shainarobin's blog

Introduction

When thinking of topics to write this final web event on, my mind wandered to ecofeminism and stayed there. It’s a topic and issue that has been picking at me since we first discussed it briefly in class and it has been urging me to take a closer look at it ever since. When the final group to present during our last class did their presentation on ecofeminism, the picking only intensified.  I knew then that I needed to learn about the history of the movement and why it carries the images and connotations that we discussed during that class. I felt like this would solve my desire to understand ecofeminism and would help me determine whether or not I could place myself within it. And so, I did just that. I delved into the origins and philosophies of ecofeminism and I decided to look at it from the perspective of people of color. A lack of a presence concerning women of color involved in ecofeminism seemed to be the most glaring issue that I faced when originally analyzing the ecofeminist movement. Keeping this in mind, I concluded that when researching for this paper I would look at popular ecofeminist texts that help establish a general definition of what the movement is, along with ecofeminist movements and texts that directly or indirectly come from the point of view of women of color.

Introduction

Within feminism, there is an extension known as Black feminism. Black feminism was developed with the belief that sexism and gender oppression are not the only issues that bind women together. It instead argues that sexism along with classism and racism are all interconnected, forming an intersectional identity. When the Black feminist movement was developed, many people felt that there were feminists out there in the mainstream who wanted to overcome sexism along with classism, but left race out of the equation. Black feminists wanted to show that race could be used against women as a tool for discrimination. It is therefore unique in the fact that it was started by unbinding itself from the second wave feminist movement. I’ve decided to explore two layers of feminism unbound by examining how black feminism itself had been unbinded. In order to do this I will be referencing a video-recorded conversation that I had with my Mom about her experiences with black feminism as a teenager in the 1970s and comparing it with my experiences from today.

Feminism Unbound/Black Diaspora

Throughout my time reading "Eva's Man", I was constantly reminded of a documentary I watched a few years ago. The film, titled "What I Want My Words To Do To You", followed Eve Ensler (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame) as she conducted writing workshops with the women inmates of New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. What struck me about the film at the time was the immense guilt and confusion felt by the women who had been convicted for committing, mainly murderous, crimes. With the direction of journaling, many women brought to the surface their side of the story and the history leading up to their decisions (or maybe better worded, actions).

Introduction

For hundreds of years, American Sign Language (also known as ASL) has been used as the primary mode of communication in the deaf community.  Because of its use of gestures, hand shapes, and visual expression, ASL’s authenticity as a language has been challenged by many throughout its history. Despite these claims of illegitimacy and attempts to abolish its use, ASL continues to

maintain a strong hold in both deaf culture and history. In recent years, sign language’s  uniqueness and accessibility has made the language increasingly more present in the hearing community. Studies are now showing that sign language is boosting cognitive skills and performance levels in young people in addition to giving them insight into the deaf community. American Sign Language’s positive academic and cultural benefits prove that if added to the mandatory curriculum taught in American Kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) schools, not only would it accommodate intersecting identities but it would help combat audism and the stigma attached to people with disabilities.

Our discussions in class on Tuesday and Thursday have had me thinking all week about whether or not an unstructured school setting employing the use of queer time could succeed in the heteronormative time frame that mainstream society functions on. A lot of the thoughts that have in response to this question have been drawn from experiences of my own. I have decided to share my story with with the hopes that it might help some of you when forming an opinion of your own.

When I was growing up, my sister and I could not have looked anymore alike visually. We had the same eyes, lips, hair type, skin tone, shoe size and much more. At the core, we were identical twins. Stylistically however, we were polar opposites. As a way to individualize ourselves from one another, we developed different tastes in clothing, toys, books, and expression.  Justine was the tomboy, I was the girly girl.  I loved pink, Justine hated it. Even with all of these differentiations however, we could never get rid of the fact that we were identical twins. We could make it a little less obvious, but that label would never completely go away. Not that we wanted it to, we enjoyed the benefits that came with being twins and enjoyed our similarities as well as our differences. However, the inability for us to be together without a label that neither one of had chosen nor could get rid of made for some hard times when it came to establishing ourselves as separate people. My sister and I’s failure to create identities completely independent of each other makes me question whether our identities as human beings are relational?

Defining feminism is complex. So complex in fact, that I don't think I've ever heard anybody describe it in the exact same way. Its meaning differs from person to person. I don't think that this is bad per se, but I do think that this range in definintion has allowed for today's media to warp feminism as something negative and detrimental for the rights of women. In many of the TV shows I watched growing up, especially the ones featuring strong and role model-like female characters, a "straw feminist" character would be introduced to show viewers what could happen if we took everything too seriously. These straw feminists were so ridiculous, crazy, and over the top, that they managed to spread the message that gender inequality/opression was overblown and feminism was trying to create a problem where there wasn't one. Basically, the goals of these episodes were to show that feminism wasn't necessary. This message was reinforced in the form of the female lead on the show who wasn't anything like her straw feminist counterpoint. This meant that there was no way she could ever be a feminist. This sneaky and strategic form of  anti-feminism has resulted in children growing up to believe that feminism is more or less evil. This is why so many young peolpe are hesitant to desribe themselves as feminists today. Along with the lack of concrete definition, the adverse portrayl of feminists in the media has made people believe that they are doing more harm than good. This idea is further explained on a YouTube channel called Feminist Frequency.

I had a breakthrough last night while I was reading My New Gender Workbook. Kate, the author, asked readers to think about “any journeys [they’d] made across identities.” Before this comment, I had been having trouble connecting with Kate and her “twibe’s” gender identity experiences. While I was interested in them, I was at a level where I couldn’t truly understand them. That is until I was asked to think about my own identity. That’s when I realized that the way gender identity had been described throughout the book so far was similar to the way I felt about my own racial identity. I am mixed race with a Black mother and a White father (to put it simply). Yet all of my life I have been strictly classified as Black. Why? Because it’s convenient to put people in specific categories and think of them as just that. If there was a name for every combination and racial mix of people out there then our perception of race would be even more complicated than it already is. Is that a bad thing though? 

In my hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, we have a sculpture that every townie grows up hearing about. It’s called “The Cube”. Located on University of Michigan’s campus, The Cube attracts plenty of students and tourists alike everyday. Balancing itself on one tip, The Cube has an imposing and uneasy quality to it, looking like it could fall over and crush you at any moment.  However if you go up to touch it you find that it’s not unsteady at all, it actually spins. Now, getting The Cube to spin isn’t an easy task. It takes a lot of energy, strength, and hard work. Sometimes even that can’t get it to turn. That’s where teamwork comes in. The hardest part of spinning The Cube is getting it to move that first inch. But if you and the other people involved (whether they be a few jolly college students or a determined 3rd grade class) put the effort into pushing The Cube, you'll find that it gets spinning on it’s axis, becoming easier and easier to push each time it comes around. The belief that The Cube is movable despite it’s foreboding appearance and heavy weight is what brings people back to it time and time again.