Category: Discussion Board 2

• What is feminist praxis, according to the text? What makes it “feminist?” What is your definition of feminism? How would you explain feminism to someone who had not heard this term before?

Based on the text, Michele Tracy Berger and Cheryl Radeloff define feminist praxis as the integration of learning with social justice. I believe what makes it feminist is the definition of praxis. Based off the text, praxis is applying your knowledge to challenge oppressive systems and unequal traditions. To me feminism is fighting for equals rights and representation all across the board, it’s about fighting social injustices, inequities and patriarchy. I would explain feminism as fighting for your rights. I would use the industrial revolution, the civil rights movement, or the LGBTQ movement as examples for what feminism is and what the movement is trying to do.

• Lorde writes about transforming silence into action. Select 1-2 quotes that you think capture her main ideas reflect upon what she is communicating to the reader. What is your response to Lorde? She also asks us: “What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say?” How would you respond to her? Do you agree that language is needed for action?

While reading transforming silence into action, there was a lot of different things that Lorde said that stuck out to me. First of all, I love her writing, everything flowed so smoothly while i was reading. She must have been an amazing poet. Language is need for action because without language or communication how will you know if something is okay. How can you create change if you don’t speak up? Without language there is not action.What I got from the reading is that when moving through life you cannot stay quiet. We have to speak up on how we feel, you cannot wait for others to speak for you or hope that someone else feels the same way and speaks up. One quote that really stuck with me is “… the transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation…”. This quote stuck with me because I used to be a quite person, I didn’t really speak much at all. When I got to my second year in high school is when I really started to speak up for myself and use my voice for good. To me it is both a self-revaluation and self-revelation. This next quote captured the main idea of the whole article. “We can sit in our corner mute forever while our sisters and ourselves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned; we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid”. I say that this quote captured the main message in the passage because the message that Lorde is trying to give it that you cannot be silent, you cannot more through life scared to speak up for yourself and others. If you do, then our world will be poisoned and there will be no change. I feel like as a 20-year-old college student there is a lot that I have to stay but often times when I do speak and voice my opinion I’m shut down or told that I’m too young, or inexperienced. Some words that I still struggle with is speaking up for myself, saying no and putting myself first.

-What is feminist praxis, according to the text? What makes it “feminist?” What is your definition of feminism? How would you explain to someone who had not heard this term before?

According to the text, feminist praxis are social movements for racial, gender and other fights for equity, mainly for women, made by women. It’s for a system of ideas, practice and it refers to a set of actions which are informed by theory, research and evidence. It’s also a safe place for women who know what they go through and to know that they aren’t alone. What makes “feminist praxis” feminist is that even though it’s mainly for women, it generalizes the theory and practice of equality for racial, gender, and other movements of equity. My definition of feminism is fighting for the equality for all people whether you’re a woman, man, black, white, person of color, gay, straight, lesbian, transgender, etc. For someone who haven’t heard of the term feminism, I would explain that even though it may be simple, it’s more complicated than it sounds. I would explain that even though it may mean female hence the word feminism, it’s not. It’s more than just being women. It’s equality for all people whether they’re concerned with gender equity and the liberation of being a woman.

-What do the authors say about backlash? What are some examples of backlash against feminism that you have seen or experienced? What do you think drives the backlash in these examples and what are some ways to respond to it?

The authors said about backlash is that backlash comes in many forms. It’s either from outright rejection of feminism to “enlightened sexism” to “postfeminism”. An example that I have seen backlash against feminism would be in the beauty community or industry as others would may called it. In the beauty community, there would always be backlash whether be a person would launched their first or newest makeup line or a scandal that happened recently or a few years ago that would surfaced again. Another example of backlash would also be in social media. In social media, whether a person would be launching something different or new to the beauty or clothing community, there would always be one or two people that would comment something bad or say that that the person stole their idea, and it would end up being a feud about who’s right or wrong. And also in social media, whether a celebrity would be living their life while making their material, social media would always bring scandals about that person to the surface and it causes backlash to that celebrity. I think what causes backlash  in these examples is that there will be some people that will always remembered who you were before than the person you are now, will always reminds you of who you were back then in the past instead of letting it go. The ways to respond to backlash are different depending on the situation at hand. But for these examples, I believe that the best way to respond is to respond back to the backlash accordingly, which would mean that you can apologize for the backlash and give some light to it so you can fix it. Or you don’t respond at all, and let all the backlash get to you or not let it get to you at all. No response is a response.