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.
Thanks for taking the plunge and being the first to post on the blog! I’m looking forward to hearing your voice in class this semester.