I'm in ur bakesale, subvertin ur antifeminist discourse.
Well gee, folks, it's been a long week.
As the end of the semester draws very, alarmingly nigh, I find myself running around endlessly to finish all the work I need to get done. My days seem like an endless succession of studying, writing, making sure I have all the necessary research materials for term papers, grading students' papers, applying for summer jobs--
--oh yeah. And also, smashing the bakesale of the patriarchy.
That's right, folks. Gather 'round while I tell you the tale of The Anti-Feminist Bakesale, and How It Was Defeated By a Healthy Dose of Feminist Humor (Not to Mention a Significantly Less Healthy Dose of Candy).
Monday was not a very good day for me. That is the nature of Mondays, I suppose. I was already feeling stressed out by all the work I hadn't managed to get done over the weekend. And, to add insult to injury, it appeared that Monday was going to be a warm and sunny day, which was probably my cosmic punishment for not getting my arse in gear over the ridiculously cold weekend, or something. So I was rushing across campus, mind already racing with all the things I needed to get done over the next few days... and that's when I saw it. Right there on the front steps of the Education building, stood a table with a big pink sign hanging from it. On the sign, in big, sparkly, blue puff-paint letters (pink and blue! how subtle!), were the words "ANTI-FEMINIST BAKE SALE." And behind the table, giggling like they were the cleverest cats the world ever did see, were four or five young women.
My blood boiled. I stalked to class in a righteous rage. I mean, it was bad enough that the College Republicans were holding an Anti-Feminist Bake Sale (apparently feminists don't like baked goods?) and acting like it was the most hilarious idea in the world. But that WOMEN were staffing the table? I don't think I'll ever understand how people can be so overtly, shamelessly complacent in their own oppression. I'll never understand the concept of anti-feminist women. I understand them even less than I understand gay republicans.
As I left class, I checked my cell phone, and saw that I had a voice mail from my friend
Emily. Apparently, she had gone up to said bake sale to figure out what they were on about, and they had handed her a leaflet with the title RADICAL FEMINIST AGENDA at the top. On the leaflet was a series of quotes, taken completely out of historical and textual context (Did you know Betty Friedan was a radical feminist? I certainly didn't), suggesting that feminism was nothing but an insidious conspiracy to prevent all domestically inclined women from staying at home, and declare all men rapists. Angry, she had bought herself some poster board, and was now staging a counterprotest on the steps of the Education Building.
Deciding that speaking out was more important than getting an hour of homework in before my next class, I met Emily on the front steps. There, she was handing out candy to passers-by, and holding a sign that read:
The REAL Radical Feminist Agenda:
1. Smash patriarchy
2. Empower women
3. Give away candy
By the time I got there, a few fellow grad students and people from Vision, the campus LGBT organization, had joined her-- in fact, the counterprotest was threatening to become, and eventually became, more populated than the protest. I grabbed a piece of poster board, scrawled "FEMINISM TASTES BETTER!" on the front, and began waving at (and passing candy to) passers-by.
And that, my friends, is how we smashed the bake sale of the patriarchy. At first, the College Republicans tried to appease us by altering their sign to read "Anti- RADICAL EXTREMIST Feminist Bake Sale," but obviously that didn't work because, y'know, radical feminism is not a terrorist organization, but a very specific branch of feminism with a very specific history that has approximately nothing to do with the "radical feminist agenda" they were trying to repudiate. Ain't nothin' wrong with being a radical feminist, but there is everything in the world wrong with setting up a nonexistent feminist bugaboo to knock down with... um, pastries. Finally, the College Republicans agreed to shut down their bake sale at 2:30 if we agreed to shut down our counterprotest at the same time, and so we parted. By that time, we'd given away something like a dozen bags' worth of candy. The College Republicans made $28 on their bake sale. Which, if you consider that they charged 50 cents per baked good, and there's something like 18,000 students at BGSU, tells you how many people they reached.
The only misgiving I have about the whole situation has to do with the debates that arose between the feminists and the republicans at the end. I was pretty determined not to engage the republicans, as a) with the exception of sign slogans, I'm never very eloquent at protests, and b) I didn't think anything good could come out of engaging them. I think at one point, the republicans were saying they didn't like feminists because feminists didn't approve of women staying in the home, which my fellow feminists countered by saying that no, feminism was about a woman's right to choose, and that women should be able to stay in the home if they wanted to.
I understand where the feminists were coming from with that argument, but I think it's overly simple, and I'd like to complicate it a bit. I think people need to remember that, historically, all women have not stayed in the home: that has been an option, and at times an expectation, only for white middle- and upper-class women. Working-class and poor women have never had the option, let alone the obligation, of not entering the paid workforce. Black women, of course, have a history of being forced into hours of hard labor without pay. To limit discussions of women, sexism, and labor to discussions of whether or not women should stay in the home, even if they want to, excludes a wide swathe of women for whom that debate isn't even relevant. We need to remember that while feminists have historically argued for sexual equality in the workplace and for women's economic independence from men, it isn't feminism, but capitalism, that has forced women into the workplace. In this day and age, I think it's fair to note that an increased cost of living and wages that have not increased proportionately make it well-nigh impossible for most households to survive on one income. Which, of course, has devastating implications for single mothers.
I guess what I'm getting at here is, feminism isn't just a movement that advocates for the right of individual women to make individual choices. At its best, feminism is-- and should be-- a movement that shifts social, political, legal, and economic conditions such that women can make meaningful choices in the first place.
Anyway. Have some news links!
In addition to the news article linked above, BG News, the university newspaper, published two editorials about the bakesale. Read 'em. They're quite good.
My friend Emily, who started the counterprotest, also wrote her own account of events. Check out some of those comments. They're nasty.
Also, we garnered national attention via the blog Feministing. Please note that the blog entry mentions my slogan! I may not have organized the protest, but I hope that, henceforth, I will be known as The One Who Coined the Slogan: "Feminism: it tastes better." Which you may, of course, all use. And you should tell everyone that you know the woman who made it up, and that she is brilliant and sexy and-- oh yeah, available. (^_^)
Progressive Straight Talk blogged about us too. Here you will find a picture of the protest, including me, smiling the dorkiest of smiles in the history of dorky smiles.
Finally, while I don't have my own pics of the counterprotest yet, my friend Cheryl made this lovely cat macro for me:
As the end of the semester draws very, alarmingly nigh, I find myself running around endlessly to finish all the work I need to get done. My days seem like an endless succession of studying, writing, making sure I have all the necessary research materials for term papers, grading students' papers, applying for summer jobs--
--oh yeah. And also, smashing the bakesale of the patriarchy.
That's right, folks. Gather 'round while I tell you the tale of The Anti-Feminist Bakesale, and How It Was Defeated By a Healthy Dose of Feminist Humor (Not to Mention a Significantly Less Healthy Dose of Candy).
Monday was not a very good day for me. That is the nature of Mondays, I suppose. I was already feeling stressed out by all the work I hadn't managed to get done over the weekend. And, to add insult to injury, it appeared that Monday was going to be a warm and sunny day, which was probably my cosmic punishment for not getting my arse in gear over the ridiculously cold weekend, or something. So I was rushing across campus, mind already racing with all the things I needed to get done over the next few days... and that's when I saw it. Right there on the front steps of the Education building, stood a table with a big pink sign hanging from it. On the sign, in big, sparkly, blue puff-paint letters (pink and blue! how subtle!), were the words "ANTI-FEMINIST BAKE SALE." And behind the table, giggling like they were the cleverest cats the world ever did see, were four or five young women.
My blood boiled. I stalked to class in a righteous rage. I mean, it was bad enough that the College Republicans were holding an Anti-Feminist Bake Sale (apparently feminists don't like baked goods?) and acting like it was the most hilarious idea in the world. But that WOMEN were staffing the table? I don't think I'll ever understand how people can be so overtly, shamelessly complacent in their own oppression. I'll never understand the concept of anti-feminist women. I understand them even less than I understand gay republicans.
As I left class, I checked my cell phone, and saw that I had a voice mail from my friend
Emily. Apparently, she had gone up to said bake sale to figure out what they were on about, and they had handed her a leaflet with the title RADICAL FEMINIST AGENDA at the top. On the leaflet was a series of quotes, taken completely out of historical and textual context (Did you know Betty Friedan was a radical feminist? I certainly didn't), suggesting that feminism was nothing but an insidious conspiracy to prevent all domestically inclined women from staying at home, and declare all men rapists. Angry, she had bought herself some poster board, and was now staging a counterprotest on the steps of the Education Building.
Deciding that speaking out was more important than getting an hour of homework in before my next class, I met Emily on the front steps. There, she was handing out candy to passers-by, and holding a sign that read:
The REAL Radical Feminist Agenda:
1. Smash patriarchy
2. Empower women
3. Give away candy
By the time I got there, a few fellow grad students and people from Vision, the campus LGBT organization, had joined her-- in fact, the counterprotest was threatening to become, and eventually became, more populated than the protest. I grabbed a piece of poster board, scrawled "FEMINISM TASTES BETTER!" on the front, and began waving at (and passing candy to) passers-by.
And that, my friends, is how we smashed the bake sale of the patriarchy. At first, the College Republicans tried to appease us by altering their sign to read "Anti- RADICAL EXTREMIST Feminist Bake Sale," but obviously that didn't work because, y'know, radical feminism is not a terrorist organization, but a very specific branch of feminism with a very specific history that has approximately nothing to do with the "radical feminist agenda" they were trying to repudiate. Ain't nothin' wrong with being a radical feminist, but there is everything in the world wrong with setting up a nonexistent feminist bugaboo to knock down with... um, pastries. Finally, the College Republicans agreed to shut down their bake sale at 2:30 if we agreed to shut down our counterprotest at the same time, and so we parted. By that time, we'd given away something like a dozen bags' worth of candy. The College Republicans made $28 on their bake sale. Which, if you consider that they charged 50 cents per baked good, and there's something like 18,000 students at BGSU, tells you how many people they reached.
The only misgiving I have about the whole situation has to do with the debates that arose between the feminists and the republicans at the end. I was pretty determined not to engage the republicans, as a) with the exception of sign slogans, I'm never very eloquent at protests, and b) I didn't think anything good could come out of engaging them. I think at one point, the republicans were saying they didn't like feminists because feminists didn't approve of women staying in the home, which my fellow feminists countered by saying that no, feminism was about a woman's right to choose, and that women should be able to stay in the home if they wanted to.
I understand where the feminists were coming from with that argument, but I think it's overly simple, and I'd like to complicate it a bit. I think people need to remember that, historically, all women have not stayed in the home: that has been an option, and at times an expectation, only for white middle- and upper-class women. Working-class and poor women have never had the option, let alone the obligation, of not entering the paid workforce. Black women, of course, have a history of being forced into hours of hard labor without pay. To limit discussions of women, sexism, and labor to discussions of whether or not women should stay in the home, even if they want to, excludes a wide swathe of women for whom that debate isn't even relevant. We need to remember that while feminists have historically argued for sexual equality in the workplace and for women's economic independence from men, it isn't feminism, but capitalism, that has forced women into the workplace. In this day and age, I think it's fair to note that an increased cost of living and wages that have not increased proportionately make it well-nigh impossible for most households to survive on one income. Which, of course, has devastating implications for single mothers.
I guess what I'm getting at here is, feminism isn't just a movement that advocates for the right of individual women to make individual choices. At its best, feminism is-- and should be-- a movement that shifts social, political, legal, and economic conditions such that women can make meaningful choices in the first place.
Anyway. Have some news links!
In addition to the news article linked above, BG News, the university newspaper, published two editorials about the bakesale. Read 'em. They're quite good.
My friend Emily, who started the counterprotest, also wrote her own account of events. Check out some of those comments. They're nasty.
Also, we garnered national attention via the blog Feministing. Please note that the blog entry mentions my slogan! I may not have organized the protest, but I hope that, henceforth, I will be known as The One Who Coined the Slogan: "Feminism: it tastes better." Which you may, of course, all use. And you should tell everyone that you know the woman who made it up, and that she is brilliant and sexy and-- oh yeah, available. (^_^)
Progressive Straight Talk blogged about us too. Here you will find a picture of the protest, including me, smiling the dorkiest of smiles in the history of dorky smiles.
Finally, while I don't have my own pics of the counterprotest yet, my friend Cheryl made this lovely cat macro for me: