FEM 1100 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Feminist Movement, Jessica Valenti, Reproductive Rights
24 May 2018
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Department
Course
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FEM Midterm 1
Lecture 1 + 2
This is What a Feminist Looks Like
Top 10 Stereotypes
• Feminist hate men
- Thought that feminist because they are lesbians they hate men
• Feminist hate the idea of family
- Heteronormative nuclear family
- The idea is therefore only for feminists and need to be gotten rid of
- Thoughts that feminist can’t be mother, they are going along with demands of society
• Feminist are masculine and unattractive
- Objectification
- Female politicians are constantly subjected to scrutiny
o How they speak
o What they wear
o Their body shapes
- Hollywood
o The focus on magazine, focus on body image (dieting)
• Feminist hate god
- The more traditional and conservative elements
- They are thought that they want to dismantle the idea of god
- Thought that within religion women are always below that of men
- Women want to challenge the notion as to why God is male
• Feminist don’t shave
- Body hair = political
- Hygiene is an important element
- Thoughts that women have to uphold the exception that they need to look good, clean,
presentable
• Feminist are all pro-choice
- (Respecting all women’s choice and having their freedom to choose what they want)
- (Structure vs. agency- being your own agent)
- Being in the driver’s seat
- Structures that constrain us: laws, stigma, education, relations of power, family, peer
• Feminist can’t be stay-at-home moms
- To be a stay at home mom, you chose to be a heteronormative family
- 1 type of feminist
- Being given a choice to be or not and you chose to be a stay at home mom
- Discrimination in the workplace, it is very difficult to even get a job
- Capitalism: the state of economy, productivity (how much money you make, how well
you do in school), the only legit citizen in society is a worker or a student working
towards a working life
- Stay-at-home people are seen as not contributing to anything in the society
- Stay-at-home moms are dependent on spouse to get income, it can be seen as against their
beliefs that they worked so hard for them to be able to go out and get a job
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Feminist whine about everything
- The idea that when asking or stating something they are nagging, whining, unhappy,
complaining, emotional and hysterical
• Men are not feminists
- Men can be seen as feminine if they are feminist
- The pressures that cyst-man face
- Tension that men are not able to identify themselves as feminist because of complications
when saying so
• All people who label themselves feminist believe in the same thing
- There is lots of pushback from different opinions
- They all agree on a certain social push towards…
Lecture 3
Capitalism = economic system characterized by private property wage labour, where those who
own the means of production employ those who don’t, who are forced to sell their labour power
to live
Cisgender = person whose self-identity conforms with the gender that corresponds to their sex
Jessica Valenti “You’re a hard-core feminist - Feel Good Feminism
• Feminism is seen as anti-men, anti-sex, anti-sexism, anti-everything
• Feminism isn’t just anti, it’s also about progress
• Most young women are raised to believe there’s something wrong with them
• Feminism allows you to see through that bullshit
• She argues that all women grow up in this culture and experience it
• Young women are made to feel like shit about themselves all the time
Most Young Women are Feminist but are too Afraid to Say so
• Reasons
1. Feminists are ugly
- How their appearance becomes the number 1 thing about them
- If she is ugly this becomes a huge thing
2. Things are fine the way they are
- We don’t need to a feminist because things are fine the way they are
3. Feminism is for old white ladies
- Thought to be for the white population (white feminist)
4. Feminism is so last week
5. Femi-wha?
- Not understand to what is it makes people not want to follow it
Not on Slides
• Sarah Ahmed: the feminist killjoy
- “The feminist killjoy ‘spoils’ the happiness of others; she is a spoilsport because she
refuses to convene, to assemble, or to meet up over happiness…”
- “Power speaks here in this moment of hesitation. Do you go along with it? To create
awkwardness is to be read as awkward. Maintaining public comfort requires that
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
certain bodies ‘go along with it’. To agree to where you are placed. To be refused to
be placed would mean to be seen as trouble, as causing discomfort for others”
• Women who seems to stand up for what is said, they are seen as killjoy and not being funny
• The assertion of power and dominance, the society is not equal
Estelle Friedman “The Historical Case for Feminism”
• Feminism developed as a result of 2 related historical transitions:
1. The rise of capitalism and the gendered division of labour
- We sell out time and power to a company
- Capitalism developed the division of gender
- Capitalism replaced feudalism
2. The rise of liberal individualism as the dominant ideology in western nations
- Liberal individualism: with the rise of democracy and certain rights and freedoms
- Regardless of poor or rich you should be able to access certain things
- This individual that is on rise
Lecture 4
Three Waves of Feminism in the West
• First wave: late 1800s, early 1900s, focus on basic rights
- Voting, being recognized as persons under the law
- Seen as property of their husband or their father
- This can be seen when the girl takes on the last name of the father and then her husband’s
last name
- During a wedding, the father walks the girl down the aisle and then is given to the
husband
• Second wave: 1960s,
- Called “women’s liberation” in the media, focus on gendered division of labour, violence
against women, and reproductive rights
- 1918, women were able to secure the right to vote in Canada, 1920 in the states
- Occurs because there is a lot of heterosexual women, happening after WWII
- Women were feeling isolated and depressed
- Women started to notice that when they talked to other women they shared similar issues
- Personal and political
o When people feel like when something is going on in their lives and it’s their fault
o Larger political problems
- About challenging false consciousness
- Challenging the ideologies that they are wives that stay at home and not having a job
- Also concerned with violence against women
- “Take back the night marches” – marches in the night that
- They reject men and heterosexual intercourse
- Reproductive rights:
o Birth control: women take control as to when they want to have children or not,
the right to use birth control, the right to take control of their life
o This changes the heterosexual normative
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Thought that feminist because they are lesbians they hate men: feminist hate the idea of family. The idea is therefore only for feminists and need to be gotten rid of. Thoughts that feminist can"t be mother, they are going along with demands of society: feminist are masculine and unattractive. Female politicians are constantly subjected to scrutiny: how they speak, what they wear, their body shapes. Hollywood: the focus on magazine, focus on body image (dieting, feminist hate god. They are thought that they want to dismantle the idea of god. Thought that within religion women are always below that of men. Women want to challenge the notion as to why god is male: feminist don"t shave. Structures that constrain us: laws, stigma, education, relations of power, family, peer: feminist can"t be stay-at-home moms. To be a stay at home mom, you chose to be a heteronormative family.
