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.