As both Hilary and Rachel pointed out, feminism is, without a doubt, much more complicated than I ever imagined. Admittedly, before taking this class, I knew very little about feminism and naively assumed that feminist groups were women fighting for a universal cause-equal rights and respect. Until readings earlier this semester, I was completely “oblivious” to the threat of internal tensions due to conflicting feelings or hierarchies within feminist groups.
Now that the articles and essays I have read explicitly pointed this issue out to me, I have become much more aware of the complexity and complications involved with working towards progress and change. Now obvious to me, any group working towards a common goal must maintain cohesion and general agreement in order to truly progress rather than dissipate, and this fact includes feminist groups as much as any other group.
As Tiya Miles discusses in her essay on the ultimate failure of the Harvard feminist newspaper, The Rag, even in a group working towards greater equality, certain groups or individuals may continue to feel marginalized or unimportant in the group. While initially the group seemed empowering and positive for all group members, many individuals quickly felt as though they were being shafted and devalued within a group that was supposed to be working towards greater power and opportunity for everyone.
The problems within The Rag certainly cannot be blamed on any one group or individual, but rather the lack of awareness and appreciation amongst different groups. Partly, white women were insensitive and unaware of the marginalized position of black women in the group. On the other hand, black women were very sensitive to feeling unimportant and ignored in the group, and often took events as personally offensive. As Miles suggests, if they had studied past examples and history of feminist groups, the members of The Rag would have been better equipped to form an organized, fair, and successful group.
Considering the problems within The Rag, I began to think about the differences within our class and my own knowledge and recognition of these differences. I realized that I was rather unmindful of the advantages I have over many of my “peers,” a noun technically meant to refer to someone with equal advantages or comparable circumstances. As Peggy McIntosh argues in her essay on the invisible benefits enjoyed by certain groups like white people, members of the upper class, and men, my color is an “asset” that I was born with. I did not work to be white or earn this advantage relevant in my every day life.
Further, as McIntosh notes, the American ideal of universal meritocracy is in fact somewhat artificial. While we all sit in our Women’s Studies class at 9:55 every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and earn the same credits, and same degree upon graduation, some students in the class had to work harder than others to come to this common point. Further, the different experiences and circumstances we have all experienced have shaped us as individuals, given us unique experiences and perspectives on all aspects of life.
While I have always been interested in the various points and opinions represented in our class, I have a whole new perspective on their potential after reading Audre Lorde’s essay on using these fundamental differences for the better. Lorde suggests that rather than simply “tolerating” these differences, we must recognize that differences are a “fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic,” (Lorde, 2). Her idea really made me excited for future classes as I now have an entirely new perspective on the opinions and comments of my fellow classmates. Rather than just listening to or sometimes even getting annoyed by points I don’t agree with, I will now see these different arguments as potential for our class to reach new levels of ideas and thought that can only be found through the collaboration and understanding of all of our individual opinions and experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment