In sociology, researchers have long known that men and women tend to cope with problems in their lives differently due to socialization. Men will often blame external events or another person for a problem, while women often blame themselves. Predictably, this can take a heavy toll on women's self-image, and may cause episodes of depression.
On this blog, we have already discussed the fact that women have higher rates of clinical depression diagnoses. A new study published in Current Biology presents evidence that stress-related depression can cause changes in the body which function as a coping mechanism. To discover this result, the genes of thousands of women with recurrent major depression were compared with the genes of healthy control participants.What is interesting, and sad, about the study is that the women with histories of stress-related
depression often had suffered forms of childhood adversity such as sexual
abuse. Were they more prone to developing recurrent depression due to internalizing hardships or trauma? Perhaps, and a study on the correlation between stress and women's heart disease posits that "psychobiological" responses do differ according to gender.
Understanding how women are internally beating themselves up would help explain stress processing and what women can do to change harmful habits. Psychologists state that society's discouragement of any kind of aggression in women can lead to their turning aggression inward on themselves. Also, it can become "relational aggression," which means that women become aggressive against other women. Making other women into targets, rather than men, could often be easier due to women being conditioned to not openly fight back. Another weakness that women face in relational problems is that they do not see themselves as part of a group, causing perceptions of more stress. Sexism, of course, is probably contributing to this issue with glass ceilings, media under-representation, and objectification. In an odd way, one article advising women on how to stop berating themselves uses common stereotypes like "good girl," "doing addict," and "overly optimistic, partying cheerleader."
Gendered responses in managing self-esteem and aggression also affect men's lives, because while blaming an external event sounds like it would preserve the self-image, it does not always do so. Verbal and emotional abuse can appear in relationships due to men's aggression generally being tolerated more by society. Also, a study of the effects of success and failure on male-female relationships showed that men consciously did not perceive losses or boosts of explicit self-esteem based on women's success or failure. However, implicit self-esteem was affected. One must question the influence of sexism when the men in the study lost self-esteem when their partners were successful in certain tasks, and registered higher self-esteem when their partners failed. To conclude, when there are media lines such as "unequal doesn't mean unhappy," everyone should remember that gender roles do seem to play a factor in some kinds of unhappiness.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Women in comics
Back in March, DC Comics solicited their June 2015 comic book releases. In tribute to the 75th anniversary of their most iconic super-villain, the Joker, DC arranged for Joker-themed variant covers for all of their monthly publications. Unfortunately, a large number of fans and feminist bloggers flocked to Twitter to protest the variant cover planned for issue #41 for DC’s Batgirl series.
On the cover, the Joker is physically restraining Batgirl, whose eyes are filled with tears and fright. The villain, holding a gun, is applying one of his infamous “Joker grins” to the heroine. Although a number of the month’s variant covers show the clown terrorizing various heroes, the Joker and Batgirl have a particularly horrific and sensitive history. The cover heavily references arguably the most famous Joker story of all time, one told in the 1988 graphic novel The Killing Joke. In it, the Joker kidnaps Barbara Gordon (unbeknownst to him, Batgirl’s alter ego), shoots her in the spine, paralyzing her from the waist down, and presumably rapes her. Afterwards, he takes pictures of her bruised, undressed body and sends them to her father, Police Commissioner Jim Gordon. Despite the Joker’s eventually defeat by the Batman, Barbara Gordon’s character spent the following 20 years in a wheelchair (this development was recently undone).
A large, vigorous debate – at least for a relatively niche market – arose. Critics of the cover raised two main issues: 1) the cover glorifies violence against women; and 2) the fear depicted in Batgirl’s eyes reduced her to a damsel-in-distress. Surely, they argued, a male superhero would not be robbed of his dignity in the same way. The backlash resulted in DC cancelling of the cover (a decision even supported by the cover artist himself). To some extent, this move proved just as controversial among readers.
According to Time Magazine’s Cathy Young:
It would probably shock no one today that women remain under-represented in the mainstream superhero genre. Although there have been huge strides (Did you know that the comic book Thor is currently a woman?), there is nothing resembling gender equality – either in terms of characters or in terms of creative talent. This is despite the fact that women make up nearly half of all attendees at comic book conventions.
Looking at the titles slated for release in July 2015, only about 10 out of the 83 (12 percent) Marvel Comics issues have a titular female protagonist. Over at DC Comics, it is 11 out of 76 (14 percent). In contrast, Marvel is scheduled to publish 30 male-led titles to DC’s 38. For someone who has followed the industry since the early-1990s, these numbers actually represent a huge improvement. Just more progress needs to be made to excise the sexism in what has generally been a boy’s club.
If you’re a fan of films, you’ve probably noticed that superhero movies have been dominating the box office for quite a few years now. And despite a few notable flops (e.g., Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern, Halle Berry’s Catwoman, Josh Brolin’s Jonah Hex, etc.), it doesn’t look like the super-powered gravy train is about to quit any time soon. Late last year, both Marvel and DC addressed one of the growing concerns among their fans – Will see any female-led superhero films?
At the time, the only super-heroine to make her way onto the big screen in the new universe was Black Widow. And despite her competence in a fight, she has so far been used as a trope – being a romantic interest for Iron Man in Iron Man 2, then for Captain America in The Winter Soldier, and now for the Hulk in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The actors portraying Captain America and Hawkeye jokingly called her a “slut” during an interview as a way to explain the way her character has been used, something they apologized for last week.
At the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel responded with plans to release Captain Marvel in July 2018, and DC finally planned to give us our first Wonder Woman-led movie in June 2017. Additionally, Marvel will premiere a female-led series on Netflix later this year. Somewhat similarly, we will also see the first black male-led films of the new universes – Marvel’s Black Panther in 2017, and DC’s Cyborg in 2020.
Still, a lot of soul-searching needs to happen in the superhero industry, as well as in Hollywood generally. Like Disney’s animated movies, superhero movies have historically left a lot to be desired in how women are portrayed in their stories. Tokenism is simply not good enough anymore. Hopefully, they’re up to the challenge.
On the cover, the Joker is physically restraining Batgirl, whose eyes are filled with tears and fright. The villain, holding a gun, is applying one of his infamous “Joker grins” to the heroine. Although a number of the month’s variant covers show the clown terrorizing various heroes, the Joker and Batgirl have a particularly horrific and sensitive history. The cover heavily references arguably the most famous Joker story of all time, one told in the 1988 graphic novel The Killing Joke. In it, the Joker kidnaps Barbara Gordon (unbeknownst to him, Batgirl’s alter ego), shoots her in the spine, paralyzing her from the waist down, and presumably rapes her. Afterwards, he takes pictures of her bruised, undressed body and sends them to her father, Police Commissioner Jim Gordon. Despite the Joker’s eventually defeat by the Batman, Barbara Gordon’s character spent the following 20 years in a wheelchair (this development was recently undone).
A large, vigorous debate – at least for a relatively niche market – arose. Critics of the cover raised two main issues: 1) the cover glorifies violence against women; and 2) the fear depicted in Batgirl’s eyes reduced her to a damsel-in-distress. Surely, they argued, a male superhero would not be robbed of his dignity in the same way. The backlash resulted in DC cancelling of the cover (a decision even supported by the cover artist himself). To some extent, this move proved just as controversial among readers.
According to Time Magazine’s Cathy Young:
Sexism in popular culture is a valid concern. But when feminist criticism becomes an outrage machine that chills creative expression, it’s bad for feminism and bad for female representation. Making artists, writers, filmmakers, and even audiences walk on eggshells for fear of committing thought crime against womanhood is no way to encourage quality art or enjoyable entertainment — not to mention the creation of good female characters.But to be fair, the comic book industry has not done a great job in creating “good female characters,” historically. And left to its own devices, it’s unclear whether it was ever going to get any better. Throughout the years, women were commonly written into stories as sexual objects that would need saving from super-villains on a monthly basis. Even as women’s empowerment and super-heroines became more prominent in comic books during the 1990s, they were typically depicted with hyper-sexualized bodies in skin-tight suits, big hair and high heels.
It would probably shock no one today that women remain under-represented in the mainstream superhero genre. Although there have been huge strides (Did you know that the comic book Thor is currently a woman?), there is nothing resembling gender equality – either in terms of characters or in terms of creative talent. This is despite the fact that women make up nearly half of all attendees at comic book conventions.
Looking at the titles slated for release in July 2015, only about 10 out of the 83 (12 percent) Marvel Comics issues have a titular female protagonist. Over at DC Comics, it is 11 out of 76 (14 percent). In contrast, Marvel is scheduled to publish 30 male-led titles to DC’s 38. For someone who has followed the industry since the early-1990s, these numbers actually represent a huge improvement. Just more progress needs to be made to excise the sexism in what has generally been a boy’s club.
If you’re a fan of films, you’ve probably noticed that superhero movies have been dominating the box office for quite a few years now. And despite a few notable flops (e.g., Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern, Halle Berry’s Catwoman, Josh Brolin’s Jonah Hex, etc.), it doesn’t look like the super-powered gravy train is about to quit any time soon. Late last year, both Marvel and DC addressed one of the growing concerns among their fans – Will see any female-led superhero films?
At the time, the only super-heroine to make her way onto the big screen in the new universe was Black Widow. And despite her competence in a fight, she has so far been used as a trope – being a romantic interest for Iron Man in Iron Man 2, then for Captain America in The Winter Soldier, and now for the Hulk in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The actors portraying Captain America and Hawkeye jokingly called her a “slut” during an interview as a way to explain the way her character has been used, something they apologized for last week.
At the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel responded with plans to release Captain Marvel in July 2018, and DC finally planned to give us our first Wonder Woman-led movie in June 2017. Additionally, Marvel will premiere a female-led series on Netflix later this year. Somewhat similarly, we will also see the first black male-led films of the new universes – Marvel’s Black Panther in 2017, and DC’s Cyborg in 2020.
Still, a lot of soul-searching needs to happen in the superhero industry, as well as in Hollywood generally. Like Disney’s animated movies, superhero movies have historically left a lot to be desired in how women are portrayed in their stories. Tokenism is simply not good enough anymore. Hopefully, they’re up to the challenge.
Minor's Prostitution in Switzerland Banned in 2013
In Europe, there is still a debate regarding whether prostitution should be legalized or not. I also have some difficulty to decide between the two principal arguments. On one side, legalization allows a better protection of sex workers, which is more than necessary regarding the danger of this occupation and the abuses that are committed. On the other side, I can’t see it otherwise than an exploitation of human beings that should be banned. Whereas the discussion is complex, it appears much easier to decide when we are talking about minors’ prostitution. The answer seems clear: children should be legally protected from prostitution. If someone would have asked me five years ago if the prostitution of minors was legal, I would have sworn that it was not possible in Switzerland … And I would have been wrong. Indeed, until 2013, the prostitution of minors aged between 16 and 18 was legal.
How that could be possible in 2010 in a western, supposedly developed nation? That seems crazy, but it was possible due to two factors combined together. First, prostitution is legal, contrary to the US, and only the forced prostitution is illegal. Second, the age of consent, which is the age at which a person is deemed legally competent to consent to have sexual intercourses, is fixed at 16 years old, as it is in most of US states.
Fortunately, in 2010, The Swiss Federal Council, approved the 2007 Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (or “Lanzarote Convention”), which took effect on July 1st, 2010. The modification of the Swiss Penal Code necessary to respect the terms of the convention was adopted in September 2013 and took effect on July 4th, 2014, which means legislators took 4 years to produce a law stating that requiring the services of minor prostitutes is a crime.
This situation was qualified as “ gap in the law” when it came to the attention of the public through the media, but I can’t prevent myself from thinking we did not legislate on that earlier because it was mostly a feminine problem. As often, these questions take years to solve and don’t seem to be taken seriously as a real problem.
How that could be possible in 2010 in a western, supposedly developed nation? That seems crazy, but it was possible due to two factors combined together. First, prostitution is legal, contrary to the US, and only the forced prostitution is illegal. Second, the age of consent, which is the age at which a person is deemed legally competent to consent to have sexual intercourses, is fixed at 16 years old, as it is in most of US states.
Fortunately, in 2010, The Swiss Federal Council, approved the 2007 Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (or “Lanzarote Convention”), which took effect on July 1st, 2010. The modification of the Swiss Penal Code necessary to respect the terms of the convention was adopted in September 2013 and took effect on July 4th, 2014, which means legislators took 4 years to produce a law stating that requiring the services of minor prostitutes is a crime.
This situation was qualified as “ gap in the law” when it came to the attention of the public through the media, but I can’t prevent myself from thinking we did not legislate on that earlier because it was mostly a feminine problem. As often, these questions take years to solve and don’t seem to be taken seriously as a real problem.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Women, patents, and innovation
The fact that we need more women in the sciences has been discussed many times before on this blog. See the previous posts here, here, and here. Yet these questions remain: how badly is sexism hurting scientific progress? How do we measure innovation?
One way of measuring innovation and conferring recognition is awarding patents. So, how are women faring at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)? The National Bureau of Economic Research found in 2012 that women hold 7.5% of all patents, and 5.5% of commercial patents. The gap between men and women is not due to a lack of women in hard sciences and engineering. Only 7% of the gap can be explained by that observation. It was stated that more representation in those fields would not make a difference absent other changes. While the lack of women in electrical and mechanical engineering, along with design and development, accounts for 40% of the gap, 29% is due to women being younger than their male counterparts in patent-intensive fields.
Many individuals became encouraged when The National Women's Business Council released a report that found women had doubled their share of patents in the last 22 years. Women hold 18% of the patents filed since 1990, and the number of patents granted to women increased by 35% in 2010. However, some researchers claim that the data used in these reports has too many problematic elements to be accurate. Gender on patent applications is indirectly sourced, and aggregate USPTO data may have been used incorrectly. Regardless of how women's patenting achievements are measured, it is agreed that women are closing the gap, but they are not at men's levels.
Helen Anderson and Mindee Hardin, patent holders of products for busy mothers, say that women need to disregard discouragement, and believe in themselves. Women have higher participation in trademarks, and the USPTO now has its first woman director, Michelle Lee. But the lack of a peer network in some areas is still a problem. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) acknowledges that women also tend to avoid commercialization, have less access to venture capital, and contend with laws that favor men. Also, women are often employees, instead of employers, in research and development teams. Service patents, which are awarded to the employer, would thus reflect disparities within companies.
If women are not on par with men's patenting rates, what of innovation? Whether patents are indicative of innovative progress is questioned, and even the definition of innovation has been criticized. Innovation is assessed by technological and industrial standards, and the term could be excluding many "feminine" improvements in human welfare. Therefore, women's contributions could be difficult to measure.
To end this post, here is an interesting account of Elizabeth Magie, the feminist who invented and patented the game of Monopoly. Magie also made headlines in the early 1900's for advertising herself for sale as "a young woman American slave" in order to make a statement about women's position during that time.
One way of measuring innovation and conferring recognition is awarding patents. So, how are women faring at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)? The National Bureau of Economic Research found in 2012 that women hold 7.5% of all patents, and 5.5% of commercial patents. The gap between men and women is not due to a lack of women in hard sciences and engineering. Only 7% of the gap can be explained by that observation. It was stated that more representation in those fields would not make a difference absent other changes. While the lack of women in electrical and mechanical engineering, along with design and development, accounts for 40% of the gap, 29% is due to women being younger than their male counterparts in patent-intensive fields.
Many individuals became encouraged when The National Women's Business Council released a report that found women had doubled their share of patents in the last 22 years. Women hold 18% of the patents filed since 1990, and the number of patents granted to women increased by 35% in 2010. However, some researchers claim that the data used in these reports has too many problematic elements to be accurate. Gender on patent applications is indirectly sourced, and aggregate USPTO data may have been used incorrectly. Regardless of how women's patenting achievements are measured, it is agreed that women are closing the gap, but they are not at men's levels.
Helen Anderson and Mindee Hardin, patent holders of products for busy mothers, say that women need to disregard discouragement, and believe in themselves. Women have higher participation in trademarks, and the USPTO now has its first woman director, Michelle Lee. But the lack of a peer network in some areas is still a problem. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) acknowledges that women also tend to avoid commercialization, have less access to venture capital, and contend with laws that favor men. Also, women are often employees, instead of employers, in research and development teams. Service patents, which are awarded to the employer, would thus reflect disparities within companies.
If women are not on par with men's patenting rates, what of innovation? Whether patents are indicative of innovative progress is questioned, and even the definition of innovation has been criticized. Innovation is assessed by technological and industrial standards, and the term could be excluding many "feminine" improvements in human welfare. Therefore, women's contributions could be difficult to measure.
To end this post, here is an interesting account of Elizabeth Magie, the feminist who invented and patented the game of Monopoly. Magie also made headlines in the early 1900's for advertising herself for sale as "a young woman American slave" in order to make a statement about women's position during that time.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Hashtags, feminism, and social media
It is undeniable that social media plays an increasingly
important role in mobilizing support for causes and campaigns. It has become an
important platform for presidential elections, and will soon be saturated with
gendered commentary following Hillary Clinton’s recent announcement to run for
President. After all, unlike Republican candidates Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and
Ted Cruz – who all announced their run in speeches and rallies – Hillary
Clinton recently released a video on social media to announce her run. Thus,
the question remains: how does the use of social media impact women?
As Nisha Chittal recently stated, “a new wave of feminism is
here, and the most powerful weapon is the hashtag.” #Askhermore trended during
this season’s award shows, encouraging reporters to ask female celebrities
other questions besides what they were wearing. #Notbuyingit trended during the
Super Bowl in an effort to call out sexist ads. And #whyIstayed trended after a
talking-head asked a survivor of a domestic violence scandal why she stayed,
prompting other survivors to share their own personal stories on social media.
And the list goes on.
Chittal goes on to explain how social media has democratized
feminism, making it accessible to anyone with internet access and the desire to
fight patriarchy. In a sense, she describes how the Internet is able to negate
spatiality, creating solidarity among women nationwide, which allows for a more
effective space for public dialogue.
However, despite Chittal’s optimism, her argument isn’t
entirely convincing, because at the end of the day, the Internet is a
double-edged sword. Women can champion causes by using the Internet as a public
forum, but that doesn’t mean the public won’t respond. And unfortunately the
public seems to exist in a very patriarchal and misogynist form.
A recent study done by Sydney University found that women’s
voices are marginalized on the Internet. Women make up only between 3 and 35
percent of comments on the Internet. The professor who conducted the study
stated that these findings are consistent with research about women’s voice in
public spaces—spaces that are consistently dominated by men. And more over, she
stated the imbalance seems to be driven by everyday gender dynamics, in which men
routinely dominate women.
So if men are dominating the conversation on the Internet,
what exactly are they saying? In a recent Op-Ed, Ashley Judd illustrates what
can happen to women who express unpopular opinions on social media by
describing her own experience of receiving responses that sexualize, objectify,
insult, degrade, and threaten physical violence. After receiving such backlash
in response to an unpopular comment about a March Madness basketball game, she
stated in the context of twitter, “what happened to me is the devastating
social norm experienced by millions of girls and women on the Internet. Online
harassers use the slightest excuse (or no excuse at all) to dismember our
personhood.” And she has a point.
If you read through some of the hateful, sexist tweets Judd
received in response to her comment about a basketball game, you might think
her particular experience is particularly extreme. It is not like every single
woman who posts something about feminism on the Internet is going to receive
responses that threaten violent sexual assault, right? The point is, I’m not
sure we should be praising social media just yet. It is an incredible medium to
garner support and spread information, and we should not refrain from using it
out of fear for negative responses. But it’s important to keep in mind that as
a public forum, it reinforces the fact that the public still responds to women
with patriarchy and misogyny. And a response only takes one anonymous tweet.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Women Members of the Feminist Legal Theory Blog Have Only First Name
My history with feminism began very early. I grew up in a pretty patriarchal familial environment. I had two older brothers. Really early, as a child, I mostly had to face the basic and sexist attacks of my brothers. I instinctively fought against them, with the only tools I had at this time, my personal reflection. I proclaimed myself as a feminist. At 10, I also stated that, “I want to become a lawyer in order to defend women’s rights”. I received some support from my mother. My father did not encourage me in that direction, but at least he did not forbid me from sharing feminist idea.
I had no problem claiming that I was a feminist until I was a teenager. When I was seventeen, it began to change slightly and I have the first memory of disapproval from the outside. I was shocked to realize that not only men were against feminism; women were too.
Still as a teenager, I realized that I could act to change things. We were a little group of girls feeling hurt by sexist billboards that invaded the city. From our point of view, the public space should be a protected space. If alcohol and cigarettes advertising could be forbidden, why should it be different with sexist billboards affecting women. I had no law background at this time, but when I think about it, I still don’t think that our response was absurd, even if incomplete.
We decided to take an appointment with the politician in charge of the sector including advertising in my city to discuss the problem with him. He accepted to meet us. After the first few words I said, he violently humiliated me and swept my friends away. He simply used the power that he had against teenagers. The meeting gave no results, except the feelings of being powerless. I and the other members of our little group were very disappointed. We did not find any support from the desk supposedly dedicated to equal chances set up by the university. At this moment, where we were full of energy and hope to change things, our wings were cut.
Later, I got involved in gender classes, where I never received practical answers. It was very theoretical, and the links with the real life were difficult to see.
Little by little, I was discouraged. I recognized that it was vain to keep going in the feminist direction. The different attempts I made to change things were unsuccessful and no value was given to my opinion. At some points, I decided to be more careful about disclosing the fact that I was feminist or not. The paroxysm was when I entered the law school. I understood that if I disclosed it, I would be punished in some way or another. I decided that feminism was never rewarding, and to move away from this world.
I did not talk about feminism for a few years, thinking that I had to burry this old dream because it will never bring anything positive in my life. However, it still remained present. I came back to it a few months before arriving in the US. I decided to take this feminist legal theory class, expecting some renewal. It worked, and seeing that more and more peers share my opinion helped me a lot. I began to proclaim myself again as a feminist.
When I disclose this fact, outside of the class, here are the reactions I receive:
After simply saying that I’m taking the feminist legal theory class, from a group of lawyers in Sacramento, including a woman, a big heavy silence followed.
From one of my male colleague, after the same statement: “- the what??”, and another heavy silence followed before a change of subject.
From my girl roommate, after stating that I’m a feminist (feeling sufficiently confident to clearly express it after 3 months): “-You are a feminist???” Silence. Mumbling. “That makes sense…” Change of subject.
That’s the result when I only say “feminist” or only an allusion to it. What happens to feminists that act publicly, by being active and publishing online? Michelle Goldberg explains in her article “Feminist writers are so besieged by online abuse that some have begun to retire”, death or rape threat are so frequent, that some decided to give up.
Just have a look at the hateful comments below this article; as stupid as they are, they have clearly an impact on someone’s life.
Far from the screen, things are different. When I disclosed the fact of being a feminist as I explained it above, except in some rare occasion, the disapproval will, most of the time, be much more subtle. The silence is loaded with some malaise and non-identifiable element. Those are not threats, but it means something. I can’t really state clearly what the consequences of the disclosure will be, but I know there will be some. I am certainly instantly categorized, judged and then some opportunities wont be available. It is definitely safer to stay hidden, especially in such a conservative area such as the law field.
What is paradoxical, is that I hear more and more men proclaiming themselves as feminist. They are not numerous, but there are some of them. It does not seem dangerous for them. I was always supportive of the presence of men in the feminist movement and the presence of men in the feminist legal theory class is very valuable to me. But those last days, I saw some disturbing things. Some men proclaiming women’s right, not really because they always believed in that, but because they found some professional opportunities in this area. Even in the feminist area, it is easier to be a man because they are not threatened.
Have you noticed that the members of this blog mostly designate themself using first names? On the contrary, male members do not have any problem disclosing full name. However it is a law school blog! Everybody should be very proud to put his/her entire name on it, to proclaim that they participate in it. The reason to that is that it is hard to be a feminist. There is invisible pressure to stand that push women to stay hidden. But how can I achieve anything hiding myself? I like to think that it will become easier, once I will reach a certain status and not be a student any more. But will it not be different kind of pressure then?
If I am honest with myself, I should admit that my heart never beat as much as when I’m thinking about feminism and women’s right. I have always been a feminist. I hope that in some future, I‘ll be able to really express it.
I had no problem claiming that I was a feminist until I was a teenager. When I was seventeen, it began to change slightly and I have the first memory of disapproval from the outside. I was shocked to realize that not only men were against feminism; women were too.
Still as a teenager, I realized that I could act to change things. We were a little group of girls feeling hurt by sexist billboards that invaded the city. From our point of view, the public space should be a protected space. If alcohol and cigarettes advertising could be forbidden, why should it be different with sexist billboards affecting women. I had no law background at this time, but when I think about it, I still don’t think that our response was absurd, even if incomplete.
We decided to take an appointment with the politician in charge of the sector including advertising in my city to discuss the problem with him. He accepted to meet us. After the first few words I said, he violently humiliated me and swept my friends away. He simply used the power that he had against teenagers. The meeting gave no results, except the feelings of being powerless. I and the other members of our little group were very disappointed. We did not find any support from the desk supposedly dedicated to equal chances set up by the university. At this moment, where we were full of energy and hope to change things, our wings were cut.
Later, I got involved in gender classes, where I never received practical answers. It was very theoretical, and the links with the real life were difficult to see.
Little by little, I was discouraged. I recognized that it was vain to keep going in the feminist direction. The different attempts I made to change things were unsuccessful and no value was given to my opinion. At some points, I decided to be more careful about disclosing the fact that I was feminist or not. The paroxysm was when I entered the law school. I understood that if I disclosed it, I would be punished in some way or another. I decided that feminism was never rewarding, and to move away from this world.
I did not talk about feminism for a few years, thinking that I had to burry this old dream because it will never bring anything positive in my life. However, it still remained present. I came back to it a few months before arriving in the US. I decided to take this feminist legal theory class, expecting some renewal. It worked, and seeing that more and more peers share my opinion helped me a lot. I began to proclaim myself again as a feminist.
When I disclose this fact, outside of the class, here are the reactions I receive:
After simply saying that I’m taking the feminist legal theory class, from a group of lawyers in Sacramento, including a woman, a big heavy silence followed.
From one of my male colleague, after the same statement: “- the what??”, and another heavy silence followed before a change of subject.
From my girl roommate, after stating that I’m a feminist (feeling sufficiently confident to clearly express it after 3 months): “-You are a feminist???” Silence. Mumbling. “That makes sense…” Change of subject.
That’s the result when I only say “feminist” or only an allusion to it. What happens to feminists that act publicly, by being active and publishing online? Michelle Goldberg explains in her article “Feminist writers are so besieged by online abuse that some have begun to retire”, death or rape threat are so frequent, that some decided to give up.
Just have a look at the hateful comments below this article; as stupid as they are, they have clearly an impact on someone’s life.
Far from the screen, things are different. When I disclosed the fact of being a feminist as I explained it above, except in some rare occasion, the disapproval will, most of the time, be much more subtle. The silence is loaded with some malaise and non-identifiable element. Those are not threats, but it means something. I can’t really state clearly what the consequences of the disclosure will be, but I know there will be some. I am certainly instantly categorized, judged and then some opportunities wont be available. It is definitely safer to stay hidden, especially in such a conservative area such as the law field.
What is paradoxical, is that I hear more and more men proclaiming themselves as feminist. They are not numerous, but there are some of them. It does not seem dangerous for them. I was always supportive of the presence of men in the feminist movement and the presence of men in the feminist legal theory class is very valuable to me. But those last days, I saw some disturbing things. Some men proclaiming women’s right, not really because they always believed in that, but because they found some professional opportunities in this area. Even in the feminist area, it is easier to be a man because they are not threatened.
Have you noticed that the members of this blog mostly designate themself using first names? On the contrary, male members do not have any problem disclosing full name. However it is a law school blog! Everybody should be very proud to put his/her entire name on it, to proclaim that they participate in it. The reason to that is that it is hard to be a feminist. There is invisible pressure to stand that push women to stay hidden. But how can I achieve anything hiding myself? I like to think that it will become easier, once I will reach a certain status and not be a student any more. But will it not be different kind of pressure then?
If I am honest with myself, I should admit that my heart never beat as much as when I’m thinking about feminism and women’s right. I have always been a feminist. I hope that in some future, I‘ll be able to really express it.
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