The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/6/09 Section: Opinions

APRIL GREENE

I'm disappointed in Mark McAfee's Thursday column, "This isn't your grandmother's feminism." As someone referenced extensively throughout the piece, I must say that although his description of me (a bare-faced woman carrying a tote bag that says "I love Reproductive Rights") is accurate, his representation of my feminist views is not.

Throughout McAfee's interview, Hannah Barfield and I tried to discuss serious, pertinent issues such as the various strands of feminist thought in academia, the ways in which gender is constructed through discourse, the effects of globalization on women's lives, rape as a political and military weapon, sexual identity and queer politics and power imbalances in society more generally.

However, each time we mentioned issues such as these, McAfee seemed only to give them a moment's consideration before asking us about makeup, marriage, last names and opening doors.

Although we pointed out that feminists do worry about these issues, we stressed that we also view feminism as a larger, more transformative political movement that goes beyond what we wear on our faces. Rather than focusing solely on our personal political choices, feminism urges us to think critically about power relations, systematic oppression and how intersecting identities such as race, gender, class status, ability and sexuality shape our lived experiences.

Although McAfee says that his intention was to "get a feel for the current state of feminism," he begins and concludes the column with the same tired stereotypes feminists have been challenging for years - and his implication that our "level-headed" rationality lent us credibility with him is, frankly, insulting.

We don't need McAfee's stamp of approval for our work or ideas to be legitimate, and feminists shouldn't be expected to constantly present accommodating smiles in the face of oppression. We have a lot to be angry about, and we're passionate about what we do.

Deriding feminists' progressive or radical views by calling us "feminazis" when we "act up" only works to polarize political activists in the popular imagery and reinforces the "emotional/logical" binary many feminists seek to problematize and dismantle.

I guess he was right in one regard, though - my feminism isn't the same as my "second wave" mother or grandmother, but it's definitely not McAfee's feminism either.

- April Greene is a senior from Tunnel Hill majoring in women's studies.

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