Running head: IS FEMINISM FOR YOU?

Is Feminism for You?

Allison Davis
September 30, 2015
Loyola University Chicago

IS FEMINISM FOR YOU?

The sexist structures in our society are not difficult to miss; from male-dominated fields
to gender pay gaps to patriarchal violence, sexism has been and still is a growing problem for
females in the United States. Growing up in the south, on the buckle of the Bible Belt, it was not
difficult for me to see the ways in which females were considered less than men. For me, even
something as seemingly simple as marriage vows or male protection of females was problematic
as I got older and went to college.
However, gender roles did not exist in my home growing up. Both my parents had an
equal hand in raising my sister and me. My father did a majority of the housework and his
favorite possession is a Kirby vacuum cleaner that looks like it came out of the 1970s. My
mother controlled the finances and worked in the yard. Because I did not see those roles or that
gendered divide in my home, it was hard for me to understand the ways in which those sexist
structures that I saw affected me. It was not until I went to college that I started to think
critically about how others perceived me because of my gender.

My definition of feminism
I define feminism as the challenge to end sexist oppression and create equity among all
genders. For me, feminism is not just about females. As a child, my nephew asked his mother
and father for a doll. When they replied, dolls are girl toys, not boy toys, I realized how upset
that made him. His parents perceived men with feminine qualitiesin this case, wanting to play
with girls toysas gay, conflating, as many do, gender expression and sexuality. Later, he
whispered to me and asked if I would get him a doll, because he was ashamed to talk to anyone
else and felt that I would be a more trusting person. From just one dismissal, he realized that
some actions and even material objects were off-limits to him because he was a boy. All it took

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was one sentence for him to be embarrassed and feel less like a little boy for wanting a certain
toy. For me, that is a very personal and driving reason to support feminism and call myself a
feminist. I want my nephewsall three of themto feel free to choose the toys they want
regardless of how they express their genders. Feminism to end sexist oppression also means
removing gender labels on objects.
In addition to gendered material objects, sexist oppression has also placed gender labels
on emotions and personality traits. Societal norms for femininity and masculinity have created
females who are afraid to take charge in a staff meeting for fear of being called bitches and
males who are afraid to show emotions for fear of being called wussies. My experiences at a
womens college helped me to realize this fact. Because my major classes overlapped with
graduate school classes in which men were enrolled, I experienced sexism in a class taught by a
male professor. When female students raised their hands to ask a question in class, we were told
to wait until the end to ask them, but male students were permitted to ask their questions midlecture. Because I spoke out against his blatant sexist attitude, the male professor wrongly
accused my friend and me of cheating on an assignment. He saw us as a threat to his authority
and classroom environment, and tried to pit us against one another by telling me that I had better
grades than my friend did. Unfortunately, this faculty member was a tenured professor and only
got an insignificant punishment for practically violating the Federal Education Rights and
Privacy Acts (FERPA).
My perception is that his sexist oppression in the classroom against females stemmed
from the way that the profession of early childhood education has traditionally been considered a
females profession. It must be difficult to be a male in an early childhood educator role,
because that has historically not been a profession that has been welcoming to men, and I

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imagine that his peers made jabs at him for becoming an early childhood educator. By taking
part in the radical-libertarian feminist movement, we can begin to remove the perception that
some professions are only for men and some are only for women. Instead, professions will be
for those who are interested in and passionate about the work, with no gender labels being
enforced on them.
hooks (2000) described that what is needed is a vision of masculinity where self-esteem
and self-love for ones unique being forms the basis of identity (p. 70). She went on to state
that males sense of being comes from domination over others. My definition of feminism is
about changing the ways we place value on people in order to create equity among females,
males, all the genders in between, and those outside the binary. My views and definition of
feminism align under the radical view of feminism, specifically the radical-libertarian view
(Allan, 2011).
Allan (2011) explained that radical-libertarian feminists argue that socially constructed
gender roles are harmful for both men and women, and that only through their deconstruction
can liberation occur. This type of feminism is very meaningful for me when I think about my
nephew wanting a doll, and when I think about how much my father did and contributed to our
household in ways that are not typical for men. It is also meaningful for me when I think about
the identities I hold that help to shape my experiences as a female.

Intersecting Identities
My experiences as a female have not been shaped just by my gender identity, but by my
sexual orientation, race, and religious beliefs, as well. Being a White female means having to
jump less hurdles than a female of color, but being a gay woman means coming up against

IS FEMINISM FOR YOU?

barriers that heterosexual females do not. My Christian beliefs have often contradicted the way I
believe that women should be treated and valued in and outside of the institution of the Church,
and the Church has not been a welcoming place for me ever since I came to terms with my
sexual orientation. We are not one identity at any given time, but the presentation of all the
identities we hold all the time.

Sexual Orientation
I am drawn to radical-libertarian feminism because of my identity as a gay woman.
Because women are expected marry and have children, and this view is one my parents hold,
being a gay woman in my southern society was condemned. I will not be getting married to a
man and I will not be having a child that is both biologically mine and my partners. This
expectation of women places value solely on their ability to maintain a heterosexual relationship
and produce children, so what happens when a woman does not do either? Gay women are often
seen as hypermasculine in the community from which I come, and thus are not valued as much
as heterosexual women in relationships. But deconstructing what it means to be female and what
it means to be male can drastically influence the way society views gay men and women (Pasque
& Nicholson, 2011) and the way my home community views my gender-nonconforming partner
and myself.
Tuana and Tong (1995) stated that a central tenant in radical feminism is the belief that
male domination of women originates in the institution of heterosexuality (p. 131). I believe
that my devalued identity as a woman and as a gay person, especially in my home community,
which is majority Christian, originated from the roles women played, and did not play, in the

IS FEMINISM FOR YOU?

stories of the Bible. Because of the ways in which I was taught about the Bible, I began to
become disenchanted with the Church as an institution.

Religious identity
My religious and spiritual identity has been a source of contention with my views on
feminism and my sexual orientation. My parents are not particularly religious, so becoming a
Christian and joining a church was a conscious decision I made on my own when I turned
thirteen. I was highly involved in my church community throughout high school, taking part in
vacation Bible schools, joining the choir, joining the youth group, and helping with the collection
of tithes and offerings. After starting my college career at a womens college, however, I began
to become critical of the perspectives through which I was learning about God and the Bible.
The perspectives of my clergy and his subsequent teachings about women in the Bible
were negative ones, explaining that women were not supposed to lead the church or be the head
of households. He stated that women were appropriate leaders when it came to children and
other women in the church (i.e. leading the choir, coordinating the nursery) and that women
should be obedient in their marriages. He based this interpretation on the stories that described
how women were listed as possessions of their fathers and husbands, and that Jesus only called
males to be disciples. Even in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, it speaks of how husbands are
to rule over their wives (Daly, 1973).
This became problematic to me as a young college student as I thought about my parents
marriage; the idea of an obedient wife with a husband that controlled the household was foreign
to me, as my parents never exhibited that type of relationship. As I progressed through my
undergraduate years, I began to realize the stories of the Bible were ancient, and that their

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authors could never have predicted the way our society could function. I became disillusioned
with the teachings of my small, conservative Presbyterian church, and began to talk to my
friends about my discontent. When it became public knowledge that I disagreed with our pastor,
the church community chalked it up to the fact that I was at a womens college, full of manhatinglesbians (hooks, 2000, p. 68) and as such, my opinions and interpretations were not
valid.
My home community contained the kind of right-wing religious fundamentalists that
condone the mistreatment of gay women and the subordination of women in heterosexual
relationships based on the Bible. hooks (2000) held that despite the sexism of male-dominated
religions, females have found in spiritual practice a place of solace and sanctuary (p. 105). For
many women, I think that might be true; unfortunately, I cannot say the same for myself.
Because I was so involved in my church and believed so strongly in its teachings, only to be told
and continually reminded that my place was at the feet of a man, its fall from grace was a
poignant one. I still hold my beliefs constant with my feminist values, but have not found a way
to reconcile those beliefs with the Christian Church as a whole.
As hooks (2011) explained, I think it is necessary that a transformation in our religious
beliefs accompanies feminist transformation. Because so much of the population, regardless of
race, class, or sexual orientation, adheres to Christianity, it is imperative that we dismantle the
patriarchal structure in order for feminist values to infiltrate mainstream society to eradicate
sexist oppression. This is not just a positive change for females, but for people of all genders. If
we begin to disassemble the structures within Christian teachings that place the man at the head
of the household and dominant over females, then norms will be deconstructed and will allow
everyone to experience the sense of wholeness that comes from combining his or her masculine

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and feminine dimensions (Pasque & Nicholson, 2011, p. 6). Feminist ideas need to be
engrained in the teachings of Christian religion as a way to reach and educate all genders about
gender equity.

Race
It is a testament to my privilege as a White person that the intersecting identities of race
and gender were never salient for me. Because that part of my identity is a privileged one, the
challenges I face are different from those that women and men of color face. A salient topic that
comes to mind is the act of police brutality against men of color. Because men in general have
been taught that their worth comes from their dominance over others, the traits that accompany
dominance (like aggression, anger, and even physical characteristics) intensify and become more
significant when it comes to men of color. Their race already makes them targets of
discrimination, but the intersectionality of their race and gender make them targets of not only
discrimination, but unjust incarceration and, as we have seen most prominently in the past year,
unjust death. By breaking down gender norms, I believe we can begin to rectify, but not
completely erase, the undeserved perceived negative characteristics of men of color.
As a female in the workplace, men could perceive me as bossy or bitchy, but women of
color in the workplace are often seen as domineering or even castrating to men (Ware, 1973).
This is why I whole-heartedly challenge Sheryl Sandburg in her 2010 TedTalk about leaning in.
In her speech, Sandburg argued that the reason women are not being hired as CEOs or making as
much money as men is because we are not leaning into the challenges and tasks we are given.
She stated that by just leaning in and giving ourselves credit for our hard work, we can begin
to gain equity with our male counterparts (Sandburg, 2010). This might be the case for White

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women like myself, but this sentiment is much harder to support for women of color. There are
more barriers that women of color face in corporate America than White women, and Sandburg
gave no thought about how those women would be seen if they were to act in the same manner
as their male counterparts.

Gender expression
As a cisgender woman who presents herself that way, I often find myself wary of men,
especially at night. As previously stated, men are taught that their value comes from their ability
to dominate others, and that includes women. My sense of safety as a female is not as high as it
is for a male. Most men do not feel scared to walk home alone after the sun has set. For me, and
for many women, this fear is very real.
Before moving to a new apartment, my home was almost a mile from the train station,
meaning that after late classes, I would have to walk almost a mile in the dark alone. I would
often cross the street when someone walking towards me looked like a man, I carried pepper
spray and would hold it tighter when men would pass me on the sidewalk or walk closely behind
me, and I constantly feared being followed by a man into my garden apartment. Because I was
taught that women were weak and that men were aggressive and dominant, I have constantly
been afraid to go anywhere alone.
However fearful I was and am to be alone in public at night, that fear is tenfold for
transgender folks. Because transgender folks do not fit the mold for the binary, many people,
men in particular, see their gender and gender expression as a phase and some use violence to
put them in their place and maintain the social structural order. My definition of feminism and

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the type of feminism I align myself with will begin to help eliminate that violence against people
who identify as transgender and who do not conform to the binary.
My gender and gender expression as a female have also made people assume that I am
heterosexual. Many gay women are perceived as masculine, so my femininity confuses others
when they figure out that I am in a relationship with a person who uses female gender pronouns
and identifies as genderqueer. Because of my gender and gender expression, it is assumed that I
will get married to a man and have biological children with him; these are not part of my lifes
plan.
When we break down the norms that accompany what it means to be man and what it
means to be a woman, we can create space for any person to act in a manner that is authentic to
them no matter their gender expression. Men who display normative feminine qualities will not
automatically be considered weak and will not automatically be assumed gay, and women who
display normative masculine qualities will not be seen as aggressive and be assumed gay. When
we dismember the binary characteristics, anyone will be free to express their gender any way that
feels truthful to them, without assumptions being made about their sexuality and personality.

Conclusion
The reason I identify as a radical-libertarian feminist is that I think that equity should be
spread across all genders. The feminist movement will only be successful if we continue to
strive to decompose gender norms. To me, eradicating those norms can begin to break glass
ceilings in business and help advance the economic status of women; I do acknowledge,
however, that being a female does not equalize all females nor is every female on the same level
playing field. Feminism is about ending sexist oppression for everyone, and not allowing certain

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characteristics to be ascribed to any one gender, for what does it mean to feel like a woman or a
man, anyway, but to fit into these generalized societal understandings of womanhood and
manhood (Pasque & Nicholson, 2011, p. 143)?

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References
Allan, E. (2011). Womens status in higher education: Equity matters (Ashe Higher Education
Report, 37(1)). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Daly, M. (1973). The spiritual dimension of women's liberation. In Radical feminism (pp. 259267). New York, NY: Quadrangle Books.
hooks, b. (2000). Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. Cambridge, MA: South End
Press.
Pasque, P. & Errington Nicholson, S. (Eds.) (2011). Empowering women in higher education
and student affairs: Theory, research, narratives, and practice from feminist
perspectives (ACPA Publication). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Sandberg, S. (2010, December 21). Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women
leaders[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_
why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html
Tuana, N., & Tong, R. (Eds.). (1995). Feminism and philosophy: Essential readings in theory,
reinterpretation, and application. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Ware, C. (1973). Black feminism. In Radical feminism (pp. 81-84). New York, NY: Quadrangle
Books.