Post-class reflection

The generalized premise of the articles we read this week is that emotionality is fundamental to feminism, as well as other activist movements. In particular, there was consistent approval of feeling angry, and using that anger to fuel an activist life. The first thing that I noted from class is how everyone seemed to deeply resonate with these messages, and how clear it was that everyone had a visceral reaction to reading the assigned pieces. We discussed in class some differences between how feminism is viewed; in Ahmed’s writing we see the pain that comes along with being feminist, portraying how conflict is ingrained in what it means to be feminist; on the other hand, it was brought up that feminism can be viewed as always feeling good, as feeling empowered, as using “girl power.” Through discussion it seemed that the latter does not encompass a great deal of what it means to be a feminist. In Ahmed’s “Feminism is Sensational,” it was clear how noticing injustice and anger go hand in hand in mobilizing activism. As outlined by Gould, there is an emotional habitus of political movements; the emotional habitus of the Act Up movement was turning grief into anger, as was discussed in class. After discussing the emotions that are inherently involved in feminism and how we all felt the strong emotions through the readings, it felt like a emotional habitus was created in the classroom. The environment was emotional and supportive. Although, I also think that the environment could be improved upon. As a fellow classmate posed in a reading response post, maybe we could discuss how to be better listeners to each other and to deal with our own feelings in a productive way. This mentality is what I think the emotional habitus of the classroom should be, and the start of what we had in this past class period.