Monthly Archives: October 2014

Online module reflections

Posted on by under GRSJ 307

I was a bit confused at first about what we were supposed to do, but I looked through the powerpoint presentations and looked at all the video clips that were linked. I found the different clips very interesting, in different ways. I enjoyed watching the Morgentaler video clips from CBC’s website because I don’t know that much about Canada history and I’m currently taking a gender and health class where abortion isn’t really touched upon, so it was a good complement. Abortion has been on my mind a lot lately because the 40th anniversary of abortion legalization is coming up in Sweden, and the government just passed a ”conscience clause” that allows medical professionals to refuse participation in abortions (which has been criticized by both the National Association of Doctors and the National Association of Midwives who rejected the clause when it was first discussed – especially since a similar clause has had negative effects in Norway, since it results in longer waiting periods for those seeking abortions, because they get redirected to new doctors and midwives).

Also, BitchMedia’s compilation of abortion scenes made me think about this website: http://www.thisismyabortion.com/

I think there’s definitely a dominating representation of abortion as this huge, guilt-ridden decision, where you’ll forever regret or at least feel bad about your decision, even though young mothers also represented as something ”bad”. I feel like a lot of the guilt associated with abortion is not some much guilt about the procedure itself, but guilt about feeling relief or not feeling bad about it. Obviously, everyone experiences abortion differently, but this is a pattern I have seen both through my work at a young women’s centre and in my personal life. While abortion might be seen as a responsible and rational decision, being relieved or happy about it isn’t socially accepted – forcing people who do abortions to feel shame and guilt is just yet another way to police bodies, I guess. Even when we have access to safe abortions and are given a choice, it’s like we need to be reminded that our decision has ”consequences”.

This isn’t a great format for me, personally – I find it easier to focus on something in class, when there’s an instructor. I enjoy the inclusion of video clips (it definitely helps during long classes), but I think I might have processed the information better if I was in a lecture or a seminar.

#4 – Desire and consumption

Posted on by under GRSJ 307, Uncategorized

I read a blog post (regrettably in Swedish, so I can’t share it) just a couple of days ago about how (according to the author) there has been a shift from feminism being about dismantling patriarchy (and by extension, society at large) to focusing more on the individual’s identity as a feminist. The post really resonated with me, and how I’ve experienced the growth of a feminist political party in Sweden and my friends’ participation in that political movement for the past few years (and how I myself position and portray myself). The feminist identity can, like all others, be consumed, or produced through consumption – we buy and/or make t-shirts with political messages, we carry jewelry (where some of the proceeds occasionally go to a “good cause” with feminist values, or maybe to a small-scale, feminist producer to “support” them and their feminist production) that reveal or signal who we are, we as specific individuals. (Just quickly scanning through my own and my friends Facebook pages: our cover photos at the very top of our profiles, as well as most of the profile pictures, are very politicized and feminist-oriented, immediately giving the profile viewer a clear signal of who we are, or what we wish to be perceived as, especially to other Swedes who know how to interpret the dominating presence of pink-ish filters and symbols in some of the photos.)

The political party (Feminist Initiative) is also ready for consumption, though perhaps not in the same monetary sense as t-shirts and jewelry with feminist messages (but you can of course, if you want, get a bunch of feminist-themed merchandise from their website as well). The party doesn’t necessarily differ from other political parties and organizations in that respect, but I feel as though they’ve amped it up: they offer the possibility of inviting the party leader to “home parties”, meaning that she shows up at private parties to talk (their) feminism and generally hang out. Because she is charismatic on top of actually being accessible, she’s produced as something desirable and enjoyable, and because of that a bit cooler than other political leaders, and available to be “consumed” by individual feminist (and their friends who also identify as feminist). Feminism is quite strategically made into something attractive and fun even for those who didn’t necessarily identify as feminists before, and while there are definitely feminist values within the party and their success has led to more influence in politics (and public debates) I find that this eager participation in commodifying and consuming feminism and shaping it as an identity that I, as an individual, AM, risks so deradicalize feminist politics – and, as my blogger friend said: the goal isn’t feminism, the goal is to dismantle the society which makes feminism necessary.

An example of the filter you can add to your facebook profile picture to show your support:

Feministiskt Initiativ mönster tygpåse

 

An ad for the home parties (“Hang out at a homeparty with Feminist Initiative”):

fi_homeparty_facebook1

Previous blog posts: [1] [2] [3]

#3: Postfeminism

Posted on by under GRSJ 307

I’ve always considered Bridget Jones’ Diary (the novel, perhaps not the movie to the same extent) to be quite feminist, at least in the way I read it. It does invoke feminism, only to reject it as something from the past, it to me it does it in a thought-provoking way. My age is probably a contributing factor – I first read the novel in my early teens, and it was quite easy to identify with Bridget and her fears, and then I had to reread it for a course a couple of years ago and I still very much enjoyed it – as well as that I haven’t read that much chick lit, and haven’t grown tired of the genre or seen the reoccurring patterns. Or maybe it is because of what McRobbie calls a normalization of post-feminist anxieties – I am very much entangled with postfeminism in a neoliberal society that values female individualisation, and it’s difficult to disentangle from the fears that Bridget and I share, not matter my feminist values.

While chick lit as a genre is interesting of critique, I’m not sure why Bridget Jones’ Diary in particular is one to receive so much flack for being postfeminist. Is it because it was one of the early, big novels within the genre and has contributed to shaping how these novels look?

(Another interesting thing: when we discussed Bridget Jones’ diary in class, all the women in the course found Bridget’s situation to be very recognizable, whereas the men struggled to understand why we liked the novel, how we could possible consider it to be feminist, and why the novel had been such a big deal in the first place.)

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