Has Feminism Gone the way of Hansel and Gretel A Feminist Response To The Social Construction of Gender

Has Feminism Gone the way of Hansel and Gretel A Feminist Response To The Social Construction of Gender A photo of me from my sophomore year of college. I am a feminist who celebrates my femininity. I feel that history has shown us that enfranchisement in the United States has never lead to immediate equality. The enfranchisement of black men in the 1860‘s certainly did not lead to their equality in the eyes of all Americans.   If in fact, I was to follow the same model that DeFazio has presented, then perhaps the Civil Rights movement “Lost its Way” after enfranchisement, and we can gloss over the Civil Rights movement of the twentieth century. This is what DeFazio does to the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, but many feminists, and people in general, would consider the second wave of feminism to be just as important as the first. DeFazio cites a study discussing the genetic differences between men and women, but nowhere in that study does it say that women are genetically predisposed to be relegated to the private sphere. A major argument of the second-wave feminist movement is that both sexes have the right to pursue careers, regardless of mar riage or familial aspirations. Gloria Steinem, a woman so lauded in the second-wave of feminism she’s almost become adelightful cliché, once said;  â€œIve yet to be on a campus where most women werent worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career. Ive yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing.”   While this  socially constructed  belief had somewhat faded from public discourse;  Ann-Marie Slaughter’s piece for The Atlantic  last year reminded us that the marriage/family debate is still one that women have. I would ask DeFazio if he is interested in having children, and if so, is he concerned with balancing being a parent with having a career? Gloria Steinem in the 1970s, an important period for the feminist movement. Photo Credit: http://wearethefishers.blogspot.com/ I’d also like to admit that the marriage/family debate, which while is still a prevalent part of feminism, is just one small piece of the puzzle. Never mind that sexual violence, domestic violence, women’s reproductive rights, and the fact that there are gender dysmorphic people who do not fit into the two prescribed gender roles, all are things that feminism seeks to have discussions about. I’m just frustrated with the notion that feminism has “lost its way.” All movements change, and there are many interpretations of feminism. I agree that there are biological differences between the sexesthe sexes, but not the genders. Gender is the social interpretation of sex, and often, the two are confused because of how powerful social construction is. While you may not agree that gender is socially constructed, the social construction that masculinity is the dominant sex is pretty hard to ignore. You may think those of us in the academy who argue for social construction of gender a re wrong, but there are many of us who are feminist in different ways.  My favorite tumblr  is a constant reminder of how important feminism is to people. Feminism has not “lost its way.” It was never on one path to begin with.