Essay Instructions: You may choose one of the three topics. Even though I think topic 1 is the easiest one to do, I put all topics to choose because you might prefer 2 or 3. I will upload the necessary readings to write the essay and also peer rubric (showing that what my professor want from the essay (ex. Strong thesis and etc.).
1. Topic: Claiming feminism
Carefully consider the readings and videos and carefully construct an argument regarding what it means to claim the term feminist. Why is it initially so daunting? How does claiming the term and engaging the word view become transformative? Consider how feminism is not only a political cause but also a way of understanding our experience of the world. Bring in relevant quotations from the readings and any other relevant materials of the course. Feel free to position yourself -- that is, your own experience with feminists or as a feminist -- within the argument you develop. Cite relevant primary and secondary materials as you respond to this topic.
Please note: Primary sources refers to individual experiences of feminism, such as your experience, conversations you have overhead, remarks you heard made regarding feminists. Secondary sources refers to those materials which critique the primary texts (e.g., Love and Helmbrecht's essay or Hogeland's essays, among others).
2. Topic: Matrilineal History
In light of the discussions, readings, and video clips -- especially Diane Bell's essay and video clip -- consider the following questions: On what sources have historians traditionally relied?; What happens to the lives of peoples who are not part of the written record?; How might their lives be reclaimed?; or When those who have been erased are made visible in the historical record, how does their presence alter our understanding of our own histories and how might we, as a consequence, revision the past, the present, and the future?
Locate an object (such as a photo, a sewing machine, a book, a piece of jewely, or other family artifact) that connects you to one of your female ancestors. Taking into account the questions posed above, write an account of the object's history. Also, take into consideration those whom you needed to consult in order to uncover/discover the object's history. How close were you/your object to the edge of memory? That is, in terms of locating information about your object, what had been lost or was on the verge of being lost? What records did you need to consult? Where did you find these records and how informative were they? How is your account of the object an intervention, a means of reclaiming women's history? In addition, how do these artifacts represent our material and verbal culture and tell us from where we came, who are now, and who we may become? Finally, how does such an investigation give us cause to celebrate what we have learned, and also demonstrate that such a lesson "always already" is tenuous because we always are involved in rescuing women's history, and thus ourselves and others, from the edge(s) of memory.
Include an image/images of the artifact you investigated in the paper. Be sure to cite relevant quotations from Diane Bell's work as you develop your discussion.
3. Topic: Girls' and Women's Empowerment and the Music Industry
In “Teaching the Conflicts: (Re)Engaging Students with Feminism in a Postfeminist World,” Meredith A. Love and Brenda M. Helmbrecht astutely observe that young men and women may be receiving messages that it is self-empowerment (rather than social justice) that they should seek and that consumer goods are a means of achieving self-empowerment. As they explain,
In creating these spaces where consumerism and activism mingle awkwardly, Pink and Dove implicitly argue that women’s empowerment and advancement lie within an individual’s buying power, not within a larger cultural cause or movement. In other words, gender politics have become conflated with consumerism. (50)
They further explain that “[u]nlike activism, which tends to encourage coalition building and collaboration, consumerism is a choice driven by marketing and individualism” (55). I think they are quite right in their analysis here, and would add that the appeal to “individualism” is markedly seductive in American culture where the individual (rather than the collective) is so highly prized. How do specific texts of popular culture appeal to individual self-empowerment and self-empowerment that is achieved through consumerism and capitalist agency? How are these appeals made in the music industry? In order to respond to this paper topic, it would be worthwhile to look at one artist as well as his/her lyrics, his/her media presence, his/her music videos in order to analyze the ways in which postfeminist discourse attempts to co-opt men and women’s conception of the means of achieving change, especially social change. On the other hand, it also would be possible to argue that there are some meaningful exceptions.
Cite relevant primary and secondary materials as you respond to this topic.
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