I am on my lunch break and I feel compelled to write up this
blog for those of you who still read it. I would like to come out of the closet
no not that closet the feminist closet because as much as I have talked about
my work in gender to many of you I don’t know how many of you or the random
people who read this blog get why I care about gender. Let me state this I would
even go so far as considering myself what would be labeled as radical feminist and
I am more than okay with this I sort of embrace it, to the point hierarchy and
social status is on my mind every min of every day. Let me first give you as
quick history lesson 2nd wave feminism is the one most people are aware
of and it did in fact drive a movement for equality. However because of this
one type of feminism most people feel they no longer have to identify as a feminist
as equality in most people’s mind already exist in America (of course I could
argue that it does not but for now we will say equality exist). While I of
course will always work towards equality but when we talk about feminism it
goes way deeper than just equality but that of hierarchy this impacts life
daily for most living things. Even with in one’s own social circles you can see
a power dynamic, however most people don’t want to even acknowledge the power structure
in which they are a part of (ask y that is?). To understand this even more so take yourself out
of your own social circles or networks and start to think of the world at large
for me this is the train of thought that starts me to think about feminism from
a different cultures perspective. This past week one of the only news show I really
like to watch and happily watch it while doing laundry, is Melissa Harris Perry
show and she calls attention to the lack of understanding white feminism has
towards black feminism. As for the dominate class in most cases white people we
tend to forget about black history and the mammy roles that existed that
because someone like Michele Obama in this case, is not acting in a radical
activist way that some people might have hoped for does not mean she is not
contributing to feminist it’s just not white feminism. If you want to know more
about black feminism I highly suggest reading Bell hooks (more radical) and Patricia
Hill Collins it helped me get way more insight into what I was missing from a
white America perspective its helped me figure things out while living in Cambodia.
I bring this all up for the simple fact I have a feeling the mainstream media
thinks that it has silenced majority of people to not recognizing feminism for how
it has actually evolved instead they question “is there any feminist left” “is
it the end of men as we know it” “equality exist so the activist have left to
other cause”. These are just some things I can think up of now but in reality
no one in mainstream media is asking about how the power dynamics and social
class divide and how it is impacting all of us daily. Most people want to believe
that people taking to the streets has died out and there for we r all accepting
that we live in an equal classes society. In research especially related to
development we say things like gender blind approach but I think for where we
are at in society it’s more like a power blind approach to everything. I have
to get back to work so I will stop my babbling but just know that the streets are now the world wide web and that if you really want to understand the world
around you suggest people take back to more feminist ideology which can be
applied to most hierarchy’s. Once you do your life will never be the same again
but hey at least people will know there is far more into it then just
equality. Next time I might come up with
a reading list for you all bc it may shock you but I read this stuff on my free
time reading. Anyways peace out form the other side of the world talk to you
again soon!!!
