Settle for the Draw

I'd once again like to begin my post with a thank you to our guest lecturer, Ms. Tonya Krouse for her extensive and informative discussion about the many aspects of feminism and feminist theory. It greatly illustrates the complexity and overarching spread that feminist theory has, more so than almost any theory we've engaged in this semester.

When I first think of feminism my mind is filled with images of women burning bras, holding picket signs and an overall social revolution. While I completely understand that I'm generalizing the term and associating it with dated ideas, they are the free associations that my brain conjures up. The idea of feminism, as we discussed in class, gets quite a bad rap in today's society, which is odd for an idea that seems pretty simple, that women should be treated equal as men, in society and in this context, in literature.

Ms. Krouse does a great job of separating the ideas of women and literature and women in literature, and the differing approaches of theory that follow. This separation is one that I usually did not make when thinking of feminist theory prior to reading this posting. I tended to simply associate a feminist reading of something as strictly analyzing female characters in literature, how they were presented, if they were obviously oppressed, and how/if the patriarchal society around them was dictating their position. Yet, as with most theory we've discussed this semester, there is much more to it, much more that I learned for the first time.

One particular aspect of Ms. Krouse's guest post that piqued my interest and opened up some new ideas in my mind was the discussion about performance studies and how "individuals create their gender and sexual identities in language and in action," and the controversies that accompany this line of thinking. I've begun to really suscribe to this line of thinking that all of a person's individuality is really a creation of the society around them, in regards to this discussion, that girls act like "girls" because they're taught that's the correct way to behave from birth. So this idea of performing your identity introduced and discussed by newer feminist critics is one that I agree with.

The part of the discussion that really interested me though was the critiques that followed these ideas, particularly the idea that this view limits political action because a woman is no longer being defined as a woman, it has been complicated. This idea seems somewhat ludicrous to me, that simply because the age old belief of gender identity separation is being questioned these theorists aren't aiding in the political movement or advancement of women. While again this idea of political mobilization was something discussed in class today, it is an area of extreme interest for me. Feminist theory, and almost all theory for that matter, while engaged certainly in the political arena, specifically in regards to change, is not confined to that space. For feminist theorists to be criticized on their idea because it may hurt the political position seems counter-intuitive to the institution as a whole, the theoretical institution of deeper analysis of the literature and world around us. Suffice to say, these ideas were not ones that I usually had when thinking of feminism before reading this post, and I will definitely no longer only associate feminism with flannel shirts. (That's a joke)