Reply to comment

Well I took the Feminist Quiz and I most closely resembled Simone de Beauvoir. Of course, I had NO idea who she was so I googled her to find out some more. At least the results of the test made it sound like she was a spunky controversial woman of the 20^th century AND only 6% of the test takers got that same result! Maybe we could check out The Second Sex than since that was her big hit. I am hesitant though to start naming any possible books as I am truly new to the study of feminism. It is my first Feminist specific class and first Gender and Sexuality class so far. I suppose I would group myself almost as the exact opposite of Flora as she has taken so many classes and knows her stuff! I can’t deny that intimidates me a tad, but that is my weakness.

When we were discussing Paula Gunn Allen’s, “Kochinnenako in Academe: Three Approaches to Interpreting a Keres Indian Tale”  I found myself relating to Paul Lauter when he wrote, “I found myself, reluctantly, painfully, being drawn back into the tortured style of graduate school competition: ‘Can you beat this?’”  I really enjoyed Allen’s essay, but I felt the class discussion went too far. I felt drawn back like Lauter as the analysis continued because I felt as though the competition was on the rise and with the rise of competition lead one stretch of an analysis to a greater stretch. I am still not sure how we got to the idea that in order to really follow Allen’s idea there cannot be the word “I” in writing or in language. So with all of that said I thought I would be interested in one or two more Native American writings but I fear a repeat of the other discussion.

Moving on, please no more Spivak styled pieces but I am definitely interested in more Helene Cixous types of writing. It may be the psychology major in me but I really enjoy reading topics on feminism focused on the self and body. This is not to disregard however my interest in incorporating politics into feminism. I always related feminism to liberalism, but there are politically conservative women that would also consider themselves’ feminists or maybe share the similar beliefs if not wanting to be labeled as a feminist: right? The bullet that has the Abortion Rights readings is what sparked my interest in conservative feminism. I am also open to some exploration of the intertwining subjects of sexuality and politics, but would not want the class to become overly focused on politics because of an issue that Paul Lauter mentioned. “Are there other worlds of art out there whose nature, dynamics, and values we fail to appreciate because we ask the wrong questions or don’t know what questions to ask? Or maybe shouldn’t simply be asking questions?” Sometimes I have felt that our class discussions went overboard, but that seems to be a pattern I noticed at Bryn Mawr. I suppose that is just a pet peeve of mine and not something that is negative as it does challenge us to think further.