seems completely wrong to me, it has such a negative connotation to it. I remember a very long time ago I was having a conversation with my boyfriend's cousin about abortion. He was arguing with me that abortion was wrong and women shouldn't be so cruel. He then proceeded to call me a "supporter of murder." Thompson's comment about aborting disabled children as genocide reminded me of his insult. In my opinion, Abortion is a choice, its not murder, its not genocide, its a choice that results in discontinuing a pregnancy. Women shouldn't be harassed because they made a decision about their body. It's their body and they’re the only ones that can make a valid decision about it. In relation to Thompson's comment, I’ve been contemplating on how I feel about aborting disabled children as a negative thing. Women make that decision because they don’t want their children to suffer or endure any more pain then this world already exhibits on them for just being who they are. The idea of keeping a disabled child seems selfish to me. Being that the mother is aware that their child will go through pain and decides to let them endure it. Or if the mother can't afford to take care of their child adequately is it still fair for her to have this child?

        Feminism has progressed for centuries with the aim to empower women. As the years went on it has changed with the time period and the mindsets of the women from each era. Women began with the idea of fighting for equality with men and erasing the power disparity. There was a transition to second wave feminism where women forgot about being equal to men and embraced their femininity. They were proud of their ability to have children and breast-feed. There was then a move to our current wave of feminism that focuses very heavily on liberation, finding one’s self and generating that idea of choice. Feminism has changed so much that I think we forgot about why feminism even began. It’s interesting how equality evolved and excluded the many complexities of each individual woman. How can we possibly have feminism if there isn’t a common theme understood across the board? Am I even feminist because I’m questioning your thinking process about feminism? Am I even feminist for trying to justify anyone’s stance on feminism? Feminism is quite complex and delves deeper into the idea of choice and what that means for every single woman including women of all races, socioeconomic backgrounds, sexualities and more.  It must cater to every woman’s complexities with the goal to help her liberate herself.

After our class on Monday i was so interested in learning about the different types of feminism. I was actually suprised about how many different types of feminism there was but the ones that stricked me the most was ecofemnism and multicultural feminism. Multicultural feminism " says that femininity and the struggles of women should not be defined by a specific group. Feminism needs to embrace all types of women, and this may mean creating a broader and vaguer definition of what feminism is." ( http://conflictintervention.blogspot.com/2010/10/multicultural-feminism.html). I completely agree with multicultural feminism.  I believe that all women are different and we can't exclude them from our definiton of feminism. Many different things effect a woman's view on feminism, we have to consider her background, where she grew up, religion, etc. Not all women are the same, we are complex. While ecofeminism which striked me as well puts emphasis on our relationship with nature and creating equality amoung all including animals and plants. I do respect this view but I didnt quite understand it much. Could we really be equal to nature? If we are not vegetrian than are we excluded from ecofeminism. It seems to me that ecofeminism is quite exclusive.  Feminism shouldnt exclude any woman and be the source of their oppression instead of their liberation. All in all, I believe that all types of feminism have a basic message that makes feminism a whole and not seperate theroies.

After reading Kate Bornstein's workbook I was very confused as to whether I was questioning my gender and sexuality enough. Was I not being open minded because It never crossed my mind that I might want to kiss a girl? Or was it Kate Bornstein that needed to lay off on the questions! After reading this workbook I have came to the conclusion that I am for sure a cisgendered woman. However, I questioned whether I should even label myself anything other the name I'm most comfortable with, Faith (my first name). Do I want to deminish labels? Or do I want to keep them and continue categorizeing people that dont nessarily want to be categorized. When talking to Sam today I got a new perspective. Sam discussed the idea of actually being comfortable in one's box and not being asshamed of it. Well I second that! I think that labels are a sense of comfort but they can also be something that categorizes people in a negative light. So, to hell with all this confusion!!! For once there is an answer to this conflict. The answer is ... to do what ever the hell you want! If you want a label be my guess and if you dont simply inform people what you'd like to called. However, ultimately it's not just "society" that creates these categories its US! We renforce them everyday. We use pronouns like "he" or "she" without asking and we check boxes that say male or female on it. I think companies ask female or male for identification purposes not nessarily to oppress us as a society.

On Thursday I loved the discussion we had about gender and sexuality. We really questioned where these binarys and sterotypes stemmed from and tried to find a solution. During my entire life I have never questioned my gender or sexuality until i started to investgate the importance of knowing my body and what I want. However, although I never questioned my gender or sexuality I have never critized or judged anyone for doing so. I always found it crazy when people would. But i then realized that this topic is only questionable because society has demonized those that do. At one point in history it was considered a mental illness. Crazy isn't it? Whats more crazy is that people still think it is which blows my mind. However, on a positive note America has evolved over time to slowly accept the LGBTQI community. During our last discussion in class I brought up the topic about gay rights in America. Now, I know America has a long way to go when it comes to improving our country and an even longer way to go to in order to make everyone equal. But I want to highlight both the good and the bad about America's progress with gay rights. I did some research to really find out how much progress America has really made when it came to gay rights and honestly I was completey stunned. As of June 2013 36 states banned same sex marriage (Roberts). According to the Gaullpa poll only 53% of Americans believe that gay marriage should be leaglized (Roberts). Although i was quite shocked about how low 53% was I wasn't suprised.