week one

When my small group started our discussion on how we define feminism I assumed that people would all have a similar definition, but I was wrong. We had a very hard time assigning a single definition of this word, and the more I thought about it I realized that feminism can have all different meanings depending on the person and context. Although I have read some feminist literature before and had brief conversations on feminism, I never really tried to think about the meaning of the word, and I’m very excited for what this class will bring me to think. Yes, I understand a basic definition of feminism, women being equal to men, but I want to learn more about the ways in which this goal was fought towards throughout history. Our group agreed that being a Bryn Mawr puts us in a bubble where I believe we have more respect for women because we see them succeed in all academic fields, and we are more defensive of each other for this. I feel that at Bryn Mawr students are much more supportive of a women’s choice to dress and act how she wants, and words like ‘slut’ are looked down upon. I really think this environment will make this material feel very relevant to my life, and I can’t wait to learn more about all the different meanings of feminism.