Blogging Pedagogy - feminism

Digital Feminism and the Bachelor

Lauren Grewe — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 16:34:50 +0000

Author:

Lauren Grewe

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Scott Smith

Can tweets about The Bachelor be feminist?

Throughout the Bachelor Finale and the "After the Final Rose" episode, Chris Harrison promised us, the "Bachelor Nation" an "unprecedented announcement." After much speculation on Twitter and at home, Jimmy Kimmel's gift of a steer named Juan Pablo and the coerced promise that Ashley S. would appear on Bachelor in Paradise, Chris Harrison revealed the big announcement: there would be two Bachelorettes next season instead of one, and the men would get to vote which Bachelorette would stay to the finale based on who would be the best wife. Supposedly this was because the "Bachelor Nation" was divided between Britt and Kaitlyn.

On the couch, my friend and I gasped. That's horrible! It's giving the men all the power! The point of The Bachelorette is that the woman gets to choose the men. Alas, Chris Harrison did not agree with us.

We quickly took to Twitter to read what the "Bachelor Nation" really thought. What we saw was horrified tweets from women about this new turn in The Bachelor's history. Many women saw this as a betrayal of women, letting the men be in charge yet again.

You might be wondering what The Bachelor has to do with pedagogy. Let me explain.

My experiences with using Twitter in the classroom have been decidedly mixed. I found that my students were hostile to the idea of more homework in the form of tweeting and that many of them did not already possess the social networking knowledge of how to use Twitter.

I want to use the feminist tweeting about The Bachelor as an example of the way that Twitter can build community, raise issues and promote discussion. Although there are many other examples of this that relate more closely to social justice, I think that The Bachelor tweeting will help students relate to social media in a more everyday manner.

To practice this kind of tweeting in the classroom, I will have them live tweet a short video clip like an advertisement. By honing their observations down to 140 characters, the students will learn to be precise.

While The Bachelor might not be all that pedagogical in itself, the lessons tweeted from The Bachelor may prove more instructive in the classroom than at first appearance.

Monstrous Feminism

Amy Tuttle — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 00:16:35 +0000

Author:

Amy Tuttle

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Amy Tuttle

With its fourth annual “word banishment poll,” Time magazine proposed getting rid of the word “feminist,” arguing that the label is too easily thrown around by celebrities. Yet, for many self-identified feminists, the label serves as a crucial indicator to others that one believes in equality. Thus, while Time’s survey suggests that the word “feminist” gets thrown around “like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade,” it is also tied to a larger political movement that we still very much need. Some argue that Time’s recent suggestion to ban the word “feminist” is a reductive attack on feminism. Others claim that the controversy over the word “feminist” merely represents the views of a media-saturated capitalist culture’s relationship to the word. But it might be something else entirely. Maybe Time’s recent recommendation points to a fundamental characteristic of all “ists”—that a single word, like “feminist” or “capitalist” or “[insert political alignment here]ist,” stands in for decades of philosophical discussion (and debate) yet is insufficient to adequately explicate the subjective identities of individuals. If a single word like “feminist” is unable to encapsulate the complexities of an individual’s lived experience, then why is one’s declaration of “feminist” such a startling and polarizing political statement?

After realizing that I’ve probably thrown the word “feminist” around like ticker tape a time or two, I started to wonder just what, exactly, I teach my students as a “feminist” teacher. These tensions compelled me to take a closer look at the so-called breaches of “monstrous feminism,” like the ticker-tape feminism mentioned in Time magazine. Do my students respond to my monstrous feminism the way Time magazine responded to the monstrous feminism of celebrities? And, more importantly, since feminism is a social endeavor, (how) can we work to re-shape the popular perception of “feminist” in our culture? It seems to me that the questions that emerge from the margins between “mainstream feminism” and “monstrous feminism” have the potential to give rise to new boundaries, new discourses, and new possibilities, to develop me as a feminist teacher, and to challenge my normative modes of feminist social existence.

My teaching changed when I began to recognize the unstable boundaries of the social connotations of a word like “feminist.” You might say that I became a teacher when I embraced the fact that my feminism, like all other feminists’ feminism, is monstrous. For years, I wrestled with the effects of socially-constructed limitations on my feminist practices. Again and again, I “deviated” from what I “should” do, always assuming that, “should” was non-negotiable for “good feminists.” This hopeless quest led me into a perpetual cycle of rebellion and conformity, which could be measured only in terms of my fidelity to the expectations of others. My feminist existence was a monstrous one; I was part “should” and part feminist. Like a creation of Dr. Frankenstein, I existed simultaneously as part of the feminist graveyard and as part of the world of living, practicing feminists, yet I belonged to neither. However, once I learned that my perceptions of monstrous feminism as a weakness were a result of socially constructed notions of feminism, and that feminism, in fact, implies difference, I realized that I could take hold of my own monstrous feminism as a strength.

Feminist scholars have long asserted the power of being and becoming different. In Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming, Rosi Braidotti focuses on dealing with the deficiencies in defining identities and differences in a world where there is no normative central (Braidotti 3). The aim of her work, she says, is to explore the need for and provide illustrations of new alternative configurations/figurations of identity (Braidotti 2). Braidotti sees identities like “feminist” as dynamic and ever-changing. For Braidotti, identities are always incomplete, always in the midst of being formed “by careful, patient revisitations, re-adjustments, micro-changes” (Braidotti 116). On the one hand, then, it’s no surprise that the word “feminist” is insufficient to account for shifting identities that undergo constant redefinition. On the other hand, however, we must not forget that feminist identities are empowered (and perhaps enacted) through diversity and multiplicity.

Considering Time magazine’s perception of ticker-tape feminism as a weakness, isn’t it at least possible for those who self-identify as feminists, to also take hold of their monstrous feminisms as strengths? Can (or should) feminists be the arbiters of "good feminism" for other "feminists"? Diversity enacts feminist power, so perhaps the best way to teach feminism is to live diverse feminisms. A multiplicity of feminist practice must be on the agenda of both modern and future society, not because feminist practices can accurately explicate who we are, but because they can help us understand what we want to become (Braidotti 2; my emphasis).

Creating a Safe(r) Classroom for Trans* Students

Rhiannon Goad — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 17:16:08 +0000

Author:

Rhiannon Goad

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Students With a Mission: NASA Puts the 'Can Do' Project in Orbit. National Geographic Magazine, August 1994, Vol.186, Issue 2.

“The bottom line is that legal names ‘out’ folks who are trans* all the time.”

I believe that most of us here at the DWRL want to create safes space for trans* students. Unfortunately, creating a safe classroom isn’t always the most intuitive practice--especially when it’s so easy to stay blissfully ignorant about cisgender privilege. Personally, I’ve never intended to make trans* students uncomfortable. Still, as I think back to my experiences as a TA and AI, I can’t help but notice things I could have done better. Regardless of intention, that’s not cool. One of the things I could have done better? Roll call.

For a lot of us, having our legal first-name broadcast to the world is nbd, if not mildly obnoxious. However, for some, legal names are linked to exposure and potential violence. Especially for a trans* student whose preferred name isn’t their legal name. There’s no way for a student to use their “preferred name” through the UT system. So what you see on your roster is a legal name, not a preferred name. This makes the common practice of reading out your roster and asking students to tell you their preferred name a risky practice. Especially for a student whose legal name connotes a different gender than their preferred name. As Shane O. Whalley, Education coordinator for the Gender and Sexuality Center puts it, “The bottom line is that legal names ‘out’ folks who are trans* all the time.”

As instructors, coupling a student in our classroom with their first name via their UT student records is mandatory. It’s how we report grades, failure reports, look up contact information, and a bunch of other important stuff. What’s a well-meaning educator to do?

First: It’s a good practice to assume that you have trans* students at any and all the time. Likewise, it’s a good practice to treat all students with dignity and respect. This means not playing the role of gender detective, but rather approaching the issue of names in a careful and thoughtful way all the time.

Second: Never post your official UT rooster for all students to see. Don’t call out names. Likewise, don’t push students to tell you if the University has them using a different first name in earshot of other students.

Finally: Have a better strategy. Consider using a sign-in sheet that asks for student’s for their information in a discrete way (remember to ask for both name and UT ID so you can keep your administrative records in order.) Last semester, I used an online survey to gather students information, where students introduced themselves in class and completed a Google Survey outside of class. Everyone responded. My survey asked students their major and email alongside their preferred name and gender pronoun. If you go this route, make sure that the settings secure so that only you can see students’ responses (duh.)

Striving to make the classroom safe for trans* students doesn't end with roll call, but changing up how we address students is a good place to start. Balancing this stuff isn’t easy but, and I hope we’re all on the same page with this, there’s no other option. To help us out, there’s loads of other good resources from the Gender and Sexuality Center.