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OP-ED
Perpetuating Partiarchy(And
Other Liberal Arts-isms)
April 17, 2013
By Guest Contributor
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TFW.ORG
COLLEGE FEMINISMS
ARTS & CULTURE
Poems by Kristen Nelson
3
By Natalie Olivo
12 Apr 2013
Liora K is an Arizona photographer w ho produces art not
only for w ork and pleasure, but also for Feminism. When I
first discovered Liora’s provocative and pow erful images,
it w as in the context of her feminist project featuring text
w ritten on w omen’s nude bodies. My collaborator (Soraya
Chemaly) and I [...]
COLLEGE FEM INISM S
Perpetuating Patriarchy (And Other Liberal Arts-isms)
17 Apr 2013
By Natalie Olivo The true tempo of my college’s student
body occasionally emerges on a double-sided sheet of
paper that circulates around campus five days a w eek.
This “alternative” student new spaper accepts the
unfiltered content of anybody w ho submits something,
providing it’s received before the 6 p.m. deadline. Usually
students just [...]
Millennial Feminists, Stand Up!
15 Apr 2013
By Ashley Yenick Many college-aged w omen have a
skew ed view of feminism and how it might apply to them.
Millennial feminism w as brought to my attention by an
article at CNN.com w ritten by Hannah Weinberger entitled,
“Where are all the Millennial Feminists?” She argued that
millennials believe in equal rights, [...]
Pre-Launch Video: Asking for Kale *trigger w arning,
discusses rape* (by students at Tufts University)
The true tempo of my
college’s student body
occasionally emerges on a
double-sided sheet of paper
that circulates around
campus five days a week.
This “alternative” student
newspaper accepts the
unfiltered content of
anybody who submits
something, providing it’s
received before the 6 p.m. deadline. Usually students just e-mail
notifications about their lost North Face jackets, but every once in a
while, somebody writes something that rattles people to alertness. Two
years ago, one of the editors thoughtlessly published a “why did the
chicken cross the road” joke that ended with a punch line about rape.
While this comment alone was problematic, it was a direct response to a
student who had written in about her personal experience as a victim of
sexual assault.
17 Apr 2013
A selected catalog of my altar
from left to right The body is
an instrument w hich only
gives off music w hen it is
used as a body. ~Anaïs Nin
Bodies that sit here Bodies
that read Bodies that stand
and bend and hurt In
German the [...]
Short Story: “Small Change”
Less than twenty-four hours later, students, faculty and staff gathered
around the flagpole on our academic quad. One by one, impromptu
speakers stepped up, positioned the bullhorn, and declared how our
college does not tolerate rape culture in any capacity. A spirit of ‘60s
rebellion energized the crowd – for about the first twenty minutes.
Eventually, all the speeches sounded vague and repetitive. Students
started fidgeting with their backpack straps and checking their cell
phones. An hour later, after one last burst of enthusiasm during a
concluding chant, the crowd dispersed. People continued on with their
days.
Nobody was naïve
enough to expect our
little rally to make a
dent in any larger
context. Clearly, two
years later, the
Steubenville football
players convicted of
rape hadn’t heard the cries at my college’s flagpole. The people at my
college who needed to hear that rally were not the ones who attended.
Yet even then, the question lingered. Had it accomplished anything at
all? And if not, why?
Perhaps the answer was best articulated, even if accidentally, in my
women’s studies class the next day. We were discussing cultural
elements that allow for a normalization of rape and sexual assault. A
male student, slumped in the back row, raised his hand. He rarely
talked, but that day he apparently felt like sharing. He claimed that
education about rape, including how to avoid it, was already widely
available. Everybody, from potential perpetrators to potential victims,
already had access to this information. That said, there’s simply nothing
more to do than provide the facts and hope people internalize them. A
few students scoffed and frowned, but most remained neutral and
unengaged. I glared at him. I also congratulated myself on how I was so
much more informed, and politically correct, than my classmate. Yet, not
to offer a “meta” criticism of this essay, what did I actually do to confront
sexism, besides write about it?
10 Apr 2013
By Meg Mundell The w oman’s
blink rate tells him she’s
nervous: almost once per
second, four times the normal
count. Jack know s a touch of
nerves can help soften up a
client, especially in the clinic’s
private w aiting cubicles, but if
he overdoes it she may fear
opening her w allet. [...]
TFW IN THE WORLD
TFW w ill be conducting a
w orkshop at NWSA
(November 7-10) titled
“Mediating Feminisms”
16 Apr 2013
Aishah Shahidah Simmons
w ill be screening and
discussing NO! The Rape
Documentary at Claremont
Graduate University (4/17)
and Occidental College (4/18)
14 Apr 2013
For more information, please visit: Tufts Action for Sexual
Assault Prevention: http://tuftsasap.org/ Boston Area Rape
Crisis Center: http://w w w .barcc.org/ Rape, Abuse &
Incest National Netw ork: http://w w w .rainn.org/
Pre-Launch Video: Representations of Black w omen in
Media (students at Royal Hollow ay)
14 Apr 2013
ACS committee interview ed students about the
representation of black w omen in the media as part of their
joint event w ith the Feminism Society at Royal Hollow ay.
ELEM ENTARY FEM INISM S
Majoring in English
29 Mar 2013
By Monica Torres When I sign my name, it’s Monica, not
Mónica. When I order pupusas at my favorite restaurant,
the w aiter w ill give my accent an approving nod, as if to
say, you’re one of us. But it w ill only take a harder
question for me to reveal the [...]
Ms. Yolanda
18 Mar 2013
By Alexa Lambertis At an early age, I w as exposed to a
w oman w ho essentially changed my life. A sw eet lady
w ith a southern background, she w as introduced to me as
a family friend. I met her in her ow n home, w here w e
w ould spend a majority of our time [...]
I was even getting tired of
the same old feminist
arguments. Just a few
weeks ago, while
reviewing submissions for
a literary journal at my
college, I actually rolled
my eyes at a first-year
student’s paper. She
wrote about how Disney films perpetuated sexist stereotypes, as if she
was pioneering brave new scholarly territory — the first person to ever
approach Disney with a feminist lens. After four years of writing papers
about patriarchy, and talking in class about the virgin/whore dichotomy, I
apparently decided that I had conquered sexism simply through
relentless awareness. Although I would never consciously admit this
absurd conclusion, I had to consider the implications. If people like me
and my male classmate thought education was enough, then progress
for women, along with all groups under patriarchy’s shadow, was going
to plateau.
As an English major, I am no stranger to the rickety bridge between
scholarly musings and practical applications. While my papers are
based on literary texts, they ultimately wheel around in abstract,
nebulous hazes. Nobody even reads them except for my professors.
While the gap between essays and reality is usually harmless, the
dissonance between classroom discussions and everyday behavior is
alarmingly wide. Chances are, the kid who wrote the rape joke also
composed a paper about what’s good about patriarchy at one point.
Girls who grind at “CEO and corporate hoes” parties have probably
referenced the dominant male/submissive female binary in at least one
of their essays. I, on the other hand, scroll through a convenient mental
rolodex of “liberal arts” phrases that sometimes get tangled in foggy
abstractions.
I’m not citing myself as a pivotal cultural influence, or anything close, but
perhaps my habits reflect a deceiving agreement. As my male classmate
so eloquently demonstrated, while a dangerous mentality of inequality
still exists, it’s okay to just write about it, to cushion the discussion in an
educational context. I have fallen into the habit of allocating my musings
on patriarchy to academic papers and classroom discussions. If I
genuinely wanted to discuss feminism in a more casual capacity, I’d
sound like I was, frankly, kind of whining. All my friends have sat through
the classes. They know about the oppressive patriarchy and its evils.
What else could I add to the conversation? Plus, despite a lingering
disparity between the sexes, women have it far better than they did even
forty years ago. We no longer have hunger strikes for suffrage or
protests for equal wages. Feminist arguments are submerged in our
national psyche. They are not just present at places of higher learning,
but in mainstream culture.
However, obviously this theoretical rhetoric has not yet instilled itself in
collective action. Misogyny still exists in very real ways. Two years after
my college’s flag pole rally, the Stuebenville rape case has catapulted
underlying issues to national headlines. This culture of acceptance
FOLLOW THE FEM INIST WIRE
permeates freshman dorms where guys joke about a “rape closet.” A
male acquaintance of mine, who happens to be an advocate of
conservative social values, refers to feminism as a pseudo-science. He
claims he once made a women’s studies professor cry by “using logic.”
Find us on Facebook
Of course, we women are not innocent either. Female students on my
campus sometimes feel discouraged against coming forward as victims
The Feminist Wire
of sexual assault, fearing judgment even from their friends. Commentary
Like
such as “well, they were both really drunk” or “she was dressed like a
slut” are not unheard of. This perpetual mindset of dismissing women, to
The Feminist Wire
which both men and women subscribe, extends across a spectrum of
It's Culture Wednesday folks!!! Enjoy "Poems
by Kristen Nelson"!!
sexism.
I’m not paralleling victim blaming to less severe issues, though an
enduring acceptance of patriarchy is present in pockets of campus
culture, as well as all over the country. Over the course of my four years
...
here, I’ve heard a handful of classmates freely admit how they were
See More
getting their “MRS degrees.” They’ll go through the motions of attending
class and composing papers, but ultimately, they are investing in a
Poem s by Kristen Nelson
thefeministw ire.com
future that renders them dependent upon a husband. Off campus, we
A selected catalog of my altar from left to right Thesee
bodythe
is an
instrument w hich
only dominant
gives off music
w hen it is used as female
a body. ~Anaïs
implications
of the
male/submissive
binaryNinthat
Bodies that read Bodies that stand and bend and hurt
I’ve summoned for so many academic papers. Women are still paid 77
What Hovers Above the Altar
11 Apr 2013
Andrea Plaid on the Melissa
Harris-Perry Show
7 Apr 2013
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The paradox exists in the claim that awareness about the enduring
patriarchy is only the first step. In articulating this concern, I still remain
at that first step. I haven’t circulated a petition or conjured up another
flagpole rally. But that’s the thing. Actions against oppression don’t have
to consist of grand, sweeping gestures. I don’t have to stand on a
metaphorical soapbox, but I’ve realized that people can change their
actions to confront patriarchal norms on an individual level. I have to
learn not to self-consciously shoehorn in a joke about “hating
patriarchy” every time I note subtle sexism in a commercial or in a
classmate’s comment.
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Only after we fixate a progressive mindset on an individual level, can we
overcome collective complacency. Despite the insulation of some liberal
arts campuses, activism is alive and well. The scales of justice are finally
appearing to tip towards marriage equality, and our country genuinely
seems to be arching towards progress. But even now, as I catalogue
statistics and anecdotes, I find myself teetering toward generalizations
and abstractions, as if a professor will read this. Yet at the same time,
an education about hegemony is better than the alternative. Exposing
students, and the general public, to the dynamics of patriarchal power
has to be the first step. It has to create a foothold. I can write all I want
about how people should transcend stereotypes, gender binaries, and
patriarchal parameters. But at the end of the day, words mean very little
when they do not match up against actions. However, maybe I’m just
biased because I’m an English major, but words are the place to start.
________________________________________
Search & Hit Enter
Natalie Olivo is a senior English major with a
creative writing concentration and a history
minor. She contributes to her college’s
magazine, as well as InYourSpeakers Media.
She hopes to pursue a career in publishing or
journalism.
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