FRICKE 1 Lisa Fricke Kevin Brooks 9 Nov 2011; Advanced Writing Workshop Salvaging Feminism Allred, Gloria.

Gloria Allred. November 2011 <www.GloriaAllred.com>. Web. Allreds website reveals how passionate of an advocate she is for women. She is a fierce woman who fights for justice and equality no matter how much the risk of losing is imminent. The website supplies the viewers with information about her high profile cases, how to fight back against discrimination, videos and media links about her current activities. While Allred is an advocate for civil rights, she is also seen as being too feminist that she is blinded by reason. However, the fact that her law firm has won national prominence through many precedent-setting cases over the course of more than 30 years, makes her an interesting feminist to look at and to hear criticism about. Benhabib, Seyla and Drucilla Cornell, ed. Feminism as Critique: Essays on the Politics of Gender in Late-Capitalist Societies. Polity Press, 1987. Print. Benhabib and Cornells compilation of essays expresses feminism from a variety of perspectives as well as giving the reader a diverse amount of definitions of what feminism is. The essays cover economics, gender, politics, morality, controversies, sex, and other issues that have aroused and revealed as feminist activity began to become more prominent. These essays are great for understanding the different types

2 of feminist theory and give an in-depth, professional analysis by respected scholars and activists. They gave me a broad lens from which I can pursue different angles of how the definition of feminism can be salvaged in todays society and among the new generation. Blum, Linda M. Between Feminism and Labor: The Significance of the Comparable Worth Movement. Univ. of California Press, 1991. Web. Linda Blum displays in her article the dependence of women in Americas workforce and how the majority of women in sex-segregated jobs are not benefitted. In her examination of the feminist movements desire of equal pay for equal work she notices a strategy to raise wages for jobs that are normally carried out by women. Blum not only cites her own researched work, but also the work of two case studies in California. Along with providing the studies, she also analyzes political debates and how this affects the future of the feminist movement. Her writing is professional and provides ample background on feminism and notes instances that are still applicable in 2011, but hopefully not for long. Butler, Judith and M. MacGrogan, ed. Erotic Welfare: Sexual Theory and Politics in the Age of Epidemic. Routledge, 1993. Print. Erotic Welfare, shows how sexually transmitted disease have been utilized as a weapon against liberation movements. The writers in this book display how politicians use disease to control the publics sexuality. Somewhat similar to saying, If you act out of our moral standards,

FRICKE 3 you will die of a horrible disease. This discourse has caused people to become panicked and makes it difficult for women to secure reproductive freedom while also looking belittling them in cases of unwanted pregnancy. This book definitely shows how patriarchal government has made the feminist movement look dangerous. It also reveals how none of us seem to have the freedom without oppression to decide for own bodies what pleasure we can have. It is also interesting how it is pointed out that contraceptives are not used as much as they should, because of how other people will interpret them if caught. I can use this work as a reveal of how people are ashamed of being sexually free and how it is detrimental to to the entire society psychologically. Cohen, Marcia. The Sisterhood: The Inside Story of the Women's Movement and The Leaders Who Made It Happen. Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 2009. Print. Marcia Cohen paints a lively display with news photographs from the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Obscure patterns in the womens movement are made more evident as the readers view how the right and left wings came together and split apart over common issues of today and homophobia. She focuses on the high-profile women of the time and shows the many failures the movement incurred during the time and leaves the reader with the questions of how can something that failed have been the biggest success ever made for women in America. Cohens book is rather slow moving. There are 445 pages with media information plastered on them and it seems like the reader is always reading

4 about 1970. For all the color and vivacity of the stories Cohen places in her book, it still feels like there are necessary pages missing. The formation of an equal rights movement should not be so rife with so much hate that she discusses in her book. I am not sure why she did not address that issue. Daly, Mary. The Church and the Second Sex. Beacon Press,1985. Print. The Church and the Second Sex, provides the discourse of women becoming othered. Mary Daly reveals how the church is a place to worship the divinity of men and to subjugate women as being either the bearers of great men or the destroyers of great men. While written in 1985, the Catholic church has showed insignificant increases in its respect for women, thus making this work relevant even 26 years later. Her exposure of outlandish reality provides a resource for society to look into the truths they so venerably believe in and question them. Mary Daly was a professor of theology at Boston College, however it is more correct to call her a philosopher as her beliefs go far outside those limitations. Daly is a radical feminist who wrote many books about patriarchal cultures false truths and devoted her time in reversing those beliefs, especially within the religious institution. Dalys writing is inspiring and finally gave me the words I have needed ever since my childhood experiences. Her writing is, however, passionate and many people have criticized her writing. I still find her a valid resource as she is discussing a subject that will challenge the majority of critics belief systems. Pateman, Carole. The Disorder of Women: Democracy, Feminism and Political

FRICKE 5 Theory. Stanford Univ. Press, 1989. Web. Carole Patemen displays the largely unrecognized issues in Americas political system surrounding women in an unwritten, but prevalent social contract. Pateman recognizes the problems surrounding womens problems within the workforce, and legally. Her feminist critique of mainstream political theory reveals how the majority of people are reliant on a democratic system that is uncompromisingly non-democratic. I found Patemans work to be quite difficult to read because of the complexity of the issue she is discussing. However, her writing gave me substantial information on an issue that I have begun to grow interest in. I think this article would have been even more of interest if she had included information about Americas Capitalist government, as well. Siegel, Deborah. Sisterhood Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Print. Siegels engaging story on feminist history shows all sides of the feminist movement. She details what happened during the vicious era and draws especial attention as why women are constantly pitted against one another. Within her book, she illustrated why feminism is important even despite the many fights in the organization and out of the organization. Siegel supplies the readers with a description of feminism that clearly mirrors humanist theory. Her insight is definitely helpful as I am trying to help describe to others what feminism really is and she explicitly shows it is not a group of women cackling at cutting off a mans penis,

6 it is trying to obtain equal liberty for everyone no matter their body or color. Terroja. Feminist Fail: Pwnage. Youtube. February 2010. Web. Terroja gives a passionate description of why he believes that feminists are wrong. He uses Steven Pinkers book How the Mind Works to describe why biologically feminism does not work and is incorrect in their philosophy of controlling men. Terrojas use of Pinkers work is especially interesting to me since Pinker was awarded the Humanist of the Year award in 2006 and uses a description of feminism that I believe is flawed, hateful, and based off of researching supposed feminists, or man-haters. This is important in my piece because it shows how both professional and the average American conceive the feminist movement as irrational and despicable. V-Day: Until the Violence Stops. Dir. Abby Epstein. V-Day. Lifetime Television, 2003. DVD. Epsteins film is inspired from Eve Enslers 1996 play The Vagina Monologues and displays the global movement to end violence against females. It gives a moving interpretation of the womens movements and show women growing out of their patriarchal box and displaying their abilities. Epsteins film, while being inspirational for females, ignores the violence that men receive from women, media, and other men. Its specificity makes this film biased and does not clearly communicate feminist ideals. However, it shows the positive effects of being a feminist.

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