Women in Academia Discussion

The Feminist Reading Group met yesterday to discuss Women in Academe, in all its forms and valences. Here are a few of the points we discussed for further interrogation:
• We briefly addressed the Globe and Mail article in terms of the numbers and how mothers make less money than single women and single mothers even less money than mothers who are partnered.
• There is a set stereotype/idea/understand

ing of what makes a successful academic and it usually involves publishing and conferencing. This idea needs to be transformed ideally in such a way that it is more inclusionary of people who don’t fall into the presumed categories of single, male, childless, etc.
• These two things, publishing and conferencing are problematized and difficult if you are a mother.
• Student Parent Associations are a good way to both make connections to other parents on campus as well as can be a place where exchanges occur in regards to babysitting, outings, etc.
• There is all of guilt involved with being both an academic and a mother, no matter what you are doing, studying, reading, writing or spending time with your child, one always feels like they should be doing the other, thus guilt sets in.
• Mothers or even partners, couples, within departments often feel marginalized, that their children or their significant others are not welcome at functions. The discourse around this marginalizing is complex.
• One member evoked a discourse of “outing” in relation to their position as a mother, she felt that it was time that she moved to creating more exposure of her position as mother by letting others meet her children and partners.
• This discourse of outing relates the position of academic mother to other marginalized people within the departments, queer academics for one.
• Most of the academic articles on women in academia emphasize the need for exposure and for alliances to be made between all the marginalized people within any department or university, mothers, queers, racial minorities, etc.
• These articles also emphasize the need for more studies to be done on women in academe in general, both from a pedagogical standpoints as well as economic standpoints.

The FRG thanks everyone for coming out to this, our last meeting of the academic year and we hope that you all have a pleasant summer and join us again in the Fall. See you in September!

Celebrity Feminism/Feminists Discussion

The FRG met to discuss how affective the intersection of celebrity and feminism is in making feminism acceptable/accessible to all. Below are point form notes of issues that were raised. Please feel free to continue the discussion on these issues here, or on the FB group page:

• Celebrity Feminism seems to be very commercialized and centres around geographical limitations to activism. We buy something "here" to help women "over there".
• There is definitely and interaction of feminism and humanism in the "This is what a feminist looks like" campaign
• There also seems to be an importance placed on aesthetics in that campaign however. Feminists "look" as certain way, or at least they are supposed to. This creates a subsectionality to the movement.
• Thus ultimately this "this is what a feminist looks like" campaign seems to re-inscribe the very problems it is supposed to eradicate.
• In the Avon campaign the bracelet is the locus of power and empowerment
• This campaign is vague in its purpose and seems to inspire women who take such activism at face value without digging into the deeper issues and motivations.
• Seems to misrepresent itself as a UN partner/program.
• It never uses the "feminist" word in the campaign.
  
• Is Angelina Jolie a better feminist than others because she refuses to engage in the commercialized "performance" of the feminist? She actively refuses to engage with that discourse. Seems to use her silence as resistance.
• Allison Janey as possibly a good example of celebrity feminism, because she does not necessarily engage with commercialized or problematized activism. She addresses the issues using media but in a covert way.
  
• Hillary Clinton, is she signaling a movement towards feminism and feminist ideals to the US government?

Please join us again on February 25th from 1:30-3:30 in UC 384 when we will be discussing Motherhood, Feminism and Careers in Academia.

Live Nude Girls Unite!

Today the Feminist Reading Group screened the documentary, "Live Nude Girls Unite!" about the unionizing of workers at a San Francisco peep show. The documentary led into questions of how feminists and feminism is positioned in relation to this type of work. Here are a few point form comments and questions that were posed and addressed:

• Documentary suggested that the way to fight patriarchy is by taking their money. Is this intersection of economics and social issues a viable place to situate a fight?
  
• Ultimately, is sex work empowering, or is it only empowering as a means to an end, specifically an educational end? Many of the workers were Women Studies or Philosophy graduates, does being positioned as educated or going towards education change the way this type of work is seen, as opposed to say it just being a job to pay rent or bills, without a larger goal? This is also seemingly a class issue.
  
• There are moral divide operators. The mind is being respected here but the body seemingly isn't.
  
• There are good examples of this mind body divide as seen in characters on TV today. For example Catherine Willows on CSI was an exotic dancer who did it to advance her education. Similarly Lady Heather, the dominatrix character, used her money to receive a psychology degree.
• The documentary also spoke to the intersection of sex work and social work and how those two are not mutually exclusive positions.
• There was a large amount of classification done by the peep show managers along lines of race, hair colour, and body type, yet a lot of the bodies were the same. Little discussion was given in the documentary about body types in specific. Is this comfort level, a level where discussion is not necessary, the logical conclusion to say the type of activisms that Dove commercials promote?
• Was there ever really a threat of the peep show going out of business? How does this reflect in the union/management negotiations.
  
• This documentary promotes the choice of sex work as a feminist choice and not a bad moral judgment a la McKinnon.
  
• This can also tie into Irigaray and her work on the economy of the female body.
  

The next Feminist Reading Group meeting will be sometime in mid January. Details to be announced and posted soon.
Thanks to all that came out for this lively discussion.
THE FRG

Notes from FRG Meeting on Women in Politics

Our first FRG meeting of the year was a lively and insightful discussion of the various tensions and issues that surround women in both the American and Canadian elections. I list here some of the key points made during our discussion. Please feel free to continue the debate on these issues here, this website was specifically designed as a place to voice further positions. Thanks to all that showed up for the Meeting today. Our next meeting is Wednesday November 12th from 1-3pm and we will be discussing the Politics and Issues surrounding Sex Work and Sex Workers. Hope to see you there.

Women in Politics:

• Though the Palin/Clinton SNL spoof is a relatively well known Popular Culture moment, it was stated that the tensions and divides that are innate in the spoof are being lost on a younger generation that does not/chooses not to engage in socio-political positioning of women.
• It was mentioned that the tension between identifying as a feminist yet still being able to enjoy domestic duties is alive and well.
• Some call Palin being kept from the media a sexist move
• Palin structures her speak around a populous rhetoric, but do voters enjoy it?
• A question was raised, if Palin was not seen as "attractive," would she still have been picked as VP nominee? What does this say about the role of aesthetics and female politics.
• What did Palin's continuous winking in the VP debate do? What sort of message does that give?
• George Lakoff has analyzed the rhetoric around the American election, and how conservatives use rhetoric and buzz words to dominate political discourse.
• There is a real dichotomy surrounding Palin's use of her children during political events; on the one hand she is opening herself up to criticism as a bad mother for having her children up late, etc. , on the other hand it can be seen as a positive strategy to shore up her position as a family oriented.
  
• In the Canadian debate it was noted that Elizabeth May's jewellery could be seen as distracting and detracting from what she was saying and the issues at hand.
  
• May, Clinton, and Palin force one to confront definitions of feminism(s); since abortion seems to be the polarizing issue, it tends to skew the view of feminists and feminism as something squarely within a leftist frame.
• Biden seems to suggest that violence against women is an economic issue, which is frighteningly like the discourse used in relation to women and education in the 19th century. To his credit he tries to use it towards a general good, thus he is often seen as a better feminist than Palin, if there is such a thing.
• It is interesting that gender has to be front and centre in political debate and discourse now. However, it sometimes needs to be coupled with economics or given an economic spin to be legitimized.
• Hunting can be seen as a de-feminizing of Palin, it relates to her lack of cohesion as a disarming movement that detracts from her bad policies.
  
• Palin's speech is often in passive voice
  
• In all cases Palin, May, etc. representation is key
  

Notes from First Meeting of FRG

This term’s first Feminist Reading Group explored Urdu theatre as the first installment of our fall series, “Unheard Voices in Women’s Theatre.” Many thanks to Amber Riaz who not only selected our readings, but also provided valuable geographical, cultural, and political contexts for our discussion.

We began by exploring Jameela Nishat’s Purdah– investigating the text’s complex engagements with issues of voice, embodiment, and spaces of performance. We then connected these issues to the text’s representation of the burqa as a portable architecture that houses voice, body, and performance in multiple (and often resistive) ways.
We also discussed Rasheed Jahan’s Woman, and centred our discussion on the text’s querying of women’s property rights.

Please join us for our upcoming meetings. Each meeting will take place from 11:30-12:30 in UC 282, and all the readings are available in the Feminist Reading Group folder in Leanne’s office (UC 180).

November 12 – Native Canadian Theatre
Discussion led by Allison Hargreaves
Reading: Annie Mae’s Movement by Yvette Nolan, and “Writing About Anna Mae Pictou Aquash” by Devon Abbott Mihesuah.

December 3 – Harlem Renaissance Theatre
Discussion led by Ann Gagne
Reading: Rachel by Angelina Weld Grimké