Legacy and Respect: The Usefulness of Feminism Essay -- Gender Sexuali

Legacy and Respect The Usefulness of FeminismIn a letter to students who participate in Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges bi-college Feminist and sex activity Studies department, Head of the Department Anne Dalke outlined an argument in favor of changing the programs name. She wrote, Our argument for re-naming the F&GS program Gender and Sexuality is based on 3 claims 1. that it will be enticing for prospective and current students and faculty, because it names their personal and intellectual interests and investments (while avoiding the word feminist movement, which is off-putting to a large range of individuals)2. that it accurately represents the current state of scholarship in the field3. that it accurately names--and invites exploration of--where the interesting questions lie. At the date in which this argumentation was composed last April, I probably would have agreed with its relevancy and reasoning. I no longer accept this line of thinking, however, due to my education and interlocking in Annes co-taught class I am taking this semester, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender. It is ironic that I began my study of gender four years ago as a freshman vehemently against feminism, and only now as a senior taking the only class required for every major or concentrator in that field have I come to appreciate the legacy and usefulness of feminism as a theory of practice and of education. My original concepts of feminism were that it was a theory that denounced men and elevated women beyond a fair or equitable place in society. I recognize now the stereotyping that I inadvertently allowed myself to feel. Equating feminist struggle with living in a counter-cultural, woman-centered world erected barriers that closed... ...of a more perfect understanding.Works CitedDalke, Anne. Re-Naming the Feminist & Gender Studies slow-wittedness An Account of the Past Process of Deliberation--and a Sketch Towards the Future. CAP doc. April 14, 2004Fuss, Diana. Inside/Ou t. Critical Encounters Reference and Responsibility in Deconstructive Writing. New Brunswick Rutgers University Press, 1995. 233-240.hooks, bell. Feminism A gallery to End Sexist Oppression. Feminist surmise Reader. Ed. Caroline McCann and Seung-Kyung Kim. New York Routledge. 2003, 50-57.Johnson, Allan G. The Gender Knot Unraveling our Patriarchal Legacy. Philadelphia Temple University Press. 1997.Rubin, Gail. Thinking Sex Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality. American Feminist Thought at Centurys End A Reader. Ed. Linda S. Kauffman Cambridge, Ma Blackwell, 1993. 3-64.