The Eternal Problem of Mansplaining

I saw this cartoon online and needed to share it. It's from the New Yorker, I believe last week. I found it on Twitter because it went viral when the woman who Tweeted it wrote "Sharing just because it prompted so many men to leave long, angry comments to the New Yorker." Her Twitter feed then proceeded to blow up with thousands of other angry men and their backlash to the message (thus, as frequently happens with mansplaining, proving the point the cartoon was making).

The cartoon is just such a perfect example of mansplaining that the average woman experiences probably at least once a day. The two people in the cartoon are probably supposed to be either friends or on a date, and either way the example works. The man thinks he's doing the right thing by trying to impress the woman with his supposed knowledge about modern art, when in fact by shoving his interpretation on her when she never actually asked for it, he's being benevolently sexist.

If a guy I was on a date with did something like this and I didn't know him well I probably wouldn't even go through the exhausting process of explaining that his comment bothered me and why it did - after all it would be awkward, start an "unnecessary" confrontation, and no doubt either anger or humiliate the guy (they tend really not to like that).

Obviously, the cartoon doesn't depict a Huge Important Moment of Sexism, but this type of experience is far more insidious and universal to the female experience. Tiny moments of men overreaching in conversations or shoving their 'intellect' in the faces of women who would never be socially allowed to do the same construct our understanding of gender and the power dynamics the gender occupies in the world. And if just made me chuckle, since I could picture so many of the men I know doing something like this.

"My Album of the Year is Lemonade"

This week started with an amazing feminist moment when Adele won the Grammy for Album of the Year and subsequently dedicated the award to Beyonce, who she believed should have won for her album "Lemonade." The moment went viral and has been the talk of social media ever since. Even though I am the first person to role my eyes at consumerist/individual-focused/celebrity-obsessed modern feminism, this action by Adele represents so much more than that. The decision to give the award to Adele over Beyonce, despite Beyonce being the popular choice (you might almost say the Academy acted as a sort of electoral college, thwarting what would have been the popular vote, but I digress) - is just another example of institutions failing to evolve. The history of the Grammys, not to mentions the Oscars and all the other major awards shows, is a history of refusing to acknowledge black artists, even when their work was far superior. This is a systemic problem that is so much larger than this one incident.

It was also interesting that the video the of Adele's acceptance speech (see below) uploaded by the Grammys official account does not include the footage of Adele breaking her award and giving half to Beyonce (a la Mean Girls), that part was not televised. Although Adele's speech was partly about Beyonce, her more explicit statement about the award was made to a smaller audience in the Q & A after the show. After the show Adele said: "I felt it was her time to win, my view is kind of like what the f*ck does she have to do to win album of the year." It was crucial that Adele recognized the privilege that led to her work winning this award over Beyonce. As a white woman, her album was far less political and therefore the more traditional choice that the Academy went with. It was amazing for Adele to disavow the decision and explicitly acknowledge the role race must have played in the decision- after all "Lemonade" was an album focused on the black female experience and struggles - however, the fact that Adele waited until after the show to be fully open shows the pressure she was under to still respect the institution.

The respect the two women have for each other as people and artists is so evident when you watch Adele's speech and Beyonce's reaction to it. It reminded me of the point in the Modern Misogyny chapter we read about feminism being good for women. One of the points the author made was that empowered, feminist women do not see themselves merely in competition with other women, but rather build up other women. Adele was doing what she could to accomplish that. It was also a very beautiful moment for women that Adele used her speech to talk about how becoming a mother changed her as a women and an artist. She vocalized the often taboo subject of how hard motherhood is for women who also have careers. (Something Beyonce can undoubtedly relate to as well).

Watching another white-washed awards show was pretty disheartening, but Adele's embrace of (intersectional) feminism by standing up for Beyonce was at least a great moment to witness. Who knows, maybe the Oscars will decide to get progressive this year . . .

2 Dope Queens: Civil Rights Phoebe

I listened to episode 18 of the 2 Dope Queens podcast, "Civil Rights Phoebe." The episode was originally from October. It featured comedians Jackie Kashian and Jacqueline Novak. The podcast is definitely a work of feminism since it unapologetically champions women's voices and stories and offers a place for pro-women comedy and conversation.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the comedians featured on the show, but the part I liked most about this episode was Phoebe and Jessica's banter about time travel. They were discussing how people like to entertain the question "if you could time travel to any period in the past, where would you go" and how that hypothetical really only works for white people, especially men. Basically, what they said was that this question ignores structures of privilege. It would be unpleasant at best and dangerous at worst for a black women to travel back to virtually any period in history because women and people of color never had more rights or freedom at any point than they do now, although the situation is still far from equal, obviously.

This analysis of a seemingly harmless hypothetical seems obvious, but I had never thought about it before. Truthfully, if someone asked me what time in the past I would choose to visit, I also would be stumped. Even as a white women, I have no desire to live in a past decade or especially century. Between workplace discrimination, general lack of respect, and rape culture - even living in the 60s or 70s is not appealing. I can only speak for how hard living in the past would be as a women and not as a person of color so listening to Jessica and Phoebe's take was really worthwhile.

Feminism & Public Education

I've been thinking a lot about the role early education plays in the development of citizens as feminists or not. And not just as feminists, but also as thoughtful and moral people. This is a relevant topic since just moments ago it was announced that the President's contentious pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, will be confirmed with VP Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. There are more than a few immediate concerns that arise from this. The Center for American Progress wrote on Twitter just now, "For the GOP Senate majority, $4 million in donations from Betsy DeVos and her family spoke louder than the voice of 100ks of constituents." In this new era where corruption in politics is able to exist so blatantly and openly and yet thrive, it will be even harder to raise the next generations with the old-fashioned American ideals of honesty and integrity. The new head of all America's public schools bought this position and has no experience or expertise in education, let alone any earthly understanding of how to effectively manage a huge government bureaucracy. That in itself is sickening, but what does it have to do with feminism?

I believe we discussed briefly in class the idea that a lot of what we learn in middle and high school about racism, sexism, and these more complex oppressive structures in society is extremely limited. Taking one's first few liberal arts courses in college is a jarring and rewarding experience, it feels a lot like unlearning the oversimplified and sometimes outright dangerous preconceived notions that the public education system taught you in English or social studies classes. I never thought complexly about structural racism, feminist identity, or systems of oppression before coming to Manhattan College - now these ideas are inherent to my understanding of the world and my place in it.

As feminists and social justice advocates, a key goal should be ensuring that children are educated at an earlier and earlier level about these complex issues so that college doesn't have to require so much un-learning. And crucially, access to education about structural inequalities is in itself often elitist and classist since someone who has no opportunities to afford a pricey liberal arts higher education may never learn the true significance of them at all. It's a dark day for our country when a woman who does not even believe in the goals of having free and quality public education is now the supposed protector of that system.

How much further behind will our schools and our students (the voters of tomorrow) fall during this administration? Will abstinence-only education become the law of the land and cause even more damage to the lives of uninformed young women and men at a time when funding for contraceptions and access to legal abortion is also in jeopardy? How many history classes will be allowed or encouraged to teach from textbooks that sugarcoat SLAVERY - ensuring that the next generations of Americans have an inherently wrong understanding of racism in this country? How will we ever deal with income inequality between races and socioeconomic classes when more funding will be spent on private charter schools for a minority of students, but the majority of kids in underfunded schools (with the worst being in communities with primarily immigrants and people of color) will be without a solution?

The privatization of America is a scary concept because so often privatization comes with an agenda so foreign to morality and supposed American ideals of meritocracy, and no where is this more dangerous than our education system. If there is anything we should fight to make more equal it is our education system. Through education we can create empowered, thoughtful, historically-aware, and even feminist citizens. Or we can continue to waste that opportunity. Education is a feminist issue, and the confirmation of Betsy DeVos is a feminist nightmare we most continue to oppose.

This reminds me of one of the best quotes from my all-time favorite TV show The West Wing, a quote about education from the character Sam Seaborn that says, "Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. . . . Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense." Well, we can dream.