Teaching! I know that there are some unfortunate individuals who don't take their job very seriously, but I do. I recognize the strength and power I have over others, and I do the best I possibly can to use that influence well. My feminism is woven very tightly into everything I do, so whether I'm actually teaching Women's Studies to young people in college or grammar and composition to older immigrants who need to learn English, it reveals itself in practice and instruction.

Here, an excerpt from my blog about this very subject when I was finishing up with one of my classes back in May:

I could have cried and cried, in a good way. We were talking about an article which cited a woman who had undergone incredible amounts of pain and suffering through plastic surgery to look like...i don't know, a movie star or model. I asked my students the same question I always ask: "Why do you think she did this?" Instead of the usual disappointing responses, "she's crazy", "she needs help", "she obviously wants attention", etc. -- or worse, no responses at all, everyone piped up. "It's the pressure to look beautiful", Estrella said. "Yeah," Janessa continued, cutting her off, "She's another victim of a system that only values beauty." I nodded. My students looked at me eagerly. I said nothing, and waited for it. "But it's more than that," Mohammad - who hardly ever says anything - said after a minute. "It's her reaction to a system that tells her the only way to be happy or successful is to be beautiful, and a certain specific kind of beautiful. She's been taught to care more about her parts, rather than her whole self." I was speechless - which never happens, ha ha, but I wanted to jump onto my desk and dance a little jig. Finally my students are begining to see the systematic and cultural reasons for "Women's Problems", like Rape, Domestic Violence, Anorexia, Depression, etc. Hell, they're even beginning to understand that these aren't just "women's problems".

Even better: they seem to sense that answers aren't that simple. Many of the students also engaged in a discussion about viewing women as victims, and making assumptions about their decisions - as the students above did - and how limiting THAT can be. Even though we didn't come up with an "answer" to that question - how could we - everyone seemed satisfied to just discuss ideas from various feminist perspectives.

They're extending their answers to my "why does this happen?" question above and beyond the usual "because people are sexist." They're using words and phrases like "essentialism" and "patriarchy" and "woman as other". The other day, one of them dismissed another by saying "that's so anthropocentric". I almost fainted.

Even better: We had media project presentations during class today, and a lot of them, when showing the video clips/magazines/advertisements they brought in for the class to evaluate, so many of them said things like "before this class, I never realized how much I got suckered by the beauty myth...." and "thanks to this class, I noticed right away how here the woman is being judged by her parts, and not by her whole...".

Hollah!

Theresa

Mine's up here. Good topic and nice and short and to the point this time!

Well, I have indeed done my share of signing petitions and going to marches or rallies, even as recently as this past weekend. And I think this is important, because real change can emerge from a well-placed and supported march or petition or letter-writing campaign.

Beyond this? I think an important feminist action that I've personally taken has been not to let outdated assumptions fly from people's lips unchallenged - that is, to say something about it instead of just being meek and nice as I was taught to do.

I also (to bring this inevitably back to lesbian feminism - I guess I do have to claim that label) was very intentionally out as queer in my social work class this past year. I made my orientation public in that forum for several reasons: 1.) social workers need to be aware that they may expect to have queer colleagues and clients and need to have sensitivity to the relationships these people have; 2.) it's in the job description that as social workers, we work to end discrimination, yet sometimes people tread very uneasily around the issue of sexual orientation; and 3.) part of the thrust of the class was to tie our own experiences in the social environment to the theories discussed in class, and to remain closeted would be to give the lie to the way I think and interact with people, which wouldn't serve anyone's learning or professional development, least of all my own. So I think that doing that, acting with consciousness-raising in mind and refusing to blend into the dominant culture by my silence, was a feminist act.

Other feminist acts of the past year - ending a draining relationship with a man whom I had let control and manipulate me out of a desire to preserve harmony; applying to and getting accepted into graduate school in a liberal, feminist field; acknowledging and claiming my sexual feelings for women; acting for my own empowerment to get out of a bad job and a bad apartment into much better situations, the latter is bringing me a formerly unparalleled level of independence.

I think any time a person acts through her own strength and sense of self-worth to bring herself to a higher level of power and control over her own life, it's a feminist act. Go kick some ass, chicas.

Ultimately, nearly every act of an activist is a reflection of activism (feminist or otherwise). So, when I think about ways to be an activist, what I'm really thinking about ways to amplify my opinion by sharing, refining, or joining it with others.

Some of my older thoughts on this topic are on my blog. And I added a handful of other things today, here.

my response is up!

My post is up here.
A synopsis: I guess I'm not a "real" activist, and I wonder about the necessity for everyone to take a truly active role.

Response here

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