Currently, I’m reading “Professional Identity Crisis: Race, Class, Gender and Success at Professional Schools” and it has gotten me to think more about our identities as feminist scholars in training and how our schooling is preparing us for these roles. I do not think we have been re-socialized in terms of clothing and body in the same way that students at professional schools change their clothing and bodies. I however, believe we are being re-socialized by the readings we have been assigned and the discussions we have in class. All of us have admitted to being challenged by the long list of things we must do when conducting our research. I would argue that these challenges are the women’s studies version of forming professional identities. Are there any other traits we should be re-socialized towards obtaining? And is re-socialization necessary for us to become good feminist scholars?
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Us and our Research
Harding and Noeberg explored the bias inherent in any research since the researcher lives in society and has focused their life on completing their research project. This contradicts the academy’s view that all research should be unbiased and the researcher should be a neutral object. Feminist research understands this to the extent that we should be reflexive in our research and include our interactions with the research subject in our research. I believe this is very important as we do not research in a vacuum and our personal impressions or biases are important to the reader as they read our research.
I believe there are many advantages to conducting this kind of research, among them is the insider relationship we can form with our research subject. By sharing part of our life our research subject may be more apt to share with us their life. At the same time, this can backfire if we are studying a subject that has very different beliefs then us. Even then, its human nature to try and convince others of one’s view so our research subject may share their life story even more passionately in an attempt to convert us to their views.
By including our perspective and life in our research, our research is only helped. Why other disciplines do not understand this is beyond me.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
A New Framework for Looking at Gender
Instead of looking at gender issues from the perspective of women I am starting to believe you must also look at gender issues from the perspective of men. Before everyone screams, that is what the academy has always done please hear me out. Instead of exploring privilege from the perspective of the disadvantages of women and what has lead to those disadvantages. We need to look at privilege from the perspective of the advantages of men and why they have those privileges. By doing this, we can show men how their privilege is structural and is unearned. In addition, we can motivate men towards working to end male privilege and maybe more men will become interested in accomplishing this goal. Yes, I understand we cannot lose sight of women because historically women and their issues have been ignored by the academy but at the same time an exploration of privilege from the perspective of the dominant group will help further our understanding and hopefully help us end the structural and other oppression that exists for the subordinate gender group.
Inspired by Karyn Loscocco and her framework for exploring racial privilege from the perspective of the dominant group.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
How To Study Men
I recently came across the webpage’s for the “American Men’s Studies Association” which was founded in 1993 and the “Foundation for Male Studies” which was founded this year. Both organizations explore men and masculinities but have different foundations. The aim of the American Men’s Studies Association is to “to encourage the refinement of the parameters of men’s studies, to generate theory, and to develop methodologies of the study of masculinities from an ethical perspective that eschews oppression in all forms (namely, sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, classism, etc.).” while the Foundation for Male Studies focus on “misandry” and “the presence of an unacknowledged underlying theme of misandry in popular culture”.
While I believe both organizations have interesting contributions to make to the field, I have trouble understanding the foundation that the foundation for male studies is trying to stand up on. To me it sounds like they are saying that feminism has achieved all of its goals (in the United States) to the extent that men are now oppressed which we know is not true. I’d personally rather be a member of the American Men’s Studies camp which has its foot more in women’s studies and study men in that fashion.
What do others think about these two organizations, especially the formation of the Foundation for Men’s Studies?
Friday, September 17, 2010
Difficulty of Men Conducting Feminist Research
In McDowell’s article, “Doing Gender”, she outlined the fears of every graduate student, especially those of us who study outside of the norm. She describes students in the geography department not studying feminist issue due to the perception that studying those issues will not lead to academic advance. I, as a man studying women’s studies, fear the same thing and believe McDowell did a disservice by only addressing women studying feminism in her article. I was practically shocked when she stated in describing qualitative research popular in women’s studies that, “it is often argued that qualitative, small scale, and case study work is ideally suited to women studying women” (406). I realize she is critiquing the assumptions made about female feminist scholars but the entire tone of her article seems to ensure that gender studies become “female ghettos” which she states needs to be addressed (403).
Scott in “Evidence of Experience” reminds us of the difficulty of studying the other. She reminds us that experience affects our research. In other words, my experience as a man will always affect any feminist project I undertake. I need to be careful in my work to ensure that I am not only studying women in terms of their oppression but I also need to look at the privilege of men which my experience will be both helpful and a hindrance.
Miraftab in “Can you Belly Dance”, shows us that the research subject can be an equal partner in our research and we should engage them as such. We need to pay particular attention to the power imbalance inherent in the research relationship and if I am to study women I need to be particularly careful.
As a man in the women’s studies field I will have to be careful at all times to ensure I use feminist research methods at all times and do not let my male privilege affect my research. Even though this research will be quite difficult it will be both personally and intellectually rewarding.
Work Cited:
McDowell, L. (1992). Doing gender: feminism, feminists, and research methods in human geography. Transactions of the Institute of British
Scott, J. (1991). The evidence of experience. Critical Inquiry, 17(4), 773-797.
Miraftab, F. (2004). Can you belly dance? methodological questions in the era of transnational feminist research. Gender, Place and Culture, 11(4), 595-604.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Exploring Five Things Men Must Do
I thank the.strenuous.briefness for taking the time to respond to my open question regarding what feminist men should teach other men about feminism even though I “shouldn’t expect [women] to want or be ready to discuss where [men] fit in or what role [they] should take” I applaud her work because it moves beyond the call for and joy for by feminists for men to join their movement and offers practical facts and warnings for men as they head on that endeavor. She lists five things that men should do which I explore below:
Teach men humility:
This recommendation points to the difficulty that the men will have as he becomes a feminist and points to what I have encounter as a feminist. Yes, feminists are happy when men join their movement but one cannot see this as a congratulatory sign. All people should be feminists and work towards the end of feminism. We must listen to feminists that came before us, reflect on their work, and only then can we add to the feminist discourse.
Teach men that they have unearned privilege:
This recommendation will also be difficult for men to internalize. Yes, racist, gay, female jokes are bad and unfortunately are also a big part of male culture. Male culture needs to change and one’s masculinity should not be questioned if a man rejects a part of male culture. When men question why they should be part of the feminist movement and all the things they claim they will lose illustrate for them what they will gain with the ending of gender binaries and all that they will be able to do when they are not constrained by their masculinity.
Teach men to account for their unearned privilege:
Men need to be careful when teaching/learning about women’s studies as it is impossible to check our male privilege at the door. We need to listen more then we speak. We can’t expect to have women council us through our emotions and we cannot assume we know the oppression of women just because we are also oppressed in some way in our lives. For the most part, we are on this journey only with other men and we need to counsel ourselves and take advice from each other on how to adopt to this feminist world view.
Teach men they are not the first, nor the only:
Yes, there are other male feminists that are out their. We need to not only read and discuss their work but we need to become unified to learn about how the feminist struggle will affect us as men and find concrete ways to incorporate feminism into both our own lives and into masculinity. When we do this we need to make sure men of color are included in this conversation as they have important insights to share.
Teach men to work with us, not for us:
All of humanity is in this together and we need to treat this endeavor as such. We need to listen to the conversation that is already in progress and work towards fulfilling the goals of the conversation. Only after completing this step can we fully be true partners in the feminist movement.
Teach men humility:
This recommendation points to the difficulty that the men will have as he becomes a feminist and points to what I have encounter as a feminist. Yes, feminists are happy when men join their movement but one cannot see this as a congratulatory sign. All people should be feminists and work towards the end of feminism. We must listen to feminists that came before us, reflect on their work, and only then can we add to the feminist discourse.
Teach men that they have unearned privilege:
This recommendation will also be difficult for men to internalize. Yes, racist, gay, female jokes are bad and unfortunately are also a big part of male culture. Male culture needs to change and one’s masculinity should not be questioned if a man rejects a part of male culture. When men question why they should be part of the feminist movement and all the things they claim they will lose illustrate for them what they will gain with the ending of gender binaries and all that they will be able to do when they are not constrained by their masculinity.
Teach men to account for their unearned privilege:
Men need to be careful when teaching/learning about women’s studies as it is impossible to check our male privilege at the door. We need to listen more then we speak. We can’t expect to have women council us through our emotions and we cannot assume we know the oppression of women just because we are also oppressed in some way in our lives. For the most part, we are on this journey only with other men and we need to counsel ourselves and take advice from each other on how to adopt to this feminist world view.
Teach men they are not the first, nor the only:
Yes, there are other male feminists that are out their. We need to not only read and discuss their work but we need to become unified to learn about how the feminist struggle will affect us as men and find concrete ways to incorporate feminism into both our own lives and into masculinity. When we do this we need to make sure men of color are included in this conversation as they have important insights to share.
Teach men to work with us, not for us:
All of humanity is in this together and we need to treat this endeavor as such. We need to listen to the conversation that is already in progress and work towards fulfilling the goals of the conversation. Only after completing this step can we fully be true partners in the feminist movement.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Getting Away from Generalizations under Western Eyes
Mohanty teaches us that we need to be careful when doing research that we not make assumptions about people who do not live in the west. We need to see the world through a global lens and not a western lens. We cannot assume that religious women are not progressive, family oriented women are traditional, illiterate women are ignorant, or domestic women are backwards (Mohanty: 1984, 352). We need to take into account all the complexities and history of a particular group and not let our pre-conceived notions (read western) effect the conclusions of our work.
As an example of this Mohanty briefly looks at the veiled Arab women an example I will further expand upon comparing western ideas of the veiled Arab to reality while comparing this image to the non-veiled western women (Mohanty: 1984, 342). In the western world we see the American women as having a lot of choice. Our western eyes see this woman as having the option of choosing a partner of either gender, choosing whether she wants to cohabitate before marriage, choosing whether is even going to get married and choosing if she will have children. Our western eyes tell us that everything the western woman is allowed to do the Arab women is not allowed to do. Because of this many see the Arab women as being more oppressed and less “happy” then the western women. But by looking at it from another point of view where sexual violence and divorce (50% divorce rate) runs rampant in the western world we see the Arab women as having a more stable life.
Even the above analysis while flipping some beliefs on their head does exactly what Mohanty tells us not to do. She tells us not to generalize (Sexual violence, and divorce exist in the Arab world) and to take into account history and location (different practices in different countries, what exactly does Arab refer to? What exactly does western refer to?) We need to escape from these categories and study specific peoples.
In Mohanty’s attempt to revisit her original work she is able to further revise and refine her thinking (Mohanty: 2002, 500). In this article she challenges us to rethink how women ’s studies teaches students about global women. She suggests that we incorporate global women into all of our courses and not just courses that have a global focus (Mohanty: 2002, 518-523). This will allow future scholars of women’s studies to be global in their thinking and not make mistakes of looking through the world through a western lens of generalizations and assumptions.
Work Cited:
Mohanty, C. (1984). Under western eyes: feminist scholarship and colonial discourse. boundary 2, 12(3), 333-358.
Mohanty, C. (2002). “Under western eyes” revisited: feminist solidarity through anticapitalist struggles. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society , 28(21), 499-535.
As an example of this Mohanty briefly looks at the veiled Arab women an example I will further expand upon comparing western ideas of the veiled Arab to reality while comparing this image to the non-veiled western women (Mohanty: 1984, 342). In the western world we see the American women as having a lot of choice. Our western eyes see this woman as having the option of choosing a partner of either gender, choosing whether she wants to cohabitate before marriage, choosing whether is even going to get married and choosing if she will have children. Our western eyes tell us that everything the western woman is allowed to do the Arab women is not allowed to do. Because of this many see the Arab women as being more oppressed and less “happy” then the western women. But by looking at it from another point of view where sexual violence and divorce (50% divorce rate) runs rampant in the western world we see the Arab women as having a more stable life.
Even the above analysis while flipping some beliefs on their head does exactly what Mohanty tells us not to do. She tells us not to generalize (Sexual violence, and divorce exist in the Arab world) and to take into account history and location (different practices in different countries, what exactly does Arab refer to? What exactly does western refer to?) We need to escape from these categories and study specific peoples.
In Mohanty’s attempt to revisit her original work she is able to further revise and refine her thinking (Mohanty: 2002, 500). In this article she challenges us to rethink how women ’s studies teaches students about global women. She suggests that we incorporate global women into all of our courses and not just courses that have a global focus (Mohanty: 2002, 518-523). This will allow future scholars of women’s studies to be global in their thinking and not make mistakes of looking through the world through a western lens of generalizations and assumptions.
Work Cited:
Mohanty, C. (1984). Under western eyes: feminist scholarship and colonial discourse. boundary 2, 12(3), 333-358.
Mohanty, C. (2002). “Under western eyes” revisited: feminist solidarity through anticapitalist struggles. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society , 28(21), 499-535.
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