"Growing up in a black, working-class, father-dominated household, I experienced coercive adult male authority as more immediately threatening, as more likely to cause immediate pain, than racist oppression or class exploitation. It was equally clear that experiencing exploitation and oppression in the home made one feel all the more powerless when encounter dominating forces outside the home."
bell hooks is absolutely fucking cool. Not only is she investing the reader in her article by giving her social location, she's also deconstructing the patriarchal belief that theory is only legitimate within broader societal contexts. She is owning her own experience as feminist theory. So. Cool.
One (of the many) things I like best about feminism is that it helps me understand how power dynamics in my family have shaped the person I am today. My mother had me when she was nineteen, and my father was mid-thirtysomething. He was an alcoholic, and because of his gender, economic status, and age, he was a domineering force over my mother. I suppose I can't fault him overmuch on the way he was, as it is a long-standing male Stanko tradition to be domineering alcoholics who tend to emotionally damage the younger generations. This longstanding tradition was influenced by poverty, world wars, and ethnic oppressions that have influenced the power dynamics of my family for more generations than I can count.
So, rather than be pissed off at the way I am because of longstanding mental illness tradition of my family, feminist theory has allowed me to understand and come to terms with the person I'm becoming. It is a vehicle in which I have kind of reclaimed some elements of my past, let go of others, and it's something I hope to share with other feminists (and non-feminists, if they're willing to listen) in the hopes of changing the patterns of anger and abuse I see all too often in my family and in other families.
"And non-feminists... if they're willing to listen."
ReplyDeleteAs the picture points out, I think a lot of "non-feminists" don't KNOW that they are feminists because of what the word means. Some people hear "feminist" and think "Bra-burning, man-hating, baby-killing liberal. I'll stay away from that." Those people need their eyes opened, if they are willing. Some people aren't, like Ann Coulter, for instance.
I guess I should elaborate on your response more, as there is not much to say to my previous response except any form of affirmation.
ReplyDeleteYoung Feminists held an F-Word campaign last Tuesday. We stood outside the campus center and roasted marshmallows...the theme (which I came up with!) was "we burn marshmallows, not bras." That is seriously the funniest thing I have ever come up with. So, I was kind of pissed when people actively avoided us (even some people I knew, although I know they're conservative, so that would 'splains why) and/or gave us the stink eye.
And you know, if they would have talked to us, we could have explained how bra burning is a myth that originated at the 1968 Miss America pageant. Feminists threw bras, girdles, Playboys, high heels, and makeup into "freedom trashcans," but because of fire codes were not actually able to ignite them.
I think people avoided us because they seen it as hostile. I can definitely see how a bunch of women with the 'feminist' label surrounded by a teeny fire in subzero weather roasting marshmallows would really be subverting the male status-quo.
In a way, I feel like not actually using the label feels less threatening to non-feminist people because it's less assertive than outrightly saying that you think women are people. Women are supposed to be passive, so them declaring their personhood and taking their lives into their own hands is a threat to the patriarchal fabric of society.
I should really study for my midterms, but all I want to do is write an unnecessarily long explanation of why people who don't call themselves feminists actually are, send it into The Campus, and wait for conservative backlash. 'Cause I am ready to throw down.