Understanding of Feminism and Feminists

I enjoyed the previous gender woman studies class and I think it will be interesting to learn more of the deepened focus around feminism for this course. In the women writer’s class, I read and studied the concept of gender equality with the words of women who wrote their experiences in a self-help kind of genre. It’s my understanding that there are many more gender identities than simply men and women who are misunderstood and lack equality with their peers.

I considered feminine a womanly trait with characteristics like being very clean, emotional, sympathetic, high maintenance, etc. And feminist was a word I associated with angry women holding colorfully painted signs that advocate gender equality. Power relations is an important topic to be discussed as the world and views are constantly changing. As pointed in The Social Construction of Gender, “anchoring topics”, or key ideas will deepen the understanding of how these topics are inflected by the concepts. The following are the writer’s examples of anchoring topics for discussion-

·Work and Family

·Language

·Images and Symbols

·Gendered Bodies

In each of the topics represented there is an expectation of what it means to be feminine when it comes to any of the ideas in place. To me a woman means clean language and soft-spoken voices, the image is to be thin and sexy. In reality, each person is their own individual and the expectations are impractical. I’d like to have a deeper understanding of the history and what today’s movements have accomplished, where we started and where the accomplishments are taking us.