After a visit to Bill Maher’s show, “Real Time with Bill Maher” Gloria Steinem found herself under fire for comments made about young women’s candidate preference for the 2016 Presidential race. Steinem is quoted saying,
Tag Archives: feminism
A Woman in the Race…
While scrolling through Yahoo’s coverage of last nights debate, I came across an interesting tweet. Now, I don’t personally use Twitter or have an account, but I had to click on this particular tweet from @DCHomos (what a name).
Obviously, having the first woman president would be groundbreaking, but I think focusing on sex of the candidates in the way that this twitter account, as well as many other people are, is changing the race.
To bring this back to our course, I will use the cultural theory of anthropology. Anthropology says gender isn’t absolute, nor is it a universal concept. So, what is considered masculine or feminine in our culture, may be dramatically different or even opposite of another culture. Traditionally, our culture views the job of President of the United States of America as a masculine position. So how would our ideas change if Hillary Clinton were to win the race? Would that make Hillary masculine, or would that make the job more feminine?
Something to think about…
Third Wave of Feminism
This article from Everyday Feminism written by Kelsey Lueptow really helps to elaborate more on the Third Wave of feminism discussed in the online lecture and in chapter 3 of the textbook. I found it really interesting and helpful with how in depth the article talks about this Third Wave of Feminism and also how it broke it down into different parts. Something that really stuck out to me from the article was where it says, “Therefore, language has a phenomenal power over internalized ideologies that comprise a culture.” I think that statement definitely sums up a lot of what we have been talking about in the course as far as gender and culture goes, but especially through a theory like symbolic interactionism where language plays a very important role.
Is Beyoncé the new face of (modern) feminism?
Beyoncé dropped her new audio-visual album without any notice to her fans in December 2013. The self-titled album sits at #6 on Bilboard’s Top 200 and #11 on iTunes. Beyoncé and her album have been under a lot of scrutiny from the media because of how sexual it is, even having Michelle Williams weighing in on it, despite how popular the album is with Queen B’s fans. In Bey’s video “***Flawless” she includes an excerpt from Nigerian feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie TED talk as her as her second verse saying “…We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.” Throughout Mrs. Carter’s self-titled album she portrays to women that being a sexual being is something we should embrace and not suppress because we are just that, women. To even further confirm Beyoncé’s somewhat feminist stance, here is an article about her interview with British Vogue last spring.
Is this the Third Wave of Feminism?
Check out this video that was posted in 2010 by CNN reporter Carol Costello. It discusses what might be the third wave of Feminism.
Woman challenges tradition, brings change to her Kenyan village
Click here to read the uplifting story of Kakenya Ntaiya, who negotiated with her father to accept female circumcision in exchange for his allowing her to complete high school. Once she did that, she continued on to college and eventually earned a doctorate in the US. She now operates a school for girls in her village and is challenging FGM.
The Hillary Effect: Will Clinton’s Agenda Survive?
Great overview of how Hillary Clinton has been a champion of women’s rights over her time in politics.
At 50, Does ‘Feminine Mystique’ Still Roar?
Click here for a look back at Betty Friedan and the impact of her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, which is credited with inspiring 2nd wave feminists. Does it still hold true for today’s women?
Not A Feminist? Caitlin Moran Asks, Why Not?
This is an interview with the hilariously frank How to Be a Woman author Caitlin Moran. Think Sex in the City in terms of content, but from a feminist point of view. I highly recommend the book!
Today’s Feminists
Great article about how young women are working as feminists by helping other women get ahead professionally and using social media advocacy.