Critical Feminist Studies Web Paper 4

Representations of Me

I had tremendous difficulty with this assignment: To sketch 4-6 representations of self. My self. And it was much harder than I had anticipated. I was challenged by my lack of artistic skills and my inability to think of how to represent myself on paper.

Abigail Sayre

Intro to Critical Fem. Studies

Anne Dalke

Final Project

12/20/07

My Body Is Not My Self

Sarah Collins
Dalke
Feminist Critical Studies

In my first web-paper, I discussed my discomfort with Helene Cixous’ proclamation that “women must write women” (Cixous 877). Cixous discusses how women have been “kept in the dark” and led into self-disdain for so long that the amount of women authors is miniscule relative to men. I do not contest this statement and I believe that it is important for women to write and to let their voices be heard. However, while I realize that my discomfort with writing and speaking in class probably has a lot, if not, everything to do with the fact that I am a woman who has group up in a patriarchal society I do not think that every woman’s rebellion has to

Nicole Matos

Critical Feminist Studies

21 December 2007

House on Fire

So,I’m going to try something new. I’m going to write for myself. I’m going torant, and lift a little belly,if I may. I’m going to be insecure, I’m going to speak to my own personaltestimony, sorry Linda. Warning, this might get a little crazy.

Registering to vote, setting up a myspace account, and walking into almost any public bathroom all have one thing in common: they each require the individual to declare their gender and/or sex identity.  For most people, this may not seem to be a cause for alarm; society trains everyone to express a specific gender identity (either “masculine” or “feminine” based on whether their genitals are “male” or “female”) from their birth.  These gender identities make it easy to determine whether one has male or female genitals, therefore allowing the heterosexual “norm” to easily prevail by simplifying the policing of non-heteronormative sexual configurations. 

In the age of what many believe to be the “third-wave” of feminism, one that challenges the notion of what it even means to be “female” or “feminist” and has expanded to include those who may not or could not have been part of the first or second waves of feminism, it becomes clear that one of the major differences between the older waves of feminism and the one we are in now is exemplified in the attitude towards pornography. Here, I use the term in a very broad sense since so many feminists define it differently and I mean it to include both sex/sexual work such as prostitution and stripping as well as the pornographic movie industry.