“Feminist conflict” brings to mind arguments within feminist circles. While we can assume that feminists largely agree on some basic fundamentals of feminism, there are plenty of topics to disagree on. I think when it comes to conflict among feminists, the matter in which disagreements are discussed is crucial. I think that sometimes arguments become a means of asserting one’s own opinion as superior, whereas the crux of conversations around conflict should be to share knowledge, experiences and come to a deeper understanding of other’s lives. For this class, I hope that the environment created in classroom is a collaborative space for us to discuss conflicts openly. I hope that the goal is not to always agree, but for everyone to come to a better understanding of differing viewpoints, and hopefully a deeper understanding of what we believe in, even if our individual opinions still differ. For my participation in class, I am going to try to engage in discussion without fearing whether or not people will disagree. I tend to stay more quiet in class, though for this course I hope that I contribute to the collaborative classroom environment by sharing my thoughts more, to help foster engaging discussions.

There are things that I am excited to discuss because my thoughts are not clear cut or made up about them, so discussing them in a space where we’re all intending to listen and learn will be helpful to me to come up with clearer opinions. I am looking forward to discussing the sex wars during this semester. I find them very interesting and I think, from reading the varying opinions circulating within that argument, that each side of this conflict have points that I agree with. Reading and discussing this topic in the context of feminist conflict might allow me to see my own perspective more clearly. Overall, my excitement for this class is centered around the concept of conflict; in other women’s studies courses, the differing opinions of topics is often not deliberated, and I’m excited to have critical conversations about various women’s studies topics.

Coming in to the senior seminar, I’m hoping to be an active participant, since I know that I tend to be more quiet in a classroom setting. I think that being in the course with only a few other people will help me speak up more, since I can’t rely on everyone else to speak and take up all of the time. I guess my fears would be saying something that gets an overwhelming negative response. While I think feminist conflict is a fascinating subject, I don’t especially like being part of it myself.

Feminist conflict, to me, is disagreements between groups of feminists over the correct way to be feminist. There are many debates over what behaviors should be considered feminist or not. Can sexuality be empowering? Can makeup be empowering? Bearing in mind that what is considered feminist among certain groups might not apply in the same way to other women. Things that white women find to be liberating are not always going to overlap with things black women or islamic women etc can be empowered by. Also debates mentioned in class, such as trigger warnings and trans exclusionary radical feminism, are all examples of feminist conflict.

The thing I’m most excited for in this class is to hear everyone else’s opinions. I’m hoping there will be some debates in the class that we can all learn a new perspective from. I think it will be interesting to see how everyone interprets the readings and what they take away from them as being the most important parts. There’s nothing I specifically feel nervous or uncomfortable about discussing. I’m excited to learn the history of feminist conflict and more about what conflicting rhetorics exist, where they come from, and their overall impact both on feminist scholarship and on “real world” feminist values and maybe even policy.

Welcome to our senior seminar on Feminist Conflict!

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