feminism?

There were some threads on Angela Dworkin that might be worth doing a search for, otherwise there are a bunch of texts which might interest you:

http://libcom.org/library/taxonomy/term/41

That might have been my post a while back. I'd never taken a womens studies module before, and probably wopuldn't again if they're all as one-dimensional as the one I done. Problem is the lecturer was really good and new what she was on about, but afew in the class had the most crude bastardised analysis of gender issues without actually even being sympathetic to other women, ie a couple of them honstely believed all men oppressed all women but still thought single mothers had an easy time of it, and tat catholicism was perfectly reconcilable with feminism. It was a weird class.

I don't think some of the class (middle class taigs) were feeling my hostility to religion. Far as my home work went I got 72% for my presentation, not bad at MA level for someone who hated the class haha!

edit for crap spelling

ugh.

jesus I had to bite my lip after a while cos I didn't want to seem like a patriarch by criticising them haha! There was only 2 fellas in the class and it genuinely seemed like some of them didn't want us to be there, strange class.

Inappropriate but it makes me giggle!

two men in a class of how many? i think its quite positive that men would choose to take womens studies, shame you had a bad experience there. were parts of the course any good?

i'd really like to know, did none of the women on the course argue against those points? i cant believe that those sorts of things would go totally unchallenged!

.. and that is why i dont want my partner teaching me how to drive.

Class of about 12. It was compulsory, and from talking from the rest of the people on my course pathway (I was on a Sociology of Religion MA;1 male, 2 female), none would have done it had we been given the choice. I was mates already with one of the girls in my class and she found some of the attitudes on the course astonishing but wasn't very comfortable talking in class and skipped a lot ofthe course because of work commitments, when I raised objections it was as if I wasn't there, I'm not exagerating. the restof the class were doing Womens Studies or yanks on exchange doing Irish Studies.

I don't think the class was in anyway representive of feminists, that's why I found it weird, but it was definitely interesting to note the women who had taken on the most crude understanding of basic feminist concepts (ideas about self-determination, equality etc) but not been able to extend them to any other spheres of life. So when I mentioned anarchist or marxist feminism and when I suggested that capitalism was one of the majors pillors in the maintainence of patriarchy I was looked at as if I'd missed something silly me - that the male over female relations was the most important defining characteristic of modern society! When I suggested that women didn't all have the same shared experience, ie a cunt like Thatcher had nothing in common with working class women, or when I criticised currents infeminism that soughtto make cross-class alliances, it really was poo-pooed, or "we don't have time to cover that".

The course was run by the Womens Studies section of the Sociology dept. here but was entitled "Religion, Gender and Power in Irish Society", therefore assumed it would address gender issues more widley rather than focussing on womens' experiences solely.As the only guy in the class in the first lesson I asked whether the negative impacts upon men of binary definitions of gender would be addressed, iethefact that young poorly educated men tend tobe those sent to die in war, that men lack the emotional support networks that women have and why young men are one of the most at-risk groups for suicide in the UK. I wasn't stirring shit or belittling women experience I was just saying that binarty ge3nder roles have negative impacts for men as well. The lecturer was keen and open to the ppint but said it had never really been raised in the course and she wouldn't have time to address it this term, maybe next year if the course is run again!

Some of the more reactionary discussion came when we were split into smaller groups totalk about a specific point and ended up off on tangents. My mate said she honestly had to bite her lip hard at some of what she heard but was too polite to say anything, when I took serious issue with someofwhat was said it was as if I couldn't "understand these things" because I'm a man, I mean fuck sake I'm not a single mum but I had abetter awareness of some of the issues and stigma that single mothers face, from other women even!

The course was not a great experience and while I thought the lecturer was really sound and while she pulled people up on shite like essentialism she let far too many assumptions slide, not because she was in anyway sympathetic to some of the shite but because she couldn't be arsed trying to persaude some of the catholic housewives that they were just talking shite! Can't blame her as we only had class once a week.

I also sometimes find myserlf getting rathe rangry at liberal feminists (or mainstream feminism if you prefer to call it that) as they don't seem to see that gaining a larger peice of the corporate pie does nothing to further feminism and mearly makes it a middle-class movement for middle-class women.

Likewise the exclusivity of menny groups within feminism angers me. I, for instance, am not aceppted amongst Lesbian Feminists even though I have been involved in grass-roots groups for a long time and helped orginise a women only space at the G8 protests this year. The reason they won't acept me? I was born male. Others they won't acept include Bisexual women and Lesbians who are into BDSM.

However in the long term I think that feminism still has alot to offer if people would only allow openness and do a prople bloody analisis of how capatalism suports patriachy!

I'll go and lie down now...