Feminism on the internet

My Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) course is ridiculously easy. I find it bizarre that they're teaching us concepts like slut-shaming when I've known what that is since I first started looking for feminism online. As I put it to Ptarckas the other day: "It's like, 'what is slut shaming?' Gee, I don't know, why don't you ask tumblr?"

Taking this class also reminds me of a quote I saw (ironically, on tumblr) by someone who said she had gone to college and been absolutely floored by all this new information she'd learned in her first WGS class, and how amazed she was that so many people on tumblr considered those things to be so basic, things that are just required to be a base level decent human being. And I think that might actually be true.

The course I'm taking, while a second year course, is called "Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies." Some of the stuff we're learning is new to me, and it's absolutely fascinating, and I love knowing these things because they matter to me. I'm gaining a better understanding of intersectionality, too, which is good because that's something that so far the internet has not explained to me (on the pages I've found, I mean). But sometimes we discuss things like, well, slut-shaming, and they introduce it in this very basic way, and I'm sitting there like, yeah, I know.

It's nice because it means it's one course where I'm both really interested in learning more and kind of already know a lot. It's a GPA booster, but it's something I really care about. I guess that makes it more than a GPA booster, since I'm pretty dang sure I want to minor in this. I mean, what else was I going to minor in? Chemistry? Ugh, please. Business? Come on, mom, let's be realistic.

I'm not saying that I can totally predict my future and know how everything is going to turn out, but at this point, I've got a pretty good feeling about my choices. I love biology (and class is starting to be interesting now- we have our old prof back after a week of guest lectures from an excellent-but-less-excited prof, and wow did I miss my current one- she's just fantastic), and so majoring in it is a good choice. It's a lot of work, and I have to understand statistics and basic chemistry if I want to go further in it, but it's worth it. The sucky bits will end. The other thing I can't stand is designing labs- jesus christ, am I terrible at that. But I know that if I want to go on in biology, I have to work on that. And having a minor I really enjoy would definitely help.

Anyway, I just kind of thought that maybe just because I know this stuff, doesn't mean everyone does, even though I (and a shit-ton of other people, I'm willing to bet) do.

However, despite how great internet feminism can be (have you guys ever heard of Laci Green? She's fantastic. Seriously. Go and google her, or look up her videos on youtube. She will make your day. Why are you still reading this? It'll be here later. GO), it can also be really... intense and extreme. There's a lot of feminist bullying that goes on on the internet, and any deviation from this rigidly defined definition of "feminism" is just blown way out of proportion. While I agree that we should work to educate other people who perhaps don't realize that what they're saying is maybe hurtful, or sexist, or homophobic, or racist, etc, I don't think we should do so by calling them names, as tempting as it is. Fighting won't solve anything, and it definitely won't make feminism look good to everyone else. It's a cause, and causes need numbers, need members, need support. You can't get that if you make it look like being a feminist looks like being a religious fanatic. It's not going to work.

I always thought- and think- of feminism as something accepting and safe, a place where people can come and feel accepted and realize that they're not crazy for wanting to not be stereotyped and given different treatment because of their whatever that they can't control. It should not be a place of rigidly policed rules, and it definitely shouldn't be scary. My version of feminism definitely isn't scary (except when I come across articles about people who harrass patients outside of abortion clinics. Listen, I don't like violence, and I don't like confrontation, but nothing makes me angrier than people who harrass patients outside of abortion clinics. I could go on about them all day. Seriously, they are the worst kind of people), and I realize that my version isn't everyone's, and isn't perfect, but it works for me.

I mean, jesus christ, women have enough to conform to already. Why add feminism to that?

Annnnnyyyway, I do have a midterm in that class next week, soooo I should probably get back to studying. Just had to write this.

yer pal,
swegan :)