So our Feminist Coming out Day page got posted on to Funnyjunk.com as a “Feminism Fail” this week. You may be thinking its okay; all publicity is good publicity, but I must admit it didn't feel good as a group member/page creator to get attacked with all these messages. In case you can’t read from the picture attached, the comment says “Will there be sandwich making?”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first person that can handle a joke in a lighthearted manner, but for some reason it was hard not to take this personal. The multiple messages, all bashing on women’s rights, started to become a problem for the promotion of our event. Eventually, as a group we decided it’d be best to delete the event page and create a new one (made private). It’s unfortunate because as much as we want to get the word out to as many UCF students as possible, it’s unlikely that they’ll resist the temptation to make a joke out of it. It’s inevitable that people will still relate feminism to negative images of “mannish” women, who don’t wear makeup or shave their legs, and even worse are man-haters. For so many years, mainstream media has distorted feminist goals and perspectives; preventing people from stepping away from the already instilled notions of our society (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 4). What I can appreciate about our community partner, NOW@UCF is that they are doing their best to make feminism cool and “eroticizing equality.” We are hoping that people become as equally passionate about equality as we are. Seeing such resistance, even from women proves that our job as feminists doesn’t end here. While helping NOW table on Wednesdays these past few weeks, I took note of a very cool sign they tape up on their tent. I feel that from the second people approach our location, at least one of their preconceived notions is already shattered: “You Don’t Have to Be ANTI-MAN to Be PRO-WOMAN.”
People often times approach the table with questions especially during fun and interactive events like “Paint Your Orgasm Day” (an event that encourages women and men to express themselves and their sexuality) that went on this past Wednesday. It’s interesting to see people come with questions or want to start some sort of conversation. I feel that the most important part about this is listening to what other people have to say. Only then will we reach complete conscientization as Paulo Freire refers to as the process of “learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions….and to take action against oppressive elements of this reality” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 59). People may say things that are offensive, but what good will fighting fire with fire ever do? I think that’s something we can all work on, whether it’s our tone of voice or way of coming at people. As humans, angered by the circumstances, we could have easily tried fighting and arguing all the people that made negative comments on our event page, but in the end wouldn’t that just reinforce all their assumptions?
We’re meeting this weekend to make all the posters, scarlet letter stickers, “Are you a Feminist?” survey and our “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” t-shirts. Feminist Coming Out Day: November 2, 2011!
Works Cited
Works Cited
" Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
Romina,
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry that this happened for your event, though it is certainly the reality of what many people believe of feminism. It, in essence, usually reinforce the work feminists do.
Despite this, it looks like your events have been a success and part of activism is learning how to speak to people who believe differently than you.