Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:00 am Post subject: Response Due Thursday 10/29
Please respond to the following questions or the questions/ideas of your peers. Please write a minimum of 100-200 words and include a question in your post.
What new things did this chapter present about the 1970s Women's Movement? What challenges did the movement face? What do you think caused the "backlash" discussed at the end of this reading?
There were three main things that this passage discussed more comprehensively than the previous ones: the role of homosexuals in the second wave of women's movement, abortion and sterilization, and the countermovement of the women's movement.
Homosexuals, like black people, had been discriminated against by the advocates of the women's movement. However, the way they chose to prove themselves to "the mainstream of the society" was very different from that of black women, mainly "because lesbians had the most to gain from a better world for women, they contributed disproportionately to the movement". From this we could see that the condition and motivation of homosexuals were distinct from that of the oppressed blacks, leading to a different kind of perspective toward the women's movement.
Like women in the first wave, women in the second wave also faced disunity within the movement. Liberal feminists and radical feminists had very different focus and approach, but some realized that they were working toward a common goal - equality for women.
The biggest challenge, however, was the political countermovement, or, "the conservative backlash". The main cause of the backlash, I think, was the long-established cultural tradition. Abortion, women's role as breadwinner but not homemaker and any kind of non-heterosexuality were very new ideas, hence some people found them difficult to accept in the society. If we take a look at a opposing organization NRLC, we can see that "the vast majority were full-time homemakers and regular churchgoers", the people who were the least likely to accept any social heterodox. Accompanying with this, the aggressive anti-communist attitude of Americans during the Cold War made democratic advocates easy targets of the "modern witch-hunters".
Question: A new issue that was hardly addressed before in other text: involuntary sterilization was discussed in this reading. They said that sterilization abuse often happened to poor women who were receiving public assistance. I was a little confused, who were doing this? Did it have anything to do with the government? (Since it seemed that the reason was state money) In general, how did this happen?
What new things did this chapter present about the 1970s Women's Movement? What challenges did the movement face? What do you think caused the "backlash" discussed at the end of this reading?
About the backlash- i think that if one group of people is very opinionated and tries to get their voice out there and be heard, then there will always be some other group of people who disagree. With every view this is always an opposing view, so it isn't suprising that after the second wave started to include voices of women of minorities, a zealous group of pro-lifers appeared.
I think the backlash is probably the biggest challenge that the second wave faced, because before the "retaliation" there wasn't like a specific group that was opposing, it was just an undertone in the media. BUT THEN a group appeared and it was a more formal opposition.
Why do you thnk some women opposed the rights of other women?
To answer Estella’s question, yes it was the government who was forcing poor women to be sterilized. I think they were doing this because the government was giving the poor women money and help, but if the women had children, then the government would have to give them more money and help. So it was all about money. I thought it was really interesting how these women didn’t like liberal feminist’s word “choice” when talking about pro-choice for abortion and sterilization, because poor women didn’t have a choice. Their actions were basically decided for them by the government and society, and it was all based on race and class. This is another example of how white feminists excluded black/immigrant/poor women from their definition of women’s rights and feminism.
I don’t know if anyone will be able to answer this, but I was wondering what you peeps think about the fact that some women wanted to stay in the role of housewife and traditional mother, and that they not only wanted this for themselves as a personal lifestyle choice, but for EVERY women, and why do you think they wanted this?
I think that the movement faced the same problems we have seen in every section of the movement so far. The problem is as Liza said, that whenever one group says something or promotes something, there is a group that rebuts in a destructive way not only to the opposing group, but to themselves as well. Each time we explore a new group, as we saw with lesbians in this part of the reading, we see that there is an opposing force. I know we keep going to the point, but I do not understand how women from the movement, and any movement in general, do not understand how people think that it is most productive to bach other groups similar to thier own. Work on the common objectives before splitting, or atleast not bash other groups. I find the relationship between groups like pro-lifers and pro-choicers interesting as well. This is because of the impass they reach. I guess I do not really know where I am going with any of this, now that I am writing it, but I just find the impass interesting.
What is the best way to work around the impass? or is the best thing to do split? and is it easier to say one or the other in our posotion rather than in the 1970s?
I think there were a few really key parts to second wave feminism that were introduced in this reading. We start to hear about the role that lesbians played in the movement, and how heterosexual women felt about the role of lesbians in the movement. We also learn about the forced sterilization of poor women, as well as details about the fight for safe and legal abortions. Previously in the women's movement we had heard about women separating themselves and therefore making it more difficult to reach their goals. In this reading, we can start to see that once women disregarded their differences, they were able to accomplish these goals. "During the 70's U.S. Congress passed more legislation for women's rights than ever before or since". This is extremely important as it is a result of the work of multiple women's organizations fighting for a common goal together.
We also learn about the conservative backlash after the second wave movement. The feminist movement seems to be cyclical, as it goes back and forth between periods of strength and weakness. I agree with Estella, I think that because so much of what women had been fighting for was so new and socially unacceptable that is caused serious controversy. For example, in 1969 a poll showed that 64% of Americans thought that abortion should be a private decision. Then in 1985, during this conservative backlash, 80% of abortion clinics had experienced harassment or protesting. Feminists also became targets of stereotypes and other negative connotations.
Why was the backlash successful? After so many victories why were feminists unable to accomplish more goals after the 70's?
The new concepts or ideas introduced in this chapter was the role of homosexuals and how that related to feminism, abortion laws and sterilization.
The challenges the movement faced were that they were people against homosexuals mostly because of religions such as Christianity as they mentioned in the reading. "Jesus is not a sissy" which obviously meant that he wasn't gay or lesbian. People disagreed with "coming out of the closet" so they made groups against it. On the bright side there were many people towards it. The problem with abortion was that many lower class, colored women were dying because they tried to do it illegally because doctors denied to them because of their race and then they wouldn't offer any help because of their race.
My question can be part of the answer to the next question which is: what was the backlash because I didn't understand it. I remember seeing it in the reading but I had no idea what they were talking about and I don't want to make it up because then i'll sound like an idiot and that is never good.
In this chapter it discussed the role of lesbians and gay men during the women's movement. Subjects they helped majorly in the fight for women's right to safe legal abortions and against sexual and domestic violence. One of the major challenges the movement faced was the great amount of homophobia that was going around at the time.
To respond to Jenny's question I have no idea what the backlash was in the reading. I also was extremely confused on that subject in the reading.
Although the movement was still segregated, it seemed to me that some feminists were beginning were becoming more aware of how seperated they were from each other, and they began to express this. As Bernice Johnson Reagon said, "There is nowhere you can go and only be with people like you." They still formed their own groups within the larger group of feminists, such as the National Council of Negro Women, but in my opinion, the feminist movement was beginning to realize that the next step forward was the acceptance of each other's difference. Before they could gain full acceptance as women in society, they had to first accept each other as sisters in the movement.
One of these movement within the larger movement that sparked this awareness in the feminist movement was the lesbian pride movement. They placed their gender before their orientation in the fight for their rights. Though homophobia kept them away from the straight feminists at the beginning, it soon became clear that they could be powerful members of the women's movement, mainly because they could be fully active in the movement without worrying about what men would think of them. While straight feminists were distancing themselves from lesbian feminists, Gloria Steinem, a straight feminist, finally said, "As long as we fear the word 'lesbian' we are curtailing our own strength and abandoning our sisters."
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