Sara Weeldreyer - Blog 1

1.) How do you define feminism?

Personally, I would define feminism as an ideology striving for equal rights for all humanity including sex, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, etc.

• In terms of the definitions of feminism, how do you respond to bell hooks?
• I agree with the definition bell hooks provides in the text. I like the simplicity, but I also think the simplicity is one of it's weaknesses.
• How does this definition compare/contrast to those offered by urbandictionary.com?
• This definition compares to the ones offered by urban dictionary in reference to equality between men and women, but lacks to mention all human groups and not just gender.

2.) Based on these definitions, do you consider yourself to be a feminist? 

• Why or why not?
• I have always considered myself to be a feminist, and these definitions help to confirm my considerations.

3.) Revolutionary feminist consciousness-raising emphasizes the role of patriarchy as an institutionalized system of domination perpetuated by men as well as women. 

• Can you name some examples of patriarchy?
• The most obvious example of patriarchy in society is a woman taking a man's last name after marriage, and children taking their father's name. If I didn't hate my maiden name, I would have considered hyphenating my husband and my last names, or having him take mine. Additionally, women are not currently included in the draft and are unable to patcipate in certain military units. Another example is that the U.S. has never had a women president. Also, women are paid less for the same work and are ridiculed more for the same amount of promiscuity. There are several more, but these were the ones that came to my head first.
• How are these examples and?
• I personally believe that these examples are contiuned so easily simply because the media and society emphasize that it is the "norm."