This blog is moving!

I have officially made the leap to self-hosting my blog!  This is a very exciting time for me, as it means I have so many more options for expansion and reaching more readers.

But I would hate to lose any of you loyal readers!  So please update your bookmarks, subscriptions, blogrolls, and anything else you may have that links to this blog.  I’ll be cross-posting for about another week, just to give you some time, but after that, this blog will be finished. You can find the new blog at http://smallstrokesbigoaks.com , so go there, check it out, and subscribe/bookmark/add it to your blogroll!

Don’t forget!  Do it now!

Update your links, bookmarks, blogrolls, and subscriptions!

I know many of you JUST subscribed to this blog, but you need to update your links, bookmarks, blogrolls, and subscriptions because this blog has moved!  You can now find all my fabulous feminist insights at http://smallstrokesbigoaks.com .  Take the time on this beautiful Saturday to check it out and update your subscriptions because, very soon, I will no longer be here!

Guest Post by Laura Sundstrom: On Not Silencing

Teaching feminism in schools is one of the most important feminist issues of our time.  In order to empower young women, we need to teach them about women’s accomplishments through history, and we need to explore teaching methods that inspire girls to speak out and make a difference.

Today’s guest post in the Teaching Feminism series is from Laura Sundstrom.  You can find her blog at http://youngfeministadventures.blogspot.com/ and you can follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/YFemAdventures.

One thing that I have been thinking a lot about lately is silencing.  So when Ashley asked me to write a guest post for her teaching feminism in schools series, I thought I would write about the effect silencing has in a school setting.

Just one thing to remember: this is coming from the perspective of a student, not a teacher.

Feminism and women’s studies were not taught in my high school.  We’d have a unit on women’s history, a unit on books written by women, etc.  But those were usually some of the shortest units of the class and nothing was incorporated into the rest of the class.  It just seemed like something the teachers wanted to get through because they had to, not something they were actually interested in.

The high school that I went to was overwhelmingly white, upper middle class, conservative, and Christian.  I fit the mold in kind of two of these demographics.  I’m white and middle class — but by the standards of my fellow classmates, I was on the lower middle class end of the spectrum, though not by society’s standards.  I am not, however, conservative or that religious.

When I was in high school I definitely had feminist values, because that was the way that I was raised, but I don’t remember ever calling myself a feminist during that time.  I think a lot of this had to do with my high school atmosphere and the people that I associated with.  While teachers claimed that the classroom was a “safe environment,” it wasn’t really true.  Having an opinion that was different (and sometimes radically different) than most of the other people in the class was not an easy thing and the teachers didn’t really do a whole lot to encourage any type of discussion about it.

I really shouldn’t blame the teachers entirely.  In high school, I wasn’t really the kind of person that raised their hand a lot.  It wasn’t cool to be smart and it definitely wasn’t cool to have differing opinions.  I didn’t really fit in anyway, but I was too shy to actually say anything in class.  But I often wonder if my voice was encouraged to be heard more often, if I would have been more willing to share it.  But there’s really no way of knowing.

Teaching feminism and women’s studies in high school comes with a lot of responsibility.  I think it is a great idea and necessary to the development of well-rounded students that feminism and women’s studies be taught in middle school and high school.  But where the responsibility comes in is making sure that you are discussing these topics in a truly safe environment for the students.  It shouldn’t be about “preaching” your values as a teacher but about fostering discussion about these important issues.

Students who voice differing opinions are often silenced in a classroom setting, not only by fellow students out of peer pressure, but also sometimes from teachers.  While teaching feminism and women’s studies, it is also important to teach about respect and practice respect yourself.  It’s important to encourage all opinions, even anti-feminist ones if they are made in a respectful manner.  Silencing opinions of students, whether you agree with them or not, is not what is going to build confident students who are ready for the “real world.”  High schoolers can be cruel, but when the silencing comes from teachers, I think it might be even more damaging.

The incorporation of feminism and women’s studies into the curriculum has to be done in a way that avoids silencing.  I don’t really have any concrete ways to go about doing this because I am not familiar with teaching techniques.  All I can say is try to be respectful and encourage respect in your students.  Teaching feminism and women’s studies should be about fostering discussion and bringing awareness to feminist issues, not only in the lives of students but in society as well.  Silencing students who are respectful in their opinions is not the way to go about doing this.

Enjoy this series?  Have something to add?  Want to write a guest post?  Leave your voice in the comments or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.

Cross posted at http://smallstrokesbigoaks.com

Feminism in Schools: Women’s Studies vs. Core Classes

Let’s start with some business: There have been some great comments about teaching feminism in schools, and I’d love to respond to every one (I started to, but it became too time consuming and, being the good teacher I am, I like it when you respond to each other rather than when I bust in and break up the conversation).  Keep it up, though, seriously!  This is becoming a really fascinating series; who knew people were so jazzed about feminism in schools?!

There are a few things I’m seeing in the comments, though, that I want to address.  There seem to be two seperate arguments going on: 1) Feminism should be incorporated in core curriculum classes (English, history, etc.), and 2) Women’s Studies classes should be offered in high school. While both of these are manifestations of feminism in school, and both arguments are similar and have similar rationale behind them, I do believe they are seperate arguments.

First of all, Women’s Studies classes, as we’ve all been saying, if present in a high school setting, would be elective classes.  Students would have to choose to take these classes, and those that choose to take them probably don’t have to.  Meaning they probably already have an interest in women’s rights and, therefore, don’t need to be “taught” to be progressive young adults.  We can argue till we’re blue in the face that Women’s Studies classes should be required, but the fact of the matter is that will probably never happen.  There are too many testing and funding issues for that to happen right now.

Core classes, however, are classes that students must take in order to graduate.  In the interest of full disclosure, for those of you who don’t know, I am a high school English teacher, so I’ve been leaning toward ways to incorporate feminism into English classes.  In fact, when I first started writing this series, I said “Why Feminism Should Be Taught In School,” but I meant “Why Feminism Should Be Taught In English.”  It’s not that I don’t think other possibilities are just as important; it’s simply that I didn’t see them until your outstanding comments.  It is impossible for me to talk about teaching without talking about teaching English, though, so that’s where I’m coming from.

However, I will argue that teaching feminism in a core class such as English or history may be more beneficial and influential to students.  They must take these classes, so you are sure to reach a wider audience – perhaps an audience that wouldn’t normally be interested in women’s issues.  Also, there is the added benefit of being able to teach multiple perspectives within these classes (the lit crit terms: Author Centered, Historical, Reader Response, Psychological, Formalist, “Otherness” Theory, etc.) which encourages studenst to look at everything from multiple perspectives.  It also gives them resources to “walk a mile in their shoes,” to use an old cliché and become more tolerant, enlightened, and progressive members of society.

The Feminist Lens: The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman* is one of the most interesting short feminist texts I’ve ever read (need a refresher? Check Wikipedia!).  I have a feeling several people agree, so this will be less of a book review and more of an overlap between several things I have going on all at once right now.  Fortunately, I’m preparing to teach “The Yellow Wallpaper” as we speak.  In fact, incorporating this text into my curriculum might fit very well into a way to teach feminism in the classroom! In order to overlap my Feminist Lens and my teaching feminism posts, as well as prepare for teaching today, I’ll share with you a glimpse into my classroom and tell you how I plan on teaching this wonderful story.

One of the most interesting things about this text is that it was originally categorized as a horror story or Gothic text because there was no “feminist genre” in which to place it when it was originally written.  Some still see it as a horror story, thinking the women in the walls are ghosts rather than hallucinations.  Because of this, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is perfect not only for an introduction to feminism, but an introduction to reading literature from different points of view.

My intended audience is college prep sophomores in an English 2 class during a 50-minute class period.  This is the first full week of school, so I’m keeping that in mind as I create rigorous plans, yet ease them into thinking after a long summer.

Day 1: I’m going to start class with a Bellringer (something that is on the board for the students to get started with as soon as the bell rings).  I’ll ask them to answer these questions in a journal: Have you ever had something bother you that you just couldn’t get out of your head?  Tell me about it.  How did it make you feel? I will give them 10-15 minutes to finish this.  We will discuss their answers for about 5 minutes before transitioning into reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” aloud in class.  Since this is the first story in our short story unit, I will read it aloud to them while they follow along.  We will discuss plot elements as we go along, and I will assign them a worksheet asking them to give examples from the story for plot, characters, theme, setting, etc.

Day 2: The Bellringer to start this day will be on the board.  They will be asked to answer a journal question answering the following question: Would you categorize “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a horror story or as a story about women’s rights?  Explain your answer. I will give them a few minutes to answer this question in writing, then we will discuss their answers.  As we talk, I will explain to them the history behind the story’s categorization.  We will find out if anyone changes their opinion, and I will give them a chance to add to their journals if this is the case.  After I collect their journals, the students will get into their (already defined) cooperative learning groups to write about the story.  Each group will be asked to answer “What does the story say about…?”, although each group will be assigned a different end to that question: psychology, women, work (writing), how men see women, how the narrator sees men (her husband in particular), marriage.  They will write their answers down as a group, pulling examples from the text to support their answers, and they will share their answers with the class when everyone is finished.

So, here is a good way to teach a great story that is part of the curriculum while reviewing short story elements AND generating productive discussions about feminism in the classroom.  See?  Easy.

*Full Citation: Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Fiction: A Pocket Anthology. Ed. R.S. Gwynn.  New York: Penguin, 2007. 86-101.

Liked this feminist book review?  Read more by clicking here.  Hated it?  Completely disagree with it?  Have something to add to it?  Have a book to recommend? Leave a comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.

How Feminism Should Be Taught in School (Part 1): How Feminism Should NOT Be Taught in School

I’m hoping this will be part 1 of many.  I’m looking for questions, suggestions, and ideas, so feel free to add yours in the comments and I’ll try my best to incorporate them in further posts.

We’ve got the “why” feminism should be taught in school down, and we all seem to be in agreement on this fact.  Now, how do we go about it?

In this post, I’ll start with how NOT to incorporate feminism in school: We should not, under any circumstances, treat women’s issues* as a box in the margin.  This includes, but is not limited to: relegating feminism and women’s issues to a singular unit, making a few mentions about what is going on with the women of the time periods between war stories, teaching books and poetry by women in a condensed unit while teaching the “dead white guys” for the rest of the year.  This makes women’s issues appear as just a tag to the canon and to history, not an integral part of either.

I am not saying that students should not learn about the wars and the voices of men throughtout history.  I am, however, saying that women have a timeline and a canon of their own, not just a plug here and there.  Think about the American Girl dolls.  Remember when there were only a few of them before they were a multi-million dollar national company?  Those dolls were so popular among girls because they had their own historical timeline, and the timeline that was taught in schools was just a backdrop to each doll’s stories.  Perhaps having a women’s timeline and a men’s timeline running concurrently is a step in the right direction, although the true solution would be to have one huge timeline that incorporates everything.

Many teachers try to incorporate women’s issues and women’s writing in the curriculum, but often these important elements end up smushed between what’s always been taught.  These teachers mean well, but the message they are really sending to young people – young girls in particular – is that women’s issues are important, but not important enough to take up the majority of the textbooks and the school years.

*This advice all goes for teaching the history and works of any marginalized people, not just women.  Since this is a blog particularily devoted to feminism, I say “feminism” and “women’s rights,” but you can replace those with any group that experiences any sort of privilege.

Why Feminism Should Be Taught In School

Should feminism be taught in school?

It may not surprise you that my answer is an emphatic YES.  Of course, it is important to present students with multiple perspectives so that they may see that, historically, people with different perspectives have caused much unrest and, from that unrest comes progress.  I would hope that any literature or history teacher would agree with this.

Historically, women have been quite literally marginalized – relegated to boxes in the margins of textbooks as if to say, “This is what the women were doing back at home while the men were off at war.  It fits into this little box which must mean that it wasn’t that important and it won’t be on the test.”  This is not a new concept, and teachers have been incorporating texts regarding marginalized people into their curriculum for a very long time.

It is not really a question of whether or not this should be done, but I wonder how many people have really explored why it is important to incorporate feminism into the curriculum.

First, the study of feminism can “reinvigorate girls’ sense of self-worth and to help pupils think about the gender implications of their language and image.” It is important for girls today to think about their role models.  Who are young women looking to as role models today?  Miley Cirus?  Britney Spears?  If these women are not good role models for young women, who is?  Simone deBeauvoir?  Susan B. Anthony?  Think of all that today’s young women can learn from these strong, self-assured agents of historical change.  By holding the work of these latter women up to be seen as at least as important as the wars fought by and the leaders who were typically men, we show young women that being strong and confident is nothing to be ashamed of, and we show young men that strong and confident women are to be respected, not coaxed into becoming something else, something they can control.

Which leads me to my second point: Girls are accepting sexual assault at school as a fact of life.  I am not saying that young women are being joked about and taunted by young men at school because they lack confidence and strength.  I am, however, saying that I think there is something that tells these girls that if they don’t let boys treat them this way, boys will not like them and there are few things worse when you’re in high school.  By teaching students about feminism, we are showing both young women and young men that equality in human rights is important, and treating someone as if they are beneath you is unacceptable.

Girls are not only under pressure when it comes to boys, but also when it comes to the clothes they wear and how that affects whether or not they will fit in with the right crowd in school.  “According to the Girls Inc. Supergirl Dilemma report, 84% of all girls say it’s true that girls are under a lot of pressure to dress the right way.” I’m sure we all remember days in our youth (and maybe in our adulthood) when we wondered if we were wearing the right clothes or wanted to look just like someone we saw on television.  Girls’ confidence can very often hinge on whether or not they feel they look “right” or fit in with the “right” other girls.  Maybe, just maybe, by instilling in young women that the positive women role models in history (and today! Feminism is alive and well!) have been auspicious agents of change – as much as the men that fill the pages of their textbooks – we can show them that what matters most are not the styles of clothing they wear, but the restyling of history made possible by extraordinary women.  And who knows; maybe they’ll even be inspired to take up feminism themselves.

Weekly Rundown: 8/15-8/21/2009

There is so much great stuff out there, I can’t possibly comment on all of it. I can, however, link it here for your enjoyment. Have you been reading or writing something interesting or important? Share a link in the comments!

Are you interested in participating in (or just reading/commenting on) an online feminist book club? (I know I am!) If so, comment here and let frau sally benz know!  This is an awesome opportunity for online feminist collaboration!

Book Review AND Film Review of The Time Traveler’s Wife – Jump Off The Bridge
In this two-for-one special, frau sally benz tells us exactly what she thinks about the film and the book.

Hannah Montana: The Movie Review – Entertainment Realm
Just in case you didn’t get enough of Miley Cyrus at the Teen’s Choice Awards.

Friend count – Chloe Pink
The cutest cartoon ever!  Be sure to check out Chloe’s adventures at this blog.  She rocks!

I am Jane… still… and that’s okay - We Are the Real Deal
These bloggers do such a great job dealing with body image struggles.  This is just another example of a powerful post from them.

Book Review: The Poetry of Iranian Women – Gender Across Borders
“The best way to understand a culture is to listen to what the people to whom it belongs have to say.”

The Undomestic Goddess In A Book! – The Undomestic Goddess
Well, this is exciting!  Well done!

Making Fun of Your Baby on Facebook: A Game of Tag(s) – The Undomestic Goddess
On moms, babies, identity, and Facebook tagging.

The Carnival of Feminists is Back – Jump off the Bridge
Something all you feminist bloggers may be interested in.

Be a Smart Rider - Feminist Majority Foundation Choices Campus Blog
Something we should all keep in mind while in large, metro areas.

Trouble by Kate Christensen: A Book Review – Entertainment Realm
This sounds like a really great book! I’ll read it if I ever can find the time…

No One Can Be Perfect 100% of the Time – Adventures of a Young Feminist
It’s like I always say: Your entire life can’t be a cause…

Are Clothes More Important than Intellect - Adventures of a Young Feminist
On Michelle Obama’s shorts.  A very well-written post.

The End of Anonymous Trolling - Feministing
Very thought-provoking and well-written.  What does it mean when we have to come out from behind our anonymous internet presence?  As with anything, there are pros and cons.

Tweeting Mad Men, and Living – Liza Donnelly
This is almost exactly how I felt after the season premier!

The Undomestic 10: frau sally benz – The Undomestic Goddess
Hey, she’s also in my Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community Series! Cool!

Blinded by Privilege: abelist language in critical discourse – Deeply Problematic
This was a really wonderful post that got me thinking about the metaphors we use in every day academia, without even thinking.

To read all the “Weekly Rundown” entries, click here.

Jack (Jill? Jane?) Of All Trades: How Do You Manage?

This blog has taken a turn for the personal lately.  Oh well.  It’ll turn back to the academic and professional soon enough.  And, either way, you like reading about my personal struggles.  I can tell.

As many of you know, this blog was started as part of dual-course project for my graduate classes this summer.  Both the Good Wife paper and the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project began with my passion for feminism and activism (and with a little help from The Undomestic Goddess) and ended up being this blog with what seems like a loyal following – a good deal of readers and commenters. Although it was initially intended to be a place to simply publish and organize my research and writings for graduate school, I started writing more personal posts, and I am finding that I truly enjoy writing in this blog and conversing with all of you, both on here and on Twitter, about feminist issues.  It’s a nice way to both receive feedback on my graduate school/thesis work, as well as explore women’s rights and feminist issues in a more personal way.

Now, summer is over and both graduate school and my full-time job as a high school English teacher are starting.  I’m finding that I actually spent a lot more time on this blog and Twitter than I realized, and I’m starting to see that I’m going to have to figure out some way to do all of it, because I really enjoy all of it.  I’m not worried about blog material so much, but I do feel that when I write posts at night and schedule them for a later date (and read starred tweets and schedule them to RT at a later time on HootSuite) that I’m not really adding to the conversation so much as planning out things for you to read.  Like a true teacher, right?  I’m also having trouble keeping up with the 200 or so people I follow on Twitter (cut down from around 260; I can’t cut any more!) and the 50 or so blogs I follow on my Google Reader.  It’s time consuming to compose posts, read tweets/links, set up links to RT, AND feel like you’re participating in the conversation.

I can’t look at my internet presences very often while I’m at work, and I like to do things besides stare at the computer for hours after work, so I’m wondering: those of you who juggle multiple activities like this, what do you do to manage the load?  Any advice for a fellow feminist blogger?

Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: Sabrina P. Caprioli

Bio
Name: Sabrina P. Caprioli
Age: 22
Occupation: Student at CUNY Hunter College
Location: NJ/NY
Race: Hispanic/White
Blog: http://hunterequality.blogspot.com (search THF for my past blog posts)

Define the online feminist blogging community.
The feminist blogging community is a democratic means of communication for the grassroots. It’s fairly simple to gain recognition and get involved in serious discussions – you just need communications skills and well-expressed ideas. The more someone finds your thoughts useful for an argument, intellectually stimulating, or, in my case, funny or positive, the more followers and readers you will have.

It is networking, however; the more recognizable your name is, the more readers/followers you’ll have. There is still plenty of mobility in the ranks, though.

The online community is necessary to spread the message and the movement. People with odd schedules that couldn’t attend meetings before can now comment on a blog and express themselves at their convenience. It’s perhaps the most effective tool in getting the younger generation involved in important conversations. And if you don’t live near a feminist bookstore, the community gives you access to a wide variety of literature.

Most importantly, women can learn of resources and programs that they may not have known existed.

Those who question the usefulness of the feminist blogging community run the risk of making themselves irrelevant and limiting themselves to their immediate network and community. The youth in the U.S. typically thinks that if it’s not online, it doesn’t exist.

Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
I started blogging about my angst and such when I was sixteen. Just this past year I got myself more active in Hunter College’s Women’s Rights Coalition and wrote about something other than myself for once. I was invited soon after to be a guest writer on the club’s blog – I had a concept: “The Happy Feminist” would write about good feminist news. I’ll go into more detail about it later.

Later on, our club was going to go down to the Feminist Majority Foundation’s (FMF) National Young Women’s Leadership Conference (NYWLC) in the spring and I decided to take the blog on the road, making a HappyFeminist twitter account. I’d tell jokes, say what our club was up to, etc. I never checked how many followers I had until the middle of the summer, thinking just school friends would “follow” me…I guess since the concept wasn’t specific to the school, it spread like wildfire…by July I had about 500 followers. Last I checked, I had over 700. This…was…not…expected. Awesome, but really surprising.

Tell me about your blogging experience now.
The concept of the HappyFeminist has developed a bit over time, through trial and error. At first, it was just a couple of jokes every couple of weeks. Then, I would sort through the posts I’d find and re-tweet the (relatively) good news. I was shocked to find so much good news.

I would call them “tweet sweeps;” I’d post tons of tweets at about 6 AM, when I thought no one was up. I’d always lose followers – it was too much traffic for some. I discussed it with some folks, and decided to take down the amount of posts. I’d have to slow down. With my work schedule changing now, traffic will be quite slow and sporadic.

These are the things you have to plan when you’re setting up your twitter: How often you’ll post, what your criteria will be for re-tweeting. And feminist twitterers have to prepare for different things: Will you respond to anti-choice/anti-feminists that try to engage you in discussions? Will you be hostile to those who sent hateful tweets (keeping in mind that this happens often)? Or will you not respond at all?

But a source for positive news I thought was as necessary as a source for negative news.

So much of feminist news just breaks your heart. Honor killings, FGM, rape…these are not things that make you say, “Feminism is fun,” but rather, “Feminism is necessary.” Which is great. But we are not all as strong or as resourceful as women like my mentor, Jerin Alam. Some of us don’t react by thinking “What can I do about this,” but rather by shutting down emotionally.

–

What I used to do when things got to be too much was holing myself up at home, popping in a funny movie or TV show and not answering the phone. Only laughter could get me out of the funk. But, as a feminist, I can’t watch Knocked Up without analyzing it and getting all “oh-the-world-sucks” again, so I have to search for women-friendly comedy.

And it’s not easy! Sarah Haskins only makes a video once a week! The Daily Show/Colbert Report go on vacation sometimes! Mad Men went on vacation! Damn it! What do I do?

I thought, “There needs to be a place where you can be a feminist, but be happy for at least a little bit before going back into the fight. Somewhere where I don’t feel powerless, angry, or sad… Somewhere I can laugh without guilt and forget my sorrows…”

So I thought, If I don’t want our club’s members to lose hope, they’ll need easy access to good news.

Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
Ah, sarcasm. There is no tone of voice on the internet. The only way you can specify this is by putting /sarcasm at the end of a tweet. If you don’t have the character allowance, though…either cut the joke, do a follow-up tweet, or, well, deal with the confused questions afterwards.

A fun example: “Are you really going to shave your head!?”

“..no? Sorry! Erm…I was joking.”

Describe your process of writing online.
Writing a good blog entry is, to me, just as difficult as writing a thorough paper. You have to have outside sources to back you up, or people are going to question the legitimacy of your argument. You have to write clearly, or your audience will lose interest and click away. You have to, have to, revise and proofread your writing, or risk angering the grammar police (I can’t stand spelling and grammar errors – call me an elitist, go ahead, and while you do, remember that English isn’t my first language ).

Describe your online reading habits.
I love following intelligent bloggers on twitter. I especially appreciate when they put the title of their new blog entry in their tweet, rather than just “I just put up a new entry! Check it out!” That tells me nothing. There are plenty of other bloggers on twitter. If I don’t know what you wrote about, I don’t know whether it interests me, and so I won’t click. If I find a well-written entry that says something new or puts an old idea in a clear way, I’ll retweet it.

Finding and sharing great articles definitely sets up a community. This sort of thing has gone on since the first newspaper was printed. “You simply must read this article!” This sharing of feminist-specific literature in such a world-wide way is new – feminist bookstores are few, far-between, and bookstores in general are really hurting. It is some consolation to know that even if they go, feminist literature will still be around.

Don’t get me wrong: Bookstores are a place of social congregation, study, and very importantly, a place for grassroots groups to meet and organize. Their loss would be very painful. It is comforting, however, that someone who did not grow up near such a place will still be able to find so much online – even if it is likely to kill his/her eyesight…

You can follow Sabrina on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HappyFeminist
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.