sigelphoenix

"I think we need to talk about the joy. I get such joy out of feminism. It is the greatest joy of my life, and somehow we don't translate that."
--Gloria Steinem

The feminist theory book I just finished reading used this quote as its conclusion, and I was so happy to find it there. I don't know if I feel exactly the same way - I'm way too young to be able to say what's my life's greatest joy! - but I think joy is a very important part of feminism and other anti-oppression movements. From a personal standpoint, at least, it's a very important part of why I study these things.

That seems strange, doesn't it? I mean, I know it's hard to learn about all the crappy things that society does: It's frustrating. It's nasty. It's gut-wrenching. Sometimes I have to take a break in the middle of the day from reading more news stories and analyses that reveal the ugly underbelly of my society. Sometimes I have to cut myself for days, as I did over Spring Break. Every once in a while, I feel kind of hopeless, and I wish I could go back to being sheltered and naive, when I thought that individual bad things were done by individual bad people, and weren't parts of giant and pervasive patterns - that society didn't treat me a certain way or think about me a certain way because I'm female or Asian-American (or that society didn't do things to other people for being gay, black, poor, disabled ...).

But that naivete was damaging in its own way. When you try to deny the presence of any of the "-isms" you're sort of left with two options: pretend the bad stuff isn't happening at all, or blame the oppressed group for the inequity. When you think about it that way, the joy of feminism/anti-oppression is clear, because it does the exact opposite: it affirms that yes, the bad stuff is happening, and no, you aren't making it up; and it also says it's not your fault that it happens to you. It's a way to speak my own experience, to hear those of other people, and to articulate what I feel is wrong, in a way that makes change possible.

It's comforting, affirming, empowering - and, ultimately, gives you the tools to fix what's wrong. Is there any other definition of joy?

A small example: my new classes for the quarter. I'm taking Introduction to Women Studies (with miss_arel, which is much awesome); Contemporary Feminist Theory; and Ethnicity, Gender, and Media. (Yes, it's a women studies bonanza this quarter.) In that last class, which I had this morning, we spent the introductory lecture talking about privilege: white, heterosexual, and male privilege (though the professor acknowledged that there were more that we weren't covering this time). We talked about how privilege worked. For most of us, we were speaking from the "other side," as people who lacked one or more of the privileges. As always, my classmates are mostly white - but this time they're also largely female, and there are enough people of color and openly gay people that I can't count them all on one hand. I have had exactly three other classes that have come close to this level of diversity.

It wasn't a bitchfest about how we've been stomped on, though it could have been. It was just honest observation, without the fear that someone from the dominant group would shoot back with a "nuh-uh you're just making it up!" We talked. Sometimes we laughed. We acknowledged that our society can be ugly. It was a very tiny beginning that probably didn't change anyone's lives - but it set the tone for the rest of the quarter, so now I know that this will be a class with an atmosphere that is both critical and sympathetic. I have learned that this isn't the kind of class I can ask for every time, so I'm grateful when it comes.

This was my joy today.