meme: five things feminism has given me
1) Given me a language to understand why all the classic novels I loved had males as the hero and the female as an underdeveloped character. I use to get so frustrated. Feminism validated that there was something more to this frustration then this self not understanding my role as wife and mother. Language to understand social construction that perpetuates sexual assault, the fashion industry, and George W. Bush as president.
2) A foundation to understand how I participate in oppression and perpetuate oppression.
3) Freedom from having to genderize my personality or character for either main stream America or lesbian America. Cause I find both heterosexuals and homosexuals expect me to be packing when I leave my home. I think anyone who has been caught in Fem or Butch gender roles that don’t fit would understand this statement.
4) The understanding that feminism is a theory evolving and not a theology that some confuse it to be. It did not give me equality, reproductive rights or the power to vote. Women made this happen, just like it is up to the people of the US to get Bush out of Office and for us to choose alternatives to oil dependence. Theory and belief won’t do it for us! People change things, theories give us a foundation for conversation.
5) The space where I could see a city/Fesitval built by women, ran by women, and sad to say perpetuate social constructed rules by women. and the experience of watching those social constructions change and be questioned by the same women. It gives me hope.
2) A foundation to understand how I participate in oppression and perpetuate oppression.
3) Freedom from having to genderize my personality or character for either main stream America or lesbian America. Cause I find both heterosexuals and homosexuals expect me to be packing when I leave my home. I think anyone who has been caught in Fem or Butch gender roles that don’t fit would understand this statement.
4) The understanding that feminism is a theory evolving and not a theology that some confuse it to be. It did not give me equality, reproductive rights or the power to vote. Women made this happen, just like it is up to the people of the US to get Bush out of Office and for us to choose alternatives to oil dependence. Theory and belief won’t do it for us! People change things, theories give us a foundation for conversation.
5) The space where I could see a city/Fesitval built by women, ran by women, and sad to say perpetuate social constructed rules by women. and the experience of watching those social constructions change and be questioned by the same women. It gives me hope.
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posted by GoGo | 12:30 PM
5 Comments:
You know, for a while, I thought that the "butch-femme" thing was over, that it had gone away with the older lesbians that thought that they had to copy heterosexual roles. I have, in fact told people that we didn't do that anymore. But when you read the dyke magazines etc, you see that it is still alive and well.
I'm not sure that I am happy about it, but thats the way it is. I think that maybe people feel comfortable in those roles, and that's why we keep doing it. (Suzanne Westenhoefer says that we do it to keep the straight people happy.) Personally, I find myself trying to figure out where I fit, but I don't seem to fit in any mold. But that's a good thing.
Here's a question for you...when you see other dykes out in public, do you try to look real butch or somehow indicate that you are queer also? Try to get their attention? I wonder how many of us try to be obvious to get someone to notice us. (Not flirting, just to acknowledge that yes, they are dykes also.)
Thanks for your comments on our blog, by the way. I'm always glad to hear from you, gogo.
GoGo, I'm just checking my blogger account. I look at your page once in a while. I'm an old dude (born 1939) and I still like rock n roll (straight up stuff, not eclectic). Tapes in the truck at present: Dire Straits, ZZ-Top, Doobie Bros, and Lynrd Skynrd.
Those are good question, and suppose something I should meditate on while in public. I know I don't present hard core anything, preferring not to play into gender roles with my attire, but I leave the skirts for business hours or non-lesbian event.
OK, here's a confession. I catch myself carrying myself in a different way if I think that someone around me (a stranger, maybe a fellow shopper) is queer also. I have no idea why I do this, except that I want them to know that I am a dyke. And I don't know why I want them to know that. I just do. Am I strange or what?
These are such interesting perspectives, gogo, different from what I came up with yet I can relate.
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