Women: Visibility and Invisibility Across Cultures
by Suzanne Reisman

On Saturday, July 19, eleven bloggers gathered for the Feminism & Gender Room of Your Own at the BlogHer conference. Using every second of our 40 minute time slot, we introduced ourselves and the topics that are most on our minds these days. Since time was short and issues were complicated, intricate, and thoughtful, we did not have enough time to have more than a surface discussion about each one, but I thought it worth sharing our ideas to perhaps get some online conversation going.

Here's what was on our minds:

  • Cultural relativism: How is feminism address across cultures? Given the predominance of the "Western eye" (my term) in feminism thought and theory, how can we reconcile cultural differences so that biases can be overcome?
  • "Traditional" women's issues: how do we engage women in issues that they normally do not care about or those that are often in the male domain?
  • What is feminism in 2008? Is it equality: of pay? access to services? in relationships? What is the role of women who choose "submissive"/"traditional" roles?
  • Aging: As women get older, the more and more we are dismissed and become invisible. How do we make women beyond childbearing age visible?
  • The power that derives from learning to defend one's self physically.
  • Support for new moms, regardless of the childrearing choices they make (i.e. - breastfeeding or not)
  • How can we combat gender roles for children, especially boys? (i.e. - girls are often encouraged to play with "boy" toys like trucks, but boys who express interest in "girl" items like dolls are steered away from these items and the parents are subject to social scrutiny)
  • Women's sexuality: What is ethical porn, and how can we make more feminist porn that empowers women?
  • How Hollywood portrays and treats women: few women are prominent in Hollywood, and stereotypical gender roles are common in movies and television. How can we create more positive female role models and eliminate the backlash against strong female characters?
  • What can we do to combat racism in today's feminist movement?
  • How can we create feminist spaces on the web that are more accessible and open to women of color and different feminist perspectives?
  • How can we better support women in the sciences, technology, and other professions not typically open to women due to gender stereotyping and subject to a lack of social support and encouragement?
  • How to address self-esteem issues, especially ones that discourage women from pursuing non-traditionally female careers?
  • Sexism: As sexism becomes more subtle, it is harder to address. What can we do to continue to combat sexism as it becomes less blatant?
  • Mainstream media failure: How to address the scope and density of celebrity news, and how the oversexualization of women has taken the place of real news?

    • At the end of the discussion (before we were kicked out of the room to make way for the next group, which I think was the queer bloggers), I looked over my the list of issues that we had generated. It struck me that almost all of these issues dealt in some way with how women are visible or invisible in a given society or within a social group. How are we viewed as competent and capable human beings? When we break molds or act in ways that are stereotypically inappropriate (for example, become a scientist or porn star, or simply age), we become invisible. Invisibility may be as harsh as stigmatization (porn stars are sluts) or indirect as the lack of support or recognition that a woman in technology may receive from her colleagues. Cultural differences also impact how women are seen and heard, such as wearing veils that literally may hide a woman's face in one culture, yet in another, the presence of such garment makes her presence registered.

    Obviously, there are no easy answers for these visibility/invisibility questions and issues. I'd like to recognize the bloggers who raised these issues, and I hope that everyone will weigh in with their own thoughts on the topics as well as topics of their own. To read the blogs of the fantastic feminist bloggers who attended the session, check out:

    (Apologies up front: I'm missing the blogs for a few attendees - please email me and I'll edit you in pronto, or leave your URL in the comments so people can find you!) Thanks to everyone who came to the Feminism & Gender session, and we missed those who could not attend. Let's keep the conversation going!

    Suzanne also blogs about life at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants, about politics at The Political Voices of Women, and about creating positive social change at Just Cause. Her first book is Off the Beaten (Subway) Track

    Submitted by Suzanne Reisman (view blog) on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 5:25am

    Comments

     

    Thanks for the update on

    Thanks for the update on this session, it sounds like a great start to the
    conversation.

    Over at the Women of Color Resource Center in Oakland we’ve been asking some
    of the same questionsm and are starting to really focus on our blog Speak
    Fierce         as a place for women of color, and allies, to tell us what feminism means
    across cultures.

    We'll be updating the blog more often, but would also love to have
    others writing posts, and of course leaving loads of comments to let us know
    what you're thinking.

    Submitted by ssimpson on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 09:53
     

    thanks for the links, Suzanne

    I'm still going through my cards, so this is a helpful list.

    I think next year we may need to skip the intros, or limit them to name and blog, if we want to get anything substantive discussed.

    Submitted by Skye on Sun, 08/03/2008 - 13:17
     

    Skipping intros?

    I think the bigger problem is that it's hard to have a real discussion on thorny issues in 40 minutes, although I agree that limiting the intros to "Hi I'm X and I blog at XX" would help. My hope for this year was that people would submit some ideas that they wanted to discuss before the conference and I could structure a conversation around those topics, but no one submitted anything. Maybe next year I can survey 2008's attendees and see what is on their minds and go from there. Any suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

    Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
    Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants

    Submitted by Suzanne Reisman on Sun, 08/03/2008 - 16:44