(Re)Engaging Students with Feminism in a Postfeminist World
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Teaching the Conflicts: (Re)Engaging Students with Feminism in a Postfeminist World MEREDITH A. LOVE AND BRENDA M. HELmbRECHT What happened to the dreams of a girl president She’s dancing in the video next to 50 Cent They travel in packs of two or three With their itsy bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees Where, oh where, have the smart people gone? Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back Porno Paparazzi girl, I don’t wanna be a stupid girl Baby if I act like that, flipping my blond hair back Push up my bra like that, I don’t wanna be a stupid girl —Pink, “Stupid Girls” If representational visibility equals power, then almost-naked young white women should be running Western culture. —Peggy Phelan, Unmarked There is no question that the work of femi- all around” and a “World despaired, their nists has benefited the daily lives, health, only concern [is]: Will they fuck up my and financial status of many American hair?” Certainly, Pink is prone to hyper- women. In fact, some women’s lives have bole, but her questions resonate: do young been so improved that today’s younger women still dream of being world leaders, generation of women may not even know or have their ambitions been curtailed that “we’ve come a long way, baby” and, in lieu of the smaller achievements they perhaps even more importantly, that we can make with their buying power? Peggy still have a long way to go. Even pop cul- Phelan makes a similar point above, noting ture icons themselves, such as the musi- that “almost-naked young white women” cian Pink, recognize the current state of are given great visibility in our culture, gender politics, lamenting the fact that especially in advertisements, television, young women today are more concerned and film; yet it would be preposterous to with what they need to do and buy to suggest that their visibility instantly trans- maintain their image than they are with lates into power. Phelan continues to sug- the positions of power they could some- gest that when women or anyone else who day hold. is “othered” in Western culture (including Pink, an artist we will discuss at some women and men of color, gays, lesbians length in this essay, is searching for “Out- and transsexuals; basically anyone who is casts and girls with ambition,” because not a white, heterosexual male) are given despite the fact that there are “Disasters visibility, this visibility is often accompa- feminist teacher volume 18 number 1 41 © 2007 by the board of trustees of the university of illinois FT 18_1 text.indd 41 9/26/07 2:38:46 PM nied by surveillance, voyeurism, and the woman minoring in women’s studies. desire to possess another (6–7). Thus, for This self-identified “third-wave feminist,” this project, questions about whether a who also works in the women’s center group is in some way made visible or rep- and volunteers at a shelter for abused resented in popular culture may be more women, asked, “Who is Gloria Steinem?” productively framed as follows: What is This student’s commitment to improv- the difference between an assumed image ing the lives of women is commendable, of empowerment and a “real” image of yet we found ourselves troubled by the empowerment? And as feminist educators, fact that a student preparing to graduate how do we help students to tell the differ- with a women’s studies minor has nearly ence? Furthermore, what do the discourses finished her work without learning about of current third-wave feminism and post- Steinem or understanding her contribu- feminism teach women about representa- tion and, perhaps, the contributions of tion, empowerment, and their place in the other second-wave feminists to the overall realm of social action? feminist project. This student has lingered To explore these questions, we dis- in the back of our minds as we researched cuss three products of mass media—the and wrote this article. In many ways, we musician Pink, the Dove Campaign for find ourselves directing our pedagogi- Real Beauty, and the film The Devil Wears cal strategies to reach students like her: Prada. In an attempt to better under- younger students who want to re-engage stand the relationship between young with gender theory and feminism but may women and men and their own ability to be unfamiliar with the analytical tools that effect change, we turn to these images of can support them as they try to find their “strong” and “empowered” women. The place within the feminist movement. Of depiction of women in each of these texts course, the experience of this one student creates an interval where the relation- doesn’t allow us to make generalizations ship between personal empowerment and about the curricula of women’s and gen- visibility via consumerism can be inter- der studies courses. However, we find rogated. Moreover, what we regard as a ourselves wondering if younger feminists consumerism/activism split actually epito- would feel less alone in their beliefs if they mizes the tension that manifests when the could position their ideas and their work discourses of postfeminism and third-wave within a broader historical narrative about feminism become conflated. We suggest gendered struggles and the women’s that teaching to the ideological conflicts movement—within a context that is greater that manifest within this convergence than both themselves and the third-wave can serve to (re)engage students with the feminist movement today. tenets and arguments of feminism. Of course, many feminist scholars have recounted the tension and strain felt by Moving Past the the proponents of third-wave feminism Second/Third Divide and the second wavers that came before them. Yet in the Winter 2004 issue of Ms., In order to ground our inquiry, we turn to Lisa Jervis, one of the co-founders and a an example from the classroom. Recently, former editor of Bitch magazine, claims Brenda had a conversation with a young that the term “third-wave feminism” 42 teaching the conflicts FT 18_1 text.indd 42 9/26/07 2:38:46 PM is no longer useful, in part because of to show that there is “nothing specifically how much has been made of this divide generational about any of these femi- between the questionably demarcated nisms” (108). She contends that there waves. Jervis’s assessment of the so- are too many generalizations made about called generational gap between femi- second wave and third-wave feminism: nisms has a deep history. She writes, “Attributing our differences to generation rather than to politics sets us firmly into The rap goes something like this: Older psychologized thinking, and into versions women drained their movement of of mother/daughter relations—some- sexuality; younger women are uncriti- how, we are never sisters who might have cally sexualized. Older women won’t recognize the importance of pop cul- things to teach each other across our dif- ture; younger women are obsessed with ferences and despite our rivalries” (118). media representation. Older women However, as Jervis and Hogeland argue, have too narrow a definition of what it could be said that too much has been makes a feminist issue; younger women made of the differences between second are scattered and don’t know what’s and third-wave feminism, or that it has important. been discussed too much, at the expense of other, more important conversations. In a 1997 article in Hypatia, Catherine Orr Jervis reminds us that “It’s just so much notes that some third-wave texts reveal easier to hit on the playful cultural ele- a distinctive desire to break away from ments of the third wave and contrast second-wave feminism to create some- them with the brass-tacks agenda—and thing entirely new (32–33); however, Orr impressive gains—of the second wave: It’s also laments the breach between the become the master narrative of feminism’s two waves, writing that “Second wave progression (or regression, as some see ‘moms’ can and should be represented it).” as something more than just oppressive Rather than dwell on the misunder- to their third-wave ‘daughters’” (42). As standings and animosities between sec- an alternative, Orr proposes a supportive ond and third wave, we propose moving relationship: “What we must realize is that the discussion to one that understands the inevitable reworking of the successes the goals and objectives of men and and failures of second wave feminism is women who self-identify as third-wave underway, and the best place for second feminists. We contend that such an under- wave academics to be is where the action standing hinges both on our ability to is. After all, if the second wave is history, account for the effects of postfeminist then perhaps we should get to work on thinking—which generally argues that the demonstrating to the next generation that feminist movement is an historical entity, it is a usable past” (42). at best—and on the ability of the third Lisa Maria Hogeland makes similar wave to function as a coherent front. claims in her 2001 article, “Against Gen- erational Thinking, or, Some Things that Voices of the Third Wave ‘Third-Wave’ Feminism Isn’t.” Hogeland sorts out the various political positions Third-wave feminism, like other femi- taken by feminists in different movements nisms, is not held to one, stable defini- feminist teacher volume 18 number 1 43 FT 18_1 text.indd 43 9/26/07 2:38:46 PM tion. And just as second-wave feminism However, as we shall examine momen- consisted of liberal, material, cultural, and tarily, third-wave voices, even those in this other versions of feminism, the third wave collection, do not always reflect this focus also has several different voices and ideol- on transformation and action.