A week ago, you asked. Now, I’ll do my best to answer your feminism-related questions. Some of them, at least.
1. From David, “What are your thoughts on feminism and multiculturalism?”
This is a good one, and I’ve made a few attempts to write about it before. Essentially, I think that multiculturalism is obviously valuable, but I also think there’s a point at which feminism becomes imcompatible with cultural relativism. Feminist theory, and uman rights theory in general, subscribes to the idea that all people deserve certain inalienable rights, and that those rights are deserved simply because we are all human beings (there is a more complicated philosophical and moral framework behind it, but I’m not going to go into all the details right now). I would argue that there is not a single culture in existence today that does not, in some way, infringe on these rights. Some cultures obviously infringe on them much more egregiously. But instead of “good cultures” and “bad cultures,” we have more of a sliding scale when it comes to human and women’s rights. And so any culture, I think, can be scrutinized, criticized and improved. Any culture is fair game.
What isn’t fair game is orientalizing other cultures, assuming that “different” means “worse,” and believing (with little evidence) that American or Western culture is and has always been superior to all other cultures when it comes to human rights norms. What isn’t fair game is falling back on imperalistic policies to create change in other countries, while refusing to face our own problems. What isn’t fair game is not trusting local people enough to devise their own solutions.
In the post linked above, which focused on abortion and dowry practices in India, I wrote:
And this again is where I differ from many like-minded liberals: I think that at some point, feminism and cultural relativism are incompatible. I think that at some point, universal human rights and cultural relativism are incompatible. I think maintaining one’s culture is incredibly important, but I don’t think that something is good or valuable just because it’s been around for a long time. And I know that culture isn’t static; it shifts, it changes, and it develops. Not so long ago, women were pretty much sold as property from their fathers to their husbands, and it had been that way for a long, long time. But we changed the definition of marriage, and all for the better. So do I think that it would be wrong or culturally imperialist of me to suggest that the dowry system needs to be changed in order for women in India to be fully equal? No. And while I think it is my position as a feminist to disseminate information and encourage widening of thought, I think that changes like that one have to come internally, from Indian women and men who do feel oppressed by the dowry system (and believe me, they exist). There will be many who argue that the system isn’t oppressive, just as there were many who argued that chattel marriage wasn’t oppressive. But that doesn’t make it so.
That remains my view. Feminism and cultural relativism hit a point where they can simply no longer be wedded. Feminism does have boundaries, and it draws lines at the points where women and girls are being relegated to second-class status because of their gender. Every culture in existence crosses this line at some point. It’s out job, as feminists, to criticize the places where those lines are crossed, and strategize ways to improve all of our situations.
Multiculturalism, however, may have different connotations that “cultural relativism.” We live in a multicultural society. That isn’t going to change anytime soon (and thank God for that). Recognizing that all of our cultures have value is not at all incompatible with feminism; in fact, it’s quite in line with a perspective which argues that the white male experience should not be privileged above all others. Allowing people to identify with their own cultural backgrounds, and not pushing them to leave their own beliefs and traditions behind, is an important component of American society. And that in itself is not at all in conflict with feminist theory. The issue comes up when sexist, racist, or otherwise discriminatory actions and beliefs are justified through multiculturalism and cultural relativism.
2. From Matt, “How can feminist bloggers make their voices heard over the din of “mainstream” political blogosphere? This question presupposes that feminist bloggers are (a) not heard and (b) would want to be heard – feel free to disagree with either premise, or any ones that remain unstated.”
This is a tough one, and I’m very uncomfortable speaking for feminist bloggers as a whole. I’m sure there are some who feel that they are heard, many more who feel they aren’t, some who want to be heard in the mainstream, and many who could care less if mainstream bloggers link to them. So I’ll speak for myself.
In the blogging world, I’m a nobody. I’m no DKos, I’m no Atrios, I’m no Jane or Christie from FDL. In the feminist blogging world, though, Feministe somehow rose in the ranks (if you buy into the idea that there are ranks), and I’ve been informed that it is one of the “bigger” feminist blogs.
I don’t think about it like that. I assume that it’s me, zuzu and piny writing, and our small group of commenters reading. I occassionally look at our traffic and it doesn’t match up with how I conceive of this community at all.
So on that level, I suppose that I am heard. We’ve gotten our handful of Atrios and Dkos links, and some of the bigger mainstream bloggers write regularly about feminist issues. That’s important, because those blogs are big for a reason — they cover a wide range of issues in a way that’s accessible to lots of different people. Getting more feminist issues into those blogs is incredibly valuable.
But I’ve been generally burnt out on electoral politics, and you’ll notice that I rarely write about elections or schill for the Democratic party. I did that — I worked on campaigns, I went door to door, I supported candidates, the whole deal, and I’m disappointed. The Democratic party doesn’t represent me. There isn’t a single candidate out there (other than in local elections) who really excites me right now. The mainstream blogs like Kos and MyDD are focused on how to elect more Democrats into Congress, and that’s good and fine — but it’s not a conversation that I’m particularly interested in having. Until the Democratic party gets its act together and is truly progressive, I have no interest in using my little corner of the internet to strategize ways to get their people in office. And that, I think, is where a lot of the feminist blogs diverge from the mainstream political blogs. We’re approaching blogging on two different levels.
The level that gets focused on, of course, is NetRoots and politicking, and I take very little issue with that. Someone has to do it, and I’m glad that there are motivated individuals out there who are using this technology to make important political gains. However, like I said, that’s not the conversation that I want to have. I like using blog space for community-building and issue-based discussions. It’s exciting to see my feminism being shaped by other feminist bloggers I read. Few things have made me as happy as the emails I’ve received from people saying that Feministe shaped their feminism, or encouraged them to identify as a feminist in the first place. Right now, that’s where my interest lies, and so that’s what I’m focused on. Not making my voice heard, not the number of links we get, not who links to us.
But that said, I am always thrilled when I see a link from one of the “big” blogs to Feministe or another progressive feminist blog, because it gets our issues out into the dominant social conversation, and that has value as well. There are certainly many feminists out there who are more interested than I am in electoral politics right now, and/or who are more interested in having their voices heard in the mainstream blogosphere. I think there are many more of us who need to be heard. As for how they can do that, I’m not sure there’s any big secret — at the end of the day, there are only a handful of “top” blogs, and those stay pretty static. What I think the online feminist community has been pretty good at is organizing and supporting each other through things like Feminist Blogs and BlogSheroes. Any feminist blogger who wants to be connected into the larger feminist blogging community should list themselves on these sites. Beyond that, I’d say that making connections into the community that you’d like to be heard in is the most important thing. If you’re a small feminist blogger and you would love it if the bigger feminist blogs would link to you, let us know that you’re out there. Send an email and link to a recent post that you think is particularly good. Show up at the bigger feminist blogs and comment. Leave trackbacks. Make your handle more recognizable, and people will come. If you want to be heard at the big-boy blogs, I’m not sure how you go about them. I’d say you could email, but I’d imagine that they get hundreds of emails a day and yours may go unnoticed or ignored, especially if you’re blog-whoring. But give it a shot. And if you have a particular issue that isn’t being talked about, or if you aren’t being widely recognized, keep at it. Will you displace Kos as the biggest liberal blogger out there? Probably not. And if you’re writing about feminism, you should probably keep in mind that in our particularly conservative cultural context right now, you’re going to generally be considered on the fringe, even if what you’re saying is fairly simple and shouldn’t be all that controversial. But if what you’re saying is important, it’s worth keeping up, and it’s worth standing up and shouting until someone pays attention.
3. From Hugo, “Jill, it’s a broad question, but as you were very recently an undergrad — what are those of us who teach feminism/women’s studies doing right, and what could we do better, to reach younger budding feminists of your generation?”
You guys have some really good, tough questions. First, I would say that you shouldn’t make any assumptions about where your students are in their feminist development. Don’t assume that they all identify as feminists. Don’t assume that they even understand what “feminism” actually is. All the women’s studies professors I had were particularly good at getting the point across that feminism is a diverse theory, and that there isn’t a single version of feminism that all feminists adhere to. That’s incredibly important. Feminist professors I had were also good at sharing their own personal experiences as examples, and encouraing us to examine our own lives in our studies of women’s history, oppression, and gender politics. As KnifeGhost pointed out in the comments, intersectionality in women’s studies has also been a key component in developing feminism for many younger women and men. They’re certainly doing that right.
I think, though, that educators could do a better job of reaching out to communities where “feminism” is still considered a dirty word. I was practically forced to take my Intro to Women’s Studies class freshman year, and I only enrolled because I was registering late and there weren’t spots in any other classes. Had it not been one of my only options, I’m not sure I would have ever taken gender studies classes at all. Something needs to shift, outreach-wise, in order to get more young women interested in feminism and women’s studies from the get-go. For this to happen, I’d like to see prominent people, including professors of all stripes, wearing their feminism on their sleeves, and using the word “feminist” to accurately describe feminist issues. Reproductive rights, for example, is a feminist issue, and when we’re talking about it in a political context, we should be using the word “feminism.” Women’s rights in Afghanistan is a feminist issue. Sexual harassment is a feminist issue. Rape is a feminist issue. Poverty is a feminist issue. Ethnic and religious conflicts are feminist issues. Sexual politics are feminist issues. We shouldn’t shy away from using the word “feminist” to describe them — it’s accurate, and it helps to demystify the word a little bit. It could also help younger women to feel more connected to feminism, and be more likely to pursue some coursework in women’s/gender studies.
And other than that, I would simply encourage feminist professors to take younger women seriously. I feel like I hear a lot of complaints from older women activists that my generation is lazy or that we don’t care about feminism. That isn’t true — in a lot of ways, we just speak a different language and we form our communities in different ways (see this post at Feministing for one example of those divides). We also focus on different issues and have different takes on some of the established feminist issues — the best women’s studies professors I’ve had took younger women seriously, engaged us, challenged us, and allowed us to challenge them. But I didn’t see that often enough.
This is taking a little longer than I thought it would, since you all asked such incisive and interesting questions. I’m gonna try and get a few more done tonight, and hopefully I’ll finish the list over the next few days. Feel free to critique my answers, add your own, or ask clarifying questions in the comments.