A Review of my Feminist Theory Class Part 1: So, Am I a Feminist?
January 12, 2024 |
| The textbooks we used for my Fall 2023 Feminist Theory Class...when I posted this collage, it hit me that my Fela Kuti Vinyl is in the background. That Shakara album has two songs, on one side is Lady (13 minutes long) which 'goes well' with this conversation (pun intended). |
Good morning beautiful people,
It is the last Friday before my new semester begins and I wanted to spend the weekend sharing some cool things I learnt in the classes I took over the Fall - Health Psychology, Research Methodology, Feminist Theory and Intro to Neuroscience.
I plan to work on review posts on the latter two - Feminist Theory mainly because of the cool organizations we learnt about, and Intro to Neuroscience class because some of the classes I will be taking this Spring build up from that class. We will start with my Feminist Theory class, which I will review in two parts; first addressing what feminism is based on our class and then talking about the cool organizations.
I know feminism is one of those words/concepts/movements that get a bad rep, and saying that you align with it, at times, calls for severe criticism. At its core, feminism aims to address inequalities, and in particular, those that stem from the 'traditional women are meant to be seen, not heard...women should only be child bearers perspective'. I am aware there are women who choose these things, the movement, at least when it began, aimed to do something for those who did not have any other options other than childbearing, and this 'traditional perspective' or patriarchal systems as sometimes referred to as, meant women could not own land, could not vote, could not have a bank account, could not speak in public/hold public office...and the list goes on and on.
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| From my Fall 2022 Human Sexuality Class |
The objective of this class was to introduce the different approaches/theories that led to additional freedom/choices women have today. We learnt that there were different approaches used by different groups, as they fought for different freedoms/choices. The class also gets into conversations about sexual identity which for some feminists is seen as a way to fight for their right over one's body.
Beside reading and participating in class discussions, we had to prepare for a final paper and presentation on a feminist issue we care about. We had to 1) include empirical research about the issue, 2) align it with the various feminist theories we had learnt about, and 3) discuss the work of an organization doing something about the issue or in the lines of your issue of choice.
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| I used this image (source) for my final paper presentation - My paper argued that there are some issues African women face, that do not make it the global feminist discussion tables |
I have previously written opinion pieces (op-ed) about various issues affecting African women including the impact of blaming rape victims (The Star Kenya), how women bear the brunt of war and the role women in Central African Republic are playing in taking back their power and country (Ms. Magazine), and the psycho-social pain of losing a baby (Mail & Guardian).
For this class, I went with the burden African women with children who have either epilepsy or a mental health diagnosis carry when they are 'divorced' for having a child with an illnesses seen as a bad omen. How they have to juggle fending for themselves and being the primary caregiver of their child. How this sometimes forces the women to take up subpar jobs just to make ends meet, how some either end up in commercial sex work or emigrate abroad to work as domestic workers - atrocities of which have been well documented.
The approach/theory and organization I went with were global feminism and UN Women respectively. Global feminism looks at inequalities women face on the global scale and the interconnection of those inequalities. The burden of care issue discussed above is not 'an African mental health ignorance issue', it goes deeper than that. It has roots in our social safety nets, or lack of. It has roots in how our governments are ran, and the types of health services, employment opportunities and social safety nets they provide, or do not. It has roots in international relations and the numerous employment agencies that 'lure' women and girls to jobs that lead to mistreatment that no one seems to care about. All these are issues we unfortunately blame the women for, but they are societal and global issues.
I went with UN Women because of 1) its global presence and 2) we did our presentations during its annual #16daysofactivism - its a campaign to use the 16 days between Nov 25 -Dec 10 to create awareness about the varies forms of violence women and girls face. My critique of their work, and of many campaigns like this is that they mostly focus on limited forms of violence - sexual and physical - and limited 'type of women'. Not to discount those forms of violence, but there are many other forms, and that was part of the essence of my paper and presentation, to show that there are global issues that women who are not in the West face, that no one really talks about at the global level.
Based on the introduction and that description of my final assignment, I hope you have a broader understanding of what feminism is. Most of all, I hope you saw that 1) feminism is not a fancy word for sitting around and looking for ways to bash men, and 2) there are many feminist theories or approaches (part of the reason why sometimes it looks like feminists do not agree with each other - and the 'women in the boat' picture used above shows, feminism is not a homogenous movement).
These two things, diversity of topics and approaches, were made clear by the textbooks we used for the course.
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| The first textbook - Feminist Thought by Rosemarie Tong and Tina Fernandes Botts |
We started with Feminist Thought by Rosemarie Tong and Tina Fernandes Botts which walked us through the various types of approaches across time. The book starts the various waves of feminism and what they achieved, then moves to discuss different theories from Liberal and Radical feminism, Marxist and Socialist Feminism, Women of Color feminism in the US and Globally, to Ecofeminism, Care Focused Feminism, and Queer Feminism. As a Psychology student, I found it interesting (and odd) that there are Psychoanalytic Feminists who follow Sigmund Freud (I mentioned him in this post). Well besides coming up with the lying on a couch method of therapy, he had some 'interesting' psychosexual development theories that deserve their own blog post. These group of feminist try to explain the difference between men and women from Freud's theories (if you are curious, google penis envy by Freud).
Regardless of whether they are about sexual parts, radicalization or socioeconomics, each of this theories/approaches address different core themes and subsequently provide different solutions...and even though we might not agree with some of them, we have to acknowledge that some laid the foundation for the freedoms women currently experience.
My critique, as shared with the class, is that the book did not go into depth when it came to global feminism - which it bundled under Women of Color feminism section with postcolonial feminism (think of the skin bleaching and hair straightening conversations) and transnational feminism. As a follow up to my criticism, I shared with the professor a couple of African organizations and movements including Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace (which I mentioned in this 2017 opinion piece published by Ms. Magazine).
As a continuation to the discussion on Queer Feminism, we got into the second book, Steven Seidman's The Social Construction of Sexuality where we discussed various sexual and genders identities, sex work and pornography. I was excited about this part of the class because these conversations would broaden my understanding on these topics around sexuality, which are closely linked with my subject areas of interest (which as mentioned in my about page are suicide, addiction and healing).
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| The third textbook - Feminist Frontiers by Taylor, Whittier and Rupp |
For the last part of the readings, the Professor grouped essays from the third and fourth book into thematic areas, then asked us to pick the themes we would like to work on, read the assigned essays, and then share our readings with the class. I picked Diversity and Difference whose reading from the third book were Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege (you should look for her work), Audre Lorde's The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House (she speaks about being invited to a feminism conference and being put at the end of the program after all the white women and white women related issues have been addressed - I cited this essay in my final paper), Dory Nason's We Hold Our Hands Up (on native and indigenous women - this class really opened my eyes on their issues), Eli Clare's Naming: Freaks and Queers (on living with a disability and being a sexual minority and reclaiming derogatory terms).
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| The fourth textbook - The Transgender Studies Reader Remix by Susan Stryker and Dylan Blackston |
From Book 4 (yes we did a lot of reading, writing and discussing in this class), I read Susan Stryker's My Words to Victor Frankenstein...Performing Transgender Rage (was a little hard for me to understand at first and had to reread it, not sure I got it completely but it is about the experimentation on transgender bodies, and their use of the rage they feel - i think, please enlighten me), Marquis Bey's The Trans*Ness of Blackness, the Blackness of Trans*Ness (speaks of intersectionality which was a major theme in our class, in this essay, Bey interplays the issues transfolks face with those that Black folks face), last but not least, Gloria Anzaldua's Selections from Borderlands/La Fontera (which speaks of the middle space - borderlands- third world women feminist occupy, they are not fully accepted in their homes and in the movement).
As a side note Anzaldua is one of my FAV writers, I discovered her work in 2016 after I spoke at Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado and got a copy of Mona Eltahawy's Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution which has words from Anzaldua's Letter to Third World Women Writers in its foreword. I liked the quoted paragraph that I had to Google the author and found the full letter...and fell in love.
I know 'Aunty Chimamanda' from Nigeria said that we should all be feminists, Mona from Egypt is all about smashing the patriarchy (subscribe to her newsletter here) and Elma Akob (see TEDx Talk below) argues that western feminism is not the way for African Women. Three African women with different approaches to addressing inequality.
So, am I a Feminist?
Or am I a SJW (social justice warrior), activist, advocate, crusader, philanthropist - all words that have been used to describe me and my work.
I say yes and no, to all these terms/labels.
Yes, if the definition equates to actions and guiding principles that align with my quest to see equality for people living with mental health issues and their families. From the onset of my work in 2008, I have constantly highlighted inequalities faced by those in this group, ranging from shortcomings in our healthcare/governance systems to the negative impacts of some of our socio-cultural views - including the one mentioned in this post that illustrates how mothers are 'forced into a corner'.
Beside awareness, I have worked on providing solutions...and so, if the labels/principles of feminism, SJWism, activism, advocacy, crusading, philanthropy or any other movement or ideology take away from this quest, then they simply do not describe me or my work, and I have no business using them. If there is alignment, then I do not mind.
This take also applies to African Centered Psychology (learnt about this during APA 2023 Conference) and African Women Theology; two lens I am still learning about and trying to interpret through the lens of my experiences and my quest to speak up and take action when it comes to African mental health issues.
I will definitely continue exploring all these labels/principles/movements. I feel that this might end up being a potluck thing or lead to a super hyper- hyphenated multi-label sort of label...for now, let us work with mental health blogger (I blog about everything mental health). This blogger will see you in Part 2 of this review, where she lists some of the organizations shared by her classmates during the final paper presentations part of her Feminist Theory class...until then, enjoy some instrumentals from Fela Kuti's Lady from his Shakara Album (mentioned it in the first caption on this post...pun intended).
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
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