Blog 2

I chose to interview my mom to learn more about her stances on women’s issues. As a background, before this interview, the word “feminism” had never been mentioned between the two of us despite the fact that my mother raised me with what I consider to be very feminist ideals.

When responding to most questions, my mom had a hard time answering or even understanding the question at hand. While my mom always told me that I don’t have to get married, women can get any job a man can, and women shouldn’t be made to pop out children, it is was difficult for her to pinpoint a definition for feminism and gender. My mom’s experience of gender is surprisingly not too far from my own experience. She grew up on a farm where the boys did the field work, and the women cook and clean. She grew up with her father telling her that women are no good for doing farm work, but knowing women that could dig potatoes better than he could. My mom just enjoys cooking and cleaning and thinks that women are better at some jobs than men.

I think that my mom is aware of some very key gender inequality issues. For instance, my mom is very familiar with the pay gap, ways that both genders take advantage of the work place, and that woman need to hold each other up, not cut each other down. It is interesting to hear what she thinks women should be like –no brush haircuts, should wear a bra, and shouldn’t wear their clothing too tight. I was interesting to see my mom talk about such polarized stereotypes and disagreeing with them both.

My mom started out her definition of feminism with, “I don’t know, am I a feminist, Ross?” (Ross being my dad). My mom described one experience she’s had with the word has been with a “penis hater”. Another experience was at work, where her colleagues told her that she wasn’t a feminist if she was reading Amish novels. My mom definitely had a very stereotypical view of feminism.

After explaining a little more about the feminist movement, ideals, and different definitions, my mom could then define for certain what a feminist was, in fact, she had believed much of these things herself. "A feminist is someone who is educated, can holds their own, looks nice, takes care of their body, is put together, is not willing to take crap, and wants equal pay." Even with these views my mom expressed that she likes a man around to help with some things, and that men need to use more “common sense” with inequality issues.

As for the readings...

The study of feminism in a new cultural setting seems to parallel the study of psychology in the new technology age. What will taking certain things for granted do to us? Are we taking things for granted?

This chapter surprised me a little when talking about abstinence as an empowering choice. Almost all of my experiences with the “abstinence only” method have been from private Christian schooling. I completely disagree with the way this method of birth control was taught to me. Other methods were not talked about because it was inappropriate. Guilt and the idea of salvation were used to impose these opinions on my classmates. So while it was refreshing to think about individuals making the choice to be abstinent in a mature and informed manner, I can’t help but be outraged at certain statistics. For example, the fact that 35% of public school boards that have a policy regarding sex education require that abstinence be taught as the only option for unmarried people (while prohibiting or limiting the discussion of contraceptives). ...WHAT? If more than half of kids have sex by the time they are 18, is this they way to go? Not only that, but doesn’t everyone deserve the right to proper education over all methods of protecting yourself? I disagree that this is a chicken and egg problem... this is a horny teenager problem and we need to give them the option to be safe by educating them properly.

The chapter over the third wave was also interesting. I think that I identify quite well with this wave of feminism in our culture. I really believe that the sexes are NOT created equal, but are beautiful in their own rights, but I do want to be active in the same rights for BOTH sexes. I also believe that feminine women can be feminists. Both of these ideas belong to the third wave. I also really like the idea that feminist values need to start extending to social classes, races, all genders, etc. I think we have come to the point where many types of minority groups have been given enough political power and political acknowledgement to have to proper chance to really iron out injustices. ...Why not work together?

As for metrosexuality, I don’t completely agree with the author. I feel as if there have been other places in history where it is common for men to act more feminine: Chinese opera, castrato opera singers, Saturday Night Fever, etc.