White Privilege and Male Privilege: McIntosh

As women, we often like to think about how men are privileged and we consider ourselves the victims, the powerless. However, as we discussed in class today, people are members of many different groups and categories, and are likely to be privileged in some and oppressed in others. For many women such as myself, we are also highly privileged in that we belong to the white racial category. Peggy McIntosh holds a very interesting discussion about the parallels between male privilege and white privilege. In the end, though, she questions why privilege is even termed a positive concept. I would have to agree with her that, while privilege does afford countless opportunities and that most people, myself included, would certainly rather be part of the privileged, empowered group in any given situation, there are so many negative aspects to privilege too. Of course, privilege leads to many people treating others carelessly, inconsiderately, and even violently. These are actions that we have control over and that many people do not participate in on a conscious level, although those who are privileged may not always recognize when they act in such ways. As McIntosh mentions, when you recognize your privilege you are faced with the quandary of what you can really do to change the situation, and the challenge of what is the most moral and reasonable way to approach your privilege. Would you turn down a job if one of the other candidates were from the unprivileged group? This seems impractical, and certainly there is no way to know who would have gotten the job without privilege. This is especially difficult considering that privilege has effects on us all through our lives, affecting our chances and opportunities from the very start. What then, is the best way to strive for equality once you have recognized your own privilege? This is one of the big questions I was left with after reading this article and certainly one I will continue to grapple with.

Oppression By Choice

Ann Cudd writes that women are indeed oppressed, but as a result of their own choices. Although Cudd concludes that these choices are rational based on the situations women find themselves in, one of the biggest questions in her article is how much of a choice women actually have. That is, while women always have a choice, all of women’s choices tend to have negative outcomes, and they are usually coerced, in one way or another, to choose the one that has the least negative repercussions for others, but the most negative repercussions for themselves. As an example, Cudd discusses the situations of a woman who must stay at home and take care of the children while her husband works. Although the woman and her husband believe in equality, the choice is rational as a result of the wage gap. The long-term consequences of this action, and the fact that oppression is still so prevalent economically, really got to me the most. It seems like what needs to happen is a legal, structural change in which employers are required to pay women the same amount as men. The interesting part about this? There is a law, its called the Equal Pay Act and it was signed into law way back in 1963!!

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/equalpayact1.html

Oppression: Marilyn Frye

Marilyn Frye discusses how the term oppression applies to women and refutes some popular claims for why women are not oppressed. I really enjoyed her discussion of why men opening doors for women is not a favor but is actually a form of oppression. I, like many women, tend to perceive men opening doors for women to be a polite and, in today’s society, even chivalrous deed. Although I would never want someone to believe that I could not open a door for myself, I generally take the deed in a positive manner. However, Frye explains the phenomenon in a different way. She says that, because men do not help women in situations where they actually need it, and because the act of opening the door is not determines by practicality but are a symbolic gesture that belittles women by casting them as incapacitated. Although I can see Frye’s point and I especially agree that it is curious how men rarely (although, I would argue, certainly not always), fail to help women when they actually need it, I am somewhat skeptical of her argument. I did a couple of internet searches to explore some other points of view and it became clear that while some individuals perceive chivalrous acts as sexist, others see them as a sign of respect for women. Although I, as a feminist, agree with many aspects of Frye’s argument, I also think that one could easily make a convincing argument of how opening doors for women and other such actions amounts to respect. After all, if women are so busy constantly cleaning up after men in the home, it only seems right that men should sometimes do something for women!

Western Bangladesh and Microfinance

I can’t decide how I feel about microfinance after Thursday’s class. Before, everything I had read about microfinance made me feel that it was a really great method for development and empowering women on a grassroots level. It seemed like such a simple and logical approach that I was always amazed at how well it seemed to work, but never really challenged those perceptions.

The movie we watched about women’s microfinance in Bangladesh only solidified my opinion. Then Dr. Pelkey was kind enough to come in and talk to us about some of his own experiences with microfinance projects. Based on his knowledge, microfinance is actually successful in only a select few cases, and in most situations, the moneylenders get rich off the money they loan the women while the women just become indebted and fearful of their moneylenders (usually men). At first I really did not appreciate my perceptions of microfinance being trumped on, considering that the women may be better off than they were originally, and are at least being challenged to empower themselves. It does raise the question, though, if women are told that this is guaranteed to empower them and then it only makes them feel more endangered and helpless, maybe it will discourage those women from ever stepping out of their traditional gender roles again.

I think it may be possible that microfinance is a good thing when it is combined with the correct oversight and leadership training programs, and especially when the moneylenders are not looking to charge exorbitant interest or get rich off of the loans of poor people. It would be interesting to see how these projects are different from ones in which women have the group among themselves and all contribute their own money to a savings that they can each loan from as needed.

How Feminism Transformed Advertising

This article discusses the ways in which feminism has changed modern-day advertising. I found the article especially interesting because, for my GRE Prep course, just yesterday I wrote an essay about the media creating, rather than reflecting, the values of a society. This article is taking the opposite approach, and after thinking about both perspectives, I believe that the media takes a balanced approach, with television, movies, and books shaping our values to some degree, by gradually exposing us to new ideas and values, while advertising is more likely to reflect those values we hold. After all, for us to buy their products, advertisers really have to focus on those ideals that we find attractive or desirable.

This article makes some really good points about how woman are now seen as more independent than in the past. I thought the examples about female hygiene products, and how advertisements for these are now aimed at independent, active women rather than women concerned with only their role in the home, were especially effective. One piece I thought the article failed to recognize was the detrimental effects of the sexualization of advertising directed towards or portraying women, and the strict beauty ideals reinforced in these images. Often, these advertisements do not reflect the values of individuals but reflect an aspiration that is valued by our society as a whole. This advertising tends to objectify women rather than empowering them.

Gender, War and Militarism: Making and Questioning the Links

I love how, in this discussion of women in the military, specifically in Israel, there is a quote from Idan Halili of New Profile that brings up the very interesting and new notion that men can be refuser-heroes instead of soldier-heroes. She is discussing the concept of refusal to serve in the Army, and the fact that is not only women who are morally opposed to serving, that peace is not just a feminist movement. This is really important because labeling peace-making or peace-seeking as a feminine role limits the ability of the world to live in peace, hurts men physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and leads to the needless harm of so many men and women both. If you consider the men who tried to refuse the draft in the US, or the men who went to war but hid instead of shooting their enemies, and consider even further those men who may be morally opposed to the idea of war but feel that it is their duty as a man to serve in the armed forces, I would imagine there are many fewer men than it appears who are interested in using war as a means to resolve conflict. In addition, we might consider women who fight in an effort to change gender expectations, or to gain power or respect, but not because they actually believe in it. There are also many men and women who join the Military for financial reasons. Offering alternatives to these situations where people see their only or best answer as joining the Army is an important step towards a more peaceful world. By changing the gender expectations for men so that they do not feel obligated to fight, we would be taking a first step towards a more peaceful and more equal society.

Women and War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

“War also destroys the patriarchal structures of society that confine and degrade women. In the very breakdown of morals, traditions, customs, and community, war also opens up and creates new beginnings.”

This quote from Meredith Turshen, referenced in Nadine Puechguirbal’s Women and War in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was very refreshing to me after all of the negative things I have been reading about what happens to women, their bodies, their power, and their lives as a result of war. I think that what Turshen says is very true and that we are seeing it more and more in the world today, where violence creates solidarity between women who recognize that the only way to protect themselves is to stand up together and be heard. While it is certainly shameful that this is what we have let it come to for so many women, it is true that war is often a catalyst for women’s rights movements, and the great obstacles that women often overcome in these situations only serves to illustrate the true strength of so many women around the world. As nations try to rebuild from catastrophes such as civil war and large-scale violence, it is the perfect chance for women to show their power, leadership skills, and indispensability to society. In addition, as the readings for today discuss, many women are the glue that holds their societies together, on many levels, in wartime. This experience must bring women around the world to see how strong and capable they are, and to desire the ability to effect change and meaning in their world even in times of peace.