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Ivan. 49. Birthplace: Kalamazoo, Michigan. Currently: New York, New York. Not Religious, Raised Lutheran/Catholic/Seventh-Day. Music. Music Professor.
What does the concept/word “feminism” mean to you? What does the concept of equality mean to you?
Feminism means the status and the place of women in society and cultures, and the empowerment and the disempowerment they experience in their lives because of assumptions about gender and sexuality.
What do you think is the most pressing struggle for women today? What is the most crucial aspect in your eyes?
We’ve come so far and yet it seems that there are vast portions of our society that aren’t up to date when it comes to feminism, women’s rights and opportunities. We know a lot more than we did 10 or 40 or 100 years ago, but we’re not all there yet. Globally, but specifically in the U.S., too many people are still just way behind the times. It seems like women are struggling with a certain number of similar challenges. Maybe that’s relationships, maybe that’s career issues, or reproductive rights, political opportunity, pay equality or the roles of being a mother or a wife.
Is feminism a subject you think about? Have you ever read a book or seen a documentary about feminist issues?
Yes. One of the most memorable teaching experiences I’ve had is teaching a course on women’s studies many years ago at a community college out west. I organized the course to consider the spectrum of empowerment and disempowerment that women experience historically and up to the present day. To see how we can look at the situation of women in American culture and through history on the spectrum of empowerment and disempowerment instead of only discussing the disempowerment side of the equation. I felt that there was a range of experiences and understandings of feminism that we could look at, and I was particularly aware, really every day of the class, that I was a man trying to teach a class about feminism, but I think it went OK.
Why do you identify as a feminist and how/when did you learn about it? What were you taught about women growing up?
My mother was a strong woman and she made her way through life as she was able to make it, often times against great odds and other people’s assumptions about what she could or couldn’t do with her life. I saw her as a role model for women and also through her there were many other independent-minded women that I knew growing up – her friends where we lived and elsewhere around the world. She loved to travel. So I’ve known many women who set an example in one way or another. Then there’s always what you read and what you see in popular culture. When I was an undergrad in college I remember seeing a French film called “A Sunday in the Country,” from the 1980’s. It’s about a young woman who goes to visit her old father in the countryside one Sunday. It gradually reveals the complexities of her life, her relationship to her father, and to her brother who is also visiting. I saw the film more than two or three times because it’s so beautifully shot and somehow I identified with her as a character. The line that’s almost the motto in the film is her mother telling her in her memory: “You expect too much out of life, Irene.” And I felt like that was the motto for my mother’s life, or even for my own life.
Is feminism empowering for men? If so, how? How does feminism differ for you?
Of course, yes. Anything that empowers each other lifts us all up. I totally don’t get into the: “If that person is stronger then I must be weaker” mentality. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Why do you think the word “feminist” is associated with a negative stigma? What do you think it connotes? How do you think it could change?
It’s just so loaded historically. The whole evolution of women’s places in American society or Western society has changed so much and so fast. Then this word came up and it got associated with a certain generation or a certain politics. Then that politics falls out of favor or we move on to other things and then that word starts to carry so much baggage with it. Many times in my teaching career I’ve noticed that the female students are a bit allergic to the word feminism but that changes with the years and with cycles of generations. It’s a bad word but then it’s not, it just goes back and forth even at the same time
What issues/reservations do you have with feminism today? What do you personally think needs change?
It’s difficult to answer that question because I’m not sure if there is “a feminism” as a cause or a concept today. I would have to be more specific about issues or groups of people or generations of people. I can’t identify a single group of women who might represent feminism for me. I just know that women in general have very different experiences on this spectrum of empowerment and disempowerment that we are discussing when we talk about “feminism.”
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Are there any other questions you think I should be asking?
I think sexuality is very important to this issue because there are women who are heterosexual or homosexual or bisexual or trans–the whole spectrum of sexual identities that will definitely impact attitudes towards their own gender and their empowerment/disempowerment. Certainly for men, sexuality determines their understanding and relationships to women so I think that would be an important question. I have a number of lesbian friends and in their own views of feminism they’re all very different from each other. So sexuality plays a really important role in this equation and it’s hard to generalize. I also think trans* identity is very relevant, because then: what does it mean to “be” a woman, or “become” one? Who gets to be feminine or claim it?
When I saw bell hooks speak with Laverne Cox last year it was interesting because she kind of criticized Laverne Cox for how she presents herself (wearing lots of makeup, dresses, high-heels etc.). Of course bell hooks feels like a woman without those things and argued about the consumerist aspect. Laverne said it makes her feel like the woman she is, even though it’s partially exaggerated. She doesn’t need any of those material things to be the beautiful person she is.
Essentialism. I mean, if we’re trying to get away from certain gender assumptions, then why would we go to the other side of the gender assumptions and claim them so strongly? That’s what I don’t quite get about the current politics around trans* identity. I don’t know if this is also about feminism. Maybe it’s just gender as a concept and a category. At one of bell hooks’ talks here at The New School recently, the topic of marriage came up and then same-sex marriage. I was curious to know how women these days felt about the word “husband”. I had just married my male partner and we debated calling each other “husband” because we felt that word was too loaded with baggage and assumptions. So I was curious about how women who are married or not married feel about the word today. But no one wanted to answer that question and I was a little disappointed.
Well maybe we need some new words. In Sweden they added the gender-neutral pronoun “hen” to their dictionary. Here we say “they” for gender-nonconforming people and it’s confusing because “they” has another meaning. If we had new words, then calling someone your partner couldn’t be misconstrued as a business partner.
It’s fascinating. I mean, what do you call your partner? It’s evolving, it’ll keep evolving. It’s very exciting to see it change. I’ve seen it change a lot over the years even among students. You’re just reminding me that in my family’s history, my great-aunt on my mother’s side was from Estonia and the first person in my family to come to the United States in 1914. She came alone as a single woman. She was a schoolteacher and somehow it was possible for her to immigrate here. Then my grandmother saved herself, my mother, and her two sisters from the Soviet Army during World War Two. They fled to Germany and then came to the U.S. after the war. My grandmother, two aunts, and my mother were all very strong women and important role models for me; that whole side of the family is very maternally-oriented. One’s family certainly shapes our understanding of what it means to be a woman, of feminism, even if we don’t call it that when we’re talking about the challenges women face throughout their lives. It’s a powerful thing and it has really impacted my own life since I was very young.
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This post was originally published on the author’s Tumblr blog and is republished here with her permission.
–Photo credit: Deryne Keretic