lead post for 4/28

Cynthia Enloe “Being Curious about out Lack of Curiosity”

Thinking in terms of natural, tradition and always keeps people from expending the mental energy to question those absolute things.  She gives the example of “cheap labor.”  When used this way the phrase is static and does not generate more inquiry.  She changes it to “labor made cheap” which encourages further questions.  

She argues that some of our language is de-gendered which hides gender issues from scrutiny.  Though I agree with this point, many of those terms do not have a gender attached to them because that is also deemed incorrect practice.  It marginalizes the few people of the minority gender that are a part.  She gives the example of “military spouse.”  Though yes, most of these individuals are women, which is not indicated by the term; some of them are men.  To say military wives would silence these husbands.

Enloe goes on to explain Patriarchy as a system similar to the Johnson article.  She encourages curiosity as a battle against patriarchy in its new forms.

“The Surprised Feminist”

Enloe was challenged to predict the future focus of feminists.  In this chapter she postulates an answer while also arguing against this challenge.  She answers that feminists and all people need to learn to be surprised.  This includes admitting when one is wrong in light of new evidence.  This allows for better engagement with the new complicating information.  Enloe then gives examples of various contemporary events that she did not predict.  One of which involved female basketball victory.  She makes an off-hand comment about their male coaches. 

This made me question what the coach-team gender dynamics are in the NBA vs the WNBA.  In the NBA for the 2010-2011 season all of the listed coaches for both the Eastern and Western Conferences are male.  This is not shocking or necessarily problematic since all their players are male.  This gives both player and coach equal access to gendered spaces such as their locker rooms.  However in the women’s league, of the 11 teams whose coaches were listed, 5 are women while 6 are men.  Though I’m sure there are issues with finding qualified female coaches, this inequality not shared by the men shows that it is perfectly acceptable to negate gender homogeneity if men are coaching women but that it is less acceptable if women want to coach men.   I am not implying that I think women need to coach men.  I understand and am okay with the locker room and cohesive team arguments if all the players are of one gender.  However, this argument does not extend to the women.  This indicates the real reasons have to do with prizing masculinity over femininity when it comes to leadership roles.

The two links below provide the numbers I mentioned.  

http://www.nba.com/news/transactions/coaches/index.html

http://www.wnba.com/coaches/

follow up post for 4/26

These articles are all linked by questions of identity and how one’s identity affects one’s activist work.  For Jessica Greenstone, feeling discrimination first hand as a child led to her be sympathetic for all who are oppressed.

Allison Attenello struggles through how important a common identity is in working towards a common goal.  This article was particularly helpful for me because she provided a definition of identity politics.  I hear this phrase a lot but was never able to understand what it means.  I enjoyed her conclusion that identity can be broadened and redefined.  You can be a part of a group and work towards its goals even if you are not a part by some outward markers. It is important to acknowledge ignorance as Attenello does and defer to more knowledgeable members of the community when applicable.  I understand her wanting to disaffiliate with the group because they did not focus on her passion: defending women against violence; however, I think she could have still been an active member of the group though she was not Mexican etc.  This is the whole idea of allies.  Male feminists add an important strength and solidarity to the group.  This is the same for straight allies of queer groups.  I think Attenello’s point that identity can be redefined to include passion and not simply societal markers allows for these instances of allegiance to occur.

Shira Lynn Pruce discusses how her identity as a Jewish American greatly influenced her involvement in activism.  I appreciated how she entertained both a Zionist and feminist identity.  Some might think these points would conflict, however she does not shy from this tension but entertains it.  She is influential in running a march for queer pride in Jerusalem despite working towards Right Wing politics simultaneously.

The beginning of her article echoed events that have recently played out on our campus.  Though not seeming quite so serious as her instance, recently there has been an opinion article in the maroon news which some interpreted as anti-Semitism.  It was self-declaredly anti-Zionist.  This created a stir particularly in the Jewish community but beyond it as well.  Whatever your position on the issues, it is encouraging to see students take initiative in responding and generating a dialogue. 

newsflash 3

Jason Kleinman

Professor Simonson

Introduction to Women’s Studies

April 22, 2011

Women in the Military

For a long time, the military was an institution made up almost entirely of male soldiers. As such, men in the military could exhibit their naturally aggressive, sometimes violent behavior amongst themselves. Recently, however, women have changed the face of the military. About eleven percent of the United States forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are women. Women’s induction into the military has been quite successful and effective, but has also come with some disturbing and unacceptable problems. The aggressive behavior by some male soldiers has manifested itself in many sexual assaults against their female counterparts. Since women in the military are generally treated as second-class citizens, rape allegations get swept under the rug and military women live in constant fear of sexual assault. War is hard enough without having to fear those who are supposed to be fighting by your side. All of the progress that women have made in society over the last century, including the right to be in the military, is ignored.

Wars are extremely difficult and trying to those who fight in them. In addition to combat, soldiers have to deal with tough situations such as seeing dead bodies, handling remains, and losing close friends who have been killed in the line of duty. On top of all of this, women must cope with the arduous task of being a woman in the armed forces. One of the major issues that military women encounter is experiencing sexual trauma. This includes harassment, assault, rape, and other violent acts. While civilian women must deal with these issues as well, women in the military experience them much more frequently. National surveys suggest that thirteen to thirty percent of women veterans have experienced rape during their time in the force. It’s bad enough that rapes are committed, but the most absurd aspect of this widespread sexual assault issue in the military is that male soldiers are getting away with it.

In the military, males are considered the alpha and women are seen as second-class citizens. Therefore, when it comes to rape charges against male soldiers, “victims are blamed. Assailants are promoted. Unit commanders - whose promotions are dependent on the conduct and performance of the soldiers they supervise - have an incentive to see that allegations are few and convictions are fewer. As a result, the overwhelming majority of cases get swept under the rug” (Speier). This outrageous reality in the military has made it nearly impossible for women to feel safe in their barracks. In 2009 Technical Sgt. Mary Gallagher was allegedly sexually assaulted by one of her fellow sergeants. He forcefully pulled down her pants and massaged her private region while rubbing his penis against her vagina. When she reported the assault, command simply reassigned the perpetrator and lectured Sergeant Gallagher about how 96 percent of rape occurs when drinking is involved. Drinking, however, was not involved in this case. This is just one example of countless reported assaults that go unpunished every year in the military. While these ignored allegations are egregious, this problem has another negative effect on women in the military, the fear of coming forward and being further ostracized.

Steven Lee Myers, in his article “A Peril in War Zones: Sexual Abuse by Fellow G.I.’s” recounts the story of Captain Margaret H. White. She was sexually assaulted and then stalked by a fellow G.I. This stalking went on for months to the point where she, “felt safer outside the wire”. Nevertheless, she was reluctant to come forward. She is not alone in this fear as the Pentagon estimates that as few as ten percent of sexual assaults in the military are reported. This fear of coming forward is not unjustified. There is such a poor percentage of male soldiers who are successfully prosecuted for their acts of sexual assault that women have the right to be nervous about reporting their incidents. Another reason that women may not come forward is that they do not want to feel as though they are disrupting the larger mission at hand. Finally, women do not want to further alienate themselves within a profession that is already so heavily dominated and controlled by men.

The military has recognized that sexual assault is an issue that has gotten out of hand. The military says they have radically changed the way that sexual assault is handled. Apparently, access to treatment has increased and the rules on prosecution have tightened. While this remains to be seen, it does not appear to matter as women refuse to come forward about their cases of sexual assault. How can the military be the well-oiled machine that people expect, when eleven percent of its members live in constant fear of sexual assault?

It is hard from an outsider’s perspective to pinpoint a resolution to this widespread problem. However, it seems that, like many other women’s issues that have been exposed and improved in the past, women need to band together and publicize this matter and make it a ‘women’s issue’ as opposed to countless isolated incidents.

http://www.samhsa.gov/samhsanewsletter/volume_16_number_6/womeninmilitary.aspx

http://www.samhsa.gov/samhsanewsletter/volume_16_number_6/womeninmilitary.aspx

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/us/28women.html?ref=womenatarms

follow up post for 4/21

Lila Abu-Lughod's argues in "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?" that often the supposed plight of muslim women in places like Iraq and Afghanistan is supported simply to achieve other political goals.  She is extremely suspicious of this.  She argues that covering itself and the reasons behind comes in a variety of forms.  Western, particularly Right Wing persons overgeneralize by positioning all Muslim women in need liberation.  Abu-Lughod's comparison to our unspoken societal rules concerning dress helped to ground the issue for me.  Though I can see her point, that often covering is simply the acceptable way to dress, I would like to know more.  It seems logical to me that covering could still perpetuate harmful ideas about female modesty.  If some of the reason behind covering is to prevent male lust, this places the burden on women not men.  this is some of the same rhetoric circulating among conservative Christian groups.  It perpetuates the idea that men are uncontrollable sex fiends and women must help them all they can.
 Charlotte Bunch's "Who's Security?" and Arwa Ibrahim's "Living while Muslim..." both share themes of cosmopolitanism.  They argue against nationalistic tendencies and instead support the idea of a common humanity.  They assert that feelings of national identity should not trump human rights of all.  Ibrahim's story about being personally detained for 6 hours with out food, water, or access to cell phones made the issue real for me.  Though in some ways we have moved beyond immediately post-9/11 policies and fears anti-Muslim propaganda still permeates our society.   This can be seen by the recent laws in France that prohibits people from wearing full face veils in public.  Though this law does not directly mention Muslims it is clearly intended to target them.  In America there is currently a movement to make Sharia law illegal to practice.  This is preposterous.  Elements of Sharia law that could possibly be an issue would already be outlawed.  Any others simply do not harm others - and are therefore not an issue - or help others - even less of an issue. It can be nothing more than blatant discrimination against a people/religious group.

Bailey News Flash # 3

The Gender Conversation Still Relevant 

In her book Sexing the Body, Anne Fausto-Sterling focuses on ways that sex is a socially constructed continuum by examining the fascinating minority of intersex individuals.  Her approach bounces off of the existing argument that gender is a social construct and begins with the premise that this is old news given to us by second wave feminists (Fausto-Sterling, 4).  Though in a feminist world, this may be the case, recent outrage surrounding a J. Crew ad with gender-bending implications shows how our society may need to revisit the gender issue.  An example of such outcry can be found in the Fox News article “J. Crew Plants the Seeds for Gender Identity” which reverts to referring to gender performance and biological sex interchangeably.  This article indicates that Fausto-Sterling’s argument rests on an unstable foundation. Though it has huge negative implications for transgendered individuals, the heart of the problem in this article affects all gendered individuals.  By misunderstanding race, supporting ethnocentrism and championing violent masculinity, the article brings us back to a mindset that does not distinguish gender from the physical markings of sex and unnecessarily confines identity.

This is the ad in question.
[http://www.alllacqueredup.com/wp-content/
uploads/2011/04/jcrew-pink-nail-poilsh-
controversial-ad-essie-neon-pink.jpg]

            Dr. Keith Ablow’s article for Fox News represents one of many responding to the recent J. Crew ad.  This ad features a J. Crew designer, Jenna Lyons, playing with her young son.  It shows the boy wearing J. Crew apparel and humanizes this professional woman as a mother; this targets J. Crew customers who also balance their professional lives with their private.  One of the images pictures Lyons painting her son’s toenails pink.  The caption reads “Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon” (Ablow, 1).  Ablow responds to this ad by complaining that Lyons’s encouragement of non-traditional gender activities for her son will lead to his gender confusion and psychological demise.  He thinks that this represents a bigger issue in our culture: choice in gender roles and identity.  Ablow’s take would be less of a problem if it represented his opinion alone.  However, it can be found in the Body and Mind section of the paper; this along with the “Dr.” label gives it potential validity to readers. 

[here's the link to Dr. Ablow's article -> http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/04/11/j-crew-plants-seeds-gender-identity/#content]

A disturbing example of a past role thought
to be inherentof a particular race.
 [http://www.crestock.com/uploads
/blog/2009/controversial/02-1947-genuwine.jpg]

            The article pushes members of all sexes back into strict gender roles.  Contrary to Fausto-Sterling who acknowledges the fluidity of gender as a social product, Ablow refers to gender as if it were an inherent part of congenital biology by saying that children receive gender identity, which results in corresponding action such as nail painting, “at birth” (Ablow, 1).  He compares gender to race but makes the same mistake.  Outward trappings that confine one to a particular racial category or sex category are somewhat fixed.  As Ablow contends, the shape of a nose or the location of the genitalia requires surgery to change.  However, the roles associated with each sex along with those associated with each race can, do, and need to change.  Yes to “bleach the skin of others so they can playact as Caucasians” is disturbing to consider.  However, in this quote Ablow implicitly says that the color of one’s skin determines how one can act.  In fact, what needs to change is not outward appearance but the societal pressures that make acting a certain way Caucasian.   If roles associated with physical appearance did not change we would still be living in a society where black individuals were thought to be inherently suited for servitude.  Thankfully, we have moved past that.  Ablow’s misconstrues both race and gender in his comparison, but a parallel does exist.  Like race, roles associated with sex are not fixed and can change to encompass a perspective where painting a boy’s toenails is not seen as aberrant or damaging.

A depiction of ancient Greek gender roles for wealthy men.
[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Bxu2kHSW6aw/THU6a4m7zYI/
AAAAAAAAFRc/OSkgvzrGL2E/
s1600/Alexander+and+His+Beloved.jpg]

            Ablow also argues that current gender divisions necessitate the success of our species by saying that current, American “gender distinctions [including nail painting]… are part of the magnificent synergy that creates and sustains the human race.”  This ethnocentric argument ignores that in current non-Western groups as well as in our own Western past very different gender divisions exist(ed) without causing extinction.  The Huli, a group in Papua New Guinea, prize male beauty more then female.  The males undergo beauty treatments for their skin and hair to accentuate their beauty.  Their equivalent of a boy wearing decorative paint is seen as natural and right.  Furthermore, it has not resulted in societal collapse (Wardlow).  Fausto-Sterling explores how societies that led to our own understood gender distinctions in very different ways.  In the 18^th century European/American world, effeminate men existed and were called sodomites.  Though they did receive some political persecution, in places sodomites became an accepted third gender in a worldview of only two sexes.  Like with the Huli, this performance of contemporary feminine preference and behavior did not result in societal collapse.   In Ancient Greece, men performed masculinity through naked wrestling, initiatory penetration, and love for other men that overshadowed love for women.  This differs sharply from current understandings of ideal masculinity (Fausto-Sterling 11).  All of these instances show that gender constructions change.  Their mutability does not disrupt any kind of mystic balance and does not result in species death.

An example of Ablow's
suggested role for young boys.
[http://www.featurepics.com/
FI/Thumb/20100508/
Boy-Playing-Sheriff-1532344.jpg]

            Another disturbing element of Ablow’s article is the particular breed of masculinity he offers in lieu of nail painting.  He suggests that this boy integrate violence into his identity as a man by proposing that he “celebrate his masculinity with a little playacting as a cowboy, with a gun” (Ablow 1).  Ablow further confirms this and says that war is masculine by arguing that gender blending as displayed in pink nail polish threatens us by rendering neither gender “motivated to protect the nation by marching into combat against other men [emphasis added]” (Ablow 1).  Here he argues that femininity cannot fight and that masculinity can and should.  In light of Cynthia Enloe’s chapter about men in militaries this is particularly troubling.  She examines the role of militarized masculinity in compelling men to commit atrocities in war.  Borislav Herak, a breed of this masculinity, took part in the systematic rape of thousands of women.  Though in this extreme example many other elements contributed to Herak’s actions, gender constructions do make war possible (Enloe 106).  Ablow promotes glorifying outlaw violence as an acceptable identity for young boys (Ablow 1).  This perpetuates violence by making it an integral part of male identity. Instead, allowing a boy to paint his nails pink moves us away from that brand of masculinity and then allows children to articulate their own gender performance rather than forcing them into one.  I fail to see the horror Ablow does in this.

            Far from being horrified, when I first saw the J. Crew article while innocently flipping through the magazine in the Coop, I remember thinking how wonderful it was that popular media was beginning to blur our strict gendered behaviors in a non-political, non-charged medium.  Though Dr. Ablow’s article momentarily punctured a hole in my ballooning happiness, the comments to his article helped to patch the damage.  All that I read argued against a conflation of gender and congenital sex (“Search”).  Gender roles have their place in easing social interaction and establishing order.  However, these roles should never operate to constrict individual identity.  Since gender performance is not linked strictly to biology, this gives all the more reason to allow the blurring of behavior and expected action until each individual operates uniquely.  If in the future Lyons’s son does need psychotherapy, as Ablow suggests he will, it will not be because of his nail painting but because of the mindset that labels him a deviant for doing so (Ablow 1).  Continued rigidness in understanding gender not nail painting is the real issue.  Therefore, as a solution, we should not reaffirm this rigidness but rather expand our views so that this boy does not have to live in a society determined to uphold nonsensical conventions.  This will positively impact transgenders, males, females, and everyone in between. 

Works Cited

Ablow, Dr. Keith. "J. Crew Plants the Seeds for Gender Identity - FoxNews.com."

FoxNews.com - Breaking News | Latest News | Current News. Fox News, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. <http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/04/11/j-crew-plants-seeds-gender-identity/>.

Enloe, Cynthia H. "All the Men Are in the Militias, All the Women Are Victims." The

Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire. Berkeley: University of California, 2006. 99-118. Print.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of

Sexuality. New York, NY: Basic, 2000. Print.

"Search." Twitter. Web. 19 Apr. 2011.

<http://twitter.com/search?q=http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/04/11/j-crew-plants-seeds-gender-identity/>.

Wardlow, Holly. Wayward Women: Sexuality and Agency in a New Guinea Society.

Berkeley: University of California, 2006. Print.

lead post for 4/19

        Myers’s article “Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In” explains the role women increasingly have in active combat.   Though male combatants still comprise the vast majority, females are beginning to be more fully integrated into the system.  The military has had to change slightly to accommodate these additions.  Women have separate sleeping quarters and need more privacy.  This article argues that the benefit of females in active duty outweighs these costs. 

Some more costs include hesitation by the native populations who are not used to interacting professionally with women in the military.  Also, women continue to face increased sexual assault and harassment.  Women can also get pregnant.  In one of the videos that were coupled with this article, a female combatant said that sometimes women get pregnant intentionally because it means they will go home.  However, this combatant’s answer to problems such as these was not to exclude women from the military; instead, she suggested that “discipline, maturity and professionalism” (2) were sufficient solutions.

       Myers highlights that increased female participation in active units means that now women, as well as men, are trained to fight effectively.  This empowers women in new ways.

       Myers’s article, “A Peril in War Zones: Sexual Abuse by Fellow G.I.’s” focuses on the issue of sexual abuse in the military.  Some experts think that this incidence of abuse is no higher than in the civilian population.  The way the military is set up complicates reporting of abuse even more.  When this article was written, the military had just undergone a revision in their policies towards sexual abuse.  These enabled women and men to get counseling without pressing charges.  It also made rape kits available to military medical units and provided a way for victims to report outside of the normal chain of command.  This helps to alleviate some concerns about commanders ignoring the victim to preserve unity in their troops or to focus on other problems.  This article describes the case of Captain White who was stalked and assaulted by a fellow combatant and former boyfriend. She did not report the attacks because of some of the issues mentioned above.  It came out when the military investigated her assailant for other similar crimes.

      What I found interesting about this article was the fact that adultery is considered a crime.  I am curious about how they define adultery and what their reasoning is.

I found this website which speaks to this issue.

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/justicelawlegislation/a/adultery.htm

      Here it outlines that in certain cases adultery is punishable when it negatively impacts the image or cohesion of the unit. You can be charged as either the married or unmarried individual but usually half of the married couple affected must also be serving. 

     Enloe’s chapter “Men in Militias, Women as Victims” examines the role of politicized masculinity in compelling men to commit atrocities in war.  She uses the example of Borislav Herak who took part in the systematic and widespread rape of Muslim Bosnian women.  Enloe argues that a feminist examination is necessary when looking at such crimes.  Gender constructions make war possible.  When the type of war is so heinous it is necessary to look at the type of masculinity and femininity that makes that possible.  One possible problem with this article is Enloe’s focus on Herak’s pornography use.  If this truly was a pathological addiction there may be more cause for it to be included.  Otherwise, it implies that porn use itself is unhealthy; though I’m not a fan of porn many people do use it without some kind of pathos.  This also connects Herak’s rape crimes to some kind of sexual frustration, which based on the interview she provides does not seem to be the case.

      Enloe’s second chapter “Spoils of War” is very short but packed with interesting ideas. She contends that sexual crimes even when connected to politics must be treated as crimes against women not crimes against a country or a people.  Though the later approach is also useful it can trivialize women’s experiences with oppression to a sterile non-gendered metaphor for oppression.  This translates a woman’s issue into a political, aka male, one.  Enloe also asserts that prostitution in other countries enjoyed by male soldiers may be not that different from rape since there is a huge power imbalance. 

follow up post for 4/14

Cynthia Enloe's piece explains how women are silenced particularly in cases of sexual abuse or harassment.  Her chapter spoke nicely to our discussions about labor.  She described an organization called CAW that worked to connect women from different countries in and around Asia.  Though in this instance they worked to increase organization surrounding issues of sexual abuse, it could have positive implications for wage labor and other working conditions as well  We discussed how the companies often pit their potential subcontractors against one another to maintain control over a current factory. CAW could increases communication between those subcontractors so this doesn't happen.
Enloe's argument also relates to my last newsflash where I discussed a Libyan women who had been raped.  Her rape became a rallying point for other rebels.  Though for her this constitutes support, Enloe brought up some important problems with this use of a rape as a symbol of a political movement.  Here, her rape is protested because it coincides with the agenda of the rebels to do so.  If she had been raped by a fellow rebel and not members of the oppressive regime, her countrymen might have responded differently.

Gloria Steinem's article is interesting.  I enjoyed her addressing masculinity.  I know this is a Women's Studies class so I get why we study women, but I enjoy thinking about masculine gender construction as well. It was interesting to note that white, upperclass males commit most of "senseless" violent crimes.  Her argument, however, ignored a key aspect of this issue.  The fact that we refer to these criminals simply as non-gendered "young teens" shows our lexicon's use of the neutral to signify white men and white men to signify the neutral.  Pictures of a human typically are of a male, or a male and a female but rarely of just a female.  This goes back to our discussion of body and how the male body is normal while the female is aberrant. I do not think that male aggression is society's blind spot.  As Steinem notes, testosterone has always been linked with males and violence.  The problem is that we structure masculinity to encourage and support this violent, dominating image.  I am not trying to say that Halo makes murderers, but it does encourage a violent masculinity.  That being said, as Steinem also hints at. There are other serious issues going on in the cases she mentioned.  The Son of Sam thought his dog was telling him to murder people.  I think its safe to say he did not had a normal, functioning cognitive system at that point, issues of masculinity aside.