Why can’t we all get along?

We signed up for this seminar with this question in mind and have now spent the entire semester trying to navigate it. Though I’m definitely more aware of the historical background of it as well as various approaches of intervention, I’m honestly not sure if I could say I have found a concrete answer as to why specifically we are unable to get along.

I think Trashing: The Dark Side of Sisterhood was an important and necessary piece in attempting to understand it all. In the text, Jo Freeman had been subjected to conflict within the feminist movement in the way that she called “trashing.” As a result, she was ostracized and shunned out of involvement in the movement. Though this isn’t something I had experienced personally, while I was reading I felt that I could relate to the cautious feeling that she was describing due to the atmosphere in some of the classes that I’ve taken. As it turns out, many of us felt this and discussing it in class was an incredible experience, just like the “feminist refugees” from the text. Almost every week for the rest of the semester, we had read about or discussed similar situations and it came back to my mind every time.

Another text that I felt was important to navigating conflict, was Feminist Accountability. During one of the first weeks of classes, Amanda made a comment about The Tyranny of Structurelessness and how it had discussed actual solutions to the issue it theorized about. I felt that from what I read of Feminist Accountability and what we discussed as a class, that it was able to do this. This was incredibly constructive to providing insight as to how we can all get along.

After completing this class, I have realized that solving conflict and answering “why” isn’t entirely necessary. Though this is difficult to conceptualize, as we are socialized to see conflict as bad and that we should all be able to find a way to get along, it isn’t always feasible in such a big group of people with varying agendas. Perhaps instead we could utilize it as a method of reflection or critique. I can now understand that having the ability to see conflict as constructive and as an opportunity to learn allows us to think from and understand other perspectives before putting our own interests first, and that is what navigating conflict is all about.

At the beginning of this semester, I was very interested in feminist conflict and the questions that fuel feminist debate. One of these such debates was regarding the sex wars. This was one debate that I thought sparked a very interesting discussion in class, and I am continued to be interested in this topic, as it is the topic of my final research project for this class. I think the fact that I have continued interest in such feminist topics, and that these debates are almost never fully settled, shows how we framed feminist conflict in this class. Feminist conflict is essential to progress and change; conflict is the jumping off point for making positive change. Just like some of the questions and debates we addressed in class that aren’t close to being resolved, conflict will always exist and be apart of the feminist movement, and this is the new perspective I’ve gained on feminism.

The change in how I view conflict has been very important to me. Specifically, I think this was brought about by the text we read for class, Feminist Accountability. This text showed me how important it is to be accountable within our communities, and that if we want to make change, we have to confront those issues within our communities. It is especially important to be aware of conflict within these spaces. This book showed me the importance of seeing conflict in my everyday life as a generative force for growth, which I think is a crucial lesson that I won’t forget.

From what we’ve learned about Feminist conflict this semester, one lesson that I’ll take away is that resolution isn’t always necessary/a marker of a successful movement. As we saw in the film that we watched the last day of class, Born in Flames, conflict doesn’t have to be something that only acts as an inhibitor to progress and change, it in fact can be important for fostering dynamic and intersectional movements. Additionally, reading essays from ‘The Revolution Starts at Home’ and ‘Feminist Accountability’ were helpful to me in putting into words concepts that appeared obvious to me but which I didn’t have the language to interpret. In particular, those having to do with methods of disrupting whiteness (in ‘Feminist Accountability’) and the complexities of abuse within activist communities (in ‘The Revolution Starts at Home’) pushed me to think about, in greater detail, the implications of race, social environment, and so on when considering approaches to conflict.

Overall, my understanding of conflict has shifted to be one that is more optimistic, whereas it had previously been to mostly associate conflict with the opposite of what a social movement should be/strive for. The readings in speculative fiction, in our second-to-last week of class, further emphasized this point for me – especially those from Octavia Butler – in that they provided a framework of sorts for discussing and imagining the potential that conflict can have.

Prior to taking this class, I had some general ideas of feminist conflict but I would not say I had extensive knowledge. After finish this course I feel like I have a much deeper understanding of the conflicts that exist within feminism. Feminist conflict to me represents the history and fluidity of the feminist movement over time. No social movement that has lasted as long as the feminist movement would not have a single conflict. I have also realized that conflict is necessary within feminism, otherwise no one would question the movement. If we cannot question ourselves and have discussions on conflicting views, how would the movement ever grow? I used to be under the impression that conflict was a negative in a social movement and becomes a hindrance to the goals of the movement. I am glad I was able to understand that is not the case but rather completely necessary.  I can relate this to social media, which discussed many times during class, when people would argue online about feminist issues and our conversation about “cancel culture.” I used to find this stressful and problematic but now I feel more optimistic in the ability for people to make each other think even when they are “on the same side.” I think this is incredibly important when discussing white feminism and “the third world” and other current feminist conflicts that are regularly discussed online. We should encourage productive and healthy discussion surrounding these conflicts in order to build and more robust and unified feminism.

My thinking has shifted and changed in a few ways, starting with a much more nuanced understanding of feminist conflict and its scope. While at the start, I had a few guesses as to what feminist conflict would exactly entail, but now I know there is much more to it than my initial guesses. The texts/conversations that pushed me in a new direction were some of the ones towards the beginning, like “The Tyranny of Structurelessness”, and Lorde’s “The Uses of Anger”, which made me actually think about the structure of the movement, where it was headed, and what I was doing about it. Another one was our discussion of de-centering whiteness with “This Bridge Called My Back.” That was another reading that provoked introspection on my own senses of entitlement in feminism as a white woman, and an attempt to raise awareness in myself of ways that I have/am unhelpful and defensive. I wouldn’t say exactly that anything happened that I didn’t expect, only because I didn’t really have set expectations of the course going into it. I was surprised though by the level of self reflection the course would encourage and even require in some places. I enjoyed that part of it. It felt in some parts like growth.

The idea that has become maybe the most important to me is discussion of transformative justice. I am currently planning a future career in law (preferably criminal law, though I keep being told specifically not to do that) and will be taking my LSATs over the summer. While I don’t necessarily agree with the idea of transformative justice, I do agree with most of the underlying principles of it. It is a discussion to hold on to for the future, if that is where I will wind up, and trying to find ways within the system to accommodate some of these ideas. Maybe that sounds very optimistic. I guess I’ll find out. I will also be taking forward with me the texts I mentioned above, and even texts from the science fiction unit, since those were some of my favorites, being a big lover of science fiction already. On top of it all, I think it will be important to move forward with any of the strategies we had discussed for resolving feminist conflict, and being more knowledgeable about these issues.

My understanding of feminist conflict has expanded past what it was originally. I now have more examples of what feminist conflict entails, where I will encounter it, and what can be done to remedy it in some places. It originally felt like a very daunting subject that would be almost overwhelmingly frustrating. It now feels much more approachable.

This has been a wonderful semester, and this course in particular has been eye-opening, informative, and important. I greatly enjoyed taking it. Thank you for the learning experience.

As the semester has ended, Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown is something that I will take forward into the rest of my life. We learned what Emergent Strategy is and how it is used for people who expansively wants to see radical social change and what the future could look like. Breaking through the system that keeps us constrained means that we have to get better at collaborating with each other, learn to be more interdependent, adapt and grow together as a whole. These are ideas that are not new, but it does provide a good framework. As simplistic as it is, this book reads with a vision to those who wants to work to make the world a better place for marginalized and oppressed people. Everything about this book can influence our facilitating and organizing. Thus, the best part is that I can and will start applying these principles of emergent strategy to facilitating and organizing work, something that I am not particularly that great at.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the fictional speculation week, and the reimagining feminist futures past week. There is an importance of deeply believing in the power of science fiction to allow society to imagine the future and its needs, something that is differentiate to reality and something that we wish to avoid. It gives off an optimistic view and/or pessimistic view of (feminist) conflict and the ability to come together. It allows us to shape and imagine social change work, and dream openly towards an idea of a better future. It also considers that these worlds can be logically possible.

My thinking has shifted and changed a lot during this semester. Starting off, I did not truly know what to expect of this course, aside from what I had read in the course description when signing up. I have since learned a tremendous amount about feminist conflict and the varying conflicts that exist—and have existed—in the world of feminism. I was able to see different sides on issues that I had been somewhat close-minded to before.

One week in particular that caused a shift in my thinking was our Feminist Accountability week. I was in charge of holding discussion this week and was able to really take a deeper dive into the text. I had never really thought about accountability as a part of feminism before, so reading this shifted the way I thought about myself and my actions as a feminist. As Russo defines in the text, feminist need to “move from a politics of inclusion (come join us on our terms) or saving (we’ll come save you so that you can become more like us) to a politics of accountability (we work in solidarity, recognizing that our lives are interconnected and that we are responsible for the shape of that interconnection).” I had always leaned toward the politics of saving, thinking that it was up to me to help another. However, an effective feminist, as I learned this week, is an accountable feminist who acknowledges her privileges and recognizes that all of us are capable of harm and complicity in systemic oppression.

Feminist accountability is also an idea that became important to me after this week because I realized how much it resonated with me. Russo talked about how it never occurred to her that, as a white, middle-class woman, her speaking out about her experiences with oppression could serve as ways to marginalize the voices and perspectives of minorities. She says how the unspoken privileges of her identity and location could serve to reproduce the very systems and relationships of power that she thought she was combatting. This was very relatable for me and I am so glad that I was able to grasp this idea and recognize that sometimes my unspoken privileges speak louder than me. I also learned that one way to combat this is to be a more active listener and leave room for those whose voices have been silenced for so long. This is something that I think about every day and it is something that I will take with me after graduation.

I have learned a lot this past semester and each week I was able to grasp something new from the readings and from participating in the discussion with my classmates and my professor. The things that I have learned in this course are directly intertwined with my everyday life—unlike most of my other courses—and this is something that I have always cherished about women’s studies classes. I’m sad to see another semester come to an end, but with the knowledge that I’ve gained from this course and the different opinions that I was exposed to along the way, I feel prepared to enter this next phase post-graduation.

On the last class, we watched Born in Flames, a film that was a great and interesting end that paralleled to most of the feminist conflicts we touched upon and in relation to the situations of the present day. At the end, a question was brought up on whether the film is optimistic or pessimistic. Now, I still stand on my opinion that the film is in both and in between optimistic and pessimistic; and after looking up the term, I found it. I believe that it is a realistic film, it is viewed as it really is. It offered a feminist call to a revolutionary action and solidarity through class struggles, feminist struggles, and racial struggles in a familiar lens. It is a collective of ethnic and gender groups, especially marginalized women, battling in a fictional society that is sadly still subjected to the white, male agenda of the media and the power structures. So many things that were that were thought to be resolved are still happening today, and/or worse by each day. After all, the film still showed a raw narrative of resistance and a fight for a crucial radical change in today’s eerily social climate.

As the semester draws to a close and our class met for the last time, there was a lot of reflecting back on what we had accomplished over the past few months. We began the class by watching Born In Flames, a film by Lizzie Borden that explores racism, classism, sexism, and heterosexism in an alternative United States socialist democracy. The film was very engaging and touched on a lot of the conflict that we had been discussing throughout the semester. After finishing the movie we began to discuss our thoughts of the film and how it connected to our previous classes. As we went around the table, each giving our own response to how we felt about the film, we began to see a divide in whether we believed the film to be optimistic or pessimistic. While neither side was necessarily correct, it was interesting to hear the reasoning behind why each person believed it to be optimistic as opposed to pessimistic and vice versa. I swayed more toward the optimistic end because I believed that the three different feminists groups, who had similar beliefs but different approaches and did not ban together for those reasons, were first in conflict at the beginning but after the death of Adelaide rejoiced together to fight against oppression together. This showed that they put aside their conflicts for bigger issues.

After discussing the film, we began to reflect on our time spent in each week throughout the semester and talked about what we learned and all that we had accomplished. It was satisfying in my opinion, to look back at all of the weeks and see just how much we have covered and how much knowledge we have gained throughout the semester. I am sad to be leaving this class, and even more upset to be graduating like most of my other classmates, however, I can confidently say that this class has improved my understanding of feminist conflict and everything I have learned I will take with me in my future endeavors.

Willse and Spade’s article points to the ways in which Borden’s film Born in Flames presents activism and community building. More specifically, they reference the film’s centering of conflict and critique — mainly of the conflicts between white feminists and women of color feminists. Though it is noted that parts of this dealing with and presentation of conflict feel dated when viewing the film in a more contemporary context, its refusal to offer any sort of resolution very much remains relevant to feminist movements of today. As the authors write, “Instead of providing a pat narrative of a unified movement advocating for a single clear demand, Born in Flames leaves us with the unexploded bomb – the possibility that we do not know, cannot know, where we are in the history of the transformations we seek…” (3). Borden’s film thus does not leave viewers with a sense of satisfaction in this way, but instead incorporates the realities of organizing across difference in its imagining of a “utopic-dystopic” society.
On this, one part of the article I found interesting was Willse and Spade’s mentioning of Borden’s film as part documentary, part science fiction in terms of its documenting/commentary on existing social movements, as well as its imagining of what these movements might look like in the future. This perhaps speaks to the film’s lack of resolution — its mixing of present concerns and ideas of the future showcases the non-linearity of progress when it comes to social organizing. Moreover, Born in Flames utilizes this form of speculative storytelling to make explicit divisions across race, gender, and class – rather than depicting these differences as somehow neutralized – in its envisioning of what an activist society would look like and operate in the context of these conflicts.