This weeks readings were helpful in understanding 3rd Wave feminism. I am just older than the gals who started it - including Rebecca Walker, who I'll come back to - and I wasn't really aware or connected with their energy in the early 1990's. At the time, I was living in New Orleans, going to graduate school and beginning my own process of identity discovery. I was thrilled to encounter the work of Gloria Anzaldua and other women of color. I was angry about the Clarence Thomas hearings, and am still disgusted and embarassed that he sits on the U.S. Supreme Court. I knew punk rock existed, but was discovering earlier voices of feminist folk artists. I see now how and why Third Wave feminists emerged. The movement of did not speak to some aspect of their identity. They had courage to speak about race, class or sexual marginalization.
Over the past few weeks, I have been following the work of Pussy Riot, a feminist punk rock band in Russia. Several of the women, are now incarcerated on charges of "violating public order" or "hooliganism" following an impromptu concert at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, church of the elites in Moscow. Eight women in total, wearing balaclavas to conceal their identities, sang/shouted "Virgin Mary, Send Putin Away."
This was not their first minute-long concert. In January, the stood in front of Red Square and screamed "Revolt in Russia - the charisma of protest/Revolt in Russia, Putin's got scared!"
Although the names of the incarcerated are now know, the group prefers to remain anonymous - representing any man or woman. They organized last fall after Putin announced he was running again for office. They are using their feminism and performance skills to directly confront political authority through direct action. Their energy harkens back to the early work of Third Waver's in the 1990's and to women like Katherine Hanna who founded Bikini Kill to respond to the sexism she experienced in the punk rock scene.
These women all have demanded space in the public forum. Using their voices, they have spoken out about their confrontations with prejudice, violence, tyrany. Their causes and personal expression have been advanced by the internet - especially so in the case of Pussy Riot who now has groups around the world organizing concerts and protests in their behalf. These examples suggest that technology has and can indeed be a powerful site for feminists.
Years ago, when I first moved to Utah, I hosted a radio show on KRCL, the local community station. For three hours, once a week, I immersed myself and my listeners in a gendered world. All the music, news, interviews, poetry, announcements, etc. had to do with women. At the time, I equated gender with women and it was women's voices, ideas and realities that I needed to hear. Like many women, I was trying to find my own voice against deeply embedded personal and cultural male/patriarchal voices, ideas and politics. Women like Toni Childs helped me birth myself after a long labor. Her song The Woman's Boat, off of the cd of the same name (which I just realized was released just before I began doing the show) is one song of many by powerful women that awakened in me a gendered, embodied force I had not known.
The Woman's Boat
now, I am a woman
and you are a man
I was born different from you
on this earth we both stand
now, as a daughter
I have learned rules and laws
what to say and not to say
what's acceptable to be called
in the woman's boat
on the woman's sea
they are calling us
they are calling us to sea
and yes, I have my worries
about the human race
you see my breasts are aching
and I hope it's not too late
for the woman's boat
on the woman's sea
they are calling us and they're calling me
how the seasons change
they rock and they rage
will I please allow the thunder
and the birth inside of me
now do you believe in powers
like the human and the seed
and how evolution happens
how the whirlpool spins in me
oh grandmother tell us your secrets
your stories passed down through the years
could I really believe it?
is there something happening here?
in the woman's boat
on the woman's sea
is there something hidden
something to see
oh the seasons change
they're rocky and they rage
will I please allow the thunder
and the birth inside of me
My birthing journey took a long time. There were many ports of call (like the radio show) along the way. Prior to that, I was briefly exposed to feminist theory as an undergraduate and then as a graduate student in New Orleans. Finally, after two decades, I am coming back around to unfinished business in my quest to understand the human condition – particularly as it pertains to women.
I now am exploring gender as a lens that in and of itself does not privilege. It's how gender is interpreted and operationalized within a society that can lead to inequity and the need for social change. Feminism offers ideas on how to make that change. This has been brought home to me recently through a project I am doing - collecting oral histories of people involved in the founding of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. Women and men from various backgrounds worked together to change the social and medical landscape of Utah. Access to reproductive health care was seen as a women's issue and as such was often connected to the female feminist project in the late 1960's and 70's. In Utah, the project included men. I'm not sure all the women involved considered themselves to be feminists (although many of the men I've interviewed did.)
I am looking forward to having the opportunity this semester to dig into the evolution of feminism over the years and to investigate ways in which a feminist paradigm and women and men marching together has impacted the world. The energy of that march as Nina Storey sings about it in her song Let Us Walk, has also long inspired me. It’s on the cd Shades. Below is a video (from You Tube) of the song being sung by a group of Amherst College students. Enjoy!
