Critical Feminist Studies 2013

**trigger warning**

Law and Order SVU, is one of my guilty media pleasures. Every week, I find an hour for me to indulge in this show. This evening, while catching up on last week's episode, I saw it through a directly feminist lens. SVU brings to light during prime time television (on a national network no less) many issues that face women in a  way that many may not be aware of. For example, one episode opens with a woman trying to purchase Plan B at a pharmacy because her husband had raped her. The pharmacist denies her the medicine, thus denying her the choice of pregnancy. Women are still forced to have their rapist's baby because other people, not involved in the situation involve themselves in the situation, indirectly making decisions for those involved. The ability of a pharmacist to deny a woman access to medicines she is entitled to have is an unfortunate way-of-life that many are not aware of. Plan B is an invaluable resource. And everyone who wants it should have access to it. Another episode shed light on the prevalent rape of women in the military. A female Marine was impregnated by a rape by an officer in a higher rank, which does occur in the United States military, and is usually swept under the rug. But the team at SVU fought to bring the rapist to justice. Also the main character in the series is Olivia Benson, a detective who has a personal connection to the rape victims at SVU because she, herself is also a victim.

Thus far this course has taught me so much in terms of gender identity, feminism, defying binaries and hierarchies and exploring self-representation, including my own. In terms of the course material solely, I have been fascinated, scared and amazed by the texts we have read. I like the variety of the texts and the forms in which they are presented, they stem away from the usual formats I read in school and this has made it easier and more exciting to read them. They are engaging and eye-opening for me. Our discussions around the texts are eye-opening as well.

I thought the exercises that we did on Thursday were really interesting....but also completely terrifying.  I was getting particularly frustrated with myself when we were completing the second exercises because I wrote a whole paragraph in my response explaining why I would not be an expert on this topic.  Part of me really wanted to resist justifying my response with a flimsy background story but the other part of me had too much anxiety about putting my opinions out there.  I got more and more comfortable as people started to read out their responses because it was clear that most people were just as concerned with sharing their opinions as I was.  But what this exercise made me realize is that I, and maybe others in the class, didn't feel like they could share their opinions in any discussion format without receiving some kind of a judgment.  It was helpful to hear Anne say that students don't have to have all of the answers, that's why we are students.  Still, why does it often seem like we all have something to prove in a classroom?   

Self Representation vs Self Presentation

How do I present myself to the outside world? I present myself in the way that I dress, talk, act, and interact with others. What does this have to do with self-representation? I initially misread the topic of our papers as self-presentation, rather than self-representation. They sound the same, and could be dismissed as practically the same thing without consideration. However, realizing my error made me also realize that self-presentation and self-representation are very different things. To represent myself means to speak my opinions, act as an individual rather than simply part of a larger group, and reveal my personality, values, and beliefs through my actions, words, and appearance. I can use the different ways that I present myself to the public to represent who I am on the inside, and to portray different aspects of my personality and my value system.

After our class discussion on Tuesday about the situation involving an application to Smith College from a transwoman. Her name is Calliope Wong. She was denied admittance to Smith simply because her FAFSA utilized male pronouns, even though of the rest of her application materials: letters of rec, transcript, and all other paperwork uses female pronouns. According to one source I found, she had been in contact with the Dean of Admissions prior to applying to Smith. The dean told her that as long as her paperwork used female pronouns, her application would be considered. However, the FAFSA used male pronouns for Calliope Wong. In response, Smith sent out this letter stating "Our expectation is that it is consistently reflected throughout the application that the student is a woman. Upon reviewing your file, this is not the case. Your FAFSA indicates your gender as male. Therefore, the college cannot process your application."

        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.

“You will never be as beautiful in your life as you are now, so now is the time to start.”

As a young woman who aspires to do anything related to media and popular culture: modeling, singing, dancing, acting, this view is one that spearheads  a great amount of young careers. The idea that beauty is the quality that supersedes any amount of talent is widely held in the entertainment industry, and follows right behind the exploitation of women in society in general based on their physical appearance. The problem with adapting this philosophy in pursuit of a famous career is that women who participate in their self-exploitation then make it justifiable to be exploited by others.