fandomhigh | Entries tagged with modern feminism

"So, as any of you whom have had my class before know, I do not tend to believe in the concept of a final," Ghanima said once everyone had arrived. "What we're going to do instead is that I'd like each of you to say something - just a short something - about how feminism impacts you, or why you think it's important, or, if you don't feel that feminism speaks to you personally. I'd like us to have a discussion today, rather than a test."

atreideslioness

There were giant pillows and tea when students arrived, and a note on the door:

Stay if you like, or go back to the dorms and shower. Class cancelled, please feel to use this as a decompression space if you so desire.

[OOC: I'm onna plaaaaaaaaaaaaane, go forth and do whatever.]

justbeingbay

"Hey," Bay said. She was signing as she spoke: Even if only Francesca, who was seated in the front row, understood it, it was important to her she prove to her maybe-someday-daughter she didn't completely suck at signing. "So Ms. Atreides had something come up, so I'm in charge today. Which ... I'm kind of not prepared for. But I was thinking that since the kids are around, we could maybe talk about what kind of parents we want to be, or if we don't want to be parents at all. And, like, how that fits with the whole concept of 'having it all' and whether that's even possible. Or just hang out for an hour. I'm not going to force anybody to talk."

atreideslioness

"Near closing time on March 25th, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Waist Factory in New York City. Within 18 minutes, 146 people were dead as a result of the fire," Ghanima started off today. "Firefighters arrived at the scene, but their ladders weren’t tall enough to reach the upper floors of the 10-story building. Trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape exit doors, workers jumped to their deaths."

( I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. We have tried you good people of the public and we have found you wanting.... We have tried you citizens; we are trying you now, and you have a couple of dollars for the sorrowing mothers, brothers and sisters by way of a charity gift. But every time the workers come out in the only way they know to protest against conditions which are unbearable the strong hand of the law is allowed to press down heavily upon us. )

"Yet despite all this, even today, sweatshops have not disappeared in the United States. They keep attracting workers in desperate need of employment and undocumented immigrants, who may be anxious to avoid involvement with governmental agencies. Recent studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor found that 67% of Los Angeles garment factories and 63% of New York garment factories violate minimum wage and overtime laws. According to a study done by Cornell University in 2011, ninety-eight percent of Los Angeles garment factories have workplace health and safety problems serious enough to lead to severe injuries or death. For all the steps taken towards an egalitarian feminism to empower all women, immigrants still do not see many of the benefits that their predecessors have worked so hard for."

atreideslioness

"Today, we're going to discuss what the Americans call the 'New Deal,' and the woman who was largely responsible for putting it all together," Ghanima said as the class arrived.

( Perkins would have been famous simply by being the first woman cabinet member, but her legacy stems from her accomplishments. She was largely responsible for the U.S. adoption of social security, unemployment insurance, federal laws regulating child labor, and adoption of the federal minimum wage. )

[OOC: OCD up!]

atreideslioness

"Thank you, Miss Kennish, for stepping in while I was indisposed last week," Ghanima said as the class got settled.

"Today we're going to talk about what's known as Black Feminism."

( All women suffer oppression, even white women, particularly poor white women, and especially Indian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Oriental and Black American women whose oppression is tripled by any of the above-mentioned. But we do have females' oppression in common. This means that we can begin to talk to other women with this common factor and start building links with them and thereby build and transform the revolutionary force we are now beginning to amass. )

"As an organization they founded a local battered women’s shelter and worked in partnership with all community activists, women and men, gay and straight playing an active role in the reproductive rights movement. The Combahee River Collective ended their work together in 1980 and is now most widely remembered for developing the Combahee River Collective Statement, a key document in the history of contemporary black feminism and the development of the concepts of identity."

[OOC: OCD up]

justbeingbay

"Hi," Bay said when the class gathered. "So Ms. Atreides is ... I guess she's sick or something? So we're having a movie day. It's about Georgia O'Keeffe -- she's the one who painted all those flowers that look sort of like vaginas -- and her husband Alfred Stieglitz."

With that, she pressed play on the DVD and took her seat. That seemed about the right level of effort for a Monday.

atreideslioness

Everything was set up for another movie day today ~~since LJ is a butt about letting people post. Ugh.~~

"Miss Representation is the award-winning documentary film that exposes how mainstream media contributes to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman or girl to feel powerful herself," Ghanima said as people arrived. "The partner organization, MissRepresentation.org, is a non-profit social action campaign and media organization established to shift people’s consciousness, inspire individual and community action, and ultimately transform culture so everyone, regardless of gender, age or circumstance can fulfill their potential."

"Today, we are watching the TED talk of Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Newsom is a filmmaker, actress, spokesperson and advocate. She wrote, directed and produced the documentary film Miss Representation, which debuted at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and made its national broadcast premiere on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, and she is the Founder and CEO of MissRepresentation.org. Newsom graduated with honors from Stanford University and Stanford Graduate School of Business. She worked in Africa, Latin America, and Europe on assignments with Conservation International, a global environmental organization, where her primary focus was providing micro-enterprise opportunities to women."

"So get comfortable, and be prepared to become uncomfortable."

[OOC: OCD UP.]

atreideslioness

"We talked a bit earlier about Title IX, but women had a long history in sport before that," Ghanima said once everyone had arrived. "The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League became the first professional baseball league for female players in 1943."

( There's no crying in baseball! )

"The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League gave over 600 women athletes the opportunity to play professional baseball and to play it at a level never before attained. The League operated from 1943 to 1954 and represents one of the most unique aspects of our nation's baseball history," Ghanima said, "--and today we're going to watch a movie about it."

[OOC: OCD UP. MOVIE DAAAAAAAAY.]

atreideslioness

"For those of us whom have always had reproductive control over our bodies, the alternative is often unimaginable," Ghanima began, once everyone had arrived for the day. "However, even as recently as within the last hundred years, this has not been the case in the United States."

Ghanima had a unique view on time, it was true, but in the Imperium it wasn't uncommon for members of the Great Houses - and others with access to the spice melange - to live a hundred and fifty years or more.

( No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother. )

"This 1936 contraception court victory was the culmination of Sanger's birth control efforts, and she took the opportunity, now in her late 50s, to move to Tucson, Arizona, intending to play a less critical role in the birth control movement. In spite of her original intentions, she remained active in the movement through the 1950s."

[OOC: OCD up, today's topic is Margaret Sanger.]

atreideslioness

"Today we're going to start to cover the topic I'm sure most of you have been waiting for," Ghanima said, once all the students had arrived for the day. "The women's suffrage movement, specifically in the United States."

"Women's suffrage in the United States was achieved gradually, at state and local levels, during the late 19th century and early 20th century, culminating in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided: 'The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.'"

"It was not, however, all marches and speeches."

( We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote. )

"The 1918 election left Congress with mostly pro-suffrage members. The House reaffirmed its vote and on June 4, 1919, the Senate passed the amendment by one vote. On August 26, 1920, the last state to ratify it was Tennessee. Women voted for the first time in the 1920 presidential election -- including Florence Harding, the next First Lady. The fight took 72 years -- spanning two centuries, 18 presidencies, and three wars."

[OOC: OCD up. Cut for mentions of torture, hunger strikes, and general 'shut up already, Ahddie']

atreideslioness

"We're going to jump a bit forward in time today," Ghanima said once everyone had arrived. "Title Nine is a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972, Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235, 23 June 1972, codified at 20 U.S.C. sections 1681 through 1688, U.S. legislation also identified its principal author's name as the Patsy Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act. It states, in part, that 'No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.'"

( 'The power of the human will to compete and the drive to excel beyond the body's normal capabilities is most beautifully demonstrated in the arena of sport.' — Aimee Mullins )

"The legislation covers all educational activities, and complaints under Title IX alleging sex discrimination in fields such as science or math education, or in other aspects of academic life such as access to health care and dormitory facilities, are not unheard of. It also applies to non-sport activities such as school band and clubs; however, social fraternities and sororities, sex-specific youth clubs such as Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and Girls State and Boys State are specifically exempt from Title IX requirements."

[OOC: OCD is in the house! Sorry for the delay, it's ALA Awards Day. Please forgive any Twitter Spam that may happen today.]

atreideslioness

Instead of the circle of desks today, Ghanima had a television at the front of the room and her usual pile of pillows and blankets available for students. A pot of hot tea was on her desk, with cups for anyone who wanted a drink, and apple tarts were piled on a plate for sharing.

"Today is Inauguration Day in America, when President Obama will be sworn in for his second term," Ghanima stated cheerfully. "It’s also, as chance would have it, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. So it’s a good time to get to know Myrlie Evers-Williams, a civil rights leader, former chairperson of the NAACP, and—as of today—the first woman to deliver a prayer at a presidential inauguration."

"Evers-Williams is the widow of civil rights leader Medgar Evers; together, the pair of them were instrumental in the civil rights movement during the ’50s and ’60s, organizing voter registration drives and demonstrations and working toward the desegregation of schools. Evers was shot to death by a white supremacist in 1963; though two all-white juries failed at the time to convict his killer, Evers-Williams worked for three decades to bring him to justice, and in 1994 Evers’ killer was arrested and convicted."

"After the death of her first husband, Evers-Williams continued to fight for the cause of civil rights, running for Congress and remaining active in the NAACP, of which she was elected chairperson in 1995."

"We're going to watch an interview that Ms. Evers-Williams did with MSNBC’s Al Sharpton about being chosen to deliver the invocation. Anyone whom would like to return to the classroom to watch the Inauguration later is more than welcome to do so."

[OOC: Class up. Apologies to the Mary Sue for stealing their post.]

atreideslioness

When students came in today, the desks were still in a circle, and Ghanima had written on the blackboard:

In every human Beast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance.

"If you follow American news," Ghanima began once everyone had arrived, "--lately all you'll hear about is 'the intent of the Founding Fathers' on almost every topic; from guns to the right to marry."

"No one ever asks about the intent of the 'Founding Ladies' who played a role in the Revolution."

( Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. )

"Despite Abigail Adams’s famous plea to "remember the ladies," many of the contributions of Revolutionary War era women have been forgotten, and the opinions of women relegated to unimportance by special interests, corporations, and political parties." Ghanima said, turning her attention back to the class. "But you've all listened to me talk, so now I want to hear from you. Were these women the first American feminists, or simply patriots? Or both? Can you be a feminist if you don't explicitly state that you're fighting for women's rights - or equal rights - as well as national sovereignty when you're busy loading artillery shells? Can we assign feminist aspirations to women, merely because they broke from patriarchal tradition during a revolution?"

[OOC: ~~Please hold for the OCD.~~ Tag away!]

atreideslioness

Ghanima was seated at the front of the room, on the edge of her desk as the students arrived. Desks had been pushed into a circle for now, instead of rows, although she had debated getting rid of them altogether.

"Good morning," she said, once everyone had claimed a spot. "I am Lady Ghanima Atreides, and this is the History of American Feminism."

"I feel it only fair to tell you now that I approach this subject as a historian with an academic interest, and not as a resident of this country; being from several thousand years in the future, Imperial society is a place where - outwardly - the only value of a woman is in her marriageability. However, the female gender has been running everything for centuries behind the scenes. It's an interesting paradox."

"Unfortunately, humans-in-power have a history of not exactly being willing to share their authority with other groups," she continued wryly. "For the purposes of this class, however, we're going to focus on the American feminist movement, its ups and downs, and the continued fight for all American women for true equality."

"Contrary to popular belief, there has never been a single united feminism, even when speaking of the American feminist movement. There have been multiple feminisms representing the efforts of women to live into their full humanity in a world shaped by and for the male half of the human species."

"That does not mean this class is about male-bashing. There is a difference, and I will not tolerate hate, in any form, in this room."

"Now I'd like to hear who you are and why you're here, and what about the topic interests you."

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