English 211 Blog Seven

1. The word "feminism" has been getting a lot of attention lately in popular media: Beyonc
posted the phrase "We Should All Be Feminists" at the VMAs and TIME Magazine said that
"feminist" is one of the words that should be banned (read article here). What's the heat with the
word, "feminism"? Why does the word cause such an emotive reaction in audiences? After
watching Adichie's talk further about feminism in her TEDTalk, analyze your own critical and
emotional reaction to the word that means "equality between the sexes."
Many time when people hear the word "feminism" they become angry or emotional because they
either think of all of the oppression women have experienced historically and even currently or
they think of a woman who has a burning hatred for all things male and wish for a matriarchy. In
reality feminism is a movement to dispel sexism and create a more equal world, yet I believe that
sometimes the word itself can become misunderstood and taken to mean that women want to
dominate over men. Feminism today is truly and important facet in society that will help both
genders by allowing them to have the respect they both deserve and give them a chance to
progress in life and society.
2. After reading Bell Hooks's selected readings and watching Adichie's TEDTalk, both purport
that patriarchy and sexism hurt both genders. Analyze both their arguments: how do they reach
their conclusion? What kind of style of argument are they using? What is the context of their
arguments?
Hook's articles discuss how sexism hurts both men and women as not only does it oppress
women, but it vilifies men, by turning them into the oppressor. Adichie also discusses how
sexism hurts both genders as she says that it forces men to put themselves in a box and fear being
weak and then women are taught to "shrink themselves" to accommodate these fears. I think both
of these arguments are in the Toulmin style as they do address both sides of sexism, but
throughout it is quite clear that they condemn that sort of small mindedness. The context of their
arguments is the global society that still promotes sexism, yet is ignorant about how this occurs
and the negative effects that it can have.
3. Micheline Marcom quotes D.H. Lawrence in her interview on her book, A Brief History of Yes:
The bodys life is the life of sensations and emotions. The body feels real hunger, real thirst, real
joy in the sun or snow, real pleasure in the smell of roses or the look of a lilac busy; real anger,
real sorrow, real love, real tenderness, real warmth, real passion, real hate, real grief. All the
emotions belong to the body, and are only recognized by the mind. In response to your question,
I would say that I have long been and remain interested in the real, and intuitively and sometimes
consciously, as Lawrence says it here, I know that the real is experienced in the body. Its how
we know anything. He goes on to say: The Christian religion lost, in Protestantism finally, the
togetherness with the universe, the togetherness of the body, the sex, the emotions, the passions,
with the earth and sun and stars. Perhaps thats part of my writing the body, my interest in
writing the whole, the togetherness. I have long thought that there ought to be a word in
English that encompasses to think-feel, this seems to me how we come to know things, and then
just recently I realized that the Latin word sentire, which in English we define as to realize
and is the root of words like sentiment, actually does mean that! Think-feel."

Critically observe the word she uses, "think-feel." Analyze how we use that word to deconstruct
different concepts, like "gender" and "male vs. female" and "woman vs. man" and "girl vs. boy."
In the fiction excerpt you've read, Marcom paints a story between two enigmatic and mythic-like
lovers. What are your responses to the fictional piece? To Marcom's concept of "think-feel"?
How does this tie to your notion of what is feminine vs. what is masculine?
I think that the word "think-feel" is a good description of how people come to the beliefs that
they have, such as men thinking that they have to be strong and masculine and so feeling
emasculated when a woman tries to take charge. This word helps us to understand the social
norm of "male vs. female" and helps us to understand and therefore end the assumptions that
men and women should constantly be at odds if either want to have any freedom. This piece by
Marcom demonstrates the emotional differences between men and women and the differences in
how they act. This ties into my notion of feminine and masculine in that I do agree that men and
women have physical and hormonal differences, we should not try to change ourselves to ignore
that fact, but we all feel and think and we should never ignore the emotional and intellectual
similarities between the sexes.