code name: "feminist!"

diane celia hodges (dchodges who-is-at interchg.ubc.ca)
Wed, 22 Apr 1998 16:47:17 -0700

...I think that in most conservative contexts

"feminist" is a code word for "miserable bitch"... certainly it
has been spat at me this way often enough,

"...oh and I suppose you're one of those *feminists*?" ouch man[sic].

I'd also venture that no academic who thought it
would ever admit it
(how 'dem miserable bitches jus' wanna ruin everything)
in
an academic context, but would, more likely, sneer it to a colleague later.

I think part of the difficulty is that feminism has grown
into a rather sophisticated set of theories, so it isn't like you can read
a book
about feminism and "get it"...

but as folks have noted, many "fields" do not want to
cross-pollinate, so socio-culturalism, and many other "fields"
have remained feminist-free.

what I'm saying is, based on my recent experience (it took me, like,
three years to write an article that mixed socio-culturalism
with feminist/queer theories) the work of doing this, in terms
of language and meanings, is arduous. What would help is if
socioculturalists would start including seminal chapters & articles from

already published feminist works, such as

Gayle Rubin's (1977?)"Traffic in Women..."; or bell hooks' "Whiteness and
the Black Imagination"

or Audre Lorde's "The Master's House..."
and so on. I mean, what I hear being suggested (and maybe I'm wrong?)
is that it is up

to feminists to educate the socioculturalists. Maybe the socioculturalists can
start by re-printing some of the choice material already available.

my $0.02 (Cdn Funds)
diane

"Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right." Ani Difranco
*********************************************
diane celia hodges
faculty of education, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction,
university of british columbia
vancouver, bc canada

snailmail: 3519 Hull Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada V5N 4R8