Monday, December 6, 2010
Curiosity and Suprise fuels Feminism
The readings for this week were especially interesting and really tied in the ideas of this class together for me. Feminism for me seemed narrow and after reading these chapters I realized how broad feminism is and how intertwined it is in many issues around the globe. I really like how Enloe speaks in "Being Curious about our Lack of Feminist Curiosity” introduction about how the rhetoric surrounding gender is normalized so that we think nothing of it. She talks about how natural then progresses to traditional, and oldest and then always. Which is funny to me because in school especially science I learned if a multiple question said always it was usually wrong. Always becomes a catch all and generalization so that we can neglect being curious. If we think that something has been around forever there is no need to challenge it because that is just the way it is. She says "I've come to think that making and keeping us uncurious must serve somebody's political purpose." By being curious we can question issues and search for the answers that are not so simple. We will be able to see how patriarchy operates in everything and how that can be disguised as nationalism and other disguises. In the first chapter "The Surprised Feminist" I really likes how she looks at surprise and how when we are surprised at things we disregard it like we knew that or just all together dismiss it because it doesn't fit with our notions or opinions. I think addressing the surprising information gives you another view and allow you to do further research and help to understand the whole picture. I think curiousity and surprise are ideas that make a great feminist as well as a great scientist in any field.
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After this semester's study in this course, I have the same feeling, which is especially assured by the readings of this week, that feminism actually has a far wider field than I thought. Simply thinking about suddenly being curious and questioning every common thing, that I have become so used to, around my life frightens me for the extremely abundant questions raised with it and it threatens me also because it seems I am unable to solve any of these questions.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of questioning that is being discussed is very important. Moreover than that I feel like I've learned to question the way the world works more, especially in terms of interdependent relationships. I think others in this class can honestly say they feel the same way and now will still question even if they can't find an answer because as long as you choose to question you're being a better participant in society as well as a stronger intellectual.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Yellow, Xinke, and Matt all bring up here: the importance of questioning. I thought that it was great how Yellow related Enloe's point about the use of the word always to science classes. I thought this was a strong supporting fact of what Enloe was conveying and also emphasized the fact that her advice can be applied to a broad spectrum of aspects of our lives. Lastly, I thought that it was nice how Yellow pulled out Enloe's point of us being surprised at things we disregard. Sometimes we accept things without even realizing it ourselves, and I thought this reading was a good way for us to have that pointed out to us, and I would hope that all of us after reading this piece by Enloe make more of a conscience effort to question what we have always viewed as tradition.
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