Both articles base themselves off of the idea of feminism. A Tsunami in History goes through the stages of feminism an how it came to be from day one; Abigail Adams reminding her Husband President John Adams to "remember the ladies". The article reminds us of the hardship in each wave (1,2, and the present 3rd) and what each wave is fighting for. The fear of feminism takes place in what was present day (1994) and expands on how feminism is doing today, and how the women of the third wave are reacting to it. There were three quotes that really stood out to me in these articles.
In the Fear of Feminism article by Lisa Hogeland she says that "Feminism politicizes gender consciousness, inserts it into a systematic analysis of histories and structures of domination and privilege." (18) Feminism takes the awareness of women's vulnerability and the celebration of women's difference and makes it political. As much as feminism is there for a woman's support, it is also bringing to light the things that we know but we choose not to face. In the article it says that women know that walking alone at night is not the safest thing to do, and we know the dangers, but we don't want to admit the fact that in our society we are not safe by ourselves. We know the facts but bringing it to light for us again after being educated on it makes it seem unfair. We want to have the privilege and the right to feel safe walking across campus, but the fact is that we cant, we are too vulnerable. As women and as feminists, we believe that we are strong and capable of anything but we are being held back by the pressures and ideas of society; and sadly this is the idea of the society that we live in, men are known as the dominant figure, and have been through history.
On page 25 of the Tsunami article there is a quote that caught my attention the moment I read it. "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" Irina Dunn. This explains both articles in one sentence. You take two things that don't work and you find out that they don't need each other. As a women in society, we are always told "oh well don't worry you will find someone soon", or "there's a nice young man waiting out there for you". The only thing that women need men for are as follows... ..... .... .... their sperm. We can find support from family and friends, we can find love with those people as well. Some people don't even find love from men, nor do they want it. Our sexual needs can be taken care of and it doesn't have to be from a man. just as many men womanize females for the sole purpose of "planting as many seeds as possible", I believe that we can use them as they use us. Only when they want something, and in our case it would be a baby. I completely understand that there were not the same medical measure that we can take now a days if we would like a child without having to directly come in contact with a man. This is what the second wave is about, being able to go out on our own and get things accomplished and support ourselves. To this day we are still out fighting for those rights.
When talking about why women are afraid of the word feminism, Hogeland explains that "Feminism requires an expansion of the self- an expansion of empathy, interest, intelligence,and responsibility across differences, histories, cultures, ethnicities, sexual identities, otherness" (21). Women in today's age are only educated to an extent on all of these topics; its like seeing the tip of the iceberg an the expansion is underneath, its the real education. Because of religion, personal reasons, and many more some women will go under the surface of some of the topics but not all. We pick and choose what pertains to us.
I found this article giving us the reasons why people say they aren't feminists, these are people who our children watch and know, and also who we are familiar with. I find that they are feminists but are denying it. click here!!
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