Critical Feminist Studies Web Paper 4

See Minotaur

Or, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Minotaur

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

herm

the mutilation of the corpus which bore me

Livejournal entry, 11:26 pm 09/10/2007

I very quietly freaked out when I saw a preview of a show about transsexuals in America at the beginning of freshman year - I happened to be wearing a skirt, and I really wanted to get *out* of the skirt. And now I'm plowing through readings on trans/intersex issues in recent American history and googling all kinds of things, and I'm very quietly freaking out again. And I don't know why. My hypothesis is because I lack a vocabulary to describe my own gender identity, and this sort of thing gets it all stirred up. I suppose the best term is genderqueer, but … I guess I don’t know what I mean by that. I’m not transsexual. I don’t feel like my body is wrong, or that … I mean, I don’t think of myself as a woman, and I don’t like the word woman, but I certainly don’t think of myself as a man, either.

While the nickname that dubbed Bryn Mawr, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Barnard, Vassar and Radcliffe as the Seven Sisters came around in 1926, the ideals that these seven women’s colleges were founded upon have a much lengthier history. (Horowitz, xvi)   The most basic mission that laid the foundations for the Seven Sisters towards the end of the 19th century was to provide an education in the liberal arts similar if not equal or better than the education that colleges for men provided.  Looking back to the history of women’s rights, at that time women did not yet have the right

Louisa “Weezie” Lauher

December 20, 2007

Critical Feminist Theory

Professor Anne Dalke

Final Paper

 

 

 

 

The Transition of Feminism at Bryn Mawr College

 

 

 

 

Introduction to Critical Feminist Studies Final Project:
The Final Dinner Party

Emily Maciolek










CHARACTERS:
•    NORA – A woman of the late 19th Century.  She craves independence, which cannot be attained because she is a woman.  During her life, she has always been treated like a doll.
•    CLAIR – A dissatisfied woman who also happens to be married to a gay, socially elite, man.  She married him because it was what was expected, but now she longs to escape and travel Europe.

Please find the works of Elizabeth Cantanese, Sarah Lindberg, Gail Chavenelle, and myself in our attempts to illustrate feminism. We are two alum and two current students, each with our own account of what it means to be a feminist in today's world.

In reaction to each piece, please do one of two things: Either (a) compose a list of 5 individual words/piece which describe the work or the feeling emotion that they inspire OR (b) write a few sentences describing the illustrated definitions of feminism. If you were to look up feminism in the dictionary and find these paintings/sculptures, what would you take away?

Over the course of the semester, I had decided to stop commenting on the weekly blogs. I, like many of the alum, felt that there was no conversations taking place and felt more comfortable speaking my mind in a classroom where debates could be started and responses were immediate. I felt that many people in the class were either summarizing the texts to prove that they had read them, or using personal testimony to discontinue conversations. Now, towards the end of the semester, I think it would be interesting to go back through the weeks and make comments based on what we have discussed in class since. I am hoping that some new ideas can come of it and would love if others could contribute to the conversation to see how we have evolved as feminists or merely women studying feminism.